Better Business Bureau Scraper

BBB Scraper

Scrape business profiles, ratings, reviews, and complaints from the Better Business Bureau (bbb.org) — 5.4 million businesses across the US and Canada.

What you get:

• Business profiles with BBB letter rating (A+ to F), numeric score, and accreditation status
• Contact info: address, phone, decoded email, website
• Customer reviews with star ratings, text, and verification status
• Complaints with resolution history, business responses, and customer rebuttals
• Summary stats: review counts, average rating, star distribution, complaint breakdown

How it works:

• Search by keyword + location (e.g., "plumber" in "Dallas, TX")
• Or pass direct BBB profile URLs
• Filter by accreditation status or minimum rating
• ~7 seconds per profile with automatic Cloudflare bypass

What data can you extract?

Business profiles

Field	Type	Description
businessId	string	BBB internal business ID
name	string	Business name
url	string	BBB profile URL
rating	string	BBB letter rating (A+ to F)
ratingNumeric	integer	Numeric score (97 for A+, down to 0 for F)
isAccredited	boolean	Whether BBB accredited
accreditedSince	string	Accreditation date (YYYY-MM-DD)
address	object	Full address: street, city, state, postalCode, country
phone	string	Business phone number
email	string	Business email (decoded from BBB obfuscation)
website	string	Business website URL
categories	string[]	Business categories (Plumber, Electrician, etc.)
yearEstablished	integer	Year the business was started
bbbFileOpened	string	Date BBB opened the file (YYYY-MM-DD)
reviewSummary.totalReviews	integer	Total customer review count
reviewSummary.averageRating	number	Average star rating (1-5)
reviewSummary.starDistribution	object	Breakdown by star rating
complaintSummary.totalComplaints	integer	Total complaint count
complaintSummary.closedLast3Years	integer	Complaints closed in last 3 years
complaintSummary.closedLast12Months	integer	Complaints closed in last 12 months
complaintSummary.complaintTypes	object	Breakdown by complaint type
scrapedAt	string	Scrape timestamp (ISO 8601)

Customer reviews (when enabled)

Field	Type	Description
reviews[].reviewId	string	Unique review ID
reviews[].rating	integer	Star rating (1-5)
reviews[].title	string	Review headline
reviews[].text	string	Full review text
reviews[].author	string	Reviewer name
reviews[].createdAt	string	Review date
reviews[].isVerified	boolean	Whether review is verified

Complaints (when enabled)

Field	Type	Description
complaints[].complaintId	string	Unique complaint ID
complaints[].type	string	Complaint type (e.g., Service Issues)
complaints[].status	string	Resolution status
complaints[].dateFiled	string	Date complaint was filed
complaints[].dateClosed	string	Date complaint was closed
complaints[].text	string	Complaint text
complaints[].businessResponse	string	Business response text
complaints[].customerRebuttal	string	Customer follow-up text

How to scrape BBB business profiles

1. Enter one or more BBB profile URLs in the Business Profile URLs field.
2. Or enter a Search Keywords (e.g., "plumber") and Search Location (e.g., "Dallas, TX") to discover businesses.
3. Optionally filter by Accredited Only or Minimum BBB Rating.
4. Enable Include Customer Reviews and Include Complaints to collect individual records.
5. Click Start and download results from the Dataset tab as JSON, CSV, or Excel.

How much does it cost?

Pay-per-event pricing — you are charged per business profile scraped.

Price per profile	Price per 1,000 profiles
$0.001	$1.00

Example: Scraping 100 business profiles costs approximately $0.10.

Reviews and complaints are included at no extra charge when enabled.

Use cases

• Lead generation — Build lists of accredited businesses by category and location with contacts, ratings, and websites
• Due diligence — Research BBB ratings and complaint histories before partnerships or vendor selection
• Competitive analysis — Compare ratings and complaints across competitors in a metro area
• Reputation monitoring — Track complaint trends and resolution patterns over time
• CRM enrichment — Feed BBB data into your CRM for lead scoring and qualification
• Cross-platform analysis — Combine with Trustpilot, Google Reviews, and Sitejabber data
• Compliance reporting — Export BBB data for due diligence reports and audits

Input

Field	Type	Default	Description
businessUrls	string[]	[]	Direct BBB profile URLs to scrape
searchQuery	string	—	Search term (e.g., "plumber", "auto repair")
searchLocation	string	—	Location for search (e.g., "Dallas, TX")
maxSearchResults	integer	20	Max businesses to collect from search (1-500)
includeReviews	boolean	true	Extract individual customer reviews
includeComplaints	boolean	true	Extract individual complaints with resolution details
maxReviewsPerBusiness	integer	50	Max reviews per business (0 = all)
maxComplaintsPerBusiness	integer	50	Max complaints per business (0 = all)
accreditedOnly	boolean	false	Only scrape BBB-accredited businesses
minRating	string	—	Minimum BBB letter rating (A+ to F)
requestDelay	integer	2000	Delay between requests in ms (500-10000)
proxy	object	Residential US	Proxy configuration (residential required)

