Firecrawl
Web scraping and crawling API that turns any site into clean markdown or structured data for AI agents
FREEMIUM Verified JUL 30, 2026
Apify
Cloud platform for web scraping and automation with a marketplace of 54,000+ ready-to-run Actors
Apify is a serverless cloud for web scraping and browser automation, plus a marketplace of more than 54,000 prebuilt "Actors" you can run without writing code. The free plan includes $5 of platform credit at $0.2 per compute unit; Starter is $29/month, Scale $199/month, and Business $999/month, each granting matching credit and a lower compute rate. Developers can publish Actors and earn from other users' runs. Best for teams that want scrapers they did not build.
Verified JUL 30, 2026 FREEMIUM Live
What is Apify?
Apify is a serverless platform for running web scrapers and browser automation, built around a unit it calls an Actor — a containerised program that takes input, runs on Apify’s infrastructure, and writes results to a dataset. The distinguishing feature is the store: more than 54,000 Actors already exist for common targets, so extracting listings, profiles, reviews, or search results frequently means configuring someone else’s Actor rather than writing your own. For custom work there are Python, JavaScript, and TypeScript templates, a REST API, a CLI, SDKs, and Crawlee, the vendor’s open-source crawling library.
Billing combines a subscription with metered compute. Each plan grants platform credit equal to its monthly fee — the $199 Scale plan includes $199 of spend — and higher plans lower the compute-unit rate from $0.2 to $0.13. A compute unit reflects allocated memory multiplied by runtime, which makes costs workload-dependent rather than per-page. Several capabilities sit outside the plan fee as add-ons, including concurrent runs, additional Actor RAM, and proxy IPs. The platform has also moved toward agent use specifically, shipping an MCP server and support for the x402 standard so an agent can run an Actor and pay for that run itself.
Who is it for?
Apify makes most sense for teams that need web data from many different sites and would rather not maintain a scraper per target. If you only need one source, a simpler API is cheaper; the store is what justifies the platform.
- Growth, sales, and market-research teams who need lead lists, pricing data, or review monitoring without engineering capacity to build collectors.
- Developers who want to earn from scrapers they have already written, by publishing them as rentable Actors and letting the platform handle billing and payouts.
- Agent builders wiring web tools into an assistant through MCP, where a catalogue of ready Actors is more useful than a single generic scrape endpoint.
- Data teams with variable workloads that benefit from the lower compute rates on Scale and Business, provided they have measured how many compute units their jobs actually burn.
How much does Apify cost?
Starting price: $29/mo · Free tier: yes · Model: freemium
Pricing verified JUL 30, 2026
Price history tracked from June 2026
| Plan | Price | Includes |
|---|---|---|
| Free | Free | $5 of credit to spend in Apify Store or on your own Actors · $0.2 per compute unit · Community support · No Apify Store discount · No credit card required |
| Starter | $29/mo | $29 of credit to spend, plus pay as you go · $0.2 per compute unit · Chat support · Bronze Apify Store discount |
| Scale | $199/mo | $199 of credit to spend, plus pay as you go · $0.16 per compute unit · Priority chat support · Silver Apify Store discount |
| Business | $999/mo | $999 of credit to spend, plus pay as you go · $0.13 per compute unit · Dedicated account manager · Gold Apify Store discount |
| Enterprise | Custom | Custom scraping solutions · Scalable pricing with SLAs and guaranteed data · Dedicated team of experts |
What are Apify's key features?
- Marketplace of more than 54,000 Actors covering common scraping and automation targets
- Serverless Actor runtime with Python, JavaScript, and TypeScript templates
- Crawlee, the vendor's open-source scraping and crawling library
- Managed datacenter and residential proxies with anti-blocking
- MCP server so AI assistants can call Actors as tools
- Integrations with common apps and services plus a full REST API, CLI, and SDKs
- Support for x402 so agents can run Actors and pay per run
- Monetisation programme that pays developers for Actors others use
What people use Apify for
- 01 Running an existing marketplace or social scraper from the store instead of building one
- 02 Scheduling recurring data extraction jobs that write to a dataset or webhook
- 03 Giving an AI agent access to web tools through the platform's MCP server
- 04 Rotating proxies and evading blocks on sites that reject naive scrapers
- 05 Publishing your own scraper for other developers to rent
Pros and cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| The store means most common scraping jobs need no code at all | Compute units are hard to estimate in advance — cost depends on memory and runtime, so budgeting a new scraper means measuring it first |
| Subscription fees convert into an equal amount of platform credit, so the monthly fee is largely prepaid usage rather than a pure access charge | Many store Actors charge their own rental or per-result fees on top of your compute spend, which is why plans advertise Bronze, Silver, and Gold store discounts |
| Higher plans genuinely lower the compute rate, from $0.2 down to $0.13 per compute unit | Core capabilities are sold as paid add-ons: concurrent runs at $5 per run, Actor RAM at $1 per GB, and datacenter proxies from $0.6 per IP |
| Publishing Actors is a real revenue path for developers, not just a community showcase | The jump from Scale at $199/month to Business at $999/month is a large step for teams that only need a slightly better compute rate |
| Annual billing takes 10% off |
What are the best Apify alternatives?
Browserbase
Cloud browser infrastructure for AI agents — run and scale headless browser sessions via API; maker of the open-source Stagehand framework
FREEMIUM Verified JUL 10, 2026
Browser Use
Open-source library that lets AI agents control a real browser to automate and extract from any site
OPEN-SOURCE Verified JUL 1, 2026
Skyvern
Open-source AI agent that automates browser workflows with vision instead of brittle selectors
FREEMIUM Verified JUL 5, 2026
Exa
AI-native web search engine and API built for agents, with semantic search and content extraction
USAGE-BASED Verified JUN 22, 2026
How people make money with Apify
- Publish a scraper as a rentable Actor on the Apify Store and earn recurring revenue from other users' runs, with billing and payouts handled by the platform
- Sell managed data feeds to agencies or ecommerce clients on a monthly retainer, buying compute at the discounted per-unit rate that higher plans provide
Frequently asked questions
Is Apify free to use?
There is a free plan with $5 of platform credit to spend on store Actors or your own, billed at $0.2 per compute unit, with community support and no credit card required. It excludes the store discounts that paid plans carry. Paid plans begin at $29/month for Starter.
How much does Apify cost per month?
Starter is $29/month, Scale is $199/month, and Business is $999/month, each on top of pay-as-you-go usage. Every plan grants platform credit equal to its fee, so a $199 Scale plan includes $199 of spend. Annual billing reduces each price by 10%. Enterprise is custom.
What is a compute unit in Apify?
A compute unit measures the resources an Actor consumes while running, combining allocated memory with runtime. The rate falls as plans rise: $0.2 per unit on Free and Starter, $0.16 on Scale, and $0.13 on Business. Because it depends on memory and duration, real cost is best measured by running a job.
Do Apify Store Actors cost extra?
Often yes. Many Actors published by other developers charge their own rental or per-result fee in addition to the compute your run consumes. Paid plans carry Bronze, Silver, or Gold store discounts that reduce those charges, which is a meaningful part of what the subscription buys.
Can I make money publishing Actors on Apify?
Yes. The platform runs a monetisation programme where developers publish Actors to the store and earn when other users run them, with billing and payouts handled centrally. Apify publishes monthly payout totals to developers, and it is a genuine revenue channel rather than a showcase.
Does Apify work with AI agents?
Yes. It ships an MCP server so assistants can call Actors as tools, and supports the x402 payment standard so agents can run Actors and pay per run. Store Actors are also positioned as ready-made tools for agent and generative AI data pipelines.