# Best Reddit Scrapers 2026 [No-Code + API Edition]

> I tested 7 Reddit scrapers on 4 jobs. lobstr.io wins: cheapest full threads at scale ($0.50/1K results), fastest runs, and deep threads. SociaVault 2nd.

- **Author**: Nathan Eshetu
- **Published**: 2026-06-22, updated 2026-09-27 (27 Sept 2026)
- **Reading time**: 29 min
- **Canonical**: https://www.lobstr.io/blog/best-reddit-scrapers

---

> **lobstr.io is the best Reddit scraper I tested.** It's the cheapest at scale (**$0.50 per 1,000 results**), collected **784 comments 5 levels deep**, and led every post-collection test on speed. **SociaVault ranks 2nd**: cheapest for bulk posts and the only other tool that keeps deleted comments, but it's API-only and slower.

## ⚡ 30-Second Summary

* I tested seven Reddit scrapers across four jobs, including Reddit-wide search, subreddit search, subreddit collection, and full threads.
* **lobstr.io ranks 1st** (8.98/10). It had the lowest scale price for full threads, fastest runs, and deep threads, but search misses post body and ads bill as rows.
* **SociaVault ranks 2nd** (7.60/10). It's cheapest for bulk posts and keeps deleted comments, but it's API-only and threads cost more.
* **Bright Data ranks 3rd** (6.51/10). It adds useful post context like subreddit size and related posts, but threads stop at two levels and recency is weak.
* **Apify ranks 4th** (6.00/10). It found the most posts across the most subreddits, but search is slow, threads stop at two levels, and pricing is the highest of the four.
* Outscraper, ScraperAPI, and SerpApi stay unranked because they only handled narrower parts of the benchmark.

---

Getting Reddit data used to be pretty simple.

You had the official API. Or, for something quick, you could add `.json` to a Reddit URL and get structured data back.

Yeah... **not anymore.**

![Reddit user asking for a no-BS anonymous scraping solution after getting rejected by the official API and rate-limited on the .json endpoint](https://d37gzvgyugjozl.cloudfront.net/Screenshot_2026_06_07_at_9_58_14_AM_cfd6e0f9ff.png "width=1536;height=414")

The official API is harder to rely on for scraping, and the old `.json` route isn't the easy fallback it used to be.

If you want the full breakdown of the API, `.json`, and other ways to get Reddit data:

👉 [How to Scrape Reddit: Posts, Comments & Subreddits (No Login)](https://www.lobstr.io/blog/how-to-scrape-reddit)

So now you're probably looking at Reddit scrapers.

**The question is which ones actually work.**

I tested **seven Reddit scrapers** across four jobs: full threads, Reddit-wide search, subreddit search, and subreddit posts.

**Four were good enough to rank.**

Here's what happened.

---

| **What matters** | **lobstr.io** | **SociaVault** | **Bright Data** | **Apify** |
| --- | ---: | ---: | ---: | ---: |
| **User rating** | **5.0/5** (33 Capterra) | 5.0/5 (1 G2) | 4.7/5 (68 Capterra) | 4.6/5 (39 Apify Store) |
| **Full thread** (comments collected) | **784 live** | **784 live + 6 deleted** | 397 | 200 |
| **Full thread** (reply depth) | **5 levels** | **5 levels** | 2 levels | 2 levels |
| **Reddit-wide search** (posts found) | 221 | 232 | 232 | **325** |
| **Full-thread cost** (entry, per 1,000) | $2.00 | $1.80 | **$1.50** | $3.80 + run fee |
| **Full-thread cost** (at scale, per 1,000) | **$0.50** | $0.75 | $1.30 | $3.40 + run fee |
| **Access** | No-code + API + MCP | API + MCP | No-code + API + MCP | No-code + API + MCP |
| **Exports** | CSV, Excel, JSON, JSONL | JSON only | JSON, NDJSON, CSV, XLSX, Parquet | CSV, Excel, JSON, JSONL, XML |
| **Built-in scheduling** | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ |
| **Full thread** (1,183-comment post, comments/min) | **308** | 93 | 11 | 389\* |
| **Reddit-wide search** ("Elon Musk", posts/min) | **308** | 50 | 22 | 15 |
| **r/politics keyword search** ("Elon Musk", posts/min) | **369** | 219 | 33 | 11 |
| **Latest r/politics posts** (up to 1,000 posts, posts/min) | **638** | 431 | 13 | 14 |
| **Projected subreddit volume/month** | **27.6M results** | 18.6M posts | 578K posts | 577K posts |
| **Support** | **Live chat + email** | Email | Email + ticket | Apify Issues |
| **Overall score** | **8.98/10** | **7.60/10** | **6.51/10** | **6.00/10** |

> **Note:** Apify returned 200 comments where lobstr.io returned 784 and SociaVault 790, so its thread rate isn't comparable to theirs.

---

## Just tell me which one

| **If you want...** | **Go with** | **Why** |
| --- | --- | --- |
| **Best overall** | **lobstr.io** | **Deepest threads, fastest collection, cheapest at scale** |
| **Fastest collection** | **lobstr.io** | Led all 3 post tests at **308–638 posts/min** |
| **Largest subreddit collection** | **lobstr.io** | Returned **943 organic posts**, vs 834 for SociaVault and ~50 for the others |
| **Cheapest full threads at scale** | **lobstr.io** | **$0.50 per 1,000 results**, vs $0.75 SociaVault, $1.30 Bright Data, $3.40+ Apify |
| **Best thread structure** | **SociaVault** | **5 levels deep**, with deleted branches preserved |
| **Cheapest bulk posts** | **SociaVault** | As low as **$0.10/1,000 posts** in testing |
| **Best post context** | **Bright Data** | **Subreddit size + related posts** were consistently populated |
| **Broadest Reddit discovery** | **Apify** | Found **325 posts across 175 subreddits** |
| **Strongest support** | **lobstr.io** | **Live chat + email**, 5.0/5 Capterra support rating |

---

> ⚠️ **Disclaimer**
>
> Not legal advice. Laws vary by country and change over time. For your situation, check with a qualified lawyer.

