InScrape
$0.60–$1.20 per 1,000 standard requests
- Entry
- 100 free; $12 for 10,000
- Billing unit
- Successful request
- Non-200 responses
- 0 credits
- Purchased-credit expiry
- Never
Compare · reviewed 20 September 2026
PhantomBuster Alternative — Requests You Call, Not Slots You Schedule
PhantomBuster is a no-code automation platform with a scheduler and a hosted browser. If you are writing code, the scheduler is the part you keep working around.
Quick verdict
Choose InScrape for developer-called public Instagram JSON. Choose PhantomBuster for no-code, scheduled extraction and enrichment workflows.
- Current entry
- $69/month, or $56/month billed annually
- Published rate
- Not priced per API request
- Billing unit
- Monthly execution time, automation slots and separate credits
- Best for
- No-code prospecting, enrichment and scheduled workflows
Pricing snapshot
InScrape and PhantomBuster use different cost models.
Normalize the workload before choosing a lower-looking number. InScrape prices below are for standard one-credit requests; followers and following cost two credits.
PhantomBuster
Not priced per API request
- Entry
- $69/month, or $56/month billed annually
- Billing unit
- Monthly execution time, automation slots and separate credits
- Failure billing
- Execution time is consumed while an automation runs
- Best fit
- No-code prospecting, enrichment and scheduled workflows
When PhantomBuster is the right call
When PhantomBuster is the better choice.
A comparison page that says the competitor is bad at everything is a comparison page nobody believes. Here is where they genuinely win.
- You are not writing code. PhantomBuster is genuinely a no-code product, and a REST endpoint is not a no-code product no matter how simple the header is
- You want the whole workflow in one place — trigger, extract, enrich, push to a sheet — rather than the extraction step alone
- You need actions on an account you control, which is a different product category from reading public data and one we do not enter
- Your volume is small and irregular. A monthly plan with execution slots can be cheaper than any per-request pricing when the requests are few and unpredictable
Why people switch
Why teams compare InScrape with PhantomBuster.
These are the four reasons that show up in support conversations, not a marketing list.
Execution time is the wrong unit for a data pipeline
A slot bills for how long a browser sat open, so the same follower list costs a different amount depending on how the page behaved that day. Per-request pricing gives you a number you can multiply: a follower page is 2 credits whether it came back in 400ms or 4 seconds.
A scheduler is a layer you already have
If your code runs on a cron, a queue or a workflow engine, the hosted scheduler is a second place where timing lives. Two schedulers is how a job runs twice, or stops running and nobody notices for a week.
Browser automation carries session risk that an API does not
Automations that act as a logged-in account put that account in the blast radius. Everything here is read against public data with no session at all, which is why a confirmed private account returns 200 with available profile details without private content.
CSV out is not the same as JSON in
Getting a file into your database is a step you write anyway. Getting a typed response from a documented endpoint is the step you were trying to buy.
Side by side
InScrape vs PhantomBuster: API differences.
| InScrape | PhantomBuster | |
|---|---|---|
| Billing unit | One request, 1 credit for most endpoints and 2 for followers and following | Execution time against a monthly slot allowance |
| Failed run | Free if scraping failed before resource use | Consumes execution time regardless of what came back |
| Repeat of the same lookup | credits_charged tells you exactly what was billed | A fresh run every time |
| Integration surface | GET with one x-api-key header | Hosted browser automations, configured in a UI |
| Session required | None — public data only; private-account lookup is a completed lookup | Many automations run as a connected account |
| Instagram coverage | 16 endpoints, including highlight items, reposts, tagged posts and similar accounts | Profiles, followers, comments and hashtags |
| Scheduling | Yours — cron, queue or workflow engine | Built in |
FAQ
PhantomBuster alternative FAQ.
Can this replace a PhantomBuster follower collector?
For reading a public account's follower list, yes: GET /v1/instagram/followers paginates the handles at 2 credits a page. What it does not replace is the surrounding workflow — the trigger, the sheet and the enrichment steps are yours to wire up.
Does this do actions — follow, like, message?
No. Everything here is read-only public data. There is no endpoint that writes anything to Instagram, and that is a permanent design decision rather than a gap in the roadmap.
Is per-request cheaper than a monthly plan?
It depends entirely on volume, and the honest answer is that a small irregular workload is often cheaper on a monthly plan. Per-request wins when the volume is steady enough to multiply out and when failed or no-charge responses are clearly labelled.
What happens to accounts that are private?
HTTP 200 with available profile details, charged at the endpoint rate. The result identifies a private account; it does not unlock private content.
Compare next
Evaluate the closest alternatives with the same method.
Each page separates billing units, product fit and the cases where the other provider is the better choice.