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Modern businesses rely on data for success.
It makes it possible to study any industry, recognize customer needs, predict trends, discover opportunities, and beat the competition.
But collecting data isn’t always a smooth process.
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You can bridge the gap through the best B2B database providers or collect readily available data across the internet.
One method that has proven highly effective for organizations is to scrape social media platforms.
There are billions of people and businesses on social media sites, chatting, commenting, and sharing important information every day. And, as you can see, the number keeps growing and growing.
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If you look at the right place, you could get invaluable information to understand your customers and improve business.
It is huge, and you may not know where to start, but that’s what web scraping tools do.
Below, I’ve listed and explained how you could use the best data scraping tools with the biggest social media platforms.
| Software | Pricing (starts from) | Free Trial or Plan? | Geo- targeting | IP Rotation | Scheduling |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apify | $39/month | Free plan | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Scraper API | $49/month | 1,000 free credits | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ |
| Parsehub | $155/month | Free plan | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Octoparse | $89/month | Free plan | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| ScrapingBee | $49/month | 1,000 free credits | ✅ | ✅ | ❌ |
1. Apify
Apify is one of the most advanced tools for scraping social media data and automating web pages. It can collect data from any social media platform and automate almost all your processes.
That is possible, thanks to Apify’s many powerful features. As a matter of fact, there are hundreds of them available through the Apify store, including the Instagram Profile Scraper, TikTok Scraper, Reddit Scraper, Twitter Scraper, etc.
The best part about Apify is the ease with which it lets you collect data from web pages. Its scraping tools structures the data for easy accessibility and faster application.
There’s also the risk of websites using anti-bot systems, but you do not have to worry about that with Apify. It uses a combination of proxies, smart rotation, and fingerprinting technology to prevent anti-bot blocking.
This is further helped by its wealth of residential IP addresses that helps with rotation and reliable data extraction throughout the process.
Aside from being an open-source tool that continuously improve, you can also leverage its community of partners and users to get more tips on how to make more use of the tool.
Other notable features
- Speed up processes by automating challenging and repetitive tasks, scaling processes, and focusing on what matters.
- Accessibility through multiple modes, including API, Apify interface, JS API, Python API, etc.
- Integrate with other powerful tools like Zapier, Make, Keboola, etc. for more functionality like data exporting in readable formats.
Pricing
Apify has a free plan that helps you get things started on the platform. To get access to more features, you can enjoy 20% discount on all pricing plans when you subscribe yearly. The Personal plan goes for $39/month, the Team plan is $399/month and you can get custom pricing too.
💬 The bottom line
Apify is a complete social media scraping tool with many features that helps you get the most of the process. This tool lets you automate processes and scrape data from any website without getting blocked.
2. ScraperAPI
ScraperAPI is the powerful social media scraping tool that simplifies the entire process for users. Not only can this tool extract data from web pages and social media websites, it can navigate through browsers, CAPTCHAS, and proxies through a simple API settings.
With over 40 million IPs worldwide, Scraper API offers a smooth web data scraping. This tool is capable of deciding the best proxies for you, depending on the scraping parameters.
In case you need to customize search parameters, you can do so easily for a couple of options. For instance, by adding &country_code= to the request, you can specify a location from over 60 options.
Add &premium=true to enable residential proxies or &render=true for on-page javascript rendering. If you’re dealing with a website that prevents scraping, ScraperAPI lets you bypass the blocking easily with its anti-bot detection feature.
Other notable features
- Multiple API and proxy modes.
- Multiple customizations possible, especially for developers who need to specify location, proxies, etc.
- ScraperAPI has a dedicated and knowledgeable support that’s always on hand to help you out.
Pricing
ScraperAPI has no free plan, but will offer you 1,000 free credits when you sign up. As for pricing plans, it is quite flexible with plans like Hobby at $49 for 100,000 credits, Startup at $149 for 1,000,000 credits, Business at $299 for 3,000,000 credits, and professional at $999 for 14,000,000 credits.
💬 The bottom line
Currently in use by over 10,000 companies, ScraperAPI is a sophisticted web scraper that breaks down complex scraping processes into simple ones. It offers javascript rendering, geotargeting, unlimited bandwidth, proxies, and many other features to make your task seamless.
3. Parsehub
Parsehub is a powerful, yet flexible social media scraper. It is super easy to use, sporting a clean interface and affording you the freedom to choose what you want to scrape.
That’s because it uses a direct selection feature that requires only that you click on a page elements to extract data. Its advanced technology can recognize similar page elements or you can switch to an advanced mode for more freedom.
Through Parsehub APIs, you can leverage patterns, control elements, and modify attributes. Websites are designed differently, and their elements may be structured in varying formats. With Parsehub, you can still get the data you want irrespective of the data structure.
