Comparing
Async http client/server framework (asyncio)
Fast, batteries-included web scraping and crawling framework for Python.
| Metric | aiohttp | Scrapy |
|---|---|---|
| Ecosystem | Python | Python |
| Difficulty | Beginner ✓ | Intermediate |
| Weekly downloads | 0 | 1.4M↑ |
| Latest version | v3.13.5 | v2.11.2 |
| Recipes | 1 | 2↑ |
aiohttp only
Shared
Scrapy only
Use aiohttp when you need a battle-tested async HTTP client or server, especially in applications that make many concurrent HTTP calls (scrapers, API aggregators) or build lightweight async web services. It has a mature ecosystem and is widely used in production.
Large-scale crawling, production spiders that run regularly, structured data extraction with pipelines (to DB, CSV, JSON), sites with pagination or login.
For new async API projects, FastAPI (built on Starlette/uvicorn) has better developer ergonomics, automatic validation, and docs. For synchronous scripts, requests is simpler. httpx offers a compatible API with both sync and async modes if you want flexibility.
Single-page quick scrapes (use requests+BS4). JavaScript-heavy sites (use Playwright; or scrapy-playwright to integrate). When a proper API exists.
aiohttp
Scrapy