Instagram Influencer Finder — Heepsy Alternative

Find public Instagram influencers by niche or audit known handles. Export profile links, follower indicators, recent posts, engagement estimates, and public bio-email cues to build a reviewable creator shortlist. For influencer marketers, each dataset row is one creator profile audit with available recent-post evidence.

Workflow: put the results to work

Begin with one Instagram niche or the handles already on your shortlist. Filter the returned profiles using the available follower and engagement signals, then inspect their recent posts and source URLs before deciding who fits the campaign.

Best fit

Use this Actor when you need a small, source-linked public creator export for one Instagram niche or a reviewable audit of handles you already have. Start with five results, inspect sources and collection time, then make any audience-fit or commercial decision through an appropriate human review.

Choose Heepsy when the job needs its multi-network indexed database, audience insights, authenticity analysis, creator relationships, or campaign operations.

How this public workflow compares with Heepsy

Decision	This Actor	Heepsy	Best fit
Scope	One public Instagram discovery or supplied-handle audit with source-linked rows.	Multi-network creator discovery and influencer-program operations.	Use this Actor for a focused export; choose Heepsy for a broader program workspace.
Billing	Pay per persisted audit plus platform usage.	Free and annual-billed plan allowances published by Heepsy.	Compare the same query, accepted rows, and desired workflow before choosing a billing model.
Efficiency	A compact JSON request turns into CSV/JSON-ready public records for a defined research step.	A managed platform supports deeper search and campaign operations.	Use the focused API output when a structured shortlist is the immediate outcome.
Output	Source URL, collection time, public profile indicators, and available recent-content evidence.	Broader analyzed profile and campaign surfaces.	Use source-linked public records for initial review; use Heepsy when its broader analysis is needed.
Freshness	Each new run creates a current public snapshot with explicit provenance.	Indexed creator data is refreshed within its product model.	Use a new Actor run when the workflow needs a new source observation.

What one result means

One row is one validated public Instagram profile snapshot. The Actor persists—and charges for—a row only after it can normalize real public profile evidence. The profileUrl, provider, and scrapedAt fields preserve provenance.

Field	Meaning
handle, displayName, profileUrl	Public creator identity and source profile.
followerCount, followingCount, contentCount, verified	Public profile indicators at collection time, when returned.
recentPosts	A capped list of returned public posts used for the visible metrics below.
estimatedEngagementRate	Returned recent likes plus comments divided by returned public followers. It is not audience quality, authenticity, reach, conversion, or campaign performance.
publicContactEmails	Email-shaped strings from the returned public bio only. They are not verified or enriched contact data.
sponsorshipSignalPosts	Text cues such as #ad, affiliate, or partnership language. They do not confirm a paid relationship.
provider, scrapedAt	Retrieval route and UTC collection time.

Quick start input: discover a public niche

{
  "mode": "discover",
  "query": "fitness coach",
  "maxResults": 5,
  "minFollowers": 1000,
  "minEngagementRate": 0,
  "maxRecentPosts": 5
}

discover is a bounded provider search—not a claim to enumerate all Instagram creators. Candidate handles are enriched before they can become results.

Audit supplied public handles

{
  "mode": "audit_handles",
  "handles": ["natgeo", "nike"],
  "maxResults": 2,
  "minFollowers": 0,
  "maxRecentPosts": 5
}

This mode is useful when an agency already has a shortlist and needs current, source-linked public profile snapshots. It accepts 1–20 public handles or instagram.com profile URLs.

Example output

{
  "recordType": "public-creator-audit",
  "platform": "instagram",
  "handle": "examplecreator",
  "profileUrl": "https://www.instagram.com/examplecreator/",
  "followerCount": 42000,
  "averageLikeCount": 1800,
  "averageCommentCount": 62,
  "estimatedEngagementRate": 4.43,
  "publicContactEmails": [],
  "sponsorshipSignalPosts": [],
  "provider": "scrapecreators",
  "scrapedAt": "2026-09-08T12:00:00.000Z"
}

Data provider and reliability boundary

Public Instagram collection uses owner-managed provider access. Customers do not supply a social login or browser cookies. Review the Pricing tab for the Actor charges and platform usage.

There is no verified, contract-compatible fallback for Instagram discovery in this release. The Actor retries transient source calls three times and persists useful profile snapshots when recent posts are unavailable. If discovery or profile retrieval cannot supply useful data, it writes explicit VALID_EMPTY, PARTIAL, UPSTREAM_FAILED, or CONFIG_ERROR terminal records rather than fabricating a success.

API and agent use

curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/khadinakbar~heepsy-alternative/runs" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $APIFY_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"mode":"discover","query":"fitness coach","maxResults":5,"minFollowers":1000}'

After the run, read the default dataset and the OUTPUT and RUN_SUMMARY records.

AI agent prompt: Find up to five public Instagram fitness coaches. Return the dataset readback with profile source URLs, public follower snapshots, visible recent-post metrics, public bio-email cues, sponsorship-disclosure cues, provider, collection time, terminal outcome, and cost boundary. Treat each row as a public snapshot for human review.

Terminal outcomes

COMPLETE means every persisted audit had the full declared public profile and post route. PARTIAL means useful profile rows were returned but some post routes failed. VALID_EMPTY means no source rows met the bounded request or filters. INVALID_INPUT represents invalid input. UPSTREAM_FAILED and CONFIG_ERROR preserve source and configuration failures honestly.

Responsible use

Use only public profiles you are authorized to assess under applicable law, platform terms, and your organization’s policies. Do not treat public metrics or cues as a decision about identity, audience quality, fraud, commercial relationship, protected characteristics, or suitability. Confirm contact, affiliation, and campaign facts directly with the creator or an authorized source.

Builder's note

I built the actor to separate discovery from profile validation. I found that public social search is shallow and volatile, so a candidate becomes a billable dataset row only when a source-linked public profile can be normalized. This gives agents and researchers a clearer data boundary for later review.

Pricing and run costs

This Actor uses Pay per event plus Apify platform usage. The Pricing tab lists the current event rates and billing terms.

Event	Billing unit	When it applies
apify-actor-start	Actor Start	Charged when the Actor starts running. Number of events charged depends on Actor memory (one event per GB, minimum one event).
public-creator-audit	Public creator audit	Charged only after one validated source-linked public Instagram creator audit is persisted.

Run cost combines the charged events and Apify platform usage. Review the run charge limit and requested result count before starting.

Independent alternative

This Actor provides the specific workflow described above. It is not affiliated with or endorsed by Heepsy; the named product and its trademarks belong to their respective owners.

Connect an AI agent

Use the Apify MCP configurator to choose an available client connection. Inspect this Actor’s current input schema and required credentials before running it.