How to Use Node Unblocker for Web Scraping: A Complete Guide

What is Node Unblocker?

Node Unblocker is a tiny, open-source Node.js tool that behaves as an intelligent middleman between your application and the site you desire to access. Rather than directly hitting a site, you pass the request to your Unblocker server. It loads the page, rewrites links and assets when necessary, and streams the output back to you, so your browser or scraper can continue to crawl without crashing on rewritten paths or blocked resources.

Node Unblocker Benefits

Node Unblocker is a lightweight yet powerful tool for bypassing network restrictions, making your browsing or scraping fast, smooth, and frustration-free. It is very simple to use because you will just need to drop it into your Express app, choose a simple prefix like /proxy/, and you’re ready to roll. Also, it is flexible enough to adapt to any scraping project you have in mind and supports multiple protocols like HTTP, HTTPS and SOCKS5.

How to use Node Unblocker?

1. Install Node.js

Before getting into details, you'll need to grab the LTS release from the official Node.js website and run the installer (the defaults are fine).

After downloading it, open a terminal and confirm the install by typing these 2 commands.

node -v
npm -v

 If both commands print version numbers, you’re set.

2. Create a fresh project

Once NodeJS is installed, you need to make a folder and initialize it so your dependencies and scripts are tracked in package.json.

mkdir node-unblocker-guide
cd node-unblocker-guide
npm init -y

3. Install required packages

Add the two pieces you need: Express to run a tiny server and Unblocker to handle the proxying and rewriting behind the scenes.

npm i express unblocker

After a moment, you’ll see a node_modules folder and both packages listed in package.json.

4. Create the Node Unblocker script

Make an entry file and open it in your editor:

touch index.js

Paste this minimal server. It mounts Node Unblocker at /proxy/, includes a quick health check, and supports WebSocket upgrades for sites that use them.

const express = require('express');
const Unblocker = require('unblocker');

const app = express();
const unblocker = new Unblocker({ prefix: '/proxy/' });

app.use(unblocker);

// Optional: a simple confirmation route
app.get('/', (_req, res) => {
  res.send('Node Unblocker is running');
});

// Optional: health check for monitoring
app.get('/health', (_req, res) => res.json({ ok: true }));

const PORT = process.env.PORT || 8080;
app
  .listen(PORT, () => {
    console.log(`Node Unblocker server: http://localhost:${PORT}`);
    console.log(`Try: http://localhost:${PORT}/proxy/https://example.com/`);
  })
  .on('upgrade', unblocker.onUpgrade);

5. Start the server

Be sure to start it up and watch the terminal for the local address.

node index.js

You'll see a message pointing you to your running server.

6. Open a proxied page

Load a site through your new proxy by prefixing the full target URL with /proxy/. This is the pattern you’ll use from now on:

http://localhost:8080/proxy/https://example.com/

Try using this pattern to visit Anonymous Proxies.

http://localhost:8080/proxy/https://www.anonymous-proxies.net/

7. Inspect with your browser’s DevTools (optional)

Open the page, launch DevTools (Ctrl+Shift+I on Windows/Linux or Cmd+Option+I on macOS), go to Network → Fetch/XHR, and reload. If you see requests coming from localhost:8080, it means your traffic is going through Node Unblocker as expected.

How to use Node Unblocker for web scraping?

To scrape efficiently, we will need to use a real browser like Puppeteer or Playwright and point it to our Node Unblocker proxied URL so pages load and behave like they would for real users. If you need to access that URL from anywhere, whether it’s your laptop, a CI pipeline, or a cloud environment, you’ll need to deploy Node Unblocker as a public web service. Any cloud provider should work fine, but for this guide, we will use Render.

1. Create a Web Service on Render

Open Render, sign up for a new account or log in to your dashboard if you already have one, then create a new web service.

2. Select your Git repository

Choose your Git provider, then pick the node-unblocker repository.

3. Configure service settings

Once you’ve chosen your Node Unblocker repository, you’ll need to complete a few fields that define your project’s deployment settings. The most important are the Build Command, which you can leave blank or set to npm install, and the Start Command, which should be npm start.

Also, your repository must include a start script:

{
  "scripts": {
    "start": "node index.js"
  }
}

4. Deploy and copy your public URL

Click Create Web Service and wait for the deployment to finish. Render will issue a public base URL in this pattern:

https://<YOUR-APP-URL>

In practice, you should receive something like:

https://node-unblocker-olzk.onrender.com

To use the proxy, prepend /proxy/ and include the full target (with https://). For example:

https://<YOUR-APP-URL>/proxy/https://www.anonymous-proxies.net/

Using the concrete example:

https://node-unblocker-olzk.onrender.com/proxy/https://www.anonymous-proxies.net/

Open the URL in your browser to confirm the service is reachable through the proxy path.

5. Confirm routing in DevTools

Open DevTools → Network. Right-click the header row and enable Domain. Reload the page. You should see your proxy host—e.g., node-unblocker-olzk.onrender.com—in the Domain column for the document and asset requests. That confirms traffic is flowing through Node Unblocker.

6. Scrape via Puppeteer

You should now try to use a demo site designed for practice scraping, and for this, Quotes to Scrape would be a perfect choice. Then, you need to point Puppeteer at the proxied URL (not the direct target).

npm i puppeteer

const puppeteer = require('puppeteer');

(async () => {
  const BASE = 'https://<YOUR-APP-URL>/proxy/';
  const TARGET = 'https://quotes.toscrape.com/';

  const browser = await puppeteer.launch({ headless: true });
  const page = await browser.newPage();

  await page.goto(BASE + encodeURI(TARGET), {
    waitUntil: 'domcontentloaded',
    timeout: 60000
  });

  const quotes = await page.$$eval('.quote', els =>
    els.slice(0, 5).map(q => ({
      text: q.querySelector('.text')?.textContent?.trim(),
      author: q.querySelector('.author')?.textContent?.trim()
    }))
  );

  console.log(quotes);
  await browser.close();
})();

7. Scrape via Playwright (alternative)

Same approach: navigate to the proxied address instead of the direct target.

npm i -D playwright
npx playwright install

const { chromium } = require('playwright');

(async () => {
  const BASE = 'https://<YOUR-APP-URL>/proxy/';
  const TARGET = 'https://quotes.toscrape.com/';

  const browser = await chromium.launch({ headless: true });
  const page = await browser.newPage();

  await page.goto(BASE + encodeURI(TARGET), {
    waitUntil: 'domcontentloaded',
    timeout: 60000
  });

  const authors = await page.$$eval('.quote .author', els =>
    [...new Set(els.slice(0, 10).map(e => e.textContent.trim()))]
  );

  console.log('Authors:', authors);
  await browser.close();
})();

Conclusion

Node Unblocker offers you an immediate, trustworthy way to tunnel traffic through a proxy server under your control, allowing you to handle everyday blocks without jeopardizing your scraping pipeline's stability and integrity. Installing it takes only a few minutes and combining it with tools such as Puppeteer and Playwright, you'll collect data at scale without interruptions.

If you’d like help or a second set of eyes, reach out to our support team. For more step-by-step guides and integrations with popular third-party tools, visit our Integrations page.