## Is Reddit scraping legal?

**Yes, under the right conditions.**

Reddit's User Agreement says you **can't scrape the platform without permission**.

![Reddit's User Agreement, which prohibits scraping without written consent](https://d37gzvgyugjozl.cloudfront.net/Screenshot_2026_06_19_at_7_12_33_AM_b82301e934.png "width=2526;height=968")

But Reddit's rules and the law aren't the same thing. In the U.S., the [Ninth Circuit has held](https://techcrunch.com/2022/04/18/web-scraping-legal-court) that scraping publicly accessible data does not necessarily violate the CFAA.

![Ninth Circuit court ruling on web scraping and the CFAA](https://d37gzvgyugjozl.cloudfront.net/image2_e5c630e6c1.png "width=1731;height=386")

**That doesn't make every scraping use case legal.**

Republishing copyrighted posts at scale or profiling identifiable users can still create **copyright and privacy risks**.

How to stay on the right side:

* Collect data internally, for research, analysis, or model training
* Don't republish Reddit content on a public-facing surface
* Don't combine it with PII for profiling without a legal basis
* Respect rate limits and don't hammer the platform

For a deeper breakdown, see the [legal series](https://www.lobstr.io/blog/category/legal).

👉 [Is data scraping illegal?](https://www.lobstr.io/blog/data-scraping-illegal)

---

## How I tested the Reddit scrapers

I tested each scraper across four Reddit workloads:

* **Reddit-wide search:** `Elon Musk`, requesting up to 1,000 results with `sort=new` where supported, comparing relevance, freshness, and ordering.
* **Scoped search:** the same `Elon Musk` search within **r/politics**, focused on scoped retrieval and newest-first ordering.
* **Subreddit collection:** up to **1,000 new r/politics posts**, testing duplicates, errors, and larger-job handling.
* **Full conversation:** the same r/politics post with **1,183 Reddit-reported comments**, comparing comment retrieval, reply structure, and data quality.

![The r/politics test post with 1,183 Reddit-reported comments, used as the full-thread benchmark](https://d37gzvgyugjozl.cloudfront.net/Screenshot_2026_09_10_at_5_43_45_AM_copy_abb7b391a7.png "width=1548;height=1278")

> This comparison covers posts, search, subreddits, and threads. For Reddit topics:
>
> 👉 [Upvote the Reddit Topics Scraper idea](https://www.lobstr.io/ideas/reddit-topics-scraper)

### What I compared

I scored the tools across six criteria:

* **Data:** retrieval, reply structure, useful fields, search quality, and data-quality issues.
* **Cost:** published entry and scale pricing, normalized where possible to cost per 1,000 results.
* **Usability:** setup, controls, output, and workflow options.
* **Speed:** measured benchmark runtimes, with like-for-like results compared where possible.
* **Scalability:** projected monthly throughput, parallel concurrency.
* **Support:** available support channels plus evidence of response or issue resolution.

### How I chose the tools

I built the longlist from Google, Reddit, developer discussions, review sites, and AI recommendations.

![Building the longlist of Reddit scrapers from AI recommendations](https://d37gzvgyugjozl.cloudfront.net/2026_09_14_05_24_55_24cc9ba67b.gif "width=1562;height=678")

I then kept tools with a **dedicated Reddit workflow capable of handling the benchmark jobs**.

I excluded abandoned or poorly maintained products, general-purpose scrapers where a dedicated Reddit tool was available, and search-only tools that couldn't handle full thread collection.

### How the scores landed

| **Criterion (weight)** | **lobstr.io** | **SociaVault** | **Bright Data** | **Apify** |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Data (2.2) | 9.0 | 8.8 | 7.5 | 6.5 |
| Cost (2.2) | 8.5 | 9.0 | 7.0 | 4.5 |
| Usability (1.8) | 9.0 | 5.5 | 8.0 | 9.5 |
| Speed (1.8) | 9.5 | 8.0 | 3.5 | 4.0 |
| Scalability (1.0) | 9.0 | 7.5 | 6.0 | 6.0 |
| Support (1.0) | 9.0 | 5.0 | 6.5 | 5.5 |
| **Weighted overall /10** | **8.98** | **7.60** | **6.51** | **6.00** |

![Score summary: data, cost, usability, speed, scalability and support across the four ranked Reddit scrapers, with weighted overalls](https://d37gzvgyugjozl.cloudfront.net/reddit_score_summary_e70791662d.png "width=2279;height=1124")

Each criterion is scored from **0 to 10** and weighted by its importance to the buying decision:

**Data 2.2 · Cost 2.2 · Usability 1.8 · Speed 1.8 · Scalability 1.0 · Support 1.0**

Overall = Σ(criterion score × weight) ÷ 10

The overall score doesn't mean one tool wins every category. **SociaVault scored highest on cost, while Apify scored highest on usability.**

