What is Phantombuster: a complete guide to get started effectively

Phantombuster is a software and a automation solution (SaaS) that allows you to launch web robots — the Phantoms — for Scrape data, automate prospecting on social networks and feed your CRM without entering information by hand.

Concretely, using PhantomBuster is used to transform repetitive tasks (LinkedIn, Google Maps, email, Slack...) in workflows that run in the background.

For a marketer, a B2B salesperson or a Growth Hacker, PhantomBuster is therefore a box for automation tools marketing: you Connect your accounts (LinkedIn, Instagram, Sales Navigator, Google Maps...), you Choose a ready-to-use scenario, you set the limits, and the platform is in charge of collect leads, enrich data and trigger actions (messages, exports to CRM, Slack notifications...).

Getting started with the software is quick, making it easy to use PhantomBuster to automate prospecting, even for first-time users.

What is PhantomBuster?

PhantomBuster is a cloud automation platform which offers more than 100 preconfigured scripts called Phantoms And Workflows no-code to combine several actions (scraping + enrichment + outreach, for example).

In particular, these Phantoms allow you to:

• Extracting data from LinkedIn, Sales Navigator, Instagram, X, X, Facebook, Google Maps, YouTube, Slack, etc.
• Enrich this data (emails, firmographics, intent signals) via internal engines andartificial intelligence marketing.
• Automate part of the prospecting: profile visits, sending messages, follow-ups, etc.

In addition to these products, PhantomBuster offers a variety of services adapted to different prospecting needs, including various functionalities and support options depending on the offers chosen.

In summary, PhantomBuster falls between:

• one scraping tool,
• one marketing automation tool,
• And a data connector to Google Sheets, HubSpot, Slack, Zapier, n8n, etc.

Here is an overview at a glance

What is PhantomBuster for a marketer or salesperson?

Thanks to PhantomBuster, it is especially possible to save time on prospecting and data collection, without coding.

Here are some scenarios for example:

Prospecting LinkedIn/Sales Navigator 🔗

• Export lead lists, scrape profiles, retrieve mails/job titles.
• Launch campaigns to visit profiles, invitations and follow-up messages (in moderation, to remain in “human” volumes).

Extracting Google Maps 🗺️ contacts

• Scrape the results of a search (e.g. “Montreal web agency”): name, site, phone, email, social networks.
• Provide a database for local or multi-channel prospecting.

Multi-channel marketing automation 📬

• Connect PhantomBuster to Slack, CRM, Google Sheets, Zapier, Gmail, or n8n to create automated flows (notifications, synchronization, segmentation).
• Thanks to the integration with Gmail, it is possible to automate the sending of personalized emails during prospecting campaigns.
• The tool also makes it possible to automatically send information or lists of prospects by email to facilitate tracking and data sharing.
• Launch Slack alerts when a campaign ends or when a lead threshold is reached

Optimizing business processes 📈

• Centralize all lead data in a CRM instead of 15 Excel files.
• Industrialize the lead generation fast, while controlling volumes

How does PhantomBuster work?

1 ️ aging Phantoms: the automation “robots”

Each Phantom is a small preconfigured script that executes a targeted task:

• Scrape some LinkedIn profiles or Sales Navigator results.
• Export search results Google Maps
• Extract the members of a Slack channel or send Slack messages to the channel.

You configure:

• The stream (search URL, profile list, Slack channel, etc.),
• The daily limits (number of profiles, messages),
• The frequency (once, every day, every week).

2 ️ ※ Slots, run times, and credits to use Phantombuster

The model is based on:

• Of “slots” (number of Phantoms that can rotate in parallel),
• ofthe monthly run time,
• Of email credits/AI according to the plan.

The current paid plans revolve around:

• Starter ≈ $69/month (5 slots, limited number of hours),
• Pro ≈ $159/month (more slots + more hours),
• Team ≈ $439/month (up to 50 slots and 300h/month, multi-user).

PhantomBuster offers a 14 day free trial with full access to features, then switch to a paid plan or a limited version depending on the option chosen

3 ️ 803 Integrations & APIs

The tool connects to:

• Google Sheets, HubSpot, Slack, Slack, Zapier, Zapier, n8n, Zoho Flow, etc.
• A PhantomBuster API for developers who want to control Phantoms from their own scripts.

Result: you can connect PhantomBuster to your existing stack to create optimized data flows (ex: PhantomBuster → Zapier → Slack + CRM).

Who is PhantomBuster for (and who is it more like “no”)?

PhantomBuster is mainly aimed at B2B Sales & Marketing teams, the agencies And the Growth freelancers who need volume without recruiting an army of assistants.

