The Best TikTok Scrapers
TikTok has caught the attention of millions of users worldwide – but the platform isn‘t just a place for fun. It holds a lot of valuable data that can be used to improve marketing strategies, get leads, and find new business ideas. The platform provides insights about user behavior, preferences, and demographics, to name a few.
But manually getting all that data can be a cumbersome task. And let‘s be honest, you know that web scraping can help out a lot. So, you‘ll need a well-performing web scraper to reach that sacred information.
If you‘re looking for a web scraper capable of handling publicly available TikTok comments, hashtags, or videos, you‘re exactly where you’re supposed to be. We handpicked the best TikTok scraper providers for your needs.
The Best TikTok Scrapers – Quick Summary:
- Bright Data – versatile TikTok scrapers packed with features.
- Smartproxy – specialized TikTok scraper with an API playground.
- Oxylabs – premium TikTok scrapers with a robust infrastructure.
- ScraperAPI – cheap TikTok scraper for small tasks.
- Apify – a no-code TikTok scraper for beginners.
What Are the Best TikTok Web Scrapers?
TikTok scraping is the process of automatically collecting publicly available data from the social media platform. Depending on your programming skills, it’s done using no-code tools, unofficial APIs, or custom-built web scrapers.
Some providers offer no-code services with a point-and-click interface or pre-made templates for specific websites. These tools are simple to use and allow to quickly downloading useful (and oftentimes cleaned up) data. However, they’re generally slower and cumbersome to manage at scale. They’re better for small-scale scraping.
Web scraping APIs can scrape any website by sending an API call to the service. They bundle proxies, apply anti-detection techniques, and emulate web browsers, so the probability of getting blocked on the platform is low. Such tools perform very well and offer high flexibility – you can easily scale up or down depending on your project.
You can also build your own TikTok scraper using web scraping libraries. This approach works if you have the skills to overcome TikTok’s antibot mechanisms and manage your own infrastructure, since you‘ll have to maintain the tool yourself. And even though this option may be cheaper or even free (not counting your time), you‘ll still need to get quality proxies and hide your digital fingerprint.
Is It Legal To Scrape TikTok?
Web scraping is a sensitive topic, especially when it comes to social media. But even though social media platforms aggressively fight companies or individual users that scrape them, collecting information that isn’t behind a login or subject to intellectual property rights is legal.
In 2022, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that scraping public data isn’t in violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. And the famous HiQ v LinkedIn case confirmed that. However, this new ruling doesn’t prevent some companies from filing lawsuits against scrapers.
Scraping personal data, even if it’s publicly available, isn’t always straightforward, and it’s best to consider each case individually. So, you should seek legal advice if you have any doubts.
The Best TikTok Web Scrapers in 2024
1. Bright Data
Versatile TikTok scrapers packed with features.
Bright Data offers three tools for scraping TikTok: Web Unlocker, Web Scraper IDE, and Datasets.
Web Unlocker is a general-purpose web scraping API that can target most websites, including TikTok. It integrates like a proxy server; when you make connection requests to TikTok, it automatically chooses the right proxy type and applies anti-detection techniques like spoofing the browser fingerprint. During our tests, the tool showed exceptional results on social media – it reached a 100% success rate and was the fastest, with an avg. 4.1s response time. However, it doesn’t have parsing capabilities.
Alternatively, you can scrape TikTok with Bright Data’s Web Scraper IDE. It lets you build your own web scraper on Bright Data’s cloud platform, fully taking advantage of the provider’s infrastructure. Then, you can schedule scraping runs and download your data via API, Webhook, Google Cloud, and other delivery options.
Bright Data also offers a pre-collected dataset for TikTok. You can choose from a list of TikTok videos, with data points like verified profiles, followers, likes, and more. It offers the entire dataset, or you can go with a customized subset using different filters. This is the best option if you don’t want to build or maintain your own web scraping infrastructure.
However, Bright Data’s services are expensive – subscription-based plans start at $500.
- Web scraping tools: General-purpose web scraper, proxy-based API, datasets.
- Locations: Global with city & country targeting.
- Pricing model: Based on successful requests.
- Data parsing: Yes, with datasets and Web Scraper IDE.
- Pricing: Starts at $500. Web Scraper IDE: $3.08/ 1,000 requests; Web Unlocker: $2.25/1,000 requests or pay as you go $3/1,000 requests; Dataset: $0.001/record. 7 days free trial for business clients.
Read the Bright Data review for more information and performance tests.
2. Smartproxy
Specialized TikTok scraper with an API playground.
Smartproxy’s service comes with a specialized Social Media Scraping API. It covers two popular targets: Instagram and TikTok. You can scrape publicly available TikTok data points like profiles, usernames, posts, hashtags, sounds, and videos.
Social media scraper API supports proxy-like and two API integration methods: synchronous and asynchronous. The former allows you to receive real-time data. The latter is based on a callback function, so you can retrieve scraped data later without keeping an open connection.
The tool doesn’t limit scraping speed, so you can make an unlimited amount of requests. Additionally, the scraper comes with an in-built parser, which can fetch you results in JSON format.
What’s more, Smartproxy includes detailed GitHub code examples for the most popular programming languages like Python, PHP, and Node.js. There’s also a Postman collection with explanation for each API line.