---

## The best Reddit scrapers

| **What matters** | **lobstr.io** | **SociaVault** | **Bright Data** | **Apify** |
| --- | ---: | ---: | ---: | ---: |
| **User rating** | **5.0/5** (33 Capterra) | 5.0/5 (1 G2) | 4.7/5 (68 Capterra) | 4.6/5 (39 Apify Store) |
| **Full thread** (comments collected) | **784 live** | **784 live + 6 deleted** | 397 | 200 |
| **Full thread** (reply depth) | **5 levels** | **5 levels** | 2 levels | 2 levels |
| **Reddit-wide search** (posts found) | 221 | 232 | 232 | **325** |
| **Full-thread cost** (entry, per 1,000) | $2.00 | $1.80 | **$1.50** | $3.80 + run fee |
| **Full-thread cost** (at scale, per 1,000) | **$0.50** | $0.75 | $1.30 | $3.40 + run fee |
| **Access** | No-code + API + MCP | API + MCP | No-code + API + MCP | No-code + API + MCP |
| **Exports** | CSV, Excel, JSON, JSONL | JSON only | JSON, NDJSON, CSV, XLSX, Parquet | CSV, Excel, JSON, JSONL, XML |
| **Built-in scheduling** | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ |
| **Full thread** (1,183-comment post, comments/min) | **308** | 93 | 11 | 389\* |
| **Reddit-wide search** ("Elon Musk", posts/min) | **308** | 50 | 22 | 15 |
| **r/politics keyword search** ("Elon Musk", posts/min) | **369** | 219 | 33 | 11 |
| **Latest r/politics posts** (up to 1,000 posts, posts/min) | **638** | 431 | 13 | 14 |
| **Projected subreddit volume/month** | **27.6M results** | 18.6M posts | 578K posts | 577K posts |
| **Support** | **Live chat + email** | Email | Email + ticket | Apify Issues |
| **Overall score** | **8.98/10** | **7.60/10** | **6.51/10** | **6.00/10** |

> **Note:** Apify returned 200 comments where lobstr.io returned 784 and SociaVault 790, so its thread rate isn't comparable to theirs.

---

### 1. lobstr.io — Reddit Scraper

* **User rating:** **5.0/5 from 33 reviews** on [Capterra](https://www.capterra.com/search/?query=lobstr.io), as of September 19, 2026
* **My rating:** **8.98/10**
* **Type:** No-code + API + MCP
* **Pricing:** Starts at $2.00, **scales to $0.50** per 1,000 results
* **Strongest at:** deep Reddit conversations, the lowest full-thread cost at scale, and consistently fast runs.

| **Pillar** | **Score /10** |
|---|---|
| Data | 9.0 |
| Cost | 8.5 |
| Usability | 9.0 |
| Speed | 9.5 |
| Scalability | 9.0 |
| Support | 9.0 |
| **Overall** | **8.98** |

[lobstr.io](https://www.lobstr.io/) is a French web scraping platform with 70+ ready-made scrapers. Its Reddit scraper is the only one here you can drive from a no-code app, a REST API, a CLI, and an MCP server.

![lobstr.io Reddit scraper — no-code interface with API access for structured Reddit data collection](https://d37gzvgyugjozl.cloudfront.net/Screenshot_2026_06_12_at_8_47_49_AM_d9bf14e01c.png "width=2832;height=1468")

[Try the Reddit Scraper](https://www.lobstr.io/store/reddit-scraper)

| **Pros** | **Cons** |
|---|---|
| 784 live comments across **5 levels** | Missed some **deleted comments** |
| Cheapest full threads at scale, **$0.50/1,000 results** | **No post body** in either search |
| **Fastest** on all three post-collection tests | **Includes ads** |
| Collected **943 subreddit posts** in one run, the most here | |

#### Data

lobstr.io returned **38 populated post fields and 12 comment fields** in the thread test.

| **Data** | **What you get** |
|---|---|
| **Post** | ID, URL, shortlink, title, body, post type |
| **Author** | Name, ID, premium flag |
| **Comments** | ID, body, score, author, timestamp |
| **Reply structure** | Parent ID, depth, post ID |
| **Engagement** | Score, comment count, upvote ratio, awards, crossposts |
| **Subreddit** | Name, ID, subscriber count, flair |
| **Media** | Media URL, thumbnail, video and gallery flags |
| **Status** | Promoted, locked, archived, stickied, NSFW, spoiler, edited |
| **Time** | Created at |
| **Derived** | Score/hour, age, comment-to-score ratio, high-engagement flag |

**Full thread**

On the 1,183-comment thread it returned **784 live comments through five reply levels**, with a parent ID on every one. You can see who replied to whom, so a long argument stays readable instead of arriving as a flat list.

Honestly, it isn't complete. Five deleted comments that had replies were dropped, leaving **7 replies pointing at a parent that isn't in the file**.

**Reddit-wide search**

Every one of the **221 posts came from the last 24 hours**, the newest **6 minutes old**. There's no older tail to filter out, which is what you want for monitoring.

The gap is body text. **No post body came back on any of the 221.** You get titles and metrics, not what the post actually said.

**Keyword search within r/politics**

252 posts, **100% in newest-first order**, zero duplicates. Reliable ordering means you can stop at the first post you've already seen instead of re-reading the set.

**Latest posts from r/politics**

**943 organic posts in one run**, alongside 56 promoted posts and a metadata row. Ads are labelled `IS PROMOTED` so they filter out in one step.

Overall, lobstr.io is strongest on **deep thread collection and recent, correctly ordered search**. Its main data gap is **missing post body text in search results**.

#### Cost

lobstr.io bills **1 credit per returned result**, and a result is one row: one post, or one comment. Posts and comments cost exactly the same, so the price is just your credit rate:

* Free: **100 results/month**
* Starting: **$2.00 per 1,000 results**
* At scale: **$0.50 per 1,000 results**

![lobstr.io pricing tiers for the Reddit Scraper](https://d37gzvgyugjozl.cloudfront.net/Reddit_Scraper_pricing_1x_abe070c2c8.png "width=1600;height=1180")

#### Usability

The interface is simple. It accepts post, subreddit, and search URLs individually or in bulk.

If you need the whole thing from start to finish, here's the full guide:

👉 [How to Scrape Reddit: Posts, Comments & Subreddits (No Login)](https://www.lobstr.io/blog/how-to-scrape-reddit)

Controls include sorting, time range, content filters, result limits, comment depth, and concurrency [Slots](https://help.lobstr.io/core-concepts/slots).

