Proxycurl Alternatives for LinkedIn Scraping in 2026

If you've been relying on Proxycurl for LinkedIn data extraction, you probably already know it's no longer an option. The platform shut down in July 2026 following a federal lawsuit from LinkedIn, leaving many businesses scrambling for reliable alternatives.

The good news? There are several legitimate replacements available, but not all LinkedIn scraping tools are created equal. Some require you to log in with your personal account (risky), others use questionable methods that could land you in legal trouble, and a few operate transparently within legal boundaries.

This guide walks you through everything you need to know about finding a trustworthy Proxycurl alternative, including the legal considerations you can't afford to ignore and the top three solutions that prioritize compliance and reliability.

What Happened to Proxycurl?

Proxycurl was a popular service that provided fresh web data about people and companies, primarily sourced from LinkedIn. It offered APIs to access detailed profiles, company information, and enrichment capabilities that made B2B data collection straightforward.

On January 24, 2026, Sarah Wight, LinkedIn's Vice President of Legal Affairs, publicly announced that the company had filed a federal lawsuit against Proxycurl and its founder. The reason? Creating hundreds of thousands of fake accounts and scraping millions of LinkedIn member profiles, which directly violated LinkedIn's user agreement.

A few months later, on July 4, 2026, Proxycurl officially shut down. CEO Steven Goh confirmed in a statement that fighting the lawsuit simply wasn't viable. While he helped existing customers transition away from the platform, the message was clear: businesses need to find alternatives that won't face the same fate.

Legal Considerations When Choosing Proxycurl Alternatives

Before diving into specific tools, let's address the elephant in the room: legality.

The Proxycurl case isn't an isolated incident. LinkedIn has been aggressive about protecting its platform from unauthorized scraping, especially when fake accounts are involved. However, several court cases, including the landmark HiQ Labs v. LinkedIn decision, have shown that scraping publicly accessible, non-authenticated data can sometimes be legitimate, particularly when there's significant public interest.

When evaluating alternatives, you need to look beyond features and pricing. Ask yourself:

• Does the provider require me to use real or fake LinkedIn accounts?

• Are they transparent about their compliance practices?

• Do they have any legal track record defending their scraping methods?

• Are they focused exclusively on publicly accessible data?

Tools that ask you to log in with your LinkedIn credentials or encourage practices that clearly violate platform policies should raise immediate red flags. Even scraping publicly accessible data carries some risk, but working with a provider that operates transparently and prioritizes compliance significantly reduces your exposure.

If you're uncertain about any solution, consult your legal team before committing. The operational, financial, and reputational consequences of choosing the wrong provider aren't worth the risk.

Top 3 Proxycurl Alternatives for LinkedIn Data Extraction

Let's explore the most reliable replacements available today. When evaluating these alternatives, consider factors like ease of integration, core features, legal standing, ethical practices, free trial availability, pricing, and user reviews.

1. Bright Data

Bright Data ranks as the most comprehensive LinkedIn scraping solution available, and for good reason. The company controls one of the world's largest, fastest, and most reliable proxy networks, with millions of ethically sourced residential proxies supporting web scraping workflows.

What sets Bright Data apart from other alternatives is its proven legal track record. In 2024, it won lawsuits against both Meta and X, becoming the first web scraping company to be thoroughly examined and win twice in U.S. courts. This isn't just marketing talk; it's documented legal precedent that validates their approach.

For LinkedIn scraping specifically, Bright Data offers several specialized tools: a LinkedIn Scraper API for general data extraction, a LinkedIn Profile Scraper for detailed individual profiles, and a LinkedIn Company Scraper for business information. All three solutions extract data from publicly accessible pages without requiring any LinkedIn login credentials.

If you prefer not to handle scraping yourself, 👉 Bright Data also provides ready-to-use LinkedIn datasets that can save you significant development time.

Why it's easy to replace Proxycurl: The LinkedIn Scraper API works exactly like Proxycurl did—you call it via API, pass in the parameters you need, and receive structured data back. Most migrations can be completed in a matter of hours rather than weeks.

Key features include:

• 99.99% uptime guarantee

• Automatic IP and user-agent rotation

• Integration with a proxy network spanning 195 countries

• Bulk request processing (up to 5,000 URLs)

• Data validation functions

• Structured output in JSON, NDJSON, or CSV formats

• GDPR and CCPA compliance

• 24/7 online support

Legal standing: Beyond the Meta and X victories, Bright Data maintains a dedicated legal and governance page that outlines their compliance framework. They're transparent about their data collection methods and actively work within established regulatory boundaries.

Ethical practices: The company operates one of the industry's most comprehensive Trust Centers, demonstrating their commitment to ethical data collection. They're registered in the CSA STAR registry and comply with GDPR, ISO 27001, SOC 2, SOC 3, and numerous other certifications. They also support the Bright Initiative, a global program that uses public web data for positive change.