For live testing, Smartproxy offers an API playground – you can build requests with a widget, run them to see the output, and download the dynamically generated code snippets for easier integration. In addition, the provider has a simple dashboard, which is great if you‘ve never used similar services.
However, Social Media Scraping API has one limitation – you won’t be able to get results in batches.
- Web scraping tools: Specialized web scraping API.
- Locations: 195 with country-level targeting.
- Pricing model: based on successful requests.
- Data parsing: Yes.
- Pricing: Starts from $50 for 25,000 requests ($2/1,000).
Read the Smartproxy review for more information and performance tests.
3. Oxylabs
Premium TikTok scrapers with a robust infrastructure.
Oxylabs is another premium proxy provider with a strong focus on web scraping infrastructure. It offers two scrapers for TikTok: Web Unblocker and Web Scraper API.
Both tools come with a 100M proxy pool and country-level targeting in 195 locations. What’s more, you’ll get a dedicated account manager if you buy above the cheapest plan.
Web Unblocker is a proxy-based API that integrates as a proxy server. It automatically manages proxies, selects the right headers, cookies, browser attributes, and handles JavaScript rendering. The tool supports most Oxylabs’ proxy network features like establishing sessions or selecting specific locations. However, the scraper doesn’t have parsing functionality.
If that’s a deal breaker, go with Oxylabs’ Web Scraper API. It’s a general-purpose scraper that allows you to parse data by specifying Xpath and CSS selectors. You can use the scraper to gather TikTok’s page in real time or asynchronously; the latter option lets you extract multiple pages in batches. In terms of features, Oxylabs is the only provider to offer crawling and scheduling functionality as part of the API. During our tests, Web scraper API was 100% successful on social media.
- Web scraping tools: Proxy-based API, general-purpose web scraper.
- Locations: 195 with country-level targeting.
- Pricing model: Based on successful requests.
- Data parsing: Yes (Web Scraper API).
- Pricing: Web Unblocker prices start at $75 for 5GB ($15/GB). Web Scraper API – $49 for 17,500 results ($2.80/1,000 results).
Read the Oxylabs review for more information and performance tests.
4. ScraperAPI
Cheap TikTok scraper for small tasks.
ScraperAPI is a general-purpose scraper that can be used to collect data from TikTok. It’s a cost-effective web scraper for basic configuration TikTok scraping when you don’t need extra features like JavaScript rendering.
What distinguishes ScraperAPI from other providers is that it’s a very versatile tool in terms of programming languages. It supports Python, PHP, Ruby, NodeJS, Ruby, and Java. So, if you’re more comfortable working with, let’s say, Python, you can find extensive documentation on how to set up and use the tool.
ScraperAPI is the only provider from this list which supports four integration methods: a proxy server, library/SDK, and two API methods (open connection and asynchronous). Asynchronous delivery allows you to send requests in batches. However, the tool doesn’t include an in-built parser for social media.
ScraperAPI offers a free plan with 1,000 API credits per month and up to 5 concurrent connections. It won’t work at full capacity, but you can still try to use the free version with your TikTok project. Otherwise, you can test the service at a larger scale with a 7-day free trial, where you’ll get 5,000 requests.
The pricing starts from $49/100,000 API credits. However, the provider has a somewhat confusing credit system – for specific website groups, it uses a different number of credits. In addition, if you need JavaScript rendering or premium proxies, they’ll consume more credits, which translates to a higher cost.
- Web scraping tools: General-purpose web scraper.
- Locations: 12.
- Pricing model: Based on successful requests & optional features.
- Data parsing: No.
- Pricing: starts from $49/100,000 API credits.
5. Apify
A no-code TikTok scraper for beginners.
Apify is a well-known company that offers a no-code TikTok scraper. The provider has one of the largest pre-made template databases for popular websites, including TikTok.
With Apify’s TikTok Scraper, you can extract data from videos, hashtags, and users. You can collect publicly available profile information like comments, posts, URLs, number of shares, and followers.
In terms of features, Apify supports various data delivery options such as webhook, cloud storage, Zapier, Make, or API. You can download your results as HTML, JSON, CSV, Excel, or XML. Depending on your plan, data retention varies from 14 to 21 days.
You can use the TikTok template as-is, modify its code, or request a new template. The latter option requires filling out a short form with your use case.
Apify uses shared datacenter proxies by default, but you can opt for residential IPs instead. It handles IP rotation, CAPTCHAs, and can emulate browser interactions.
The provider offers a free TikTok Scraper for those who need just a few results – it’s limited to 20 results and five comments. If you need more, you’ll have to commit to a monthly plan which starts from $45/month.
Apify uses credit-based pricing – every request uses a different amount of credits. So, even though the starting price is cheap, if you’re not careful, the costs can grow fast. For example, the default shared datacenter proxies probably won’t do for TikTok, so you can expect to pay $12/GB for residential IPs.
- Web scraping tools: No-code scraper.
- Locations: Unknown.
- Pricing model: Based on usage.
- Data parsing: Yes.
- Pricing: monthly plans starting from $49 with $49 platform credits and 30 shared datacenter proxies. A free plan with $5 platform credits is available.