![lobstr.io collection controls: sort, time range, post type, result limits, comment depth and concurrency slots](https://d37gzvgyugjozl.cloudfront.net/2026_09_14_05_44_36_c302f5664b.gif "width=1562;height=1100")

Results [export](https://help.lobstr.io/data/download-results) as **CSV, Excel, JSON, or JSONL**. Delivery supports Google Sheets, Amazon S3, SFTP, email, and webhooks.

![lobstr.io export and delivery options: CSV, Excel, JSON, JSONL, Google Sheets, Amazon S3, SFTP, email and webhook](https://d37gzvgyugjozl.cloudfront.net/2026_09_14_05_51_06_d4f11fa611.gif "width=2238;height=1360")

Runs can also be [scheduled](https://help.lobstr.io/core-concepts/scheduling) with completion alerts.

It also supports [integrations](https://www.lobstr.io/integrations) with tools like [Make](https://www.make.com/en/integrations/lobstr) and [n8n](https://n8n.io/integrations/lobstr).

![lobstr.io integration options](https://d37gzvgyugjozl.cloudfront.net/Screenshot_2026_09_22_at_12_49_39_AM_ebe7b44450.png "width=2390;height=1542")

lobstr.io ships an [MCP server](https://mcp.lobstr.io/), so you can run the Reddit scraper straight from an AI client. Ask Claude or ChatGPT to pull a thread or a subreddit, and it launches the scraper and hands the data back.

Add it to Claude in one line:

```bash
claude mcp add --transport http lobstr https://mcp.lobstr.io/mcp
```

![Running the lobstr.io Reddit scraper from Claude through the MCP server](https://d37gzvgyugjozl.cloudfront.net/Screenshot_2026_09_27_at_6_49_11_AM_5fb4f43312.png "width=1712;height=994")

Prefer the terminal? There's a [CLI](https://docs.lobstr.io/docs/cli) too:

```bash
pip install lobstrio
lobstr go reddit-scraper "<your Reddit URL>" -o reddit.csv
```

And a well-documented REST [API](https://docs.lobstr.io/docs/quickstart) for building it into your own stack.

So you can start in the dashboard and move to an AI tool, the CLI, or the API later without switching platforms.

#### Speed

lobstr.io returned **785 rows from the full-thread test in 2:33**, or **308 rows/min**.

![lobstr.io run time for the 1,183-comment thread test](https://d37gzvgyugjozl.cloudfront.net/t4_speed_e31f17d114.png "width=2234;height=966")

It was faster on the other three workloads:

* **Reddit-wide search:** 221 posts in **0:43**, or **308 posts/min**
* **r/politics keyword search:** 252 posts in **0:41**, or **369 posts/min**
* **Latest r/politics posts:** 1,000 rows in **1:34**, or **638 rows/min**

![lobstr.io run times across the four Reddit tests](https://d37gzvgyugjozl.cloudfront.net/reddit_lob_speed_1_7023606ec4.png "width=1200;height=600")

Across all four tests, lobstr.io processed **308–638 rows/min**, without a major slowdown on the larger collection job.

#### Scalability

lobstr.io scales through concurrency Slots. You can add **up to 20 Slots per scraper** to run jobs in parallel, which raises real throughput.

At a single Slot, its measured rate projects to about **27.6M results a month**. That's a projection at one Slot, not a tested monthly volume.

#### Customer support

lobstr.io offers **live chat and email support**. Capterra rates its Customer Service **5.0/5 from 33 reviews**.

![Capterra reviews highlighting lobstr.io customer support](https://d37gzvgyugjozl.cloudfront.net/image1_512e7888cb.png "width=1297;height=596")

Its [published incident history](https://www.lobstr.io/store/reddit-scraper#status) showed **100% of recent incidents resolved**, with a **295-minute median resolution time**.

![lobstr.io Reddit scraper incident history showing resolved incidents and median resolution time](https://d37gzvgyugjozl.cloudfront.net/Screenshot_2026_09_16_at_8_29_58_AM_2d51863d3c.png "width=2490;height=1108")

That's resolution time, not first-response time.

This was the strongest support evidence among the tools tested.

**Best for:** scraping **deep Reddit threads and lots of posts quickly**, especially if you don't want to write code. Just know that search results **don't include the post body**.

### 2. SociaVault

* **User rating:** **5.0/5 from 1 review** on [G2](https://www.g2.com/products/sociavault/reviews), as of September 10, 2026
* **My rating:** **7.60/10**
* **Type:** API + MCP
* **Pricing:** Starts at $0.23–$1.80, **scales to $0.10–$0.75** per 1,000 results (posts cheapest, full threads priciest)
* **Strongest at:** preserving complete Reddit conversations and low-cost bulk post collection.

| **Pillar** | **Score /10** |
|---|---|
| Data | 8.8 |
| Cost | 9.0 |
| Usability | 5.5 |
| Speed | 8.0 |
| Scalability | 7.5 |
| Support | 5.0 |
| **Overall** | **7.60** |

[SociaVault](https://sociavault.com/) is a dedicated social media data API that returns structured Reddit data in real time via simple REST endpoints.

