Monid announced it is killing Apify and launching a new API that can read every major social media platform—X, Reddit, LinkedIn, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Rednote, and even Amazon—without requiring logins or subscriptions. The service is priced at $0.0015 per request, a stark contrast to Apify’s $199 /month plan. tweet
What Monid actually does
The API acts as a thin wrapper around headless browsing and site‑specific parsers. Callers send a URL and receive a JSON payload containing post text, author info, timestamps, and media links. Because there’s no session handling, the endpoint can be hit from any serverless function or CI job without credential management.
Cost model and early‑stage budgeting
At $0.0015 per request, a single million‑call month costs roughly $1,500. For low‑volume prototypes (e.g., a few hundred calls per day) the bill stays under $50. However, heavy‑weight use—such as bulk archival of public feeds—can quickly outpace Apify’s flat fee, especially if request spikes occur.
Limitations to keep in mind
Monid’s “no login” promise means it can only access publicly visible data; private groups, follower‑only posts, or age‑restricted content remain out of reach. The service also inherits the fragility of screen‑scraping: site layout changes can cause temporary false‑positives or missing fields, and there is no guarantee of uptime SLA.
When to try it
If you need occasional, on‑demand data from multiple platforms without building and maintaining your own scrapers, spin up a test endpoint and monitor request latency and error rates. For mission‑critical pipelines, consider a hybrid approach—use Monid for exploration and fall back to a managed provider for guaranteed coverage.
What to watch: upcoming pricing tiers, rate‑limit policies, and any changes to platform terms of service that could affect scraping legality.