Apify review: what you should know
Apify is a platform of ready-made scrapers (Actors) and a runtime for your own, billed on platform usage plus per-Actor pricing.
Apify is classified as a platform. Its paid entry price is not verified yet. Billing unit: platform usage plus per-Actor pricing.
Validate success rate, concurrency limits and credit multipliers on your real targets before you budget around the entry price.
Quick take: marketplace of ready-made scrapers and run your own code on the platform.
Apify in video
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Who Apify is for (and who should skip)
Apify fits teams that care about marketplace of ready-made scrapers and run your own code on the platform.
Think twice about Apify if this is a deal-breaker for you: total cost depends on the Actor you choose.
Feature coverage and capabilities
Apify is currently recorded with: free tier (yes), javascript rendering (yes) and residential ips (not verified).
Dedicated scrapers listed by Apify on its own site: SERP API, Google Maps, Amazon, LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok, Reddit, YouTube and Facebook (checked November 5, 2026). Other sites still work through the generic endpoint.
Treat the matrix below as signals to verify on the vendor site before procurement. A blank means we could not verify it, not that it is missing.
Pricing model and cost control
Apify: paid entry price not verified, billed as platform usage plus per-Actor pricing. List prices change, so re-check the vendor checkout before budgeting.
Free tier: Free monthly platform credit. Quotas change often, so check the vendor pricing page.
Compare scraping tools on cost per successful request on your own targets: credit multipliers for rendering and hard domains can change the unit price several times over.
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| Type | Platform |
| Paid entry price | Not verified |
| Free tier | Free monthly platform credit |
| Billing unit | Platform usage plus per-Actor pricing |
Apify vs the market
Apify ranks 9th out of 12 scraping tools on Beconsole's data score. The score uses published prices and features only; it is not a performance test.
- Score rank
- 9th of 12
- Verified features
- 2 of 2
6.7 / 10
confirmed
Integration and setup walkthrough
Start with a small batch of your hardest URLs and log status code, retries, render mode and credits consumed per successful page.
Keep API keys in a secrets manager, cap spend with a daily budget, and only scale concurrency once failure rate by host looks acceptable.
Pros of Apify
These strengths come from Apify's published packaging. Validate each against your own bake-off.
- Marketplace of ready-made scrapers
- Run your own code on the platform
Cons and trade-offs
No scraping tool is perfect. These are the trade-offs to plan for with Apify.
- Total cost depends on the Actor you choose
- Success rates are target-specific and not part of our score; benchmark on your own domains.
Verdict: should you use Apify?
Apify scores 6.7/10 on Beconsole's data score. Main strengths: marketplace of ready-made scrapers and run your own code on the platform.
The score is computed from published pricing and specifications only. It is not a performance benchmark, so run a small pilot on your own targets before committing budget.
Proxies, antidetect browsers and scraping tools are dual-use software. Lawful, ethical and contractual constraints still apply: Beconsole compares them so you can choose better infrastructure, not to bypass rules.
FAQ
Apify: frequently asked questions
How much does Apify cost?
Apify: null (checked November 4, 2026). Billing unit: Platform usage plus per-Actor pricing.
Does Apify have a free tier?
Free monthly platform credit. Quotas change often, so check the vendor's pricing page.
Does Apify support JavaScript rendering?
JavaScript rendering: yes. Residential IPs: not verified.
What type of tool is Apify?
Apify is classified as a platform. Apify is a platform of ready-made scrapers (Actors) and a runtime for your own, billed on platform usage plus per-Actor pricing.
Compare
Compare Apify with other tools
See how Apify stacks up: the ranked alternatives, the full category ranking, or the closest tools below.
Best Apify alternatives (2026)Every comparable tool ranked against Apify, with where each one wins and falls short.See alternatives Best web scraping APIs (2026)Full ranking with scores, entry prices and selection criteria.Open ranking Also consider
Related tools
ScraperAPI7.2ScraperAPI returns page HTML or structured data while handling proxies, JavaScript rendering and CAPTCHAs. Credits scale with render mode and with hard domains.Review
ScrapingBee7.2ScrapingBee is a headless-browser scraping API for JS-heavy public pages, billed in credits across classic, premium and stealth proxy modes.Review
Decodo Web Scraping API8.7A modular scraping API from Decodo: choose Standard or Premium proxies and toggle JavaScript rendering per request, billed per 1,000 successful requests.Review
Information is compiled from public vendor pages and last checked on November 4, 2026. Verify the final price on the vendor's site before buying. Some links are affiliate links and we may earn a commission; rankings are editorial and never for sale. How scores work.