SocialCrawl vs Outstand: posting API or data API?
Outstand posts to 10 networks for the accounts you connect. SocialCrawl reads public data from any account across 42 platforms — no OAuth. Opposite jobs; teams run both.
Keep Outstand to publish. Add `npx socialcrawl-mcp` to read — public profiles, posts, comments and search across 42 platforms, no account connection.
Facts last verified June 15, 2026
Searching 42 platforms in parallel
TikTok·
Instagram·
YouTube·
Facebook·
X·
LinkedIn·
Reddit·
Threads·
Pinterest·
Twitch·
Truth Social·
Snapchat·
Kick·
Bluesky·
Kwai·
Rumble·
Spotify·TikTok Shop·
Amazon Shop·
Google Shopping·
Trustpilot·
TripAdvisor·
Linktree·
Komi·
Pillar·
lnk.bio·Facebook Ads·Google Ads·LinkedIn Ads·Google Search·Google News·Google Finance·
Polymarket·
Tavily·
Hacker News·
GitHub·
Perplexity·
Naver·UUtility·
Universal SearchTikTok·Instagram·YouTube·Facebook·X·LinkedIn·Reddit·Threads·Pinterest·Twitch·Truth Social·Snapchat·Kick·Bluesky·Kwai·Rumble·Spotify·TikTok Shop·Amazon Shop·Google Shopping·Trustpilot·TripAdvisor·Linktree·Komi·Pillar·lnk.bio·Facebook Ads·Google Ads·LinkedIn Ads·Google Search·Google News·Google Finance·Polymarket·Tavily·Hacker News·GitHub·Perplexity·Naver·UUtility·Universal SearchTikTok·Instagram·YouTube·Facebook·X·LinkedIn·Reddit·Threads·Pinterest·Twitch·Truth Social·Snapchat·Kick·Bluesky·Kwai·Rumble·Spotify·TikTok Shop·Amazon Shop·Google Shopping·Trustpilot·TripAdvisor·Linktree·Komi·Pillar·lnk.bio·Facebook Ads·Google Ads·LinkedIn Ads·Google Search·Google News·Google Finance·Polymarket·Tavily·Hacker News·GitHub·Perplexity·Naver·UUtility·Universal SearchTikTok·Instagram·YouTube·Facebook·X·LinkedIn·Reddit·Threads·Pinterest·Twitch·Truth Social·Snapchat·Kick·Bluesky·Kwai·Rumble·Spotify·TikTok Shop·Amazon Shop·Google Shopping·Trustpilot·TripAdvisor·Linktree·Komi·Pillar·lnk.bio·Facebook Ads·Google Ads·LinkedIn Ads·Google Search·Google News·Google Finance·Polymarket·Tavily·Hacker News·GitHub·Perplexity·Naver·UUtility·Universal SearchWhat is the difference between SocialCrawl and Outstand?
Outstand is a write-side posting API: connect your accounts via OAuth and publish to 10 networks in one call. SocialCrawl is a read-side data API: scrape public profiles, posts, comments, and search across 42 platforms — no OAuth, including accounts you don't own. Opposite directions.
Unified schema
One field name across 42 platforms. Write one parser, not 13.
MCP server
`npx socialcrawl-mcp` on the MCP Registry. Works in Claude Code, Cursor, Windsurf.
Visual Explorer
Paste any URL, see rich cards and export as code. No API key needed to browse.
How do SocialCrawl and Outstand compare, side by side?
Fifteen dimensions, read-side vs write-side. Outstand's platforms, pricing, and feature claims were taken from outstand.so and verified 2026-06-15 — and the rows where Outstand owns the posting surface say so plainly.
