Reddit Search & Comments Scraper (B2B Lead Gen)

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Overview

Reddit is one of the highest-converting channels for B2B intent discovery: buyers openly ask for software alternatives, complain about legacy vendor pricing, and request agency recommendations. However, standard scrapers frequently fail on cloud infrastructure due to datacenter IP blocks (HTTP 403).

Reddit B2B Buying-Intent & Comment Tree Engine uses a dual-route HTTP/2 architecture that queries public Reddit JSON feeds and automatically fails over to synchronized real-time archive mirrors whenever a datacenter block occurs. Every thread is parsed through a deterministic B2B intent classifier and enriched with its top comment tree.

Core Capabilities

Capability	Technical Implementation	B2B Application
Dual-Route Anti-403 Failover	Primary Reddit JSON API + automatic real-time mirror fallback	100% run reliability without mandatory residential proxy costs
Buying-Intent Classification	Regex & lexical scoring across post titles, bodies, and comments	Instantly isolate Alternative Request, Tool Recommendation, and Pricing / Budget Inquiry threads
Top-Comment Tree Extraction	Concurrent retrieval of top-level replies per thread (topComments)	Capture competitor mentions, user sentiment, and community recommendations
External Link Harvesting	Extracts non-Reddit URLs shared inside posts (externalLinks)	Track which SaaS tools and landing pages are gaining organic traction

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Input Parameters

Field	Type	Default	Description
keywords	string[]	["CRM alternative", "lead generation tool"]	Search queries or product terms to monitor.
subreddits	string[]	["SaaS", "sales"]	Target subreddits (without the r/ prefix).
sort	string	"new"	Sort order: relevance, new, hot, top, or comments.
timeFilter	string	"month"	Time window: all, year, month, week, day, or hour.
includeComments	boolean	true	Fetch top comments for each post to analyze full discussion context.
maxCommentsPerPost	integer	10	Maximum number of comments fetched per post (1–100).
maxPosts	integer	50	Maximum total number of deduplicated posts returned (1–10000).

Example Input (INPUT.json)

{
  "keywords": [
    "HubSpot alternative",
    "outbound automation",
    "best data enrichment"
  ],
  "subreddits": [
    "SaaS",
    "sales",
    "entrepreneur"
  ],
  "sort": "new",
  "timeFilter": "month",
  "includeComments": true,
  "maxCommentsPerPost": 10,
  "maxPosts": 100
}

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Output Dataset Schema

Property	Type	Description
postTitle	string	Title of the Reddit submission.
subreddit	string	Subreddit community name.
author	string	Username of the post author.
score	integer	Net upvote score.
commentCount	integer	Total comment count on the thread.
url	string	Direct canonical URL to the Reddit thread.
postId	string	Reddit base-36 submission ID.
createdAt	string	ISO 8601 UTC publication timestamp.
selftext	string | null	Full plain-text body of the submission.
matchedQuery	string | null	Subreddit and keyword pair that matched this thread.
hasBuyingIntent	boolean	true when one or more B2B buying-intent patterns are detected.
buyingIntentSignals	string[]	Matched intent categories (Alternative Request, Tool Recommendation, Pricing / Budget Inquiry, Pain Point / Frustration, Agency / Service Need).
externalLinks	string[]	External URLs referenced in the post.
topComments	object[]	Array of structured comments (commentId, author, body, score, createdAt, permalink).

Sample Record

{
  "postTitle": "Looking for a lightweight CRM alternative to HubSpot for a 5-person B2B team",
  "author": "saas_builder_99",
  "score": 42,
  "commentCount": 28,
  "url": "https://www.reddit.com/r/SaaS/comments/1abcxyz/looking_for_a_lightweight_crm_alternative/",
  "subreddit": "SaaS",
  "postId": "1abcxyz",
  "createdAt": "2026-10-30T16:20:05+00:00",
  "selftext": "We are currently paying too much for HubSpot and need a simpler B2B pipeline tool...",
  "matchedQuery": "r/SaaS | q=CRM alternative",
  "buyingIntentSignals": [
    "Alternative Request",
    "Pricing / Budget Inquiry"
  ],
  "hasBuyingIntent": true,
  "externalLinks": [],
  "topComments": [
    {
      "commentId": "lk9912a",
      "author": "revops_lead",
      "body": "We switched to Attio and Close last quarter, highly recommend checking both.",
      "score": 15,
      "createdAt": "2026-10-30T17:02:11+00:00",
      "permalink": "https://www.reddit.com/r/SaaS/comments/1abcxyz/comment/lk9912a/"
    }
  ]
}

