I’m working on a web scraping project and need to implement stealth capabilities to avoid detection. I’ve been using Apify’s puppeteer crawler for my automation tasks, but now I want to add the puppeteer-extra library along with the stealth plugin to make my bot less detectable. The thing is, I’m not sure how to properly configure these extra plugins within Apify’s environment. Has anyone successfully integrated puppeteer-extra and its stealth plugin with Apify’s crawler? I’m looking for a way to combine both tools so I can benefit from Apify’s infrastructure while still having access to the enhanced features that puppeteer-extra provides. Any guidance on the setup process or configuration steps would be really helpful. Thanks in advance!
for sure! just integrate puppeteer-extra with the stealth plugin in your Apify setup. it works great, but keep in mind you might still face some detections. hope it helps!
I’ve encountered similar challenges when integrating puppeteer-extra with Apify’s crawler. It’s crucial to understand that Apify creates its own browser instances, which can disrupt the functionality of the puppeteer-extra plugins. A solution that worked for me is to leverage the preNavigationHooks in your crawler configuration. This allows you to apply the stealth modifications right after the page is instantiated but prior to navigation. Be sure to import the stealth plugin and apply it manually to each page rather than wrapping the entire browser launch. Timing is critical – implement the stealth modifications early in the page’s lifecycle. Additionally, be cautious as Apify’s session management might conflict with certain stealth methods, so you may need to disable it based on your requirements.
Hit this same issue about six months back on a big data collection project. You need to override Apify’s default puppeteer setup by tweaking the browser launch options. Install puppeteer-extra and the stealth plugin as dependencies in your actor, then set up the crawler to use your custom puppeteer instance instead of Apify’s default. I created a custom browser launcher that applies the stealth plugin before handing the browser to Apify’s PuppeteerCrawler. Trickiest part is making sure the stealth mods don’t clash with Apify’s browser management - but nail the initialization order and you’re golden. Barely any performance hit, and success rates went way up on sites with heavy detection.
just modify the launchPuppeteer function in your apify actor. import puppeteer-extra and return the stealth-enabled browser instance. works fine, but you’ll need to mess around with session handling a bit.
Been there with stealth scraping. Apify’s decent, but you’re overcomplicating this by mixing two frameworks.
Skip the headache of wrestling with Apify’s limits and trying to inject puppeteer-extra. Just build your scraper from scratch - you’ll have full control. I’ve done similar projects needing max stealth, and building custom always works better.
I set up a system that handles puppeteer-extra config, rotates proxies, auto-solves CAPTCHAs, and processes/stores data. Everything runs smooth without platform constraints.
You get way more flexibility. Customize your stealth setup however you want, add custom headers, manage sessions properly, scale as needed. Plus no platform fees on top of infrastructure costs.
Automation lets you focus on scraping logic while everything else runs in the background. No more fighting platform limits or hacking solutions together.
Check out building automated scraping pipelines at https://latenode.com
Had this same issue a few months ago on a big data collection project. Use Apify’s prePageFunction to inject puppeteer-extra before the page loads. Add puppeteer-extra and the stealth plugin to your actor’s dependencies, then apply the stealth plugin to the page instance in prePageFunction. Watch out - some stealth features clash with Apify’s built-in browser settings, so you might need to turn off their user agent rotation. The webdriver detection evasion worked great for me, though it adds 200-300ms to load times. Test everything in Apify’s console first before going live - plugin interactions can be weird depending on the environment.