Apify is a cloud platform that packages web scraping and browser automation as runnable programs called Actors. Its store already holds Actors for major targets such as Google Maps, e-commerce sites and social media, so you can pick one that fits your goal, run it, and get structured data back. When nothing in the store fits, you can build your own Actor with the JavaScript or Python SDK and CLI, and publish it to the store. Proxy rotation, headless browser management, data storage and scheduled runs are all handled by the platform, so you can focus on deciding which site to pull what from. The service is operated by Apify Technologies s.r.o. in Prague, Czech Republic, and has been available since 2015.
Key Features
- Actor Store: A marketplace of ready-made scrapers and automation tools for popular sites including Google Maps, Amazon, LinkedIn and TikTok. Many of them run straight from a settings screen where you enter a target URL or search terms, so you can get started without writing code
- Build your own with the SDK and CLI: SDKs for JavaScript and Python (including the Crawlee crawler library) and a CLI are published, letting you develop, build and deploy your own Actors. You can also publish what you build for other users in the store
- Managed proxies: Datacenter and residential proxies, along with their rotation, are built into the platform. You do not need to contract with a separate proxy provider and wire it in just to deal with blocking
- Storage and scheduled runs: Results land in Datasets, arbitrary files in the Key-value store and pending URLs in the Request queue, all retrievable via the API. Actors can be run on a schedule, monitored, and wired to other services through webhooks
- Official MCP server: Both the remote mcp.apify.com and the local stdio build
@apify/actors-mcp-serverare offered officially. AI agents such as Claude can call Actors directly as tools, which makes this a practical route for feeding an agent real-time web data - Apify AI (beta): Released in July 2026, this feature lets you describe what you need in plain English and then finds and runs a suitable Actor for you. It is aimed at easing the burden of locating the right Actor among the many in the store
Pricing
| Plan | Monthly | What’s included |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | $5 of platform credit per month, up to 16GB RAM, community support |
| Starter | $19 (about $17/month billed annually) | $19 of credit per month, up to 64GB RAM, 32 concurrent runs, chat support |
| Scale | $199 (about $179/month billed annually) | $199 of credit per month, up to 256GB RAM, 128 concurrent runs, priority chat support |
| Business | $999 (about $899/month billed annually) | $999 of credit per month, up to 512GB RAM, 256 concurrent runs, dedicated account manager |
Actors in the store use one of two pricing models, and each Actor’s page states which one applies. In the first, you pay a fixed price for events the developer defines, such as starting the Actor or returning a single result. In the second, the developer charges nothing on top and you pay only for the platform usage the run consumes. Either way the cost is drawn from the credits included in your plan, and any excess is billed on your next invoice.
Pricing is current as of September 2026. Please check the official site for the latest rates.
Pros & Cons
✅ Pros
- With a large selection of Actors for popular sites, you often have something to try before writing anything yourself, which shortens the time to a first result
- There is no need to contract for proxies, browsers, storage and a scheduler separately and stitch them together; billing and day-to-day operations stay in one place
- The official MCP server lets you supply web data to AI agents without building your own API wrapper
- Surrounding tools such as Crawlee and apify-cli are open source, so the work you put in remains usable outside the platform
⚠️ Cons
- Reviews note that the learning curve is steep for non-engineers and that the UI can feel complex
- On top of compute-based charges, proxies, storage and data transfer are billed separately, which makes the total hard to estimate before you run anything
- Compared with usage-based APIs where you simply post a URL and get results, there is more to decide during initial setup, such as choosing proxies and estimating the memory a run needs
Comparison with Similar Services
| Service | How it differs from Apify |
|---|---|
| Bright Data | Centered on a large proxy network and enterprise data collection infrastructure; less of a developer marketplace like the Actor Store |
| ScraperAPI | A simple usage-based proxy and rendering API you call with a URL. Easy to adopt, but it has no mechanism for distributing ready-made tools or publishing your own |
| Oxylabs | Focused on enterprise proxies and scraping APIs, with an emphasis on compliance for large-scale collection |
| Zyte (Scrapy Cloud) | Cloud hosting specialized for Python’s Scrapy framework. It assumes you already have Scrapy code, rather than serving as a general marketplace |
Who Is It For
- Business users who need web data for lead lists or market research but have no time to write a scraper from scratch
- E-commerce operators who want to track competitors’ prices and stock on a regular basis
- Developers who want to push proxy and browser management outside their own code and concentrate on extraction logic
- Anyone who wants a quick path, via MCP, for handing real-time web data to an AI agent
- Developers who want to publish their own scrapers in the store for other people to use
Summary
Collecting data from the web tends to consume time on everything around the extraction logic ─ dealing with blocking, driving a browser, preparing somewhere to store results and arranging scheduled runs. Apify takes that surrounding work off your hands and, for commonly targeted sites, supplies off-the-shelf Actors as well, so the path to seeing something working is short. Its billing, on the other hand, accumulates with usage, so it is worth running a small job first to get a feel for the cost before committing to production use. Searching the free plan for an Actor close to your goal and running it is a clear way in.