Best Web Scrapers
In a hurry?
The best Reddit scraper in 2023, as found in our independent testing, is Phantombuster!
Reddit is a big source when it comes to social data. If you are a social researcher, and you are interested in scraping Reddit, then you’ve come to the right place.
In this article, we are going to discuss the best Reddit scrapers, and how you can scrape Reddit with Python, so that you can capitalize on all of that data out there whether you are an individual or a brand.
As far as Reddit is concerned, it is considered an online discussion forum.
To a lot of people out there, it is a place that they can escape to, and have a discussion with like-minded people on their favorite topics.
However, when it comes to being a social researcher or an Internet marketer, it is a pretty important source for social data.
It is one of the most popular online forums on the Internet, and as far as subreddits go, you can find virtually any topic of interest.
If you are able to extract discussions on Reddit from a specific niche, then you can run analysis on this information, and implement it into your next marketing campaign.
As far as having access to data that is publicly available, Reddit has a free option that you can make the most of using the official Reddit API.
However, this API isn’t available for scraping, but for automation on Reddit in general.
There are still going to be some limitations that you will come across, that are going to get in your way, and make it necessary to use a web scraper.
Getting your data from complex web pages using a web scraper can be difficult which is why we have featured the list below.
Best Reddit Scrapers 2023
- Phantombuster – 🏆 Winner!
- Oxylabs
- Bright Data
- ScraperAPI
- Apify
- Webscraper
- Helium Scraper
1. Phantombuster
Phantombuster is a scraper for Reddit that is good when it comes to pricing and free trials, because we think $50 a month is a good starting point, and 14 days of free trial is more than reasonable.
However, just take note that their free trial does have limitations, so you will be able to get a good idea of how they work and what they are offering, but if you want to see the whole picture, you’ll have to pay for their features.
They support both desktop and cloud, and you can export your Reddit data to Excel, CSV, and more.
These guys happen to be one of the most advanced web scrapers out there, which means that they are full of features, and have been developed to be failproof.
2. Oxylabs
Oxylabs starts at $99 a month, so obviously, they are a little bit on the expensive side, and as far as free trials go, they offer 1 week for free.
They can help you extract your Reddit data to Excel, and they are compatible with both desktop, and cloud, so that you can decide at the end of the day whether you want to download them or not.
They are a generalized web scraping tool, which means that you can use them to scrape all different types of websites, and not just Reddit. They offer advanced features.
3. Bright Data
Bright Data is a scraper for Reddit that can help you scrape web pages on Reddit, and can help you export your data to Excel.
They have a free trial available, so that you can make the most of this if you want to check them out before you commit to anything, and their pricing begins at $500 for 151,000 page loads.
One of the features is called data collector, and this comes with a good number of collectors which means that you can scrape not only Reddit, but other major social networks out there.
One thing to note about these guys is that they don’t have too many collectors for Reddit so you might have to end up requesting a custom collector.
However, the good news is that the team will happily build one for you.
Also, if you have any prior coding skills, you can do this yourself using their coding system.
Their pricing is based on a pay-as-you-go method, that you will need to add funds to your account to get started with them.
4. ScraperAPI
ScraperAPI is another really reasonable Reddit scraper that starts at $49.00 a month, and as far as a free trial goes, they have 5000 free credits to get you started.
They have a number of ways that you can export your Reddit data, including Excel, CSV, Google Sheets, and more.
They are potentially one of the best web scraping tools in the industry right now, and they have a really simple and easy-to-use interface so that you don’t have to worry about knowing a huge amount about web scraping in order to use them.
5. Apify
Apify is another scraper for Reddit that is worth checking out, and considering their pricing starts at $49 a month, we think that they are pretty affordable.
As far as their free trial goes, this is a fully functional free account, and offers $5 credit every month.
You can export your Reddit to CSV, and more, and they support both desktop and cloud, so that it is up to you whether you want to download anything, or just keep everything in the cloud.
They have a ready-made Reddit scraper, that is designed to make it really easy for you to extract information from Reddit, without using the official API.
This means that you don’t have to log in, and you don’t need authorization either. In fact, you don’t even need to have a Reddit account.
6. Webscraper
Webscraper is actually a browser extension, which means that it is free for you to use, and its data output format is CSV.
It supports Chrome, and it makes scraping super easy for everybody to make the most of, regardless of whether they are good at coding or not.
Even if you don’t have any coding skills whatsoever, you can easily scrape websites like Reddit with this browser extension.
