Octoparse vs PhantomBuster: 2026 Pricing and Feature Comparison

Octoparse starts at $89/month for 100 tasks and general-purpose web scraping. PhantomBuster starts at $69/month for 20 execution hours built around LinkedIn and social automation. Pick the wrong one and you either overpay for scraping you don't need or underbuy the execution hours your outbound stack burns through in a week.

Octoparse vs PhantomBuster: 2026 Pricing and Feature Comparison

Octoparse is a no-code scraper for pulling structured data off any website. PhantomBuster is a cloud automation tool built around "Phantoms" that run LinkedIn, Sales Navigator, and social workflows. Pick Octoparse for directory and marketplace scraping, PhantomBuster for LinkedIn connection and export sequences, or both if you're building your own prospecting pipeline instead of buying a pre-built list.

Axis	Octoparse	PhantomBuster	Better Fit
Entry paid plan	$89/mo (Standard, annual billing), 100 tasks, 3 devices	$69/mo (Starter), 20 execution hours/mo	PhantomBuster for lower entry cost
Free tier	Free forever: 10 tasks, 1 device, 50,000 rows/mo export	No permanent free plan, trial only	Octoparse for testing before buying
Billing unit	Tasks and devices	Execution hours and AI/email credits	Depends on usage pattern
Mid-tier plan	$209/mo (Professional), 250 tasks, advanced API	$159/mo (Pro), 80 hours/mo, 30,000 AI credits	PhantomBuster for AI-assisted enrichment
Top-tier plan	Enterprise, custom quote	$439/mo (Team), 300 hours/mo, 10,000 email credits	PhantomBuster for transparent top-end pricing
Pre-built automations	500+ site templates (Amazon, Google Maps, Indeed)	100+ Phantoms for LinkedIn, Sales Navigator, Instagram, X	Octoparse for broader site coverage
Core use case	Market research, price monitoring, directory scraping	LinkedIn outbound, list building, social data capture	PhantomBuster for cold email prospecting

What does Octoparse actually do well?

Octoparse's point-and-click builder handles sites without an API, which covers most small directories and marketplaces. It runs on cloud servers so a 5,000-row job doesn't tie up your laptop. For teams scraping 50,000+ rows a month from sites outside LinkedIn, it's the more capable tool.

• 500+ pre-built templates cut setup time for common targets like Amazon and Indeed, per Octoparse's product documentation.
• Cloud extraction plus IP rotation keeps jobs running unattended; proxy bandwidth is billed separately at $3/GB.
• CAPTCHA solving is a paid add-on, priced per 1,000 solves rather than bundled into the plan.

Where PhantomBuster wins for outbound teams

PhantomBuster's design is chaining Phantoms into sequences: scrape a Sales Navigator search, enrich the results, export to a CSV your sending tool can ingest. That's the workflow agencies running LinkedIn outbound at 500+ connections a week need, and why PhantomBuster shows up in stacks next to tools like Apollo.io or Instantly more often than Octoparse does.

• Sales Navigator and LinkedIn Phantoms are purpose-built, not generic templates adapted to a social site.
• API and Zapier/Make integrations connect output directly into a sending sequence without a manual export step.
• AI credits on the Pro and Team plans cover enrichment tasks that Octoparse doesn't offer at all.

Which tool costs less once you scale past the entry plan?

PhantomBuster is cheaper at the low end ($69 vs $89), but its execution-hour model runs out fast on heavy Sales Navigator jobs, pushing agencies to the $159 or $439 tier. Octoparse's task-based pricing holds steadier for high-volume scraping since tasks don't burn hours, though its $209 Professional plan still caps at 250 tasks. Neither is cheap past 5+ campaigns a month.

Octoparse vs PhantomBuster: which should you actually use?

If your bottleneck is finding LinkedIn prospects and getting them into a sequence, PhantomBuster is the one exception worth paying for in this category. Octoparse is the better buy if your bottleneck is pulling data off directories, marketplaces, or review sites that have nothing to do with LinkedIn. Outbound-focused teams need PhantomBuster or a service that replaces it; market-research teams need Octoparse.

Modern Inbound has booked 3,000+ qualified B2B meetings for clients who never had to pick between these two tools, because sourcing and outreach are handled end to end.

Frequently asked questions

Is Octoparse free to use?

Yes, Octoparse has a permanent free plan with 10 tasks, 1 device, and up to 50,000 rows of data export per month. Paid plans start at $89/month (billed annually) for 100 tasks and cloud extraction.

Does PhantomBuster have a free plan?

No, PhantomBuster does not offer a permanent free tier as of 2026. It offers a trial period, and paid plans start at $69/month for 20 execution hours on the Starter plan.

Which is cheaper for a small team in 2026, Octoparse or PhantomBuster?

PhantomBuster's entry plan is $20/month cheaper than Octoparse's ($69 vs $89), but Octoparse's free tier means a small team testing basic scraping can start at $0. The cheaper option depends on whether the workload fits inside PhantomBuster's 20 monthly execution hours.

Can you use Octoparse and PhantomBuster together?

Yes. Some teams use Octoparse to pull company or directory data and PhantomBuster to run the LinkedIn-side automation and enrichment on top of it. Both export to CSV, which makes handing data between the two straightforward.

If you'd rather not manage two tool subscriptions and their credits, that's the execution layer Modern Inbound's setup service replaces. Questions about fit? Get in touch.

By Rishabh Ambasta, Founder, Modern Inbound.