Best Facebook Scraper Tools

9+ BEST Facebook Scraper Tools for Data Extraction in 2024

Published on: February 28, 2024
Last Updated: February 28, 2024

9+ BEST Facebook Scraper Tools for Data Extraction in 2024

Published on: February 28, 2024
Last Updated: February 28, 2024

Best Web Scrapers

#1 Top Rated
Phantombuster
NEW ERA OF DATA
the #1 web scraper

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#2 Top Rated
Oxylabs
API for web scraping

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#1 Top Rated
Phantombuster
NEW ERA OF DATA
the #1 web scraper

save 16%!
UNLOCK FREE TRIAL
#3 Top Rated
Bright Data
scrape data at scale

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In a hurry?
The best Facebook scraper in 2024, as found in our independent testing, is Phantombuster!


If you aren’t someone who has enough coding experience to develop your own Facebook scraper then we strongly suggest that you try out one that has already been created.

Of course, there are already a lot of scrapers in the market that you can use for this task, and while some of them are free, we don’t generally suggest that you go for a free one, as a lot of the time they are restrictive, and can get you blocked.

This is why we recommend that you only work with scrapers that charge for this service.

Let’s take a look at the best Facebook scraper tools on the market right now.

Best Facebook Scraper Tools in 2024

  1. Phantombuster – 🏆 Winner!
  2. Bright Data
  3. ScraperAPI
  4. Apify
  5. Proxycrawl

1. Phantombuster – Facebook Group Extractor & Profile Scraper

Phantom Buster Facebook Group Extractor

Recommended Guide: Phantombuster Review

Phantombuster is by far the best Facebook scraper on this list – it is a scraping tool that develops automation software for automating tasks on social media, including Facebook.

They offer support for a Facebook group scraper and a Facebook profile scraper which means that you can go ahead with scraping user-generated content in both Facebook groups and communities.

With this tool, you can scrape Facebook profiles, and while they are a paid tool, they do offer new clients a 14-day free trial.

Their pricing begins at $30 a month, and it is compatible with Mac, Linux, and Windows.

It is also a cloud-based tool if this is what you prefer.

2. Bright Data

Bright Data Web Scraper IDE

Recommended Guide: Bright Data Review

Bright Data is a really good choice in our opinion when it comes to scraping important data from Facebook, because they say that they have a data collection infrastructure, so that you can create already-made data sets.

That can help you retrieve all the relevant public web data that you really care about.

👉 Get FREE Account

One of the things that we love the most about this scraper is that you can request a demo from them, so that you can try them out for free without signing up for anything.

As well as being able to collect all the relevant data, they can help you as a search engine crawler, and even a web unlocker.

They even provide their clients with data center proxies, residential proxies, and mobile proxies, so that you can keep all of your online activity secure, and you don’t have to worry about being exposed.

3. ScraperAPI

ScraperAPI

ScraperAPI is a great option when it comes to being a Facebook web page scraper because they rotate proxies for different queries, so that you can get your hands on raw HTML pages, without any restrictions.

They make the most of JavaScript, and they can automatically give you a new IP address for every connection.

You can use this Facebook web scraper on Google Sheets, and you can also use it through your web browser.

4. Apify Facebook Page Scraper

Apify Facebook Page Scraper

Apify is a well-known web scraping tool. It can not only help its clients with its own tool, but it hosts users’ tools that you can use for your various web scraping activities.

Of course, it includes a Facebook pages scraper, which means that it can help you extract reviews, comments, posts, and any other important information from Facebook.

This scraper is available as an API, and the thing that we like the most about it is that it’s easy to use, and has reasonable pricing, beginning at just $49.00 a month.

5. Proxycrawl

Proxycrawl Facebook Scraper

ProxyCrawl is not cloud-based software or something that you download and install onto your desktop. It is a scraping API.

This means that you can incorporate it into your code and use the scraped data straight away. This type of company is definitely built for developers, and its pricing begins at just $29.00 a month.

Don’t forget that people who join by clicking this link will have double free trials. That means, for example, 2000 free requests on the Crawling API instead of 1000, etc.

6. Octoparse

Octoparse

Octoparse is potentially one of the best web scrapers in the industry right now, and with this you can scrape pretty much all kinds of different websites with Facebook of course being one of them.

It even offers Facebook scraping template examples that are ready for you to use, which makes it a lot easier for you to scrape data from Facebook without having to build up a profile from scratch.

This scraping tool is quick, reliable, and efficient. You can use it either on the Cloud or download it to your desktop.

Its pricing begins at $75 a month, but it offers clients a free trial to begin with – just note that you can’t scrape Facebook with their free trial.

