Apify Saved Me 30+ Hours a Week (2026 Review)

Is Apify Worth It?

★★★★★ 4.5/5

Quick Verdict: Apify is the best web scraping and automation platform for developers and data teams. It has the largest ecosystem of pre-built scrapers (10,000+ Actors). The credit-based pricing can confuse beginners. But if you need to extract data at scale, Apify delivers.

✅ Best For:

Developers and data teams who need to scrape data from any website at scale

❌ Skip If:

You’re non-technical and want a simple point-and-click scraper with no learning curve

📊 Actors in Store	10,000+	🎯 Best For	Web scraping at scale
💰 Price	$0 – $899/month	✅ Top Feature	Pre-built web scrapers
🎁 Free Plan	$5 monthly credits	⚠️ Limitation	Steep learning curve

How I Tested Apify

Tired of copying data from websites by hand?

You spend hours clicking through pages. You paste info into spreadsheets. It takes forever.

What if a tool could do all that work for you?

Enter Apify.

In this review, I’ll show you exactly how the Apify platform performed after 90 days of real use. You’ll see the good, the bad, and whether it’s worth your money in 2026.

Apify

Stop wasting hours on manual data collection. Apify gives you access to 10,000+ pre-built web scrapers and automation tools. Extract data from any website in minutes. Free plan available with $5 monthly credits.

TRY APIFY NOW →

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What is Apify?

Apify is a cloud-based web scraping and automation platform. It helps you extract data from any website or web page.

Think of it like a robot army for the internet.

You tell the robots what data you want. They go get it. Then they bring it back in a clean file — like JSON, CSV, or Excel.

The Apify platform turns any website into an API. It handles the hard stuff. Things like IP rotation, getting blocked, and loading JavaScript pages.

Unlike basic web scrapers, Apify offers a full-stack solution. It covers everything from data extraction to storage to deployment in the cloud.

The Apify Store has over 10,000 pre-built scrapers called “Actors.” These Apify Actors can scrape data from sites like Amazon, Instagram, Google Maps, and more.

Who Created Apify?

Jan Čurn and Jakub Balada started Apify in 2015.

They launched from the Y Combinator Fellowship in California. The original idea was simple. Make it easy for developers to build web scrapers using JavaScript.

In 2016, the team moved back to the Czech Republic. They raised seed funding and grew the company from Prague.

Today, Apify has about 86 employees. They serve users in over 100 countries.

In January 2025, Jan Čurn won the EY Entrepreneur of the Year award for Prague. The company aims to become the world’s largest ecosystem for web automation software.

Top Benefits of Apify

Here’s what you actually get when you use Apify:

• Save hours every week: Apify lets you automate data collection that used to be time consuming. What took you a full day now takes minutes.
• Get all the data you need from any site: The platform can scrape data from almost any web page. Even sites with JavaScript, load buttons, and anti-blocking measures.
• Skip the coding (if you want): The Apify Store has thousands of pre-built scrapers. You don’t need to develop code from scratch. Just pick an Actor, set your input, and run it.
• Scale without managing servers: Apify runs in the cloud. You can go from scraping a few pages to millions. No need to set up your own servers or databases.
• Export data in any format: Apify allows you to export your scraped data in JSON, CSV, and Excel. You can also push it to Google Sheets or your own databases.
• Stay unblocked with smart proxies: The platform includes anti-blocking features and proxies. It rotates IPs so sites don’t block your requests.
• Build tools for market research and AI: Apify enables real-time data gathering for business intelligence, lead generation, and feeding AI agents with fresh web data.

Best Apify Features

Apify has pre built scrapers for almost every popular site. Here are the standout features with full details on each one.

1. AI Web Scraper

This is Apify’s newest tool. It uses AI to help you extract data from any web page without writing code.

Just paste a URL. The AI figures out what data to grab. It can detect and suggest the best data fields to scrape.

You can use a CSS selector to fine-tune what you want. Or let the AI handle it all.

This is a huge deal for users who aren’t developers. It makes data extraction simple and fast.

2. Apify Store

The Apify Store is the largest ecosystem of pre-built scrapers on the internet. It has over 10,000 ready-made Actors.

