twitterapi.io vs SocialData
The two X specialists most developers shortlist. Both sell public X data per item, with no X developer account and no subscription required. The differences are price at scale, writes, and how much you’re told about who runs them. twitterapi.io is cheaper and does more, from follower graphs to writes; SocialData is the simpler read-only API with a bill you can predict.
Researched by Which Social API editorial teamLast reviewed 29 October 2026How we review
Which Social API uses a mix of qualitative and quantitative review methods, based on each provider’s documentation, published pricing and public user reviews. We never accept money in exchange for a higher ranking or a better review. Who runs this site
The quick answer
For most teams, twitterapi.io. It’s cheaper on every read we can compare: $0.15 per 1,000 tweets against $0.20, and $0.01 per 1,000 followers in bulk against $0.20. It also has about 75 endpoints to SocialData’s 30, including trends, follower IDs and write actions, and monitoring 20 accounts costs $79 a month against about $90.
SocialData wins if you want a read-only API with nothing surprising in it. Failed requests are free, every docs page shows its price, and there are no write or login endpoints to put an X account at risk. If your job is search and profile lookups at modest volume, the extra $0.05 per 1,000 tweets buys a cleaner product.
Choose twitterapi.io if
You pull follower lists or profiles in bulkYou need trends, follower IDs or write actionsYou want more than 120 requests a minute without askingChoose SocialData if
You only need to read public X dataYou want failed requests left off the billYou value docs with the price on every endpointHead to head
Our ratings, judged from published prices, docs and limits. The longer bar is better in every row.
For cost, the lower number gets the longer bar. How we review
Pricing compared
Both are prepaid and charge per item returned, with no seats or minimum spend. twitterapi.io is cheaper per tweet and far cheaper for follower graphs; SocialData is a flat $0.0002 on almost everything.
Features side by side
If you’re building on the API
Both are plain REST with an API key and synchronous JSON, and neither ships an SDK. twitterapi.io has the longer list: about 75 endpoints covering search with X’s operators, replies, quotes, followers, lists, communities, Spaces and trends, plus webhook and WebSocket pushes for keyword rules and a separate stream for monitored accounts. It also sells posting, likes, follows and DMs through your own logged-in X account.
SocialData has about 30 endpoints and stays read-only. It adds a Monitoring API with signed webhooks for new tweets, follows, profile changes and search matches, an event history for replaying missed events, and single-call checks for whether one account follows or retweeted another. Its docs are the better of the two, with an OpenAPI spec and the price on every page.
twitterapi.io API
- Endpoints
- About 75, reads and writes
- Auth
- API key header
- SDKs
- None; MCP server
- Rate limit
- 20 a second once paid, up to 500 on Business
- Real-time
- Webhook and WebSocket pushes
SocialData API
- Endpoints
- About 30, read-only
- Auth
- Bearer token
- SDKs
- None; OpenAPI spec, MCP server
- Rate limit
- 120 a minute, more free on request
- Real-time
- Signed webhook monitors
Where each falls short
twitterapi.io
It’s run by Prism Digital, LLC in Delaware, the domain dates from December 2024, and no team or funding is published. Its terms say it provides no data that requires authentication, yet it sells login, DM and bookmark endpoints that act on your own X account. A never-paid account is held to one request every five seconds, over-limit calls return a 429 with no Retry-After header, and every call costs at least 15 credits, so keyword polling pays for empty results.
SocialData
It doesn’t publish a legal entity, address or governing law, and support is email only. The default limit is 120 requests a minute shared across every endpoint. It has no trends, follower-ID lists or writes, and bulk follower pulls cost 20 times twitterapi.io’s rate. Search monitors bill every run, so one on the default 30-second refresh costs about $17.28 a month before it finds anything. Whether there’s a free trial is unclear: the homepage says yes, the FAQ says no.
Alternatives to both
See all 8 X (Twitter) scraping APIs in our ranking
Questions
Is twitterapi.io or SocialData better?
twitterapi.io for most people: it’s cheaper, has more endpoints and covers writes and trends. SocialData if you want a simple read-only API with free failed requests and the clearest docs.
Which is cheaper?
twitterapi.io. Tweets cost $0.15 per 1,000 against SocialData’s $0.20, and bulk followers cost $0.01 per 1,000 against $0.20. SocialData is cheaper only for light polling: its first three empty results a minute are free, while twitterapi.io charges for every empty call.
Do I need an X developer account for either?
No. Both are third-party APIs with their own keys and prepaid balances. Neither is affiliated with X.
Can I post to X with them?
Only with twitterapi.io, which sells posting, likes, follows and DMs through your own logged-in X account. Keep those endpoints away from any account you can’t afford to lose. SocialData is read-only.
Which is better for monitoring accounts?
On price, twitterapi.io: its Stream plans cover 20 accounts for $79 a month, against about $89.80 at SocialData. SocialData’s monitors are signed webhooks with an event history for replays. twitterapi.io says its median delivery is under half a second; SocialData doesn’t promise a speed.