| Feature | SocialCrawl | Outstand |
|---|---|---|
| Direction | ||
| What the API does | Reads public data (write nothing) | Publishes posts (read only your own accounts) |
| Account connection | None — reads any public account | OAuth required — acts on accounts you connect |
| Competitor / market monitoring | Yes — any public profile, post, comment | No — only accounts you own |
| Platforms & endpoints | ||
| Platform count | 42 platforms, 264 read endpoints | 10 posting networks |
| Beyond social | Commerce, app-store, review, forum data | None (posting only) |
| Search | ||
| Universal cross-platform search | GET /v1/search/everywhere — 12 platforms, one call | None (no read-side search by design) |
| Schema & data quality | ||
| Unified response schema | One schema across 42 platforms, enforced at the gateway | N/A — returns post status, not social objects |
| Computed social fields | engagement_rate, estimated_reach, content_category — pre-calculated | None (publishing API) |
| Comment / creator-level data | Yes — comments, creators, sentiment as typed fields | No — analytics on your own posts only |
| Agent readiness | ||
| MCP server | Shipped (npx socialcrawl-mcp) | Shipped (25-tool posting MCP) |
| Framework support | MCP + Skills bundle + SDK paths (read) | MCP + webhooks + SDKs (write) |
| Pricing & billing | ||
| Free tier | 100 credits, no card | None — $5/mo base |
| Billing model | Monthly subscription, read credits (GBP) | Usage-based per post: $5/mo (1,000 posts) + $0.01/post (USD) |
| Internationalization | ||
| Korean / Naver | Native EN + KO copy, hreflang | English-first, USD-only |
| Non-technical tooling | ||
| Visual Explorer | Paste a URL, see rich cards, export as code | None (publishing dashboard) |
| Relationship | ||
| Where each fits | The read half — monitor and research | The write half — publish and schedule |
Direction
What the API does
Account connection
Competitor / market monitoring
Platforms & endpoints
Platform count
Beyond social
Search
Universal cross-platform search
Schema & data quality
Unified response schema
Computed social fields
Comment / creator-level data
Agent readiness
MCP server
Framework support
Pricing & billing
Free tier
Billing model
Internationalization
Korean / Naver
Non-technical tooling
Visual Explorer
Relationship
Where each fits
Do you need to publish content, or read public data?
Different jobs. Outstand writes — connect your accounts and publish to 10 networks in one call. SocialCrawl reads — scrape public profiles, posts, comments, and search across 42 platforms, no OAuth, including accounts you don't own.
- Outstand needs OAuth: it acts on the accounts you connect, which is exactly right for publishing and for analytics on accounts you own.
- SocialCrawl needs no account connection — it reads public data from any profile, post, hashtag, or search across the open social graph.
- You cannot post with SocialCrawl, and you cannot monitor a competitor's public engagement with Outstand — neither covers the other's job.
- Teams routinely run both: publish the campaign with Outstand, then measure the market's public reaction with SocialCrawl.
You stop forcing one API to do both jobs and wire the right side of the workflow to each.
How much of the social graph can each API actually reach?
Outstand reaches 10 networks to post to. SocialCrawl reaches 42 platforms and 264 read endpoints — plus commerce, app-store, and review data that a posting API has no reason to touch.
- Outstand's 10 posting networks (X, LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, Threads, Bluesky, YouTube, Pinterest, Google Business) are the right list for publishing.
- SocialCrawl reads across 42 platforms with one normalized schema, so followerCount is the same field everywhere instead of 42 parsers.
- Beyond social, SocialCrawl reads Amazon, Google Play, the App Store, Trustpilot, and forums — research surfaces a write API never exposes.
- If you only ever publish, 10 networks is plenty; the gap only matters once you need to read the market, not write to it.
Your research code targets one schema across 42 platforms instead of stitching together per-platform read scrapers.
Can one call show you what's happening across every platform?
Outstand has no read-side search — it publishes, it doesn't survey the social graph. SocialCrawl's GET /v1/search/everywhere fans out across 12 social platforms in parallel, then LLM-plans, RRF-fuses, LLM-reranks, and clusters the results into structured posts and creators.
- A posting API returns the status of posts you sent; it can't tell you what anyone else posted, by design.
- SocialCrawl's pipeline returns fused, reranked social results, so your code doesn't merge five platform responses by hand.
- It runs as JSON or SSE, at a flat 20 credits on the developer API — a research primitive Outstand simply doesn't have.
- The same engine powers a free same-origin web search, so you can see the social SERP before wiring the API.
One call gives you a ranked, cross-platform view of a topic's social activity — the half publishing can't see.
