Best Facebook Scrapers on Apify
Quick answer
The Facebook surface you target decides the Actor, not the other way around. Pages and posts are different objects with different fields; groups need a third Actor; the Ad Library is its own world.
- Facebook Pages Scraper: page-level metadata (contact info, likes, rating). $6.60 / 1,000 pages, 4.44★, 100% success.
- Facebook Posts Scraper: post text + engagement from pages/profiles. $2 / 1,000 posts, 4.55★, 100% success.
- Facebook Ads Scraper: Ad Library creatives and spend. $3.40 / 1,000 ads, 99.8% success.
- Facebook Groups Scraper: public groups only. $2.60 / 1,000 posts, 4.77★, 99.9% success.
Search Facebook Actors in the Store →
Meta is one of the more aggressive anti-bot targets on the web. Budget for residential proxies and keep concurrency low from day one.
- Tutorial: Scrape Facebook: configure your first run.
Comparison table
| Actor | Starts at | Success rate | Best input | Field highlights |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pages Scraper | $6.60 / 1k pages | 100% | Page URL or username | Likes, followers, rating, category, address, messenger, ads-running flag |
| Posts Scraper | $2 / 1k posts | 100% | Page/profile URL + post limit | Text, media URLs, timestamp, reactions, comment/share counts |
| Ads Scraper | $3.40 / 1k ads | 99.8% | Ad Library search URL | Creative, advertiser, run dates, platforms, EU reach/spend where disclosed |
| Groups Scraper | $2.60 / 1k posts | 99.9% | Public group URL | Post text, author, timestamp, reactions, comments |
Prices are Apify Store event pricing and drop at higher plan tiers. Success rates are the public figures on each Actor listing.
Which surface, which Actor
Pages vs posts
People routinely pick the wrong one. Use Pages Scraper when you need page-level fields (likes, follower count, category, rating, contact info), one record per page. Use Posts Scraper when the grain is a post (caption, media, reactions), one record per post, N posts per page. Running Pages Scraper and expecting full post histories is the most common mistake in this category.
Groups
Public groups only. The Actor surfaces posts, comments, author names and profile URLs, timestamps, and reactions. Private or "visible members only" groups are off-limits and the Actor will not log in with credentials for you, so don't try.
Ad Library
The Meta Ad Library is the cleanest compliance story in Facebook scraping: Meta itself publishes this data. Ads Scraper takes an Ad Library search URL (by advertiser, keyword, country, or category) and returns creatives, advertiser names, run windows, and EU-specific reach/spend where disclosed. The 2.91★ rating is lower than the others mostly because the Ad Library UI changes frequently and breaks input formats; keep an eye on the changelog.
Marketplace, events, reviews
No official apify/* Actor covers Marketplace listings, events, or reviews at the moment. For these, search the Store and read recent issue comments before committing. Community Actors exist but maintenance varies. If the last modified date is more than a few months old, expect breakage.
Cost math, in practice
A reasonable monthly competitive-intel workload:
- 50 brand pages × 30 posts each = 1,500 posts → ~$3 on Posts Scraper.
- Weekly Ad Library pulls for 20 competitors, ~50 ads each = 4,000 ads/month → ~$13.60.
- Page refresh for the same 50 pages, weekly = 200 page records → ~$1.30.
- Residential proxy: included on Starter ($29/mo), which is generally the tier to be on for any Meta work.
Under $20 in Actor events + the Starter plan covers most mid-market competitive monitoring. Scale breaks linearly until you push into Ad Library enrichment at volume, where proxy GB becomes the dominant cost.
Compliance and ethics
- Public only. Do not target logged-in-only walls, private profiles, private groups, or anything behind a friends-only setting.
- Terms and law. Meta's Terms of Service restrict automated access even to public data; GDPR and CCPA still apply to names, bios, and locations. Minimize what you keep.
- Safer patterns. Brand pages, the Ad Library, and competitor monitoring are well-established use cases. Profiling individuals is not.
- Not legal advice. Get counsel for regulated industries, EU data subjects at scale, or anything touching political or health data.
Technical notes
- Residential proxies are not optional. Datacenter IPs get flagged within a few requests on Meta. Apify residential proxies are bundled from Starter up.
- Keep concurrency low. Start at 1–2 and only raise it after a clean 24-hour window. Meta rate-limits by IP and by behavioral pattern.
- Schema drifts. Meta ships frontend changes constantly. Prefer Actors updated in the last 30 days and diff your output schema after every major run.
- Split jobs by surface. One dataset per Actor makes drift easier to spot than mixing pages + posts + ads into a single output.
When to use which Actor
Facebook Pages Scraper
Start here when the input is page URLs and the output needs page-level fields: contact info, follower counts, rating, whether ads are currently running. Feeds CRMs and competitor dashboards well.
Facebook Posts Scraper
The workhorse for social listening. One record per post with reactions, comment counts, and media URLs. Pair with an LLM step for sentiment and theme extraction.
Facebook Ads Scraper
Competitive ad creative tracking: what your competitors are testing, which creatives have been live longest, which markets they're pushing. Ad Library data only, so it's the cleanest Meta surface legally.
Facebook Groups Scraper
Public community research: pain points, objections, feature requests. Validate each target group is visible in a logged-out browser before adding it to an input list.
The four official apify/* Actors cover the main surfaces: Facebook Pages Scraper for page metadata, Facebook Posts Scraper for post text and engagement, Facebook Ads Scraper for the Ad Library, and Facebook Groups Scraper for public groups. All four show 99.8–100% success rates on the Store and are maintained by the Apify team.
Pages Scraper returns one record per page (likes, followers, rating, contact info). Posts Scraper returns one record per post (text, reactions, comments, media). Pick Pages for CRM-style enrichment; pick Posts for social listening or content analysis.
Pages Scraper starts at $6.60 per 1,000 pages, Posts Scraper at $2 per 1,000 posts, Ads Scraper at $3.40 per 1,000 ads, and Groups Scraper at $2.60 per 1,000 posts. These are Apify Store event prices and drop at higher subscription tiers. Residential proxy usage is included from the $29 Starter plan.
Yes. The Actors only access data visible without logging in or joining. They do not bypass login walls, scrape private profiles, or enter private groups. Collecting non-public data would violate both Meta's terms and Apify's acceptable use policy.
Effectively yes. Meta flags datacenter IPs within a handful of requests. The official Actors use Apify residential proxies by default when run on the platform, and those are bundled into paid plans starting at $29/month.
No official apify/* Actor currently covers Marketplace, events, or reviews end-to-end. Community Actors exist in the Store, so search there, but check the last-modified date and recent issues before relying on them in production.
It depends on jurisdiction, data type, and volume. Public business pages and Ad Library research are well-established use cases, but Meta's Terms of Service restrict automation broadly, and privacy laws still apply to personal data. This page isn't legal advice; talk to counsel for regulated or large-scale programs.
Common mistakes and fixes
Instant blocks or zero results.
Switch to residential proxies, drop concurrency to 1–2, and add 30–60s waits between retries. Datacenter IPs get flagged on Meta within a handful of requests.
Missing comments, reactions, or reviews.
The Pages and Posts Actors surface engagement counts but not every comment thread. For deep comment/reaction mining, run a dedicated comments Actor from the Store and join on post URL.