It has tools for extracting information from forms, infinite scrolls, dropdown menus, tables, maps, pop-ups, redirects, images, and even behind login authentication.
When multiple pages are linked together, you may combine instructions or set different ones for each page to enable effective data extraction.
Other notable features
- Parsehub uses automatic IP switching to prevent you from being tracked and blocked out.
- Accessing your data has never been easier with options like API, Google Sheets, CSV/Excel, and Tableau.
- You may schedule data extraction and retrieval for specific intervals, from minutes to months.
- Get a view of everything you’re doing with the split-second feedback loop.
Pricing
Parsehub pricing can be paid monthly or quarterly, with the latter qualifying you for a 15% savings to reduce the Standard plan to $155/month and the Professional plan to $505/month. There’s also a limited free plan and a chance to get custom pricing with Parsehub Plus.
💬 The bottom line
Perfect for all forms of data extraction and webscraping, Parsehub is one of the most powerful web scrapers around. It can extract data in different modes and forms, integrate with multiple tools, and export data in easy-to-use formats.
4. Octoparse
If the aim is scraping social media platforms without any coding knowledge or experience, Octoparse is the social media scraper you should use. It is as easy as browsing the internet and you can get all you want in no time.
To use this web scraper, simply enter the website you need information from. Click on the data you’re trying to extract and Octoparse’s intelligent technology will recognize what to retrieve. Then, you can export the data in any format you want.
Its IP rotation is handy for prevent websites that track or block bots. And since this is automatic, you can continue scraping without worries.
For websites that feature advanced and troublesome page elements like infinite scrolling, logins, dropdown menus, AJAX, Octoparse will help you bypass such structures while scraping.
Other notable features
- You can extract and download data in APIs, Excel, CSV, or export to databases.
- You can set hourly, daily, or weekly task scheduling to help you automate scraping.
- In case you cannot do scraping yourself or do not have the time, Octoparse offers a scraping service that you can use.
Pricing
In addition to the free plan that gives access to ten tasks, Octoparse’s pricing includes the Standard package at $89/month for a hundred tasks and Professional at $249/month for 250 tasks. If your web scraping project requires more tasks, you can contact the sales team for custom pricing.
💬 The bottom line
Since launching in 2015, Octoparse has put massive efforts into improving the features and making them easier to use. Hence, it is not only of the best social media scraping tools you can find, but also one of the easiest to use.
5. ScrapingBee
ScrapingBee is another of the best social media scraping tools that helps you prevent being block while scraping. It offers some of the common web scraper tools alongside other unique features.
Its data extraction preserves CPU and RAM usage, and is effectiive for managing headless browsers. Hence, you can use ScrapingBee for retrieving social media contents like customer reviews, price changes, real estate entries, etc.
Coding can be challenging for many, but ScrapingBee’s no-code system takes care of this. You can integrate Make to create and implement social media scraping without any coding knowledge.
If the page features JavaScript elements that disturb many social media scrapers, it will not be a problem for ScrapingBee since it handles JS scenarios efficiently. ScrapingBee also has a pool of proxies for geotargeting and automatic IP rotation.
Other notable features
- Scrape search engine results pages Easily with the Google search API.
- Extract data using HTML, JSON, or implement other APIs of your choice.
- Integrate ScrapingBee with several tools like Slack, Google Sheets, Amazon, etc. for added functionality.
- ScrapingBee has a screenshot feature to get full-page screenshots as well as a section.
Pricing
Similarly to ScraperAPI, ScrapingBee also has no free plan but will offer you 1,000 free credits to test the waters. Their pricing plans include Freelance at $49/month for 100,000 credits, Startup at $99/month for 1,000,000 credits, Business at $249/ month for 2,500,000 credits, and Enterprise at $999+/month for 12,500,000+ credits.
💬 The bottom line
ScrapingBee is powerful and easy-to-use. Its CPU preservation helps you scrape data on almost any device while the no-code system makes it possible for anyone. Finally, it combines a number of features that make the process smooth for users.
Conclusion
The internet, and particularly social media platforms, are massive sources of unlimited information. It is, however, sad that most of the data are not easily accessible to those that need them.
Thanks to social media scraping tools, that is no longer the case. With these tools, you can scrape social media data effectively to get all the many benefits. You can track your audience, monitor trends, analyze activities, tailor campaigns, etc.
However, it is essential that you respect people’s privacy and laws regarding it when scraping data. Some sites may block you out, and although these tools help you prevent that, it is still crucial that you use them appropriately.
In the web scraping tools above, you have the best means to retrieve as much data as possible from social media websites. And through this data, you can study your audience and deliver better services to them.
Web data scraping is hugely beneficial, and there’s no limit to how much you can achieve with the information you get.