Nice write-up — the “paying for subscriptions more than data” pain is real. If your IG piece is mostly public profiles/posts (not DMs), a fixed monthly RapidAPI can keep the bill predictable vs Actor PPE surprises.
I've been pointing people at this one: https://t.co/IeEWZn3KkF
Curious how it stacks next to the tools you already tested for that client.
If you mainly need public profiles / posts / hashtag-adjacent handles (not posting or DMs), a fixed-price RapidAPI REST can be simpler than wiring Apify Actors end-to-end. I've been using Instagram Scraper API Real-Time & Affordable for public IG reads — profiles, posts, Reels, followers: https://t.co/IeEWZn4iad
Worth a quick trial on a few of your target hashtags; for anything that needs login or outbound messaging, stick to Meta's official API.