7. ScrapeStorm

ScrapeStorm

ScrapeStorm is not a specialized Facebook scraping tool but it is an ideal one to use if you plan on scraping data from Facebook.

The thing that we like about this scraping tool is that it’s easy to use.

It comes with a myriad of possibilities that can help you with so much more than just your Facebook scraping needs.

8. Facebook Scraper

Facebook Scraper is a great scraping option because it can be used as a data scraper, as well as a marketing tool.

It uses location and keywords to extract information, and can help you obtain specific information, as well as emails from profiles.

You can also export all information to PDF, Excel, and CVS.

9. Facedominator

The next scraper on our list has a really user-friendly interface, and comes with multiple features, so that you can get everything you need under one roof.

It also has a few standalone options as well, that make it really easy for you to mine information from your Facebook pages, groups, and profiles.

You can use URLs and keywords to extract data, and they offer four different modules, a fan page scraper, a profile scraper, a group scraper, and a comment scraper.

10. Parsehub

The next tool on our list can help you with scalability, and offers a visual interface that includes graphics, and is really easy to use.

They can help you extract pricing, images, phone numbers, and emails, and it makes the most of URLs to get data.

How Facebook Scraper Tools Work

Facebook, as a website, relies heavily on JavaScript. This means that the system won’t recognize a request that has been conducted by a bot, and it will automatically block it.

Naturally, data scraping on Facebook is illegal, which is why it is important to get the necessary permission, before you do anything that is going to compromise you when it comes to litigation.

You need to make sure that your reason for data extraction is clearly defined, and you can work out the sources of data that you are wanting to scrape, the location of the data, and whether you want to be able to scrape the data for marketing purposes.

The thing about Facebook is that its official API has advanced bots that discourage data scraping and are designed to impose regulations.

This means that if you log in using your API key, it can easily block it. As a result, scraping tools are designed to extract information without having to log in.

The companies we have talked about in this article can help to scrape unlimited data from Facebook public pages because they don’t require a log in to extract the data.

How Scraping Happens

As we have just mentioned, you can only access public Facebook pages when you want to extract data, so checking that the URL is a confirmed page because profiles are going to result in errors.

You also need to check the appropriate layout based on your location, because this determines the load time.

From here, you’re going to sign into your preferred scraper, and set the parameters around what you are trying to scrape through it.

Copy and paste the Facebook URL, and then execute the extraction process for it.

The scraping tool is going to return the results for downloading and viewing and you can see the data on your computer or on your private cloud system, so that you can analyze it in the future.

Using FB Scrapers

So, you’re probably wondering at this point, who would want to make the most of a Facebook scraper?

These days, social media influencers are mostly what companies use to advertise and market their products.

Therefore, as an influencer, your role is to promote a brand, and win over as many customers as possible to buy the product.

The best way to do this is through scraping data, and Facebook is a really good place to do this.

Another area where you might want to scrape data is if you are a business owner.

The thing about business is that it is always changing, and the online world of business is continuously evolving.

As a result, you need to be able to keep tabs on a relatively fast-moving world.

Information is really important when it comes to business growth, so making the most of a scraper tool can help you gain essential data, so that you can take your business in the right direction.

What to Expect

With high-quality scraper tools like the ones we’ve talked about on this list, you can expect a reliable and quick speed when it locates the necessary data.

Some of the Facebook scrappers that we have talked about are cloud based, which means that you can store data without having to download it onto your computer.

Benefits of Facebook Scrapers

Business Analysis

The thing about social media sites is that people are used to sharing their sentiments and feelings on most platforms these days.

As a result, it is easy to find posts that either say good things or bad things about a given business, brand, or celebrity.

As a result, you can easily scrape Facebook to figure out comments or reviews that are about your brand or business.

This kind of information is going to make it really easy for you to understand how the market sees your brand, and ultimately address any issues that arise from this.

This way, you can control how people perceive your brand, and you can consistently improve upon it, so people continue to come back.

Conducting Campaigns

Any person that has been in business for long enough knows that marketing is one of the most important components of doing business well.

With technology evolving fast, the majority of people are embracing using online platforms to grow their brand.

One of the best ways to promote a brand is to execute a social media campaign. You can also use a hashtag or create a post, and make it go viral.

Facebook data scraping was going to offer you useful insights that you can apply to marketing campaigns.

When you scrape data from Facebook, this enables you to identify target audiences, peak times when posts are going to get a lot of responses and competing pages.

Scraping can also help you figure out what kind of posts your audience wants to see, as well as what posts have a good chance of going viral.

Scraping is also going to point out products that are most preferred by your audience and clients, so that you can optimize your marketing for these services or products.