![SociaVault Reddit scraper — structured post and comment data returned via REST API](https://d37gzvgyugjozl.cloudfront.net/Screenshot_2026_06_12_at_8_24_42_AM_5508f37795.png "width=2854;height=1480")

| **Pros** | **Cons** |
|---|---|
| **784 live comments across 5 levels**, with deleted branches preserved | **No no-code interface**, so you need the API or MCP |
| Very cheap for bulk posts, down to **$0.10/1,000** in testing | **JSON only**, with no built-in scheduling or delivery |
| **100% newest-first** in r/politics keyword search | Reddit-wide search returned **duplicates and inconsistent body text** |
| Collected **834 clean subreddit posts in 1:56** | |

#### Data

SociaVault returned **22 populated post fields and 16 comment fields** in the thread test.

| **Data** | **What you get** |
|---|---|
| **Post** | ID, URL, permalink, title, body |
| **Author** | Name, author ID |
| **Comments** | ID, body, HTML body, author, score, vote fields, collapsed flag |
| **Reply structure** | Parent ID, nested replies |
| **Engagement** | Score, comment count, upvote ratio, awards |
| **Subreddit** | Name, ID, flair |
| **Status** | Archived, locked, NSFW, spoiler, video |
| **Time** | Timestamp |

**Full thread**

On the 1,183-comment thread, SociaVault returned **784 live comments plus 6 deleted comments across five reply levels**. Every reply still connected to its parent, so you can follow the conversation even when someone deleted a comment.

**Reddit-wide search**

SociaVault returned 232 recent posts, 94% from the last day, and it brought back the post body too.

**The trade-off is cleanup**: in my test, more than half (129 posts) arrived with no body, and 17 rows were duplicates.

![SociaVault Reddit-wide search output, showing duplicate rows and partial post-body coverage](https://d37gzvgyugjozl.cloudfront.net/Screenshot_2026_09_27_at_10_26_09_AM_38efec4d4b.png "width=2188;height=878")

**Keyword search within r/politics**

SociaVault returned **252 posts in 100% newest-first order**. That's useful if you're tracking new posts and want to work through them in order.

The main gap was author data. **16 posts had no author**, so searches based on who posted something won't always be complete.

**Latest posts from r/politics**

SociaVault returned **834 posts with no duplicates**. The results were clean, but it **stopped at 834 even though I asked for 1,000**, so you may not always get as many posts as you request.

Overall, SociaVault is strongest at **keeping long Reddit conversations intact and returning clean, correctly ordered search results**. The main drawbacks are **duplicates in Reddit-wide search and not always returning as many subreddit posts as you ask for**.

#### Cost

SociaVault uses a **one-time credit model**, with no monthly subscription. Credits don't expire.

![SociaVault pricing — one-time credit packs, no monthly subscription](https://d37gzvgyugjozl.cloudfront.net/Screenshot_2026_06_12_at_8_27_55_AM_8e27210f4c.png "width=2854;height=1480")

* Starts at: **$29 / 6,000 credits** ($0.0048/credit)
* Scales at: **$399 / 200,000 credits** ($0.0020/credit)

SociaVault charges **1 credit per request**, not per post or comment returned.

That means the real cost depends on **how many posts or comments you get back from each request**.

In my tests:

| **Test** | **Requests** | **Records returned** | **Starting / 1,000** | **At scale / 1,000** |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full thread | 297 | 790 | $1.80 | $0.75 |
| Reddit-wide search | 36 | 232 | $0.74 | $0.31 |
| Keyword search within r/politics | 36 | 252 | $0.69 | $0.29 |
| Latest posts from r/politics | 40 | 834 | **$0.23** | **$0.10** |

SociaVault was **cheapest for collecting subreddit posts**, at **$0.10 per 1,000 posts** at scale in my test. Full threads cost more, at **$0.75 per 1,000 comments**.

So there isn't one fixed cost per 1,000 results. **SociaVault gets cheaper when each request gives you more data**, which is why it worked out much cheaper for bulk posts than for full threads.

#### Usability

SociaVault is **easy to get started with if you're comfortable with APIs**.

There's **no no-code interface**.

You work through the API or its MCP server, and the output is JSON only.

If you want CSV or Excel exports, scheduling, or automatic delivery, you'll need to handle those separately.

#### Speed

SociaVault returned **790 comments from the full-thread test in 8:32**, or **93 comments/min**.

It was faster on the other three workloads:

* **Reddit-wide search:** 232 unique posts in **4:37**, or **50 posts/min**
* **Keyword search within r/politics:** 252 posts in **1:09**, or **219 posts/min**
* **Latest posts from r/politics:** 834 posts in **1:56**, or **431 posts/min**

SociaVault was **much faster at collecting posts than full threads**. The thread took more than eight minutes, while its two subreddit tests finished in under two minutes.

#### Scalability

SociaVault returned **834 posts in 1:56**, or **431 posts/min**.

At that rate, continuous collection projects to roughly **18.6M posts a month**. That's a projection, not a tested monthly volume.

SociaVault has no concurrency control.

#### Customer support

SociaVault provides **email support**, with no live chat or ticket dashboard.

![SociaVault support is a single email link, with no chat or ticket dashboard](https://d37gzvgyugjozl.cloudfront.net/Screenshot_2026_09_13_at_9_59_35_AM_cf73b97f9e.png "width=2002;height=1190")

There is no public response-time or resolution data.

**Best for:** getting **deep Reddit threads or lots of posts cheaply** if you're comfortable using an API. There's **no no-code interface**, and you only get JSON.

### 3. Bright Data — Reddit Scraper API

* **User rating:** **4.7/5 from 68 reviews** on [Capterra](https://www.capterra.com/search/?query=brightdata), as of September 10, 2026
* **My rating:** **6.51/10**
* **Type:** No-code + API + MCP
* **Pricing:** Starts at $1.50, **scales to $1.30** per 1,000 results
* **Strongest at:** post records with subreddit size and related posts already included

| **Pillar** | **Score /10** |
|---|---|
| Data | 7.5 |
| Cost | 7.0 |
| Usability | 8.0 |
| Speed | 3.5 |
| Scalability | 6.0 |
| Support | 6.5 |
| **Overall** | **6.51** |

[Bright Data](https://brightdata.com/) is an enterprise data collection platform with a dedicated Reddit Dataset API that delivers structured post and comment data at scale.