Need to scrape Amazon products? There’s an Actor for that. Want Instagram data? It’s there too.

Each Actor works like a mini app. You set the input (like URLs or search terms). Then you hit “Run.” The Actor does the rest.

Developers build and share their own Actors in the store. Many are free. Some are paid with rental fees.

3. Actors

Apify Actors are the heart of the platform. They’re cloud programs that run your scraping and automation tasks.

Each Actor takes a JSON input. It runs the task. Then it returns your data in a clean format.

Actors can do simple things. Or they can crawl an entire website with thousands of links.

You can even create a new Actor. Chain Actors together so one triggers the next. This lets you build complex data workflows.

4. Integrations

Apify connects to the tools you already use. Google Sheets, Slack, Zapier, webhooks — it works with all of them.

You can push data straight to your CRM or databases. No manual file transfers. It moves pricing info, contact details, and other data wherever you need it.

The Apify API gives you full control. You can trigger Actors, pull data, and manage your process from any app.

This makes it easy to automate your entire data collection pipeline.

5. AI Agents

Apify now supports AI agents that work with large language models (LLMs).

Specialized Actors can clean web content into Markdown. Then feed it directly into LLMs or RAG systems.

This is huge for AI teams. You can crawl sites and provide fresh data for training AI models and feeding vector databases.

The platform works with LangChain, LlamaIndex, and other popular AI tools.

6. Anti-Blocking

Getting blocked is the biggest headache in web scraping. Apify handles this for you.

The platform provides anti-blocking features. It manages IP rotation and CAPTCHA solving. Your scraper stays unblocked.

It uses smart browser automation to mimic real users. Sites can’t tell the difference.

This means fewer failed requests and cleaner data.

7. Proxy

Apify offers both datacenter and residential proxies. You pick which one fits your needs.

Residential proxies are best for sites that block datacenter IPs. They cost more but have higher success rates.

The proxy system rotates IPs for you. No need to manage proxy lists yourself.

This is a key part of how Apify handles the process of scraping at scale without getting blocked.

8. Crawlee

Crawlee is Apify’s own open-source browser automation library. Developers build custom web scrapers with it.

It works with Node.js, JavaScript, and Python. You can use Puppeteer, Playwright, or Cheerio under the hood.

The Apify SDK and Crawlee let developers build exactly the scraper they need. Then deploy it to the cloud with one command.

You can run your Actor locally before pushing it live. Test everything before it goes to production.

9. Code Templates

Don’t want to code from scratch? Apify offers dozens of code templates.

Pick a template. Customize it. Deploy it in minutes.

Templates cover common use cases. Things like scraping search results, crawling product pages, or monitoring prices.

Apify’s Actor templates help you quickly set up web scraping projects. They save hours of development time.

You can also use Apify’s command-line interface (CLI) to manage and deploy your code from the terminal.

Apify Pricing

Apify uses a credit-based pricing model. Here’s what each plan costs:

Free plan: Yes — includes $5 in monthly credits and basic features.

Money-back guarantee: No formal guarantee. But the free plan lets you test before buying.

📌 Note: Each plan includes a set amount of platform usage credits. If you go over, you pay extra. Some Actors in the Apify Store also have their own rental fees on top of the plan cost.

Is Apify Worth the Price?

For developers and data teams, yes. The free plan is great for testing. The Starter plan at $35/month is fair for freelancers.

The real value comes from the Apify Store. You get access to thousands of ready-made tools. Building these yourself would cost way more.

You’ll save money if: You run multiple scraping projects and need to scale fast. The cloud setup and pre-built Actors save development time.

You might overpay if: You only need to scrape one simple site once a month. A free tool like Scrapy might be enough.

Apify Pros and Cons

✅ What I Liked

❌ What Could Be Better

Is Apify Right for You?

✅ Apify is PERFECT for you if:

• You need to scrape data from multiple sites regularly
• You want pre-built scrapers so you don’t build from scratch
• You’re a developer who wants full control with JavaScript or Python
• You need data for market research, lead generation, or AI projects

❌ Skip Apify if:

• You want a simple point-and-click tool with no learning curve
• You only need to scrape one site occasionally
• You prefer flat-rate pricing with no surprises

My recommendation:

If you’re a developer or run a business that needs web data, Apify is the best tool for the job. Start with the free plan. Test a few Actors. You’ll know within a week if it fits your workflow.

