ScopeScrape
Discover what your users are struggling with — before your competitors do. Open-source community intelligence that scans Reddit, Hacker News, GitHub, and Product Hunt for pain points, frustrations, and unmet needs.
The Problem
GummySearch shut down. The alternatives are closed-source and expensive. Founders and product teams need to understand what their users are struggling with, but the tools to discover this from public community conversations are either gone or locked behind paywalls.
How It Works
Point it at communities
Specify subreddits, HN topics, GitHub repos, or Product Hunt categories. Configure via YAML or CLI flags.
Automatic pain point detection
Signal phrase matching, VADER sentiment analysis, named entity recognition, and optional LLM-powered insight extraction.
Scored, actionable results
Every pain point is scored across frequency, intensity, specificity, and recency. Export to JSON, CSV, Parquet, or browse in the dashboard.
See It in Action
Features
Multi-Platform
Reddit, Hacker News, GitHub Discussions, Product Hunt. One tool, four community sources. Plugin architecture for adding more.
Local-First
Works without any API keys beyond Reddit. No cloud dependency. Your data stays on your machine.
Optional AI Analysis
Two-stage LLM pipeline with Claude or OpenAI. Cheap pre-filter, expensive insight extraction. Budget caps built in.
Transparent Scoring
Configurable YAML weights across frequency, intensity, specificity, and recency. No black boxes.
Flexible Export
JSON, CSV, Parquet, or SQLite. Plug into your existing analytics pipeline or use the built-in Streamlit dashboard.
Signal Phrase Engine
60+ curated signal phrases across 4 tiers — from explicit pain ("I'm frustrated") to implicit needs ("anyone know a tool for").
Platforms
How We Compare
| Feature | ScopeScrape | PainOnSocial | Reddinbox | BuzzAbout |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Open Source | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Multi-Platform | ✓ 4 platforms | ~ Reddit only | ~ Reddit only | ✓ 3 platforms |
| Free Tier | ✓ Unlimited | ~ Limited | ~ Limited | ✗ |
| Self-Hosted | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| AI Analysis | ✓ Optional | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ |
| Custom Scoring | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ~ |
| Data Export | ✓ 4 formats | ~ CSV | ~ CSV | ✓ |
Built With
A Python-native stack designed for extensibility and developer comfort.
Roadmap
Reddit + Hacker News adapters, signal phrase detection engine, configurable scoring, CLI interface, JSON/CSV/Parquet export.
GitHub Discussions + Product Hunt adapters, optional LLM analysis, cross-platform deduplication, Streamlit dashboard.
Scheduled scans, REST API, Notion/Airtable integrations, community plugin system, exploratory community discovery.
Latest from the Blog
Building ScopeScrape in public. Design decisions, technical deep-dives, and lessons learned.
GummySearch Lost Its Reddit License. Here's What Happened Next.
GummySearch shut down after Reddit revoked API access. The alternatives are expensive and closed. So I started building an open-source replacement.
Reddit API Reference for Developers: Fields, Limits, and Gotchas (2026)
Every field the Reddit API returns, the rate limits that apply, PRAW vs async PRAW vs raw HTTP, and the errors that cost me hours.
Designing a Pain Point Scoring Framework from Scratch
How we weight frequency, intensity, specificity, and recency into a single actionable score.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is ScopeScrape?
ScopeScrape is an open-source community intelligence tool that discovers user pain points from Reddit, Hacker News, GitHub Discussions, and Product Hunt. It uses signal phrase detection, VADER sentiment analysis, spaCy NER, and configurable scoring to turn raw community conversations into actionable product insights. It's built in Python, MIT licensed, and CLI-first.
How does ScopeScrape detect pain points?
ScopeScrape scans community posts for 60+ signal phrases across 4 tiers — from explicit pain expressions like "I'm frustrated with" to implicit signals like "anyone know a tool for." Each post is scored across frequency, intensity, specificity, and recency using VADER sentiment analysis and spaCy named entity recognition. Results above a configurable threshold are surfaced as actionable findings.
Is ScopeScrape free?
Yes. ScopeScrape is fully open-source under the MIT license. The core tool works without any paid API keys — you only need a free Reddit developer account. Optional LLM-powered analysis features use OpenAI or Anthropic APIs at your own cost, with built-in budget caps to prevent surprise bills.
What platforms does ScopeScrape support?
v0.1 supports Reddit (via PRAW) and Hacker News (via Algolia Search API). v0.2 will add GitHub Discussions and Product Hunt, both via GraphQL. The adapter pattern makes it straightforward to add new platforms — you just implement fetch() and normalize() methods.
How does ScopeScrape compare to GummySearch?
GummySearch was a closed-source, paid SaaS tool that lost its Reddit API license in 2025. ScopeScrape fills that gap as an open-source alternative: it's free, self-hosted, supports 4 platforms (not just Reddit), offers configurable scoring weights via YAML, and exports to JSON, CSV, Parquet, and SQLite. You own your data and your pipeline.