Lobstr.io review

Lobstr.io is a hosted web-scraping SaaS: its scrapers run on the vendor’s servers, rather than inside your application or on infrastructure you manage. The platform combines a no-code dashboard with an API and an MCP server. It is not presented as a scraping library, command-line tool or self-hosted server.

The service handles the operational work behind its ready-made scrapers, including servers and proxies. You provide links, keywords, cities or CSV inputs; Lobstr.io runs the selected scraper and returns collected rows. Its catalog lists 79 scrapers across 37 sites, including Google Maps, LinkedIn, Vinted and Reddit. Optional extras can add emails, phone numbers and profile details.

In a stack, Lobstr.io sits between websites and the systems that consume their data. The vendor lists exports and destinations including Google Sheets, Amazon S3, webhooks and email. Teams can launch jobs through the dashboard, API or an MCP client such as Claude, ChatGPT or Cursor.

Lobstr.io offers an API for running scrapers and an MCP server at https://mcp.lobstr.io/mcp. The vendor describes 22 MCP tools for discovering scrapers, checking inputs and prices, building runs, starting them with approval, tracking progress and reading results. Its homepage says users can authenticate to MCP with their Lobstr.io account, without copying an API key.

The dashboard supports scraper selection, inputs such as links and keywords, CSV uploads, schedules and run monitoring. The vendor also lists Google Sheets, Amazon S3, webhooks and email as result destinations. Scrapers that need a login can use the customer’s account, synced through a Chrome extension.

The homepage names no programming languages, SDK packages, CLI or API protocol. Confirm SDK support and API authentication, request formats, pagination and error handling in the vendor’s documentation before designing an integration. The available integration surfaces are the API, MCP, dashboard and listed result destinations; do not assume a particular language binding or REST interface.

The pricing page lists a Free plan at $0 with 100 credits per month, one concurrent run, seven-day result retention and unlimited exports. It includes most scrapers but no schedules. Starter costs $20 monthly or $16 per month with annual billing; it includes 10,000 credits, two concurrent runs and every scraper, including schedules. Pro is $100 monthly or $80 annually per month for 100,000 credits and 10 concurrent runs. Team is $500 monthly or $400 annually per month for 1,000,000 credits and 50 concurrent runs. Annual billing is billed once a year and takes 20% off.

All paid tiers list 45-day result retention except Team, which lists 90 days. Custom plans cover more than 1,000,000 credits and offer volume pricing, with no price listed. Optional emails, phone numbers and other scraper extras add credits per result; the pricing page lists no fixed add-on prices.

The platform meters usage in credits, so workload cost depends on scraper runs and selected extras. When credits run out, the homepage says a run pauses and resumes after a top-up or at the next cycle. Check a scraper’s credit estimate and any enrichment cost before budgeting recurring production jobs.

Lobstr.io is presented as a cloud service, with scraper runs handled on its servers. The vendor does not publish a source-code license or a self-hosting option, so teams should treat it as a hosted dependency unless the vendor confirms otherwise. There is no basis to plan on deploying its scraper catalog inside your own environment.

The platform lists unlimited exports on every priced plan and names Google Sheets, Amazon S3, webhooks and email as destinations. That gives teams ways to move collected results into other systems. The vendor does not publish an export format or an API-based bulk migration path here, so confirm those details and test a representative export before building a long-term data pipeline.

Migration effort also depends on how much logic lives in Lobstr.io’s scraper definitions and how your workflows use its credits, schedules and MCP tools. Keep downstream processing independent where possible, and ask the vendor about data portability and account closure before committing.

The main published capacity controls are monthly credits and concurrent runs: from one slot on Free to 50 on Team. The vendor says runs pause when credits run out and resume after a top-up or at the next billing cycle. Results are retained for seven days on Free, 45 days on Starter and Pro, and 90 days on Team. Plan exports or downstream storage around those windows.

The homepage describes hourly, daily and custom schedules on paid plans, along with CSV inputs and runs across thousands of inputs. It does not publish API rate limits, uptime commitments, service-level agreements or detailed retry behavior. Ask the vendor about these limits, scraper change handling and support response targets for workloads with delivery deadlines.

Scrapers that need accounts use customer logins synced through a Chrome extension. Before connecting production accounts, review the vendor’s security and data-handling terms, access controls and compliance documentation. The homepage does not state specific compliance certifications or security guarantees. Validate whether the service’s account access and retention model fits your data and contractual requirements.