Budget and technical barriers top list of challenges in accessing external data, Decodo research finds

New research from Decodo.com has identified the most common barriers businesses face when trying to collect or access external data, with budget and resource constraints topping the list.

The survey of 1,000 decision-makers found that 37% of businesses cite budget or resource limitations as their biggest challenge, followed by IP blocks or geo-restrictions (33%) and a lack of technical expertise (32%).

Poor data quality, CAPTCHAs and anti-bot measures, and limited internal infrastructure were each highlighted by 29% of respondents.

Vaidotas Juknys, head of commerce at Decodo, said: “Budget and resource constraints remain the biggest obstacles for businesses trying to scale their data operations.

“While high-quality data often comes at a cost, choosing a trusted provider ensures safer, more reliable solutions that pay off in the long run.

“One easy way to save money without losing quality is by comparing providers. We suggest choosing a provider that offers rotating residential IPs instead of large, cheap pools because this helps prevent your requests from getting blocked and saves you time.

“Good providers also offer built-in error handling and support, so your team spends less time fixing issues. Start small with affordable tools and only scale up as your data needs grow — it’s a tested approach to successfully keeping costs and resources under control.”

Anti-bot measures are also proving to be a significant obstacle. A third of businesses reported IP blocks, geo-restrictions, and CAPTCHAs as key technical issues when collecting public web data.