Scrape Tables from Any Website Without Code
You don't need to learn Python or Selenium to extract tables from websites. There are easier ways that work for most use cases and take seconds instead of hours.
Whether you want to scrape an HTML table, extract a table from a website with Python (without actually writing Python), or just copy web data to Excel, this guide covers the fastest methods available in 2026.
Looking for Python scraping?
If you're searching for "scrape table from website Python" or "BeautifulSoup table extraction", you might not need code at all. For one-off exports, a browser extension is 10x faster. For automated pipelines, see when you actually need code.
Use a browser extension like HTML Table Exporter. Click the extension, click export. No code, no setup, works on JavaScript-rendered content that other methods can't handle.
Why avoid coding for table extraction?
Writing a Python scraper with BeautifulSoup or Selenium takes time:
- Set up Python environment and dependencies
- Write the scraper code
- Handle edge cases (dynamic content, pagination, rate limits)
- Debug when the website structure changes
For one-off exports or regular data collection from a handful of pages, this is overkill. No-code methods get the job done in seconds.
3 no-code methods compared
| Method | Speed | JS Content | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|
| Browser extension | Fastest | ✓ Yes | Most use cases |
| Excel web query | Medium | ✗ No | Refreshable data |
| Google Sheets | Medium | ✗ No | Cloud collaboration |
Method 1: Browser extension (recommended)
A browser extension runs inside your browser, which means it sees exactly what you see—including content loaded by JavaScript. This is the key advantage over other methods.
Install the extension
Add HTML Table Exporter to Chrome. Takes 10 seconds, no account needed.
Go to the page with your table
Navigate to any website. Click on the table you want to export.
Click the extension icon
The extension automatically detects all tables on the page and shows them in a list.
Export in your preferred format
Click CSV, XLSX, or JSON. File downloads immediately. Done.
Works with JavaScript content
Unlike Excel and Google Sheets, a browser extension sees tables rendered by JavaScript—React dashboards, dynamic reports, SPAs. Most visible tables can be exported, though some edge cases (iframes, shadow DOM) may require workarounds.
Skip the Python setup — export tables in 30 seconds
Method 2: Excel web query
Excel can import data directly from web pages, with the bonus of creating a refreshable connection.
Open Excel
Go to Data → Get Data → From Web.
Enter the URL
Paste the URL of the page containing your table.
Select your table
Excel shows all detected tables. Click the one you want.
Load the data
Click Load. The data appears in your spreadsheet.
Limitations:
- Only works with publicly accessible pages (no login required)
- Doesn't see JavaScript-rendered content
- Can be slow on complex pages
- Some websites block automated requests
Best for: Static pages where you need to refresh the data regularly (e.g., public statistics pages).
Method 3: Google Sheets IMPORTHTML
Google Sheets has a built-in function for importing tables from web pages.
The syntax is:
=IMPORTHTML("URL", "table", index)For example, to import the first table from a Wikipedia page:
=IMPORTHTML("https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(nominal)", "table", 1)Limitations:
- Same JavaScript limitations as Excel
- Rate limited by Google (can't refresh too frequently)
- The index number isn't always obvious—trial and error required
- Some websites block Google's servers
Best for: Quick imports into Google Sheets for collaboration.
When you actually need code
No-code methods handle most scenarios, but there are cases where coding is necessary:
- Automated pipelines: Daily data extraction that runs without human interaction
- Hundreds of pages: Bulk scraping across many URLs
- Complex navigation: Clicking through pagination, filters, or login flows
- Data transformation: Complex cleaning and merging operations
- API access: When a website provides an API (use that instead of scraping)
For these cases, Python with BeautifulSoup, Selenium, or Playwright is the right tool. But for 80% of table extraction tasks, a browser extension is faster and simpler.
The Python scraping alternative most devs don't know
If you're a developer, your instinct is to write a Python script with BeautifulSoup or Selenium. But for HTML tables, there's a faster path:
- Open the page in your browser
- Click the extension
- Export to JSON
- Load into Pandas:
pd.read_json('export.json')
Total time: 30 seconds. No environment setup, no HTTP requests, no HTML parsing. The browser has already done the hard work—why redo it?
Not sure which extension to pick? See our comparison of the 5 best table export extensions.
Export tables without writing code
Skip Python, BeautifulSoup, and Selenium. HTML Table Exporter handles most websites, including JavaScript-rendered content.
No account required · Works offline · Export in 30 seconds