> **For coding agents and LLMs:** This is one Social Fetch marketing page (markdown export). For API orientation start with [`/llms.txt`](https://www.socialfetch.dev/llms.txt); for auth and crawl rules use [`/agents.txt`](https://www.socialfetch.dev/agents.txt); for every operation use [`/llms-endpoints.txt`](https://www.socialfetch.dev/llms-endpoints.txt).

## This page

- **On-site (HTML):** <https://www.socialfetch.dev/compare/scrapfly>
- **Markdown (.mdx) URL:** <https://www.socialfetch.dev/compare/scrapfly.mdx>

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# Social Fetch vs Scrapfly

Scrapfly is a developer-focused scraping platform: scrape API, cloud browser, screenshots, and extraction helpers on one credit balance. Social Fetch is a social data API. Both speak HTTP; only one ships TikTok and Instagram as productized endpoints.

## At a glance

|  | Social Fetch | Scrapfly |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Core product | Social media data API | Web scraping API + browser + screenshot + extraction |
| Billing | PAYG packs; Scale $1.64/1k | Monthly plans from $30 (Discovery) with credit costs per feature |
| Base scrape cost | 1 credit per completed standard social lookup | 1 credit datacenter; 25 residential; +5 JS; ASP may upgrade cost |
| Social endpoints | 264 ops / 25 platforms | Any URL — you define extraction |
| Overflow | Buy another pack | Pro+ can pay-as-you-go extra credits in 10k batches |
| Best fit | Production social features in your app | Building and operating custom scrapers with managed anti-bot |

## Pricing (last verified 2026-07-21)

**Feature-priced scrape credits vs flat social lookups.** Scrapfly: Discovery $30/mo (200k credits), Pro $100/mo (1M). Datacenter 1 credit, residential 25, render_js +5; ASP may raise cost. Residential + JS social pages can hit ~30 credits. Social Fetch: one credit per standard profile lookup.

|  | Social Fetch | Scrapfly | Note |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Free tier | 100 credits, no expiry | 1,000 credits, no card, no time limit |  |
| Entry paid plan | $14 PAYG pack (1k credits, never expire) | $30/mo Discovery (200k credits) |  |
| Datacenter HTML fetch | N/A | 1 credit (~$0.15/1k on Discovery prepaid math) |  |
| Residential + JS page (30 credits) | N/A | ~$4.50/1k pages on Discovery credit math |  |
| 1,000 structured social profiles | ~$1.64 | Variable scrape cost + your schema layer |  |
| Failed requests | lookup_failed / 503 not charged | Documented as free on failed scrapes |  |

Scrapfly pricing from scrapfly.io/pricing and scrapfly.io/docs/scrape-api/billing (July 2026). Credit matrix: datacenter 1, residential 25, render_js +5; ASP may change effective cost. Extra credits billed per 10k on eligible plans.

## Feature matrix

| Feature | Social Fetch | Scrapfly |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Synchronous REST JSON (no actor run polling) | Yes | Yes |
| One API key for all platforms | Yes | Yes |
| Unified schema across platforms | Yes | No |
| Public OpenAPI specification | Yes | Yes |
| Official TypeScript SDK | Yes | Partial |
| Interactive API playground | Yes | Yes |
| TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn, Facebook, Reddit, X in one vendor | Yes | No |
| Pay-as-you-go without required monthly subscription | Yes | Partial |
| PAYG credits never expire | Yes | No |
| Web fetch (markdown/HTML) in same product | Yes | Yes |
| Scheduled account / feed monitors | Yes | Partial |
| Signed webhooks when watched accounts post | Yes | No |

## Scrapfly is strong when you are writing the scraper

Scrapfly's pitch is transparent cost headers, an anti-scraping protection (ASP) mode, cloud browsers, and a single API key across scrape/screenshot/extraction products. For engineers building custom collectors — price monitors, directory crawls, research agents — that toolkit is the product.

You choose proxy pool, rendering, and budgets. The API tells you what each call cost. That level of control is exactly what social-native APIs intentionally hide: you should not need to know whether TikTok needed residential IPs today.

## Social pages push you into expensive credit stacks

Public social sites push you into residential + JS — ~30 credits before ASP adjustments (~$4.50/1k on Discovery). Social Fetch Scale: $1.64/1k with parsing done. Easy datacenter HTML looks cheap; social entity pages rarely stay there.

## Who owns breakage when Instagram changes

Scrapfly's success criteria is "we fetched the URL." After a layout or anti-bot shift, your Cheerio or Playwright maps fail while Scrapfly still bills a successful page. That is correct for a scrape API — and expensive for a product team on-call.

Social Fetch's success criteria is a documented profile or post object. When a network shifts, we patch extractors; your code keeps reading the same fields. Migrating scrapers that only pull Instagram/TikTok/YouTube metrics usually means deleting field maps and calling `GET /v1/{platform}/profiles/{handle}`.

Keep Scrapfly for everything that is not a supported social entity.

## When to stay on Scrapfly

Stay if you need cloud browser sessions, screenshot APIs, crawler products, or extraction against sites we do not cover. Stay if ASP and cost estimators are how your team operates scrapers day to day.

Switch the social slice when those scrapers have narrowed to "pull Instagram/TikTok/YouTube metrics for the app" and you are tired of credit spikes after anti-bot changes.

## When Scrapfly is the better choice

- You are building custom scrapers and want managed anti-bot with visible per-call cost
- Screenshots, cloud browser, or crawler APIs are part of the same workflow
- Targets are mostly non-social sites where datacenter proxies are enough
- You need fine-grained control over proxy pool, geo, and render settings
- Your team already standardized on Scrapfly for general extraction

## When Social Fetch is the better choice

- Social profiles and posts are application inputs, not HTML science projects
- You would rather we absorb platform breakage than page your on-call
- Predictable per-lookup pricing without residential credit multipliers
- PAYG social credits beat another monthly scraper subscription for spiky product traffic
- Stable fields matter more than scrape knobs and cost headers

## Verdict: Scraper control panel vs social API contract

Scrapfly gives developers levers: proxies, rendering, ASP, cost headers. Social Fetch removes those levers for social data and returns a stable JSON contract instead. If you love operating scrapers, Scrapfly fits. If you want creator and post objects in production, Social Fetch fits. Many teams should use both for different URL classes.

## FAQ

### Is Scrapfly cheaper than Social Fetch?

For simple datacenter HTML, Scrapfly's 1-credit fetches can be far cheaper per page. For social pages that need residential + JS (often ~30 credits), Scrapfly can exceed Social Fetch's $1.64/1k before parsing. Compare the configuration you actually need, not the marketing "credits included" number.

### Does Scrapfly have TikTok or Instagram APIs?

You can scrape those sites as URLs. Scrapfly does not replace a social-native endpoint catalog with normalized profile schemas like Social Fetch.

### Does Social Fetch expose scrape cost headers?

No. You see credit debits on completed lookups in our billing model. We do not bill by proxy type or render flags because you do not select them.

### Can Scrapfly PAYG replace Social Fetch packs?

Scrapfly's extra-credit PAYG is overflow on top of a monthly plan (Pro+). Social Fetch PAYG packs are the primary path and never expire. Different idea of "pay as you go."

### Which should AI agents use?

Agents that need arbitrary page content lean Scrapfly (or similar). Agents that need structured social entities lean Social Fetch — fewer tokens spent on HTML and fewer broken selectors.

### Do you compete on web markdown fetch?

Social Fetch includes web fetch routes for URL-to-content jobs in the same product, but our primary wedge is social platforms. Scrapfly goes deeper on anti-bot scrape controls for hard general web targets.