ParseForge
Contra Freelancers Scraper
parseforge/contra-freelancers-scraper
AutomationLead generationJobs
Scrapes Contra.com freelancer profiles from the independents directory. Filter by keyword, category, location, and hourly rate, and get each profile as a flat row with skills, bio, and portfolio links.
- Total users
- 2
- Monthly active
- 1
- Total runs
- 86
- Bookmarked
- 0
- Rating
- Not rated yet
- Last modified
- 9 days ago
Overview
Contra Freelancers Scraper
Scrape Contra freelancer profiles from any category, search query, or location, up to a million per run. Every profile comes with its hourly rate, skills, portfolio links, and bio. No login or API key. Export to CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML.
Contra's commission-free platform is home to thousands of independent professionals, but manually browsing profiles to find the right talent is slow. This Actor reads the public Contra directory directly, filtering by skill, category, location, and hourly rate, and returns each matching freelancer in a consistent, flat schema.
| Who uses it | What they scrape Contra for |
|---|---|
| Recruiters and hiring managers | Build a targeted list of freelance designers, developers, or marketers within a specific budget and timezone. |
| Sales and business development teams | Identify independent consultants and agencies to pitch partnership or white-label opportunities. |
| Market researchers | Analyze the supply of freelance talent by skill, rate distribution, and geographic concentration. |
| Job board aggregators | Populate a niche job board with verified freelancer profiles and their portfolio links. |
What it does
This Actor collects Contra freelancer profiles from the independents directory or a category page, filtered by keyword, location, and rate, and returns each one as a flat row.
- 🔍 Keyword search: Filter freelancers by a specific skill or role, such as 'React developer' or 'copywriter'.
- 📂 Category browsing: Target an entire specialization like Design, Development, Marketing, or Consulting.
- 📍 Location filter: Narrow results to a specific city or region to find local talent.
- 💰 Rate range: Set a minimum and maximum hourly rate in USD to match your budget.
Results export to CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML, or straight from the API.
What you can do with Contra data
🎯 Build a freelance lead list.
A recruiter scrapes all US-based 'React' developers in the Development category charging under $80 per hour, then imports the CSV into their outreach tool.
📊 Analyze freelance market rates.
A market researcher collects thousands of designer profiles across major cities to map hourly rate distributions and skill saturation.
🤝 Source partnership prospects.
A business development manager filters for marketing consultants in a target city to find potential white-label partners for an agency.
🌐 Populate a niche talent directory.
A job board operator scrapes Contra's Writing and Video categories weekly to keep their curated freelancer listings fresh.
Why choose this scraper
| What you get | |
|---|---|
| Zero commission profiles | Access the same public profiles clients see on Contra, with full bios and portfolio links. |
| Flexible filtering | Combine keyword, category, location, and hourly rate filters to pinpoint exact talent. |
| Structured output | Every profile lands in a fixed schema, ready for spreadsheets, databases, or CRM imports. |
| No API limits | Scrape up to a million profiles without rate-limiting or OAuth app registration. |
How it compares
This Actor focuses on high-volume directory scraping with flexible rate and location filters, while other Contra scrapers target different profile details or include project data.
| Feature | ParseForge | Contra Freelancers & Projects Scraper | Contra Freelancer Scraper - Profiles, Skills & Portfolio Data |
|---|---|---|---|
| Directory and category page scraping | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Hourly rate filter (min and max) | Yes | Not listed | Not listed |
| Location filter | Yes | Not listed | Yes |
| Category filter (Design, Dev, Marketing, etc.) | Yes | Not listed | Not listed |
| Portfolio project scraping | Not listed | Yes | Yes |
| Social links extraction | Not listed | Yes | Yes |
Configure the run
Drive the Actor from the Contra independents directory or a specific category page, and filters run as each profile is read so only matches reach your dataset. The Input tab lists every parameter.
A first run with the defaults:
{
"startUrl": "https://contra.com/independents",
"maxItems": 10
}
A larger pull:
{
"startUrl": "https://contra.com/independents",
"maxItems": 200
}
Pricing
Pay-per-result: $0.0085 per result collected. You pay only for the results written to your dataset.
| Results collected | Approximate cost |
|---|---|
| 100 results | $0.85 |
| 1,000 results | $8.50 |
| 10,000 results | $85.00 |
New Apify accounts start with $5 in free credit.
Free users
Free-plan runs return up to 10 results as a preview. Upgrade your Apify plan to collect up to 1,000,000 results per run.
Run it
- Create a free Apify account with $5 in credit.
- Open the Contra Freelancers Scraper.
- Set your inputs and any filters, then click Start.