![Bright Data Reddit Dataset API — enterprise-grade post and comment collection at scale](https://d37gzvgyugjozl.cloudfront.net/Screenshot_2026_06_12_at_8_30_44_AM_9889bfab96.png "width=2854;height=1480")

| **Pros** | **Cons** |
|---|---|
| **Subreddit size on every post**; related posts on **94–97%** | Threads reached only **2 levels** |
| Full **252-post search**, no duplicates | **Slowest on the full-thread test** |
| | Weak **recency and newest-first ordering** |
| | Only **50 of 1,000 requested posts** returned |

#### Data

Bright Data returned **26 populated fields in Reddit-wide search and 24 in the r/politics search**.

| **Data** | **What you get** |
|---|---|
| **Post** | ID, URL, title, body, embedded links |
| **Author** | Username and profile details |
| **Comments** | ID, text, author, upvotes, reply count |
| **Reply structure** | Nested replies and relationship fields |
| **Engagement** | Upvotes, comment count |
| **Community** | Name, member count, description |
| **Related posts** | Related-post suggestions |
| **Media** | Photos, videos, links |
| **Status** | Pinned, locked, moderator and other status flags |
| **Time** | Post and comment timestamps |

Bright Data's strength is the **extra context around each post**. In Reddit-wide search, it returned subreddit size on **all 233 posts**, related posts on **219**, photos on **106**, and videos on **25**.

That extra data isn't consistent across every search, though.

**Full thread**

Bright Data returned **397 comments across two reply levels**. You get top-level comments and direct replies, but deeper conversations are missing.

Posts and comments also come separately, so you'll need to combine them yourself if you want the full thread with its post.

**Reddit-wide search**

Bright Data returned **233 unique posts**, but only **3 were from the last 24 hours**. There's no newest-first option here, so it's much better at giving you **richer posts than recent posts**.

**Keyword search within r/politics**

It returned **252 posts**, but the newest post appeared **6th**, and only **just over half (51%) were correctly ordered newest-first**.

The richer data also dropped off here: only **2 posts had body text**, with no photos or videos returned.

**Latest posts from r/politics**

Bright Data returned just **50 posts** when I asked for up to 1,000, with no option to increase that limit in this test.

Overall, Bright Data is strongest when you want **more context around individual posts**. The trade-off is **shallower threads, weaker recency, and smaller subreddit collections**.

#### Cost

Bright Data charges **per returned record** (one result), so the cost is easier to predict than request-based pricing.

![Bright Data pricing — pay-as-you-go and monthly subscription plans](https://d37gzvgyugjozl.cloudfront.net/Screenshot_2026_06_12_at_8_45_05_AM_8a0eb80468.png "width=2854;height=1312")

* **Starting (pay as you go):** **$1.50 per 1,000 results**
* **At scale:** **$1.30 per 1,000 results**
* **Free tier:** None

Bright Data doesn't bill every comment as a separate record. In the full-thread test it returned **397 comment objects but billed 291 records**. You pay for billed output, not every backend request.

#### Usability

Bright Data uses separate scrapers for **posts, comments, profiles, search, and subreddit discovery**.

![Bright Data's separate Reddit scrapers for posts, comments, profiles, keyword search, subreddit discovery and author discovery](https://d37gzvgyugjozl.cloudfront.net/Screenshot_2026_09_13_at_8_51_32_AM_4438959109.png "width=2640;height=1208")

Inputs include URLs, keywords, subreddits, authors, profiles, and bulk CSV uploads.

Comment controls include time range, replies, limits, and sort order.

![Bright Data comment controls: time range, replies, comment limit and sort order](https://d37gzvgyugjozl.cloudfront.net/comments_a35bace6e1.png "width=2640;height=1208")

Results export as **JSON, NDJSON, CSV, XLSX, or Parquet**. Delivery includes S3, Google Cloud, Azure, Snowflake, SFTP, email, webhooks, and Pub/Sub.

The main friction is that **posts and comments require separate collections** and downstream joins.

#### Speed

Bright Data returned **397 comments from the full-thread test in 34:40**, or about **11 comments/min**.

Its post workloads were faster:

* **Reddit-wide search:** 232 unique posts in **10:23**, or **22 posts/min**
* **Keyword search within r/politics:** 252 posts in **7:43**, or **33 posts/min**
* **Latest posts from r/politics:** 50 posts in **3:44**, or **13 posts/min**

![Bright Data benchmark collection times across the four Reddit tests](https://d37gzvgyugjozl.cloudfront.net/Screenshot_2026_09_13_at_9_23_48_AM_1b3ae1eb1f.png "width=2614;height=982")

Bright Data was **slowest on the full-thread test**, taking more than half an hour.

#### Scalability

Bright Data returned **50 posts in 3:44**, or about **13 posts/min**.

At that rate, continuous collection projects to roughly **578,000 posts a month**. That's a projection, not a tested monthly volume.

It has no concurrency control, and it caps each input at up to **4,000 posts or 500 comments, plus replies**.

![Bright Data per-input limits: up to 4,000 posts and 500 comments per request](https://d37gzvgyugjozl.cloudfront.net/Screenshot_2026_09_13_at_8_52_01_AM_6e2cc59528.png "width=2640;height=1208")

#### Customer support

Bright Data provides **email and support tickets**.

![Bright Data support options: direct email or a support request form](https://d37gzvgyugjozl.cloudfront.net/Screenshot_2026_09_13_at_10_18_04_AM_a4829f99a7.png "width=2660;height=1332")

There was no comparable public response-time or resolution data in this test.

**Best for:** getting posts with **subreddit size and related posts already included**. It's less useful for **deep threads or tracking the newest posts**.