Because it is a browser extension, you can install it directly onto your web browser, and as we mentioned at the beginning of this review, it is free to use.
7. Helium Scraper
Helium Scraper does their pricing a little bit differently, which means that they do it in the form of a license, and they say that pricing begins at $99 for one license.
As far as the free trial goes, they offer a fully functional free trial for 10 days, and they can help you export your Reddit data to Excel, CSV, and more.
You will need to install the software onto your computer, but they can help you extract complicated web data incredibly quickly, and we think that their interface is easy and intuitive.
Reddit Scraping
Scraping data from Reddit involves using a computer program known as a web scraper, so that you can extract data that is publicly available from Reddit.
Tools like this were first created in response to limitations that you will come across when using the official API of Reddit.
When you use a Reddit scraper, you have to be aware that Reddit isn’t going to like it.
This is because a web scraper isn’t going to use the official Reddit API, and as a result, it is violating Reddit’s terms and conditions.
However, while it might violate their terms and conditions, this doesn’t mean that it is illegal to extract data through this method, because generally speaking, it is seen as legal.
Because Reddit doesn’t allow for web scraping, you are going to have to get around anti-scraping systems so that you can have a scraping session that is hassle free.
The good news is that unlike other social media sites out there, Reddit isn’t that strict about preventing bot access.
This way, you are going to be able to more or less easily extract the necessary information from Reddit, using one of the web scrapers that we’ve talked about above.
How to Scrape Reddit Data Using Python
As we have talked about already, Reddit offers an official API, that you can use to extract data from web pages.
However, before you even think about scraping data that is publicly available, you will need to confirm that the API that Reddit provides isn’t helpful.
This is because using an API to access this kind of information is a lot easier, so you will want to eliminate this method first.
If you discover that you aren’t able to achieve what you want through Reddit’s API, then you need to go down the web scraping path.
If you are someone who knows how to code, you can develop your own Reddit scraper using Python, as well as some of its third-party frameworks and libraries, that are meant for developing scrapers and web crawlers.
In order to develop your own Reddit scraper using Python, you will need to inspect the HTML of your Reddit page that you are trying to scrape and take note of the HTML tag.
You can then send an HTTP request to download the page, and then you can use BeautifulSoup to parse the data that you require using a CSS selector, as well as other methods that are offered by BeautifulSoup.
FAQs
Why Scrape Reddit in The First Place?
You might just think of Reddit as a place where you can talk to people that have similar views and opinions as you, but it is so much more than this these days.
These days, Reddit is all about being a community that researchers and marketers can capitalize on, and if you are seeing Reddit from a brand’s eye view, then you will see that there is a wealth of information that you can make the most of if you’re trying to improve your marketing strategies.
Just like other major social media networks out there these days, Reddit is a wealth of information, so we definitely suggest that you make the most of it when it comes to web scraping, so that you can improve your future marketing campaigns.
What Can I Expect from A Reddit Scraper?
As far as a Reddit scraper goes, not only should you expect to be able to scrape all the necessary information that you want from the web pages that you have chosen, but you should also expect to be able to stay protected while you are doing so.
The Reddit scraper that you are using should protect your personal information and have a good level of security, so that you don’t have to worry about being exposed by Reddit, and potentially being blocked.
A good Reddit scraper is also going to make sure that you can export or download the required data that you have scraped, into an easy-to-read format.
Is It Illegal to Scrape Reddit?
As we have already briefly mentioned, it isn’t illegal to scrape web pages like ones that you might find on Reddit, but each social media network comes with different terms and conditions around this kind of practice, so at the end of the day, we just suggest that you look into these, and decide whether you can use the official API or not.
Again, Reddit has pretty loose conditions around this type of Internet activity, but if you plan on scraping a lot of Reddit web pages, we still suggest that you make the most over Reddit web scraper, just to be safe.
Final Thoughts
Being able to scrape vital marketing information from Reddit is definitely going to make a difference to your next marketing campaign, but you’ve just got to make sure that you’re doing it the right way.
If you don’t, there is a chance of being banned by Reddit, or you might end up working with a Reddit web scraper that isn’t high quality and doesn’t end up saving all the information that you want.
Capitalize on the Reddit scrapers that we’ve talked about above, and also know that if you know a little bit about coding already, there’s no reason why you can’t come up with your own Reddit scraper through Python.
Good luck!
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Written by Jason Wise
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