jsoup vs requests-html
Which should you use? A side-by-side look at what each one does, who it suits, what it costs, how hard it is to set up, and where each falls short.
Open source · MIT
A Java library for parsing, scraping, editing, and cleaning HTML and XML.
Open source · MIT
Python library for parsing HTML and running JavaScript-rendered pages, built on requests.
The short answer
Choose jsoup if you need…
- Java developers who need to scrape or extract data from web pages
- Backend teams that accept HTML from users and need to sanitize it
- Projects that need to edit or tidy HTML inside a Java application
- Developers who already know CSS selectors and want to use them in Java
Choose requests-html if you need…
- Python developers who already use requests and want to parse HTML in the same style
- Small scraping scripts that pull a few fields from pages
- People learning how web scraping with CSS selectors works
Side-by-side
| jsoup | requests-html | |
|---|---|---|
| Type | Library | Library |
| Price | Free and open source | Free and open source |
| Licence | MIT | MIT |
| GitHub stars | 11.4k | 13.8k |
| Setup difficulty | Intermediate | Beginner |
| How you get it | Install with a package manager | Install with a package manager |
| Main language | Java | Python |
| Last code update | 9 days ago | 3 years ago |
What each one is
jsoup
jsoup is a Java library for working with HTML and XML found on the web. It can fetch a page from a URL, read HTML from a file or string, and let you search it with CSS selectors or DOM methods. It can also change the HTML and clean untrusted user-submitted content against a safelist to help prevent XSS attacks. It parses HTML the same way modern browsers do, so messy real-world markup still produces a usable tree.
requests-html
requests-html is a Python library for fetching web pages and pulling information out of their HTML using CSS selectors. It is built on top of the requests HTTP library, so its interface will feel familiar if you already use requests. The project's description calls it Pythonic HTML parsing for humans, and its topics list lxml, pyquery and BeautifulSoup as related tools.
Best for
jsoup
- Java developers who need to scrape or extract data from web pages
- Backend teams that accept HTML from users and need to sanitize it
- Projects that need to edit or tidy HTML inside a Java application
- Developers who already know CSS selectors and want to use them in Java
requests-html
- Python developers who already use requests and want to parse HTML in the same style
- Small scraping scripts that pull a few fields from pages
- People learning how web scraping with CSS selectors works
Strengths
jsoup
- Parses HTML the way modern browsers do, based on the WHATWG HTML5 specification
- Simple API for fetching, selecting, and changing HTML using CSS selectors or DOM methods
- Open source under the permissive MIT license
requests-html
- Familiar API for anyone who has used the requests library
- Uses CSS selectors to find elements in a page
- MIT licensed with a large community following (13,804 stars)
Not ideal for
jsoup
- Non-programmers looking for a ready-made tool; it is a code library with no interface of its own
- Projects written in languages other than Java, since it is a Java library
- Heavy JavaScript-rendered pages, because the README describes parsing HTML, not running scripts in a browser
requests-html
- Large-scale crawling, since the README excerpt provided gives no performance or concurrency details
- Projects that need a long-term maintained dependency, since the last push shown is April 2024 and the README was not available to confirm current status
Trade-offs
jsoup
- Only usable from Java (or other JVM code), so it does not fit non-Java stacks
- The README does not describe JavaScript execution, so dynamically rendered content may not be captured
- Some Android use requires enabling core library desugaring, which adds setup work
requests-html
- The README excerpt was empty, so feature details and current maintenance status are not confirmed here
- Latest release v0.10.0 ships without binaries and the last push date is April 2024
Getting started
jsoup
Maven dependency
<dependency><groupId>org.jsoup</groupId><artifactId>jsoup</artifactId><version>1.23.2</version></dependency>Gradle dependency
implementation 'org.jsoup:jsoup:1.23.1'Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between jsoup and requests-html?
jsoup: A Java library for parsing, scraping, editing, and cleaning HTML and XML. requests-html: Python library for parsing HTML and running JavaScript-rendered pages, built on requests. jsoup suits java developers who need to scrape or extract data from web pages, while requests-html suits python developers who already use requests and want to parse html in the same style.
Are jsoup and requests-html free?
jsoup: Free and open source. requests-html: Free and open source.
Which is easier to set up, jsoup or requests-html?
requests-html is easier to get started with (rated beginner); jsoup is rated intermediate and usually needs more setup.
Is jsoup or requests-html more popular?
requests-html has more GitHub stars (13.8k) than jsoup (11.4k). Popularity isn't the same as fit — check which one matches your use case above.
What are other alternatives to jsoup and requests-html?
Other options people compare them with include Cheerio, Bootstrap, Bulma, Layui, Gentelella.
Keep comparing
Built from our catalogue entries for both products: open-source details come from each project's README (AI-assisted, refreshed weekly) and GitHub data; AI-tool details are editorial. Spotted something wrong? Let us know from either product's page.