### 4. Apify — trudax/reddit-scraper-lite

* **User rating:** **4.6/5 from 39 reviews** on the [Apify Store](https://apify.com/trudax/reddit-scraper-lite), as of September 10, 2026.
* **My rating:** **6.00/10**
* **Type:** No-code + API + MCP
* **Pricing:** Starts at $3.80, **scales to $3.40** per 1,000 results, plus a fee on each run start
* **Strongest at:** **finding posts across a broad range of subreddits**

| **Pillar** | **Score /10** |
|---|---|
| Data | 6.5 |
| Cost | 4.5 |
| Usability | 9.5 |
| Speed | 4.0 |
| Scalability | 6.0 |
| Support | 5.5 |
| **Overall** | **6.00** |

[Apify](https://apify.com/) is a cloud-based scraping platform with a large marketplace of community-built actors, including several Reddit scrapers.

![Apify home page — cloud scraping platform with a marketplace of community-built actors](https://d37gzvgyugjozl.cloudfront.net/Screenshot_2026_09_14_at_6_18_13_AM_4d6276b3c7.png "width=2374;height=1230")

| **Pros** | **Cons** |
|---|---|
| **Broad Reddit-wide discovery** | Threads limited to **2 levels deep** |
| **Lots of controls and automation options** | **Slow search performance** |
| | **Most expensive** ranked scraper |
| | Slow support |

#### Data

Apify returned **10 populated post fields** consistently across the four tests.

| **Data** | **What you get** |
|---|---|
| **Post** | ID, URL, title, body |
| **Author** | Username, comment author flair |
| **Comments** | ID, body, HTML body, author, timestamp |
| **Reply structure** | Parent ID, depth, reply count |
| **Engagement** | Upvotes, upvote ratio, comment count |
| **Community** | Name, description, member and activity data |
| **Media** | Image URLs, outbound link, content type |
| **Time** | Created at |

**Full thread**

Apify returned **200 comments across two reply levels** from the 1,183-comment thread.

So you get the main comments and some replies, but **not the deeper conversation underneath them**.

**Reddit-wide search**

This is where it did best: **325 posts across 175 subreddits**, more than anything else I tested.

**The catch is cleanup**: only **77%** were from the last day, and **197 of 325 bodies** held feed boilerplate, not text.

![Apify Reddit-wide search output, showing populated body fields that hold only feed boilerplate instead of post text](https://d37gzvgyugjozl.cloudfront.net/Screenshot_2026_09_27_at_10_49_17_AM_a7a7a5a6b5.png "width=2730;height=894")

**Keyword search within r/politics**

Apify returned **239 posts**, just short of the 252 found by lobstr.io and SociaVault.

Ordering was strong: **96% were correctly sorted newest-first**.

**Latest posts from r/politics**

This was much more limited. Apify returned only **53 posts**.

Overall, Apify makes the most sense when you want to **find posts across lots of subreddits**. It's less useful when you need **deep conversations, complete post text, or large collections from one subreddit**.

#### Cost

Apify runs on a **monthly subscription**.

![Apify pricing — per stored result plus a fixed fee on each actor start](https://d37gzvgyugjozl.cloudfront.net/Screenshot_2026_09_13_at_6_26_07_AM_ddf0c1f58f.png "width=2534;height=1034")

* **Free plan:** **$5 of monthly platform usage**
* **Starts at:** **$3.80 per 1,000 results**
* **Scale:** **$3.40 per 1,000 results**

There's also a **run-start fee based on memory**, so the final cost can be higher than the per-result price alone.

This was the **most expensive scraper in the ranked group**.

#### Usability

Apify supports Reddit URLs, bulk URLs, keyword search, and subreddit-scoped search.

![Apify start URL input: adding Reddit URLs individually, in bulk, or from a text file](https://d37gzvgyugjozl.cloudfront.net/Screenshot_2026_09_14_at_6_24_32_AM_4d2f7d8e06.png "width=2374;height=1474")

Its controls are the most extensive here. They cover extraction mode, scope, sorting, dates, NSFW content, and result limits.

![Apify actor controls: collection type, search target, date filters and result limits](https://d37gzvgyugjozl.cloudfront.net/2026_09_14_05_45_28_abc63a56e1.gif "width=2380;height=1236")

Results export as CSV, Excel, JSON, JSONL, and other dataset formats.

Apify also supports APIs, webhooks, Make, Zapier, n8n, scheduling, and run monitoring.

Nothing else here gives you this much control, and nothing else asks for this much setup first.

#### Speed

Apify returned **200 comments from the full-thread test in 31 seconds**, or about **389 comments/min**.

Its post workloads were much slower:

* **Reddit-wide search:** 325 posts in **21:23**, or **15 posts/min**
* **Keyword search within r/politics:** 239 posts in **20:56**, or **11 posts/min**
* **Latest posts from r/politics:** 53 posts in **3:57**, or **14 posts/min**

![Apify benchmark run times across the four Reddit tests](https://d37gzvgyugjozl.cloudfront.net/Screenshot_2026_09_13_at_9_17_58_AM_97ff0276d2.png "width=2354;height=1226")

Apify's **31-second thread run was fast, but shallow**: it stopped at 200 comments across two levels. For finding posts, it was much slower, with both search tests taking around **21 minutes**.

#### Scalability

Apify returned **53 posts in 3:57**, or about **14 posts/min**.

At that rate, continuous collection projects to roughly **577,000 posts a month**. That's a projection, not a tested monthly volume.

Apify has no concurrency control. Instead you scale with memory. I tested at **2 GB**; the Actor allows up to **4 GB**, which could raise throughput.

#### Customer support

Support for this actor primarily runs through **Apify Issues**.

At the time of checking, **92 of 94 issues were closed**. The listed response time was **3.5 days**.

One open issue had waited **four days without a reply**.