Can an agent both publish and research without leaving the session?
Yes — together. Both ship MCP servers, so an agent can register Outstand for posting and SocialCrawl for reading and use each at the right moment. Outstand's 25-tool MCP handles publishing; `npx socialcrawl-mcp` handles normalized, computed-field social data.
- Credit to Outstand: its MCP is genuinely useful for agent posting workflows — keep it for the write side.
- SocialCrawl's MCP returns normalized social objects with computed fields, so the agent reasons over data instead of parsing a page.
- A Skills bundle and SDK paths mean the read side installs in minutes, not a custom integration sprint.
- Register both and an agent drafts, schedules, and publishes with Outstand, then monitors the public response with SocialCrawl.
Your agent owns the full loop — publish, then read the market — without bolting two unrelated stacks together.
the write-side posting API · Outstand's own figure, 2026-06-15
What does Outstand do better than SocialCrawl today?
Publishing — and it's not close, because SocialCrawl doesn't publish at all. Outstand posts to 10 networks in one call, schedules with timezone awareness, fires webhooks on post status, converts media per platform, and prices it simply at $5/mo for 1,000 posts then $0.01 each. If your product writes to social, Outstand is the right tool.
- Single-call fan-out across X, LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok, and 6 more, with retry and per-platform media handling built in — exactly the job SocialCrawl does not do.
- Usage-based pricing with no tiers makes a scheduler or cross-posting feature cheap to ship and predictable to bill.
- If you're building a publishing tool, keep Outstand for the write side and add SocialCrawl for the read side.
How does Outstand's pricing compare to SocialCrawl?
The two are priced for opposite jobs — publishing posts (Outstand) and reading data (SocialCrawl) — so read this as a pairing budget, not a head-to-head. Outstand's per-post pricing was verified 2026-06-15 from outstand.so.
Opposite jobs, not the same meter
Pair them, don't pick one
Outstand prices publishing; SocialCrawl prices reading — verified 2026-06-15
Honest asymmetry: Outstand meters by post ($5/mo for 1,000, then $0.01 each); SocialCrawl meters by read credit on a monthly plan. They bill for opposite work, so most teams budget for both rather than choosing one.
See full pricingWho is SocialCrawl built for?
Developers and teams who need to read public social data — competitor monitoring, creator research, comment and transcript mining, cross-platform search — from any account, not just the ones they own and connect.
Add SocialCrawl if:
- You need to read public data, not postPull any public profile, post, comment thread, or hashtag across 42 platforms with no OAuth and no account connection.
- You want one schema across every platformfollowerCount and engagement_rate are the same fields everywhere, so you write one parser instead of 42 — and read typed objects, not raw JSON.
- You need one cross-platform social searchOne call to /v1/search/everywhere fans out across 12 social platforms, then fuses and reranks the results into posts and creators.
- You're building with AI agents and MCPnpx socialcrawl-mcp plus a Skills bundle drop read data into Claude Code, Cursor, and Windsurf — alongside Outstand for the write side.
- You serve Korean-market usersNative Korean copy and hreflang, not an English-first surface translated after the fact — useful where Naver and KakaoTalk matter.
Reach for Outstand when:
Outstand is the right call whenever the job is publishing — and naming those cases plainly beats pretending they don't exist.
- Your product publishes to socialConnect accounts via OAuth and post to X, LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok, and 6 more in a single call — exactly what SocialCrawl doesn't do.
- You're building a scheduler or cross-posterTimezone-aware scheduling, webhooks on post status, and per-platform media conversion are built in for the accounts your users connect.
- You want simple per-post pricing$5/mo includes 1,000 posts, then $0.01 each, with no tiers — predictable to bill for a publishing feature.
- Your agent needs to publish, not researchOutstand's 25-tool MCP server is built for agent posting workflows; pair it with SocialCrawl when the agent also needs to read.
Still evaluating? If you only publish content and never need to read public data, Outstand alone is fine — bookmark this for the day a feature has to monitor, research, or search rather than post.
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100 free credits, no card — enough to add public-data reads next to Outstand and see structured posts, creators, and sentiment for yourself.