Replace Social Fetch?
NOT REALLY · don't botherA personal TikTok or Instagram profile fetcher with Playwright and SQLite is a one-sitting build. Social Fetch is not that. It is kept-alive scrapers on 20+ platforms, proxy routing, anti-bot handling, a stable response schema, and credit metering. Your DIY script breaks when TikTok changes markup. The API bill is for that not being your problem.
Build a closest honest personal substitute for Social Fetch in an empty folder.
Stack (fixed): Node 22, TypeScript, Express, better-sqlite3, Playwright, Zod. No alternative stacks.
Scope: one platform only · TikTok public profiles + recent videos. Localhost only.
- GET /profile/:handle → display name, bio, follower/following counts, avatar URL
- GET /videos/:handle → last N public videos with id, caption, play/like counts, createdAt
- Cache responses in SQLite for 15 minutes; return cached JSON when fresh
- Normalize into a stable { data, meta } shape with requestId and cached: boolean
- Secrets (optional PROXY_URL) in .env; ship .env.example
- README must say bluntly: this will break when TikTok changes markup; no proxies, no Instagram/YouTube/X, no transcripts, no comments at scale, no production use
- Out of scope (say so in README): multi-platform adapters, residential proxies, captcha solving, rate-limit farms, billing, accounts, telemetry
- Include a smoke test that mocks HTML fixtures (do not hit TikTok in CI)
- One command to run locally; finish by listing exact commands used$ open in your agent (prompt prefilled, you press enter) or copy it raw
Writing a scraper is a weekend. Keeping scrapers working against platforms that fight scrapers is ongoing ops. Teams pay so their pipeline keeps returning `{ data, meta }` while someone else rotates proxies and patches adapters.
x20+ platforms on one schema and one API key
xproxy / anti-bot / captcha handling
xsomeone else patching when platforms break
xproduction metering, request IDs, and uptime
xmonitors, webhooks, and batch enrichment at volume
What does the Social Fetch verdict mean?
The directory does not recommend replacing this one from a prompt. Same rubric as everything else: this is infra, not a vibecodable SaaS UI. Read the breakdown above.
What price does this directory record show for Social Fetch?
The directory records $29/month for Starter, checked 2026-07-31. Verify the source before making a purchase decision. This reference stays outside retail Stack Math unless current matched evidence supports the comparison.
What do I lose by replacing Social Fetch?
Honestly: 20+ platforms on one schema and one API key; proxy / anti-bot / captcha handling; someone else patching when platforms break; production metering, request IDs, and uptime; monitors, webhooks, and batch enrichment at volume. If any of those are load-bearing for you, keep paying.
Is there an open-source alternative to Social Fetch?
The listed prior art includes yt-dlp (open-source media/metadata extraction for some platforms · not a multi-platform profile API). Inspect those projects before starting from a blank prompt.