![An open Apify issue waiting four days without a reply](https://d37gzvgyugjozl.cloudfront.net/2026_09_14_05_42_30_e35e6fe0c9.gif "width=1562;height=842")

Issues do get closed. Just not quickly, which matters when a scraper breaks mid-project.

**Best for:** **finding posts across lots of subreddits** and having plenty of control over the scrape. Search is **slow and expensive**, and threads only go two levels deep.

## The scrapers that didn't make the list

These tools can still handle parts of a Reddit scraping workflow. I left them out because each missed something important.

### Outscraper

[Outscraper](https://outscraper.com/reddit-subreddit-scraper/) is a cloud-based data extraction platform that allows users to scrape public web data, including Reddit.

![Outscraper Reddit scraper overview](https://d37gzvgyugjozl.cloudfront.net/Screenshot_2026_06_18_at_5_29_20_AM_2190853430.png "width=2526;height=1286")

**It offers two separate Reddit tools**: a Reddit Comments Scraper and a Reddit Search Scraper.

![Outscraper Reddit Comments Scraper and Reddit Search Scraper tools](https://d37gzvgyugjozl.cloudfront.net/Screenshot_2026_06_18_at_5_17_14_AM_18125563cf.png "width=2674;height=1044")

**Why it didn't make the list**

The comment output is **flat**. There is no parent ID or depth, so you cannot reconstruct who replied to whom.

It also returned **zero posts in my search and listing tests**.

**Worth knowing**

Its successful test returned **470 unique comments with all nine fields populated**. If you only need comment text, author link, and score, and flat output is fine, it can do that job.

---

### ScraperAPI

[ScraperAPI](https://www.scraperapi.com/) is a general-purpose proxy tool, not a Reddit scraper. I don't recommend it for Reddit at any scale.

![ScraperAPI, a general-purpose proxy tool rather than a dedicated Reddit scraper](https://d37gzvgyugjozl.cloudfront.net/Screenshot_2026_06_12_at_9_40_02_AM_572b894bf3.png "width=2856;height=1326")

**Why it didn't make the list**

The main problem is comments. It does not return **parent IDs or comment depth**, so the original conversation tree cannot be reconstructed.

That is too large a limitation for a Reddit scraper recommendation where comment threads matter.

**Worth knowing**

For simpler post scraping or flat comment collection, it is still useful. It has a straightforward API and can return basic Reddit fields without much setup.

---

### SerpApi

[SerpApi](https://serpapi.com/) is a search engine results API that surfaces Reddit posts via Google's index. It searches Google, not Reddit directly.

![SerpApi, a search engine results API that surfaces Reddit posts via Google's index](https://d37gzvgyugjozl.cloudfront.net/Screenshot_2026_06_12_at_9_40_44_AM_f6aa40c141.png "width=2856;height=1446")

**Why it didn't make the list**

SerpApi is mainly a **Reddit discovery tool**.

It can find Reddit posts by keyword, but it does not scrape **full comment threads, subreddit feeds, user profiles, or post body text**.

That scope is too limited for this comparison.

**Worth knowing**

For **finding Reddit posts**, SerpApi is still useful. It supports Google-based discovery as well as a dedicated `engine=reddit` endpoint.

So if you only need to **find relevant Reddit posts**, rather than scrape complete Reddit data, it is worth considering.

---

## FAQ

### Which Reddit scraper is best for comments and replies?

**lobstr.io for speed, SociaVault for thread structure.**

Both returned **784 live comments across five levels**. SociaVault also preserved six deleted placeholders, while lobstr.io finished much faster at **2 min 33 sec vs 8 min 32 sec**.

### Which Reddit scraper handles larger subreddit collections best?

**lobstr.io went furthest in our test.**

It returned **943 organic posts** in one run, against **834** for SociaVault and roughly 50 for Bright Data and Apify.

### Which Reddit scraper has the most predictable pricing?

**lobstr.io.**

It charges **1 credit per result** (one post or comment), a flat **$2.00 per 1,000 results starting and $0.50 at scale**.

SociaVault charges per request, so its effective cost varies by workload. Bright Data charges per record, while the tested Apify actor charges per result plus a run fee.

### Which Reddit scraper is cheapest?

**It depends on the workload.**

SociaVault was cheapest for post collection in our tests, at **$0.10–$0.31 per 1,000 posts** at scale.

For full threads, lobstr.io is **$0.50 per 1,000 results** at scale, compared with **$0.75 per 1,000 comments** for SociaVault at scale in our test.

---

## Conclusion

The best Reddit scraper depends on what you're collecting.

* **lobstr.io owns deep, fast Reddit collection.** It handled long threads and large subreddit runs without giving up much speed.
* **SociaVault owns cost.** It was the cheapest for bulk posts and still preserved deep thread structure, but there's no no-code interface.
* **Bright Data owns post context.** Subreddit size and related posts were its real advantage, but threads and recency were weaker.
* **Apify owns broad discovery.** It found the most posts across the most subreddits, but search was slow and expensive.

Reddit and these tools will keep changing, so I'll keep this comparison updated.

Found something I should test? [Ping me on LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathan-eshetu-040907202/).

Ready to scrape Reddit? [Try the Reddit Scraper](https://www.lobstr.io/store/reddit-scraper).

---

## Scrapers in this article

- [Reddit Scraper](https://www.lobstr.io/store/reddit-scraper): Extract 64 data points from any Reddit subreddit, post, user or search — posts, comments, authors & subreddit metadata all in one run. (1 credit per result)

## Related articles

- [How to Scrape Reddit: Posts, Comments & Subreddits (No Login)](https://www.lobstr.io/blog/how-to-scrape-reddit)

Tags: No Code, Social Media, Web Scraping

_Canonical HTML: https://www.lobstr.io/blog/best-reddit-scrapers_

More for agents: https://www.lobstr.io/llms.txt, pricing in Markdown: https://www.lobstr.io/pricing.md