Here are the profiles that PhantomBuster makes sense for:

⚠️ Less suitable if:

• You send 10 emails per week and a few manual invitations → a heavy tool doesn't bring much
• you want to “automate everything” without thinking about the message or targeting → you just risk increasing the noise and the perception of spam.

What tasks can you automate with PhantomBuster?

1 ️ ※ Scraping & data collection

• Scraping LinkedIn/Sales Navigator : profiles, companies, lists, group members.
• Scraping Facebook, Instagram, X, YouTube : fans, subscribers, likes, comments, etc.
• Extracting Google Maps contacts : full contact details + social networks based on simple searches.
• Slack collection : extraction of channel users for community analysis or targeted messages.

2 ️ ※ Prospecting & lead management

• LinkedIn profile visits, invitations, and messages in sequence (with delay between each step).
• Sending of personalized messages on Slack to a list of users or community members.
• Automatic enrichment of lead lists with emails and firmographic data.
• Synchronization with CRM/Google Sheets/Slack to distribute leads to sales representatives

3 ️ esto Marketing automation/analytics

• Monitor engagement signals (followers of a page, likes, comments) to identify signals of intent.
• Send Slack notifications or emails when a Phantom is finished or when a lead quota is reached.
• Feeding dashboards data analytics in Notion, Looker Studio, etc. via Google Sheets or API.

Advantages and disadvantages

User feedback and recent reviews show a fairly nuanced picture: power is real, but you have to accept a learning curve and a few constraints.

✅ Pros

• Multi-platform : LinkedIn, Sales Navigator, Google Maps, Google Maps, social networks, Slack... from a single interface.
• Very rich Phantoms library : more than 100 preconfigured robots + no-code workflows.
• CRM/Slack/Zapier/n8n integrations that facilitateAPI integration and data flows.
• 14 day free trial to test on a real use-case before committing to a budget.

❌ Cons

• Learning curve : some users mention frequent errors (expired sessions, settings to be adjusted).
• Risk of blocking accounts if you push the limits of each platform too hard (LinkedIn, Instagram, etc.).
• prix : for light use, plans can quickly seem expensive compared to more targeted tools.
• Support and stability : some reviews mention reliability issues, automations that go wrong, or support that is not always responsive.

Here is a summary of the pros and cons of Phantombuster

What are the main alternatives to PhantomBuster?

We can group the alternatives into Three families :

1. Specialized tools in automation on LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram, which facilitate prospecting and managing contacts.
2. Some competitors also make it possible to automate prospecting on, in particular to manage lists of followers and identify influencers (both in B2C and in B2B)
3. General solutions that cover several social networks and platforms, offering various functionalities to automate different tasks.

1 ️ separates LinkedIn/Sales Navigator specialized tools

• Evaboot : very strong for the clean export of Sales Navigator, with cleaning up the results.
• Linked Helper, Expandi, SalesRobot... : more focused on LinkedIn outbound sequences (message campaigns, A/B tests, etc.)

Relevant if your main need = LinkedIn prospecting and not multi-channel scraping.

2 ️ ※ No-code scraping tools

• Octoparse, Apify, Bright Data... : more general on web scraping, with more advanced crawlers
• Often more powerful for projects data/analytics only for prospecting.

3 ️ 803 Orchestration platforms & data enrichment

• TeXau, Captain Data, Clay : similar to PhantomBuster, but with different positions (focus data, enrichment, signals, API orchestration...).
• Interesting if you want a very advanced construction of playbooks (multi-API, scoring, complex triggers).

🧭 A short comparison of “families”

Conclusion

PhantomBuster is a powerful marketing automation and B2B prospecting tool, capable of:

• Scraper LinkedIn, Google Maps, Slack, social networks,
• Enrich data with emails & firmographics,
• Automate comprehensive workflows up to CRM and Slack notifications,
• While offering a 14 day free trial to test on a real use-case.

In return, you must accept:

• one more technical set-up than a simple emailing tool,
• real discipline on volumes so as not to violate the terms of use of the platforms,
• a serious reflection on ethics (no spam, no fishing of sensitive data) and RGPD compliance in your markets.

🧠 My critical opinion:

• If you are growth/sales/agency with a clear outbound strategy, a well-thought-out message base and a real need for volume, PhantomBuster can become a pillar of your stack for marketing automation.
• If you are starting out in prospecting or if you do not yet have a good handle on your ICP, your offer and your sequences, you risk especially to automate... mistakes. In this case, it's better to start simple (LinkedIn by hand) or a very targeted tool like AimFox), then head to PhantomBuster when your processes are stabilized.