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HTML Parsers

A curated collection of the best libraries and tools for parsing HTML and extracting structured data from web page markup.

Quick answer

Choose an HTML parser by runtime and parsing model. Cheerio is the JavaScript default for jQuery-style selectors, lxml is the Python speed and XPath choice, BeautifulSoup is the forgiving Python scripting option, htmlparser2 fits streaming Node pipelines, and parse5 fits browser-accurate HTML5 behavior.

Top picks in HTML Parsers

Cheerio
JavaScript default
Fits JavaScript extraction code that wants a familiar jQuery-style API over static server-side HTML.
lxml
Python + XPath
Fits Python teams that need fast HTML and XML parsing, XPath support, and a parser used underneath many scraping libraries.
Goquery
Go services
Fits Go scrapers that want jQuery-like selection while staying close to the standard net/html tokenizer.
htmlparser2
Streaming Node
Fits Node pipelines that need lower-level streaming, event-driven parsing for large or incremental HTML inputs.
parse5
HTML5 accuracy
Fits tooling that needs browser-style HTML5 parsing behavior rather than a lightweight selector wrapper.

Requests-HTML

Python Requests With HTML Parsing

Library or tool · Self-hosted

Python library combining HTTP requests, HTML parsing, CSS selectors, and optional JavaScript rendering for scraping workflows.

Browser Automation

+2 more

pyquery

jQuery-Style HTML Parsing For Python

Library or tool · Library / Self-hosted

Python library that applies a jQuery-style API to HTML and XML documents for selection, traversal, and extraction.

HTML Parsers

AutoScraper

Example-Based HTML Extraction For Python

Library or tool · Library / Self-hosted

Stars: 8.1K
Code license: MIT

Python library that learns simple scraping rules from example values and extracts similar data from HTML pages.

HTML Parsers

+1 more

Parsel

Extract Web Data Cleanly With Python

Library or tool · Library / Self-hosted

Stars: 1.4K
Code license: BSD-3-Clause

A Python library for extracting data from HTML, XML, and JSON with CSS, XPath, JMESPath, and regex.

HTML Parsers

jsoup

Parse Real-World HTML In Java

Library or tool · Library / Self-hosted

Stars: 11.4K
Code license: MIT

A Java library for parsing real-world HTML into a standards-based DOM with CSS selectors and DOM traversal.

HTML Parsers

selectolax

Fast HTML Parsing for Python Workflows

Library or tool · Library / Self-hosted

Stars: 1.7K
Code license: MIT

Parse HTML with CSS selectors in Python using a fast, MIT-licensed library built for large-scale extraction.

HTML Parsers

lxml

Fast XML And HTML Parsing For Python

Library or tool · Library / Self-hosted

Stars: 3.1K
Code license: BSD-3-Clause

A fast Python library for parsing XML and HTML, often used as a foundation for scraping and data tools.

HTML Parsers

BeautifulSoup

Python library for parsing HTML and XML

Library or tool · Library / Self-hosted

Beautiful Soup is a Python library for pulling data out of HTML and XML files, providing Pythonic idioms for navigating and searching parse trees.

HTML Parsers

parse5

HTML5 spec-compliant parser for Node.js

Library or tool · Library / Self-hosted

Stars: 3.9K
Code license: MIT

parse5 is a spec-compliant HTML5 parser for Node.js, parsing HTML exactly as modern browsers do.

HTML Parsers

htmlparser2

The fast and forgiving HTML/XML parser

Library or tool · Library / Self-hosted

Stars: 4.8K
Code license: MIT

htmlparser2 is a streaming Node.js HTML and XML parser, offering a streaming, event-driven API with a forgiving approach to malformed markup.

HTML Parsers

Goquery

jQuery-like HTML parsing for Go

Library or tool · Library / Self-hosted

Stars: 15K
Code license: BSD-3-Clause

GoQuery brings jQuery-like syntax to Go for parsing and manipulating HTML documents, making web scraping in Go intuitive and efficient.

HTML Parsers

Cheerio

Fast, flexible HTML parsing and manipulation for JS

Library or tool · Library / Self-hosted

Stars: 30.5K
Code license: MIT

Cheerio is a JavaScript library for parsing and manipulating HTML and XML using a familiar jQuery-like syntax.

HTML Parsers

Frequently asked questions

What is an HTML parser?

An HTML parser reads markup and builds a representation such as a document tree. Code can then select elements and extract their text or attributes. Libraries such as Beautiful Soup and lxml provide APIs for navigating and querying these parsed structures.

Sources (checked Oct 2, 2026): Beautiful Soup documentation; lxml HTML documentation

How do I parse HTML code?

Pass the markup to a parser, then query the resulting tree for the elements you need. For example, BeautifulSoup(markup, "html.parser") creates a Python object that supports tag searches, CSS selectors and text extraction. Choose the parser explicitly, because different parsers can interpret malformed HTML differently.

Sources (checked Oct 2, 2026): Beautiful Soup documentation

What are some good Python libraries for parsing HTML?

Beautiful Soup provides convenient tree navigation and searches while using a selected parser underneath. lxml.html provides HTML-specific elements and utilities built on lxml’s ElementTree-style API. Choose based on the queries, document handling and installation requirements your application needs.

Sources (checked Oct 2, 2026): Beautiful Soup documentation; lxml HTML documentation

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