Want to pick a Reddit scraper? This guide compares BrowserAct (simple, no-code) and Apify (powerful, for developers) to help you find which one is best for you.

Reddit stands out as one of the internet's most vibrant community platforms, where millions of users gather in subreddits to discuss everything from niche hobbies to global events. Its communities are filled with daily discussions about products, services, and new ideas, making it a valuable source for market research, opinion analysis, and tracking trends. However, because there is so much data generated every day, collecting it all by hand is not a realistic option. A good Reddit scraper is the necessary tool to gather these insights efficiently.

To solve this problem, we will look at two different tools. The first is the BrowserAct Reddit Scraper, a ready-to-use visual template designed for simplicity. A user only needs to set a few basic parameters, such as the number of posts and comments to collect and the target Reddit URL, to start scraping. It is built to connect easily with automation platforms like Make.com. The second is the Apify Reddit Scraper, a powerful, cloud-based tool for developers that acts as a complete, unofficial Reddit API for large and complex Reddit scraping projects.

This article will compare the features, common uses, pricing, and technical skills required for both BrowserAct and Apify. The goal is to give you a clear side-by-side look at each tool, helping you decide which web scraper for Reddit is the right choice for your project, budget, and personal skill level.

BrowserAct: A Simple and Visual Reddit Scraper

BrowserAct makes getting data from Reddit simple. It gives you a ready-to-use template, so you don't have to build a scraper yourself. The whole process is shown visually, and all you have to do is fill in a few details to tell the tool what to scrape. This makes it very easy for anyone to start collecting data from Reddit.

Who is BrowserAct For?

BrowserAct is perfect for people who want to get data from Reddit without writing any code. This includes:

• Marketers who want to see what people are saying about their brand.
• Product managers who need to track customer ideas and problems.
• Researchers who are collecting public opinions on a topic.
• People who like to automate tasks using tools like Make.com.

The main goal for these users is to set up a simple, automatic way to watch Reddit and send the information they find to other tools, like a spreadsheet.

How It Works: A Simple 3-Step Process

The best part about the BrowserAct Scraper template is how simple it is. You can set it up in just three easy steps:

1. Choose How Much to Scrape: You enter two numbers. Total_Comments is for how many comments you want from each post. Max Focused Loop Items is for the total number of posts you want to collect.
2. Enter the Reddit Page Link: In the Parameters section, you simply paste the link to the Reddit page you want to get data from. This can be a subreddit, a search page, or any page with a list of posts.
3. Start and Get Your Data: After setting it up, you just click run. The tool does all the hard work for you. It goes through each post, gets the comments, and organizes all the data so it's ready for you to use.

What Can It Scrape?

The BrowserAct template focuses on collecting the core information from Reddit posts and the comments within them. This includes:

• Reddit Post Details: The title of the post, the main text or content, when it was published, and the total number of comments.
• Comment Details: The full text of each comment, the username of the person who commented, and the time the comment was posted.

Key Features

BrowserAct Reddit has several features that make it very user-friendly:

• Free & Easy to Use: The Reddit Posts & Comments Scraper template is ready to use for free, directly in your browser—no installation required. You don’t need any technical skills. Setting it up is as simple as filling out a form, so you don't have to worry about complicated things like code or programming.
• Stable & Reliable Data Collection: With its built-in IP management system, BrowserAct helps you avoid being blocked by network security. This ensures your web scraper runs reliably from start to finish, capturing complete and accurate data without missing any posts or comments.
• Gets Posts and Comments: The tool automatically collects two types of information. It gets the main details of a post (like the title and score) and also gets the information from the comments under that post (like the comment text and author).
• Easy to Customize: While the template is ready to use right away, it's also flexible. You can easily change the scraping steps to adjust what information is saved or add new actions to the process. This means you can start with a simple template and then tweak it to fit your exact needs, all without writing code.
• Works with Other Automation Apps: A major plus for BrowserAct is how well it connects with automation tools like Make.com and N8N. This makes it very easy to set up a schedule, like running the scraper every day and automatically saving the data to a Google Sheet. It also works with n8n and similar tools.
• Flexible Data Formats: You can save the data you collect in common formats like CSV (which opens in spreadsheets) and JSON. This makes it easy to use the data in other programs or for your own analysis.

Apify: A Powerful Reddit Scraper for Developers

The Apify Reddit Scraper is a powerful tool for more technical users. It is a program that runs in the cloud on Apify's servers. You can think of it as a complete, unofficial API for Reddit, which means developers can use it to build very specific and large data collection projects. It is very flexible, and you can change many settings to get exactly the data you need.

Who is Apify For?

Apify is built for users who are comfortable with code and need a strong solution for big tasks. This includes:

• Developers who need to connect Reddit data directly into their own apps.
• Data scientists who need large, clean sets of data for their analysis.
• Businesses that need to collect a lot of data reliably and on a regular schedule.

These users need a tool that they can program and that can handle complex jobs and collect huge amounts of data without issues.

How It Works

1. Set Your Target: In the tool's input settings, you will specify what you want to collect. You can do this by pasting direct URLs to Reddit posts, user profiles, or entire communities. Alternatively, you can use the search feature by simply typing in keywords.
2. Run the Reddit Scraper: With your targets set, click the "Start" button to launch the tool. The scraper will begin collecting the data, and you can watch its progress in real-time.
3. Download Your Data: After the run is complete, your data is ready for download. You can export the results in a variety of useful formats, such as CSV (for spreadsheets), Excel, JSON, or HTML.

What Can It Scrape?