Tracking Market Trends

Another thing that’s really important about Facebook is that it can easily predict human behavior, and what influences human behavior.

A business can take advantage of this information so that they can learn about what their clients’ needs are.

As a result, businesses can conduct an analysis, and record this information, so that they can adjust their brand according to the market.

Finding Business Partners

One of the best ways to grow a business in an extremely competitive world is to create a partnership.

A partnership is going to help you leverage shared resources, bring on clients that you otherwise would not have gotten, and achieve better results in general.

However, partnerships need trust, and a trustworthy relationship can’t be found simply through word of mouth.

Details about their background is going to help you work out who to partner with, so that you can ensure the success of your brand.

Facebook Scraping – a General Overview

The thing about Facebook is that it’s not your usual website with a limited budget.

In fact, Facebook as a company has a massive budget, as well as thousands of staff members, a good number of which are dedicated to preventing spam on the platform.

This means that scraping data from Facebook is not a small task, and there are a lot of web scrapers out there that have given up on the idea after so many botched attempts.

Facebook includes a very robust anti-bot system, as well as receiving backlash itself for collecting user data.

Because of backlashes, Facebook has tightened things around its anti-bot system, in order to prevent crawlers and scrapers from accessing the website.

As a result, scraping information from Facebook is a challenging task that could end up costing you a lot of money.

Even if you are successful at it, there is a big risk of being targeted by Facebook, which could result in having to pay a huge fine, or even getting a jail term, depending on what you’re using the data for.

However, even with these risks in place, researchers and businesses are still scraping information from Facebook anonymously.

If you want to do so as well, then continue reading below.

How to Scrape Facebook Using Requests, Python, and BeautifulSoup

Typically, when you need to scrape a website for anything, you will need to use a proxy in order to avoid being restricted or limited.

However, when it comes to Facebook, there is more that you need to do to prepare for being found out.

The first thing that you need to know is that Facebook relies heavily on JavaScript.

Facebook uses JavaScript for browser fingerprinting as well as behavioral analysis, which means that they can tell if requests are coming from a bot, and if they are then your access will be blocked.

As a result, we suggest that you forget about JavaScript rendering, and approach it from a different angle.

This is because if you disable JavaScript on your web browser, and try to access Facebook, you will receive a pop-up after logging in that tells you that Facebook will not work without JavaScript being enabled.

However, one thing that’s worth noting here is that the old mobile web version of Facebook doesn’t require the use of JavaScript, which means that you can get around this roadblock.

Therefore, you can scrape from the old site instead of the new web version.

 javascript required

Below we have included a code that is meant for to make a Python Facebook scraper for scraping specific data from Facebook groups.

It isn’t a very sophisticated code which means that it does not scrape videos, images, and even the name of post authors.

All it does is scrape the text. It also can’t be used with proxies. It uses BeautifulSoup for parsing, and Requests for downloading the page.

Before you run the code below, make sure that you have installed BeautifulSoup and Requests:

install requests

Command to install Requests:

pip install beautifulsoup4

When you install BeautifulSoup you can change the identification of the group to another group, and the texts within that group will be scraped:

import requests
from bs4 import BeautifulSoup


class FBGroupScraper:

    def __init__(self, group_id):
        self.group_id = group_id
        self.page_url = "https://mobile.facebook.com/groups/" + self.group_id
        self.page_content = ""

    def get_page_content(self):
        self.page_content = requests.get(self.page_url).text

    def parse(self):
        soup = BeautifulSoup(self.page_content, "html.parser")
        feed_container = soup.find(id="m_group_stories_container").find_all("p")
        for i in feed_container:
            print(i.text)

group_id = "1463546523692520"
d = FBGroupScraper(group_id)
d.get_page_content()
d.parse()

Final Thoughts

We’re definitely not trying to downplay the fact that scraping Facebook is challenging, and requires a great deal of know-how, organization, and smooth execution for it to work properly.

If you know that you don’t have the skills to do this successfully, then we suggest that you utilize an existing FB scraper in the industry.

As you can see, we’ve gone through a number of the best Facebook scraper tools that we think will be ideal for your activity online. Good luck!

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Written by Jason Wise

Hello! I’m the editor at EarthWeb, with a particular interest in business and technology topics, including social media, privacy, and cryptocurrency. As an experienced editor and researcher, I have a passion for exploring the latest trends and innovations in these fields and sharing my insights with our readers. I also enjoy testing and reviewing products, and you’ll often find my reviews and recommendations on EarthWeb. With a focus on providing informative and engaging content, I am committed to ensuring that EarthWeb remains a leading source of news and analysis in the tech industry.
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