Free trial: Yes, available for all plans

Pricing: Starting at $0.0015 per record

User feedback: Trustpilot (4.4/5 from 851 reviews), G2 (4.6/5 from 247 reviews), Capterra (4.7/5 from 66 reviews)

2. Scrapingdog

Scrapingdog positions itself as a straightforward, affordable alternative focused on simplicity. Their LinkedIn scraping suite includes a LinkedIn Jobs API for retrieving job listings and a LinkedIn Profile Scraper API for accessing real-time data like names, locations, follower counts, and company sizes.

The provider has received numerous positive reviews on Trustpilot and emphasizes that it focuses exclusively on scraping publicly accessible data without requiring login information. However, unlike Bright Data, Scrapingdog doesn't have an established legal track record of defending their practices in court, and their website provides limited information about ethical standards.

Why it's easy to replace Proxycurl: Like Proxycurl, Scrapingdog exposes distinct scraping APIs for LinkedIn, making integration relatively straightforward.

Key features include:

• Advanced filtering options

• Transparent pagination handling

• Batch scraping capabilities

• Automatic IP rotation

• Structured JSON output

Legal standing: No documented track record of successful court cases. In a blog post, Scrapingdog states they don't use any LinkedIn accounts to extract data, which is supported by the fact that no session cookies are required to use their APIs.

Ethical practices: GDPR compliant, but no additional Trust Center or detailed information about their ethical approach.

Free trial: Yes, 30-day free trial

Pricing: Plans range from $40/month (Lite) for 40,000 job pages or 4,000 profiles, up to $350+/month (Premium) for 1,200,000 job pages or 120,000 profiles.

User feedback: Trustpilot (4.8/5 from 567 reviews), G2 (3.8/5 from 4 reviews), Capterra (no reviews)

3. Nimble

Nimble is an online platform designed to simplify web data collection workflows. Their LinkedIn Scraper API extracts actionable information from publicly accessible LinkedIn pages, powered by AI and backed by an extensive proxy network with millions of IP addresses.

The API prioritizes speed, reliability, and compliance with GDPR and CCPA regulations. However, personalized support is only guaranteed with the Professional plan starting at $1,500, and the company hasn't established a legal track record through court victories.

Why it's easy to replace Proxycurl: Nimble operates as an extraction API similar to Proxycurl, integrating with any HTTP client across all programming languages.

Key features include:

• Scalable batch processing support

• Management dashboard platform

• Detailed development documentation

Legal standing: No documented track record of winning lawsuits. The website clearly states their products focus solely on scraping "public web data," implying they avoid data behind login pages.

Ethical practices: Through the Nimble Trust Center, the company ensures all browser activities comply with strict corporate governance standards, regulatory requirements, and best practices for data collection.

Free trial: Yes

Pricing: Pay-as-you-go at $3/CPM, or subscription plans ranging from $600/month (Essential) to $3,000/month (Professional)

User feedback: Trustpilot (4.1/5 from 5 reviews), G2 (5.0/5 from 11 reviews), Capterra (no reviews)

Why API-Based Solutions Make the Most Sense

You might have noticed all three alternatives mentioned above are API-based solutions. This isn't a coincidence—there are two compelling reasons for this focus.

First, since Proxycurl itself was API-based, replacing it with a similar solution makes technical sense. You can swap out Proxycurl API calls with those from Bright Data or another provider without completely rebuilding your infrastructure. This is far simpler than implementing a completely different tool type like browser extensions or desktop automation software.

Second, LinkedIn-specific browser extensions and desktop/cloud automation tools typically require you to log in with your personal LinkedIn account. These solutions control your browsing session to automate actions and extract data, which appears to directly violate LinkedIn's policies against members using extensions to automate their behavior.

API scraping providers that clearly demonstrate they target only public data and don't use fake accounts (unlike how Proxycurl previously operated) are by far the safest, most reliable, and most trustworthy Proxycurl replacements for long-term use.

Finding the Right Alternative for Your Needs

The closure of Proxycurl serves as an important reminder: when building data infrastructure, choosing providers with proven compliance practices isn't just about avoiding legal trouble—it's about building sustainable, reliable systems that won't disappear overnight.

👉 If you're looking for a LinkedIn scraping solution that combines legal standing, ethical practices, and robust features, exploring API-based options is your best bet.

The best approach is choosing a provider offering a LinkedIn web scraping API that accesses only publicly accessible data, requires no LinkedIn login, and has a proven track record of ethical and legal compliance. Bright Data's LinkedIn Scraper stands out as the leading Proxycurl alternative, offering similar data access with more features and, most importantly, operating within legal boundaries.

If you don't need to scrape LinkedIn yourself but simply want access to the data, ready-to-use LinkedIn datasets offer a turnkey solution that eliminates technical complexity entirely.