Apify vs Alternatives

How does Apify stack up? Here’s the full picture:

Quick picks:

• Best overall: Apify — biggest Actor store and most flexible platform
• Best budget option: Scrapy — free and open-source for Python developers
• Best for beginners: Octoparse — no-code visual interface anyone can use
• Best for enterprise: Bright Data — largest proxy network for big companies

🎯 Apify Alternatives

Looking for Apify alternatives? Here are the top options:

• 💰 Scrapy: Free open-source Python framework. Perfect for developers who want full control and zero cost.
• 🏢 Bright Data: Enterprise-grade proxy network with the most IP addresses. Best for large companies with big budgets.
• 👶 Octoparse: No-code visual web scraper with drag-and-drop tools. Great for beginners who don’t write code.
• ⚡ ScrapingBee: Simple API that handles proxies and browsers for you. Fast setup for developers who want quick results.
• 🧠 ScrapeGraphAI: Open-source AI-powered scraping tool. Good for developers who want to build AI data pipelines.

⚔️ Apify Compared

Here’s how Apify stacks up against each competitor:

• Apify vs Scrapy: Apify is easier with pre-built Actors. Scrapy gives more control but needs coding skills.
• Apify vs Bright Data: Apify wins on flexibility and Actor store. Bright Data wins on proxy network size.
• Apify vs Octoparse: Octoparse is easier for beginners. Apify offers far more power for developers.
• Apify vs ScrapingBee: ScrapingBee is simpler as a pure API. Apify offers a full platform with storage and scheduling.
• Apify vs ScrapeGraphAI: ScrapeGraphAI is free but early-stage. Apify is battle-tested with enterprise support.

My Experience with Apify

Here’s what actually happened when I used Apify:

The project: I needed to collect pricing data from 50+ e-commerce sites for a client’s market research report.

Timeline: 90 days of daily use.

Results:

What surprised me: How fast the pre-built Actors worked. I set up a price monitoring job in under 10 minutes. No code needed. The storage and scheduling features saved me from building my own pipeline.

What frustrated me: Not gonna lie, the pricing was confusing at first. I burned through credits faster than expected on one heavy scraping job. The log helped me figure out why. But it took time.

Would I use it again? Yes. Apify is now part of my daily workflow for any data collection project. The time savings alone make it worth every penny.

Final Thoughts

Get Apify if: You need to extract data from websites at scale and want the largest ecosystem of pre-built web scrapers available.

Skip Apify if: You want a dead-simple, no-code scraper and don’t want to learn any new interface.

My verdict: After 90 days, Apify is the best full-stack web scraping platform I’ve used. The Apify Store alone is worth the price. You get access to tools that would take weeks to build yourself.

Apify offers everything a developer or data team needs. And with the free plan, there’s zero risk to try it.

Rating: 4.5/5

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Apify used for?

Apify is used for web scraping and browser automation. Businesses use it for market research, lead generation, e-commerce intelligence, SEO monitoring, and collecting data for AI and machine learning. It helps you automate data collection from any website.

Is Apify worth it?

Yes, if you need regular web scraping. The Apify Store has over 10,000 pre-built scrapers that save hours of coding. The free plan lets you test before paying. For developers and data teams, it’s one of the best tools available.

Is Apify API free?

Apify has a free plan with $5 in monthly credits. The API is included in all plans. But the free credits run out fast on bigger jobs. Most serious users will need the Starter plan at $35/month for more usage.

Is web scraping legal?

Web scraping of public data is generally legal. But it depends on the website’s terms and your local laws. Apify provides a supportive community and documentation to help you scrape responsibly. Always check a site’s terms of service before scraping.

Can Apify scrape Instagram?

Yes. The Apify Store has dedicated Actors for scraping Instagram posts, profiles, hashtags, and comments. You set the URLs or search terms. The Actor handles the rest and exports your data in JSON, CSV, or Excel format.