Input examples

Direct profile URL:

{
    "businessUrls": ["https://www.bbb.org/us/tx/dallas/profile/plumber/milestone-electric-ac-plumbing-0875-91344019"]
}

Search by keyword and location:

{
    "searchQuery": "plumber",
    "searchLocation": "Dallas, TX",
    "maxSearchResults": 50
}

Accredited businesses with minimum rating:

{
    "searchQuery": "roofing contractor",
    "searchLocation": "Denver, CO",
    "maxSearchResults": 100,
    "accreditedOnly": true,
    "minRating": "A"
}

Quick search without reviews (faster):

{
    "searchQuery": "auto repair",
    "searchLocation": "Chicago, IL",
    "maxSearchResults": 30,
    "includeReviews": false,
    "includeComplaints": false
}

Output example

{
    "businessId": "22011175",
    "bbbId": "0011",
    "name": "Len The Plumber, Inc.",
    "url": "https://www.bbb.org/us/md/baltimore/profile/plumber/len-the-plumber-inc-0011-22011175",
    "rating": "A+",
    "ratingNumeric": 97,
    "isAccredited": true,
    "accreditedSince": "2008-06-05",
    "address": {
        "street": "3610 Commerce Dr",
        "city": "Halethorpe",
        "state": "MD",
        "postalCode": "21227",
        "country": "US"
    },
    "phone": "(410) 752-0136",
    "email": "BBBinquiries@themastertradesgroup.com",
    "website": "https://lentheplumber.com",
    "categories": [
        "Plumber",
        "Heating and Air Conditioning",
        "Air Conditioning Contractors",
        "Water Heater Repair"
    ],
    "yearEstablished": 1995,
    "bbbFileOpened": "2002-01-15",
    "reviewSummary": {
        "averageRating": 4.59,
        "totalReviews": 2167
    },
    "complaintSummary": {
        "totalComplaints": 171,
        "closedLast3Years": 171,
        "closedLast12Months": 68
    },
    "reviews": [
        {
            "reviewId": "r-1234567",
            "rating": 5,
            "title": "Excellent emergency service",
            "text": "Called at 10pm for a burst pipe. Technician arrived within 45 minutes and fixed it quickly. Fair pricing.",
            "author": "John M.",
            "createdAt": "2026-01-15",
            "isVerified": true
        }
    ],
    "complaints": [
        {
            "complaintId": "c-9876543",
            "type": "Service Issues",
            "status": "Answered",
            "dateFiled": "2025-11-20",
            "dateClosed": "2025-12-15",
            "text": "Technician quoted $200 for repair but final bill was $450 with undisclosed charges.",
            "businessResponse": "We have reached out to the customer directly to resolve this billing discrepancy."
        }
    ],
    "scrapedAt": "2026-02-18T17:18:03.532187+00:00"
}

Tips

• BBB requires residential US proxy — the default config uses Apify's RESIDENTIAL group. Do not disable this.
• Disable includeReviews and includeComplaints for faster runs when you only need profile data and summaries.
• Use accreditedOnly: true for lead generation where trust signals matter.
• Use minRating: "A" to only get A+, A, and A- rated businesses.
• Increase requestDelay to 3000+ for large runs (100+ profiles).
• BBB obfuscates emails in HTML — this scraper decodes them automatically.
• Each profile includes review and complaint summaries even when individual records are disabled.

FAQ

How many businesses can I scrape?

Set maxSearchResults up to 500 per search. For more, run multiple searches with different locations. Direct URL mode has no limit.

Do I need a residential proxy?

Yes. BBB uses Cloudflare protection that blocks datacenter proxies. The default configuration uses Apify's RESIDENTIAL proxy group with US country, included in all Apify plans.

How fast is it?

~7 seconds per profile. A search for 20 businesses completes in 2-3 minutes.

What if a business profile returns no data?

The scraper logs a warning and moves on. A circuit breaker stops the run after 5 consecutive failures to avoid wasting resources.

Can I combine this with other review scrapers?

Yes. Use BBB data alongside Trustpilot Scraper and Sitejabber Scraper for cross-platform reputation profiles.

How is the email decoded?

BBB obfuscates emails using a custom encoding scheme. This scraper reverses the obfuscation automatically — no post-processing needed.

What BBB ratings are available?

Letter grades: A+, A, A-, B+, B, B-, C+, C, C-, D+, D, D-, F. The ratingNumeric field provides a 0-97 numeric equivalent for sorting and filtering.

Changelog

• v0.3 — Pay-per-event pricing with spending limit support. Data completeness fixes (field names, website URL, phone parsing). Dead code cleanup.
• v0.2 — README rewrite, pricing documentation, input schema improvements.
• v0.1.15 — Speed optimization: 90s to 7s per profile. Email decoder. Cloudflare timing fixes.
• v0.1 — Initial release. Search + profile extraction, Playwright, circuit breaker, review and complaint extraction.