ScrapeField vs PhantomBuster
PhantomBuster automates what you would otherwise do by hand on LinkedIn and other sites, working through your own accounts. We are an API that returns data. Here is which you want.
| ScrapeField | PhantomBuster | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | An API: a call returns JSON | No-code automations that run in the cloud |
| Whose account it uses | None of yours. You never give us a login | Yours: in its own words, it works through your own accounts |
| Price | 2,000 credits free, then from $39 once — no plan | Free trial (exports of 10 rows); then $56, $128 or $352 a month, billed annually |
| Billed by | Credits per call, published per endpoint | Monthly execution hours, automation slots and credits |
| Unused allowance | Credits never expire | Execution time resets each month |
| Outreach, sequences, CRM sync | No | Yes |
Checked 3 October 2026 against each vendor’s own pricing page. Rechecked quarterly — tell us if something here is out of date and we will fix it.
Migrating a LinkedIn Profile Scraper run
// PhantomBuster: launch the LinkedIn Profile Scraper you set up in its dashboard,
// with your LinkedIn session cookie and your list of profiles
const headers = { "X-Phantombuster-Key": pbKey, "Content-Type": "application/json" };
const launch = await fetch("https://api.phantombuster.com/api/v2/agents/launch", {
method: "POST",
headers,
body: JSON.stringify({ id: phantomId }),
});
const { containerId } = await launch.json();
let run;
do {
await new Promise((r) => setTimeout(r, 30_000));
const url = `https://api.phantombuster.com/api/v2/containers/fetch?id=${containerId}&withResultObject=true`;
run = await (await fetch(url, { headers })).json();
} while (run.status === "starting" || run.status === "running");
const rows = JSON.parse(run.resultObject);
rows[0].firstName
rows[0].linkedinHeadline
rows[0].location
rows[0].companyName
rows[0].linkedinJobTitle// ScrapeField: one call per profile, with no session and nothing to set up
const headers = { Authorization: `Bearer ${key}` };
const profiles = [];
for (const url of profileUrls) {
const res = await fetch(`https://api.scrapefield.com/v1/linkedin/profile?url=${encodeURIComponent(url)}`, { headers });
const { data, error } = await res.json();
if (error) continue; // a profile we could not read is refunded, not charged
profiles.push(data);
}
profiles[0].first_name
profiles[0].headline
profiles[0].location
profiles[0].current_company.name
profiles[0].experience[0].titleFour differences worth knowing before you start:
- No LinkedIn account. The phantom runs as your LinkedIn account, with its session cookie, and its help centre advises at most 1,500 profiles a day. We never take a login, and there is no limit per day: we limit only how many calls you have in flight at once (limits).
- The fields.
firstNameisfirst_name,linkedinHeadlineisheadline,linkedinDescriptionisabout,companyNameiscurrent_company.name,linkedinFollowersCountisfollower_countandlinkedinProfileUrlisurl;locationkeeps its name. The phantom gives the two latest jobs as fixed columns;experienceandeducationare lists, most recent first. Every field is in the profile reference, and a field the profile does not show isnull. - No email. The phantom can find a professional email through an email-discovery service. We return only what the profile itself shows, so keep a discovery service for that column.
- A price per profile. 11 credits, known before you start; a profile we could not read is refunded. PhantomBuster bills execution time and slots, so what a run costs depends on how long it runs.
Keep PhantomBuster for what it does well: the outreach that has to come from your own account.
PhantomBuster against the others
Choosing between PhantomBuster and another service? Each pair has its own page, with ScrapeField beside them.
Questions
Can I use both?
Plenty of teams do: PhantomBuster for the outreach that has to come from their own account, and an API for the data they build on.
Try it before you decide
Every endpoint has a playground that runs against the live API with no key and no account — real routing, real validation, real errors. If the response shape does not fit your code, you will know in about a minute.