DeTelefoongids (Dutch Business Directory) Scraper

Scrape Telefoonboek.nl, the Netherlands' business and phone directory. Search any keyword, browse curated business categories, or fetch specific business detail pages — no login, no cookies, no API key required.

Data Source

The originally requested target, detelefoongids.nl (and its sister site goudengids.nl), is protected by an Incapsula WAF that returns a hard 403 Forbidden on every request — including plain HTTP, curl_cffi Chrome-131 impersonation, and requests from a clean residential IP (not just Apify's datacenter ranges). Two other candidate Dutch directories (cylex.nl, opendi.nl) are behind Cloudflare's JS challenge and are equally unreachable without a paid browser-farm/residential-proxy service. Per this project's zero-cost policy, none of these are viable.

This actor instead scrapes Telefoonboek.nl, the Netherlands' other major, publicly maintained business and phone directory — confirmed fully accessible with plain HTTP requests, no proxy, no anti-bot friction across repeated tests.

What this actor does

• Three modes: search (free-text keyword, nationwide or city-scoped), byCategory (browse one of 50 curated trade/service categories), byUrl (fetch specific business detail pages)
• Rich business data: name, full address (street/city/postal code), GPS coordinates, phone, website, rating, review count
• Optional deep enrichment: turn on fetchDetails to additionally pull the business's category, description, full per-day opening hours, a secondary phone number, and verified/claimed status from each business's detail page
• Filters: city/town filter, minimum rating, verified-only, free-text keyword filter
• Empty fields are omitted — every record only contains data actually found for that business
• Full Dutch UTF-8 diacritics support — city names, addresses, and descriptions are preserved exactly

Output per business

• businessId, sourceUrl — unique ID and canonical Telefoonboek.nl detail-page URL
• name
• category (detail only) — trade/service tag (e.g. Bouw, Restaurant)
• street, postalCode, city, fullAddress
• latitude, longitude
• phone, phoneSecondary (detail only), website
• rating (0-10 scale), reviewCount
• verified (boolean) (detail only) — business has claimed/verified its own listing
• openingHours[] — per-day breakdown {day, dayEn, hours} (detail only)
• description (detail only)
• recordType: "business", scrapedAt

(detail only) fields are only populated when fetchDetails: true is set (search/byCategory modes) or when using mode: byUrl.

Input

Field	Type	Default	Description
mode	string	search	search / byCategory / byUrl
searchQuery	string	restaurant	Free-text keyword (mode=search)
category	string	aannemer	Any Telefoonboek.nl trade/category term (mode=byCategory); 50 curated examples listed in the field description
mainCategory	string	–	Refine search/byCategory results using one of Telefoonboek.nl's own dynamic sub-category facets (e.g. restaurant search exposes cafe, snackbar, hotel)
city	string	–	Restrict results to a Dutch city/town; works with any mode
urls	array	–	Telefoonboek.nl detail-page URLs (mode=byUrl)
keyword	string	–	Keep only results whose name/description/category contain this text
minRating	number	–	Drop businesses rated below this (0-10)
verifiedOnly	boolean	false	Only businesses with a claimed/verified listing (detail data required)
fetchDetails	boolean	false	Visit each business's detail page for category, description, full hours, secondary phone, and verified status (1 extra request per business)
maxItems	integer	30	Hard cap (1-500)
proxyConfiguration	object	–	Optional; telefoonboek.nl works without a proxy, the actor auto-escalates to the free AUTO group on 403/429

Example: search with city + rating filter

{
  "mode": "search",
  "searchQuery": "restaurant",
  "city": "Rotterdam",
  "minRating": 7,
  "maxItems": 50
}

Example: browse a category nationwide, with full detail enrichment

{
  "mode": "byCategory",
  "category": "kapper",
  "fetchDetails": true,
  "maxItems": 100
}

Example: fetch specific business pages

{
  "mode": "byUrl",
  "urls": [
    "https://www.telefoonboek.nl/bedrijven/t4249019/krommenie/schleich-bouw-b.v/"
  ]
}

Use cases

• Lead generation — build prospect lists of Dutch businesses by trade and city
• Market research — analyze business density, ratings, and coverage by city or category
• Directory aggregation — mirror or cross-reference Dutch business listings
• Local SEO audits — check a business's own directory data (address, phone, hours) for accuracy
• Competitive analysis — compare ratings and review counts across competitors in a category

FAQ

Do I need a Telefoonboek.nl account? No. Search, category browsing, and business detail pages are all publicly accessible without an account.

Is this the same as detelefoongids.nl? No — see the "Data Source" section above. detelefoongids.nl is blocked by Incapsula bot protection; this actor scrapes Telefoonboek.nl, a comparable Dutch business/phone directory with the same data model (name, address, phone, category, rating, opening hours).

Does the city filter guarantee I only get businesses in that city? It combines two mechanisms: the city value is folded directly into telefoonboek.nl's own city-scoped URL (e.g. /zoeken/restaurant/rotterdam/), and a diacritics-insensitive client-side check is applied afterward as a safety net against any stray out-of-city result the source itself may mix in.

Why is rating on a 0-10 scale? Telefoonboek.nl's own rating widget natively uses a 0-10 scale, unlike some directories that use 0-5 stars.

What does verified mean? Telefoonboek.nl shows a "Geverifieerd" badge on business detail pages whose owner has claimed and confirmed the listing. This is only visible on the detail page, so fetchDetails: true (or mode: byUrl) is required to populate it.

Can I browse categories not in the dropdown examples? Yes — type any Telefoonboek.nl trade/category term into the category field (anything you find while browsing telefoonboek.nl/rubrieken/). The field description lists 50 curated, high-traffic examples for convenience.

Why does a website URL sometimes fail a plain curl -I check? The website field links to each business's own external site, not to Telefoonboek.nl. Some small-business sites block simple bot HEAD requests (common shared-hosting/WAF behavior) while working fine in any real browser or a full GET request. sourceUrl (the Telefoonboek.nl detail page) is always directly verifiable.

How fresh is the data? Telefoonboek.nl listings are maintained by business owners and the platform's own data team; most information (phone, ratings, reviews, hours) reflects the live site at scrape time.

Is this actor affiliated with Telefoonboek.nl? No. This is an independent, third-party actor that reads Telefoonboek.nl's publicly available pages. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Telefoonboek.nl or its operator.