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Integration Example (Python SDK)

from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient("YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN")

run = client.actor("kleioks/reddit-b2b-scraper").call(
    run_input={
        "keywords": ["CRM alternative", "looking for agency"],
        "subreddits": ["SaaS", "sales"],
        "sort": "new",
        "includeComments": True,
        "maxPosts": 50,
    }
)

for post in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    if post["hasBuyingIntent"]:
        print(f"[{post['subreddit']}] {post['postTitle']} -> {post['url']}")

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No-Code, Clay, n8n & AI Agent (MCP) Integrations

1. n8n & Make.com Real-Time Social Listening Alerts

1. Schedule the Apify Node in n8n or Make.com to run every 2 hours with sort: "new" across your target subreddits (r/SaaS, r/sysadmin, r/MSP, r/marketing).
2. Add a filter condition on hasBuyingIntent == true (intentSignals containing "alternative to", "recommend a", or "switching from").
3. Route matching discussions directly to a dedicated #buying-intent-signals Slack channel or draft an contextual reply via an LLM node.

2. Clay.com Competitor Churn & Pain-Point Enrichment

Use the synchronous dataset endpoint in Clay's HTTP API enrichment to pull recent threads mentioning a competitor's brand name and feed the raw user complaints (selfText + topCommentsText) into GPT-4o to synthesize hyper-relevant outbound angles:

https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/kleioks~reddit-b2b-scraper/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN

3. Model Context Protocol (MCP) for Claude, Cursor & AI Agents

Connect this Actor directly to Claude Desktop, Cursor, or autonomous research agents using the official Apify MCP server:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "apify-reddit-b2b": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "@apify/actors-mcp-server",
        "--actors",
        "kleioks/reddit-b2b-scraper"
      ],
      "env": {
        "APIFY_TOKEN": "YOUR_APIFY_API_TOKEN"
      }
    }
  }
}

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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

How does this Reddit scraper avoid HTTP 403 and 429 datacenter IP blocks?

Reddit aggressively rate-limits unauthenticated datacenter requests. This Actor implements a dual-route hybrid architecture: it queries Reddit's .json endpoints with automatic failover to the high-availability Arctic Shift JSON API (arctic-shift.photon-reddit.com), ensuring 100% run reliability without requiring expensive residential proxy pools.

How can I use Reddit to find B2B SaaS leads and high-intent buyers?

Every extracted post and comment thread is automatically scanned against 16 high-intent B2B purchase patterns ("looking for", "recommend a", "alternative to", "migrating from", "best tool for"). By filtering on hasBuyingIntent: true, your GTM team engages prospects at the exact moment they are evaluating software vendors.

Does this Actor extract both Reddit posts and top comments?

Yes. When includeComments is enabled, the Actor concurrently fetches the top discussion comments (topCommentsText) and extracts any external company URLs (extractedDomains) and public contact emails (extractedEmails) shared inside the thread.

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Complete B2B Intelligence Suite by Kleioks

Combine this Actor with our specialized B2B data engines on the Apify Store to build end-to-end GTM, RevOps, and market research pipelines:

Actor	Primary B2B Use Case	Store Link
Reddit B2B Buying Intent Scraper	Monitor competitor churn, software recommendations & high-intent buyer threads on Reddit	Open on Apify Store
Google Maps B2B Lead Machine	High-speed local business lead extractor (phone, website, rating & missing-website signals)	Open on Apify Store
Multi-ATS Career Jobs API	Track real-time hiring intent & tech-stack signals across Greenhouse, Lever, Ashby & Workable	Open on Apify Store
B2B Social Leads & Intent Extractor	Discover SaaS founders, developers & decision-makers across Bluesky, GitHub & Hacker News	Open on Apify Store
Influencer & Creator Discovery API	Extract TikTok, Instagram & YouTube creator profiles, engagement rates & verified PR emails	Open on Apify Store
Real Estate Market Intelligence API	Normalized property listings, automated price/m² valuation, DPE ratings & agency contacts	Open on Apify Store