Where did Lamadava go?
Lamadava and Datalama are no longer available. They have been superseded by HikerAPI and Datalikers SaaSIn search of better scraping services
Any developer or marketing professional getting into scraping Instagram needs a fast, reliable, and affordable service that can get a ton of data. The question is how fast is fast? How affordable is affordable? How many records can the service collect before it crashes?
Unfortunately, many of us have been getting the wrong answers. This became apparent to me when Apify quoted me $14,000 per month for a bulk Instagram scraping plan where I would still need to provide my own Instagram accounts. I did my research, and it was not long before I started using Lamadava and Datalama.
Lamadava Social Media API
Lamadava is a fully-managed SaaS implementing the open-source Instagrapi. It lets you collect data in bulk and automate Instagram actions through HTTP requests. These are some of the processes it can automate:
- Get public data of users, posts, stories, highlights, followers, and following users
- Get list of comments and likers on a post along with their profile details
- Login to instagram, create posts, send message, and mention users
- Like, follow, and make comments
- Edit your account settings
In addition to feature richness, Lamadava boasts high speed and fault-tolerance. This is made possible by their robust microservice architecture, using Erlang and Python as a backend with Clickhouse, CouchBase, Redis, and PostgreSQL for data storage. These architectural features support Lamadava's workload of 2-3 million requests per day.
Free proxy servers and accounts provided
Account and IP bans make up most of the struggles faced when scraping Instagram. Lamadava eliminates the need for you to provide your Instagram account login details or use your own proxy services. They handle all the account and proxy rotations at no extra charge to you.
If you still need proxies for your own scraping architecture, I highly recommend Bright Data.
Cost-effective Instagram automation
The pricing plans range from $20 to $300. The funds are debited on a pay-as-you-go basis, and you are only charged for successful requests. The pricing plans scale brilliantly at the higher end:
- Start: $0.02 per request when depositing $20 (1,000 total)
- Basic: $0.0025 per request when depositing $50 (20,000 total)
- Standard: $0.001 per request when depositing $100 (100,000 total)
- Premium: $0.0006 per request when depositing $300 (500,000 total)
Lamadava now accepts PayPal, which will make things much easier for new and returning customers.
Bulk Instagram data collection
When scraping hashtags and followers, you get 33 posts or profiles per request. If you deposited $300 and have 500,000 requests to use, you can scrape 16,500,000 profiles or posts. The API holds up even when scraping follower lists of up to 1,000,000 followers.
From Instagrapi to Lamadava and Datalama
Mikhail Andreev created Instagrapi in 2018 as a personal project for growth on Instagram. During that time, Instagrapi developed an active user base and many new features were added. Today, Instagrapi covers almost all of the necessary functionality of Instagram.
Despite the convenience of the open-source Instagrapi, users still struggle with account and IP bans. As a result, Andreev created the Lamadava project, which allows users to receive data and automate actions with their account. It also allows you to access login-only endpoints such as the follower list without needing to provide your own login credentials.
Andreev addressed the needs of data scientists with Datalama, which lets you buy cached Instagram datasets for cheaper rates. This provides an excellent option for people who do not mind if data is outdated. Datalama also allows for the user to order the creation of a custom dataset.
Setting the bar for Instagram data services
Lamadava and Datalama provide excellent options if you are looking to scrape Instagram data. Their speed, reliability, and cost is unmatched. My favorite aspect of these services is not having to worry about getting my accounts banned while web scraping.
If you need current data, go with Lamadava. If you do not mind an outdated dataset, you can get it from Datalama at a more affordable cost. I highly recommend checking them out and seeing if their service is right for you before overspending on a different service.