- Export the results as CSV, Excel, JSON, or XML from the Dataset tab.
Run it programmatically through the Apify API (run-sync-get-dataset-items) or the ApifyClient for JavaScript and Python.
Use with AI agents (MCP)
Give an AI agent live access to Contra through the Model Context Protocol. Add the Actor to Claude, Cursor, or any MCP client:
claude mcp add --transport http apify "https://mcp.apify.com?tools=parseforge/contra-freelancers-scraper"
Then prompt it in plain language to run the scraper and read back the results.
Troubleshooting
Why am I getting no results?
Check that your search query, category, and location filters are not too restrictive. Try broadening the category to 'All' or removing the location filter to see if results appear.
The Actor stops before reaching my max items limit.
This happens when Contra runs out of profiles matching your filters. Try a broader search query or a different category to increase the available pool.
My location filter is not returning the expected freelancers.
The location filter is a free-text match against whatever the freelancer entered on their profile. Try variations like 'NYC' versus 'New York' or a partial name.
The hourly rate filter is not working as expected.
Some freelancers do not list an hourly rate on their public profile. Those profiles will be excluded when you set a min or max rate. Remove the rate filters to include them.
The run takes a long time with a high max items setting.
The Actor respects polite crawling delays. For very large scrapes, consider running it overnight or reducing the max items to a smaller, targeted batch.
FAQ
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Can I scrape a specific freelancer's profile page directly? | This Actor is designed to scrape the directory and search result pages, not individual profile URLs. Paste a category or search URL as the start URL to collect multiple profiles at once. |
| How do I filter by multiple skills at once? | The search query field accepts a single keyword or phrase. For multiple skills, run the Actor once per skill and merge the datasets, or use a broad category and filter the results afterward. |
| Does this Actor require a Contra account or API key? | No. It reads the public Contra directory pages directly, so no login, account, or API key is needed. |
| What location format should I use? | Enter a city name or region as free text, for example 'San Francisco' or 'Berlin'. The filter matches against the location text on the freelancer's public profile. |
| Can I get the freelancer's email address or phone number? | The Actor collects only the information publicly visible on Contra profile cards and directory pages. Contact details are typically not exposed there. |
| How many profiles can I scrape in one run? | You can set the maximum up to 1,000,000 profiles. The actual number collected depends on how many profiles match your filters on Contra. |
| What export formats are supported? | You can export your dataset in CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML format from the Apify platform. |
| Does the Actor handle pagination automatically? | Yes. It navigates through all pages of results until it reaches your max items limit or there are no more profiles to load. |
| Can I schedule this Actor to run daily? | Yes. Apify's scheduler lets you set the Actor to run at regular intervals, so you always have an up-to-date freelancer list. |
Related actors
Browse the full ParseForge collection for more scrapers.
🆘 Need help? Email parseforge@protonmail.com with your run ID, your input, and what you expected.
⚠️ Disclaimer. This Actor is unofficial and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Contra Inc. It collects only publicly available data. You are responsible for using the collected data in compliance with the source's terms of service and applicable data-protection laws, including GDPR, CCPA, and PIPL. Do not use it to collect personal data unlawfully.
Input
| Field | Type | What it does | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
| startUrl | string | Contra independents directory URL or a category page. Example, https://contra.com/independents | https://contra.com/independents |
| maxItems | integer | How many freelancers to collect per run. | 10 |
| searchQuery | string | Optional keyword to filter freelancers by skill or role. Whitespace will be trimmed. | not set |
| category | string (10 options) | Freelancer specialization category. | all |
| location | string | Filter by freelancer location, free text. Whitespace will be trimmed. | not set |
| minHourlyRate | integer | Lower bound for hourly rate in USD. | not set |
| maxHourlyRate | integer | Upper bound for hourly rate in USD. | not set |
Pricing
from $7.50 per 1,000 results
| Charged for | What it is | Price each |
|---|---|---|
| result | Single result in the default dataset. | $0.0075 to $0.0085 |
Tiered: the lower figure is the price on a higher Apify plan. Billing and the free credit live on Apify.
API
One POST returns the dataset directly. Same shape for every scraper in the library, so swapping the slug is the only change.
curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/parseforge~contra-freelancers-scraper/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=$APIFY_TOKEN" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{
"helloWorld": 123
}' Examples
Input that runs as-is.
{
"helloWorld": 123
} Reviews
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Issues
We build and maintain this scraper, so a problem with it comes to us. Report it on the Apify listing and the thread stays attached to the scraper where the next person can find it: open an issue.
Broken and urgent, or you would rather not post in public? Write to parseforge@protonmail.com and it reaches the people who wrote it.