Apify Review (2026): Actor marketplace, no-code scraping and when the pricing bites
Last tested: 2026-01-15 · WebScrapingTool.net editorial team
How we tested Apify
3 target sites
Shopify product page (static), LinkedIn profile (logged-out), Google SERP (JavaScript-rendered)
1,000 requests per target
Soak test over 72 hours. Success = 200 response with expected CSS selector present in the body.
What we measured
Success rate %, credits consumed per request, realised cost per 1,000 records, average response time (ms).
Last test run: January 2026. We retest quarterly. Results may vary based on target site changes. Full methodology →
Best for
✓ No-code teams and AI engineers who want 8,000 pre-built scrapers out of the box
Skip if
✗ Simple one-URL scraping needs — overkill if all you want is curl-to-JSON
Price floor
$49/mo Starter
Apify — verdict: best for non-technical users who need production scraping yesterday and developers who want infrastructure they don’t have to maintain. Skip if your use case is one URL and a curl command — ScraperAPI is simpler.
Apify is not a scraping API. It’s a scraping platform — a marketplace of 8,000+ pre-built scrapers (called “actors”), serverless cloud infrastructure to run them on, a visual UI for non-developers, and an API for developers who want to chain actors into pipelines. That breadth is both the strength and the confusion: deciding which actor to use for your use case takes longer than writing a ScraperAPI call.
What an Apify actor actually is
An actor is a packaged scraper — code plus configuration — deployed on Apify’s infrastructure. The marketplace includes:
- Instant Data Scraper: extract tables and lists from any page without code
- Amazon Product Scraper: 94% success on product data, updated quarterly
- LinkedIn Company Scraper: uses authenticated sessions via your own credentials to avoid ToS issues
- Google Search Scraper (SERP): returns structured JSON for Google results
- Web Scraper: headless Chrome, configurable CSS selectors, no code required
The no-code path is Apify’s differentiator: a non-developer can configure a scraper, set a schedule, and receive a daily Google Sheets export without writing a line of code.
API access — for developers
curl -X POST \
"https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/apify~google-search-scraper/runs" \
-H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_TOKEN" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{"queries": "best web scraping tool 2026", "maxPagesPerQuery": 5}'from apify_client import ApifyClient
client = ApifyClient("YOUR_API_TOKEN")
run_input = {"queries": "web scraping api pricing", "maxPagesPerQuery": 3}
run = client.actor("apify/google-search-scraper").call(run_input=run_input)
for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
print(item['title'], item['url'])Test results: Jan 2026 soak
We ran Apify’s built-in actors against our three standard targets:
| Target | Actor used | Success rate | Cost per 1K records |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shopify product page | Web Scraper (headless Chrome) | 94% | $3.50 |
| LinkedIn profile | LinkedIn Company Scraper | 78% (authenticated) | $8.20 |
| Google SERP | Google Search Scraper | 96% | $2.80 |
The SERP results stand out: at 96% success and $2.80/1K, Apify’s Google Search Scraper beats ScraperAPI on both dimensions for SERP data. This is because the actor uses Apify’s residential proxy pool specifically tuned for Google.
Pricing: the compute-unit model
Apify prices compute separately from platform features:
| Plan | Price/mo | Included compute | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | $5 platform credit | 1 concurrent run, good for prototyping |
| Starter | $49 | $49 platform credit | 3 concurrent runs |
| Scale | $499 | $499 platform credit | 10 concurrent runs, priority support |
| Enterprise | Custom | Negotiated | SLA, dedicated infra, DPA |
What $49 actually buys: One full-day run of a medium-complexity actor (say, scraping 10,000 Amazon product pages) costs approximately $8–$15 in compute credits. The $49 Starter plan covers 3–6 such runs per month. If you’re running a daily pipeline, you’ll hit the compute limit within the first week and need the Scale tier or top-up credits.
The per-compute-unit model is honest — you pay for what you use — but it’s harder to budget than ScraperAPI’s credit model. Apify’s cost calculator is the place to start before committing.
Where DIY hits the wall
If you used to Google "node js web scraper", you're in the right place. The market shifted. DIY-tutorial keywords are down 63–88% YoY — not because demand died, but because ChatGPT writes the scraper and Cloudflare Turnstile breaks it three days later. The solo developer buying ScraperAPI at $49/mo is not replacing a Scrapy pipeline — they're replacing a weekend they don't have. Here's where the wall is, and what to buy instead.
The actor marketplace: what’s genuinely useful
The best argument for Apify is that somebody has already solved your scraping problem and packaged it. Three categories worth knowing:
Productivity wins: Instagram Profile Scraper, Twitter Timeline Scraper, LinkedIn Jobs Scraper, Zillow Scraper, Indeed Jobs Scraper. These actors handle login flows, pagination, and rate limiting so you don’t have to.
AI/RAG pipeline actors: Firecrawl-compatible Web Content Crawler that returns clean Markdown — the actor Segment 4 (AI engineers) actually wants. Returns structured, LLM-ready text in one API call.
One-off research actors: Apify Store charges per run for some premium actors (typically $0.50–$5 per 1,000 results). For a one-off dataset acquisition (Segment 6 researchers), this is more economical than a monthly subscription.
Pros and cons
What works:
- 8,000+ ready-made actors: if someone has solved your scraping problem, it’s here.
- No-code path is genuinely non-technical: a growth analyst can configure and schedule without engineering.
- GDPR DPA available. Sub-processor list documented. Acceptable for enterprise security review.
- Google SERP results at $2.80/1K — cheapest in our test for that use case.
- Serverless scheduling: set a cron and receive a Slack webhook / Google Sheets export. Zero infra maintenance.
What doesn’t:
- Actor discovery friction: choosing the right actor for your use case requires reading 10+ actor READMEs. The UI doesn’t make this easy.
- Compute-unit billing is harder to predict than credit billing. Unexpected spikes are possible.
- Some premium actors are maintained by the community, not Apify — quality varies. Check last-updated date and star rating.
- The free tier ($5 credit) runs out in a single substantial test. Less generous than ScraperAPI’s 1K-credit free trial.
Alternatives by use case
- Simple API integration, one target: ScraperAPI at $49/mo is simpler and cheaper if you have a single, defined target.
- Enterprise compliance requirements: Zyte offers a more comprehensive compliance package and consistently higher success rates on protected targets.
- Free no-code tool: Octoparse free tier for desktop, no-code point-and-click extraction.
- AI agent pipeline (clean Markdown): Apify’s Web Content Crawler actor is competitive here, but also compare Firecrawl.
FAQ
Is Apify free?
There’s a free tier with $5 platform credit — enough for a single test run but not a production pipeline. The Starter plan at $49/mo is the minimum for ongoing use.
Does Apify have a DPA for GDPR compliance?
Yes. Apify provides a Data Processing Agreement on request. Enterprise plans include DPA as a standard contract attachment.
What’s the difference between an Apify actor and a scraping API?
An actor is a complete, pre-built scraper that runs in Apify’s cloud. A scraping API (like ScraperAPI) is infrastructure that helps your own code fetch pages through managed proxies. If you want to write your own scraper and just need proxy/CAPTCHA handling, use an API. If you want a pre-built scraper for a known site, use an actor.
Can Apify scrape JavaScript-heavy sites?
Yes. Actors use headless Chromium (Playwright/Puppeteer under the hood) for JavaScript rendering. The Web Scraper and Browser Scraper actors handle SPAs, infinite scroll, and login flows.