Apify's Reddit scraper collects a very wide range of information, giving you a full picture of the posts, users, and communities you are targeting. This includes:

• Post Details: The post title, score, author, number of comments, awards, and the full text or content of the post.
• Comment Details: The full text of each comment, its author, score, and when it was posted.
• User Details: A user's profile information, including their Karma score and the date their account was created.
• Community Details: Information about a subreddit, such as its member count, public description, and rules.

Key Features

Apify includes several powerful features designed for developers and large-scale projects:

• Flexible Scraping Options: You can start scraping by providing direct URLs or by using keywords to search for posts, communities, or users. The search can be sorted by "hot," "new," or "top" and filtered by time.
• Runs in the Cloud: The scraper runs on Apify's servers, not your computer. This means it can handle very large jobs without slowing down your machine and includes features to help avoid being blocked by Reddit.
• Advanced Settings for Full Control: Developers can use a JSON file to change dozens of settings, giving them precise control over how much data to collect, like the maximum number of posts or comments.
• Made for Developer Integration: Apify provides a full API, which allows developers to control the scraper and get data from it using their own code. They provide libraries for popular languages like Python and Node.js to make this easier.
• Customizable with Code: If you need to scrape a piece of information that the tool doesn't get by default, you can add a small piece of custom JavaScript code to grab it. This makes the tool extremely flexible.

Head-to-Head Comparison: BrowserAct vs. Apify

Ease of Use & Learning Curve

• BrowserAct: The winner for simplicity. It provides a pre-built template where the user only needs to change a URL and a few numbers. The learning curve is almost zero, making it perfectly tailored for non-technical users.
• Apify: Designed for technical users. Configuration happens via a web form or a JSON object on the Apify platform. Its true power is unlocked by understanding its rich set of parameters and its API.

Scraping Power & Flexibility

• BrowserAct: Focused and structured. It excels at its core task: scraping Reddit posts and their comments from a given page. The workflow is linear and not easily modified.
• Apify: Highly flexible and comprehensive. Its capabilities are far more extensive. It can scrape not only posts and comments but also standalone user and community information. Its advanced search and filtering make it a superior Reddit search tool.

Automation & Integration

• BrowserAct: The champion of no-code automation. Its core strength is its native integration with Make.com, allowing for easy, scheduled automation without writing a single line of code.
• Apify: The champion of developer APIs. It provides a professional-grade REST API, perfect for building data pipelines, feeding applications, or creating custom software solutions.

Pricing & Cost-Effectiveness

• BrowserAct: Easily usable for free through a credit system. You get 500 credits daily, plus a 2,000-credit bonus for joining their Discord. This Reddit web scraper template costs about 215 credits per run, so you can use it for free every day.
• Apify: Pay-per-use model. The pricing is very transparent. As noted in the text:
• • A generous free plan ($5 monthly credit) can get you approximately 1,000 results.
  • A $49/month Starter plan can get you over 10,000 results per month.

User Reviews & Reputation

• BrowserAct: Consistently receives top marks, often boasting a perfect 5/5 rating. Reviews frequently praise its straightforwardness and how it perfectly delivers on its promise: simple, effective Reddit scraping for everyone. This high score reflects a user base that feels empowered by the tool's simplicity and reliability.
• Apify: Presents a more complex picture with a public rating around 2.7/5. This lower score is a classic case of a tool built for developers being rated by a broader audience. Non-technical users, attracted by its power but unprepared for the JSON configurations and developer-centric workflow, often express frustration. Conversely, within developer communities, Apify is highly respected for its robustness. The public score doesn't fully capture its value to its intended technical user base.

Quick Comparison Table

Which Reddit Scraper Should You Choose?

Your choice depends entirely on your goals and technical comfort level. Here’s a simple guide to help you decide.

Choose BrowserAct if...

BrowserAct is the perfect tool for you if you want quick, automated results without any coding. This is your ideal choice if:

• You love using automation tools like Make.com, N8N, or Zapier to connect your apps.
• You have a clear, specific goal, like: "Every day, scrape the 10 newest posts and their top 5 comments from a specific subreddit and save them to a Google Sheet."
• You want a solution that is extremely fast to set up and requires absolutely no coding.
• Your main priority is ease of use and getting a simple, automated workflow running in minutes.

Choose Apify if...

Apify is built for power, scale, and deep integration. This is the right platform for you if:

• You are a developer, data scientist, or part of a business with large-scale data needs.
• You need to scrape massive amounts of data—for example, gathering millions of posts to train an AI model or archiving a subreddit for analysis.
• You need fine-tuned control over the scraping process and want to connect it to your own applications using an API.
• You are comfortable with technical concepts and need maximum power and scalability, even if it means a more complex setup.

Conclusion: Making Your Choice

In the world of data, Reddit is a goldmine. But as we've seen, getting that data out requires the right tool for the job. Both BrowserAct and Apify offer powerful ways to scrape Reddit, but they are built for fundamentally different needs.

Your decision comes down to a simple trade-off: simplicity vs. complexity.

If your priority is speed, ease of use, and seamless no-code automation, BrowserAct is the clear winner. It’s designed for marketers, researchers, and creators who want to set up automated workflows in minutes, connecting directly to tools like Google Sheets through platforms like Make.com without touching a single line of code.

On the other hand, if your project demands massive scale, deep customization, and programmatic control via an API, Apify stands out as the industrial-strength solution. It’s the right choice for developers and data scientists who need granular control and are comfortable with a more technical setup.

If the idea of getting your Reddit data pipeline running in just a few minutes sounds like the perfect solution for you, then it's time to experience the power of simplicity.

Ready to start? Try the BrowserAct Reddit Scraper for free today and see how easy it is to turn your data-gathering ideas into a fully automated reality.