Apify Alternatives
Seven Apify alternatives, one honest test, five criteria each.
Apify is one of the most capable web scraping platforms you can run, a deserved 4.2 out of 5 in our test, with a huge actor store, deep automation and proxies in one place. The catch is the edges. The free plan is just 5 dollars in monthly credits, Store actors often charge per result on top of compute, and the learning curve is real if you are not a developer. If that is where Apify pinches, here are the seven alternatives we rate highest, scored hands-on so you can pick the right one fast.
Some links are affiliate links, and it never affects our scores.
Why teams leave Apify
Let us be fair: Apify is one of the best scraping platforms you can buy. It bundles actors, proxies, storage, scheduling and integrations in one place, scores 4.5 on both features and integrations in our test, and the open-source Crawlee SDK behind it is genuinely excellent. People do not leave because Apify is bad. They leave because the pricing model gets confusing at scale, the free plan is thin, and a handful of specific frictions push them to look elsewhere.
The free plan is just 5 dollars in credits
Store actors stack fees on top of compute
There is a real learning curve
Compute-unit billing is hard to predict
Proxies are pay-as-you-go on top
It can be overkill for one simple job
7 Apify alternatives compared
Here are the seven alternatives at a glance. Scores come from our hands-on reviews for tools we have tested, and from aggregated 2026 research for the rest, with pricing checked in 2026. The edge column is the single biggest reason to consider each one over Apify. Tap any tool to jump straight to its full breakdown.
| Best for | Edge over Apify | Free plan | Team size | Visit | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bright Data | Best for scale | Biggest proxy network and data depth | 4.2/5 | Pay-as-you-go, no free plan | — | Enterprise & high volume | Visit → |
| 2 | Firecrawl | Best for AI / LLMs | Clean markdown built for LLMs | 4.1/5 | Free 1,000 credits, paid from $19/mo | ✓ | AI builders & devs | Visit → |
| 4 | ScraperAPI | Best simple API | One predictable API call | 4.0/5 | Free 1,000 credits, paid from $49/mo | ✓ | Developers wanting simplicity | Visit → |
| 6 | Oxylabs | Best premium proxies | Huge premium proxy network | 4.0/5 | From ~$49/mo + usage | — | Enterprise scraping teams | Visit → |
| 3 | Browse AI | Best no-code | Point-and-click, no developer needed | 3.8/5 | Free plan, paid from ~$48/mo | ✓ | Non-technical teams | Visit → |
| 5 | Octoparse | Best visual desktop | Full visual no-code workflows | 3.7/5 | Free plan, paid from $99/mo | ✓ | No-code power users | Visit → |
| 7 | Thordata | Best budget proxies | Low-cost proxy entry price | 2.9/5 | Low entry pricing | — | Budget proxy users | Visit → |
Scores from our hands-on reviews where tested, aggregated research otherwise. Pricing checked 2026.
Which alternative is right for you?
The largest proxy network and ready-made datasets for high-volume, enterprise jobs.
You feed data to an LLMFirecrawlClean markdown and JSON out of the box, built for AI pipelines.
You do not want to codeBrowse AI or OctoparseBrowse AI for point-and-click robots, Octoparse for full visual workflows.
You want one predictable APIScraperAPIA single endpoint that handles proxies, rendering and retries for you.
Proxies are the core needOxylabsA premium proxy and scraper API network with deep targeting controls.
You are on a tight budgetThordataLow-cost proxy access if price beats polish and support.
Bright Data
Bright Data is the alternative most Apify leavers reach for when scale and reliability matter more than anything. It runs one of the largest residential and mobile proxy networks in the world, layers scraper APIs and pre-collected datasets on top, and matches Apify at 4.2 overall while beating it on raw features (4.8) and integrations (4.7). If you are hitting limits on volume, geotargeting or unblocking, this is the heavyweight. Apify still wins on value and approachability: Bright Data has no real free plan and its pricing scores a soft 3.2, where Apify at least lets you start with credits and a friendlier all-in-one platform. Bright Data is the better call for serious, enterprise-grade scraping, and the worse call if you want a cheap, simple start. See the full Apify vs Bright Data comparison for the details.
- One of the largest residential proxy networks
- Ready-made datasets and scraper APIs
- Deep geotargeting and unblocking
- Enterprise-grade compliance and support
- ✓Far bigger proxy network than Apify's add-on
- ✓Strongest features and integrations in this list
- ✓Pre-built datasets save engineering time
- ✓Responsive, enterprise-level support (4.4)
- ✗No genuine free plan and pricier overall
- ✗Value scores a soft 3.2
- ✗More than a small project needs
| Criterion | Bright Data | Apify |
|---|---|---|
| Proxy network | Massive | Add-on |
| Free plan | No | $5 credits |
| Features (our score) | 4.8 | 4.5 |
| Value (our score) | 3.2 | 4.0 |
| Integrations (our score) | 4.7 | 4.5 |
Switch if you need enterprise-grade scale, the biggest proxy network and ready-made datasets, but Apify still wins on value, a credit-based free start and a friendlier all-in-one platform.
Firecrawl
Firecrawl is the alternative for anyone feeding a model rather than a database. It crawls a site and hands back clean markdown and structured JSON that an LLM can ingest directly, cutting token use sharply versus raw HTML, with no-code hooks into Zapier, n8n and Make. Where Apify gives you a general platform you must wire up, Firecrawl gives you AI-ready output by default, a generous free tier of 1,000 credits a month, and paid plans from 19 dollars. Apify still wins on breadth and raw power: its actor store, proxies and automation go far beyond crawling-for-AI, and its features score (4.5) edges Firecrawl. Firecrawl is the better pick for RAG and AI pipelines, and the worse pick if you need a full scraping platform with proxies and scheduling. Visit the Firecrawl website to try it.
- Clean markdown and JSON for LLMs
- Generous 1,000-credit free tier
- Low cost per page at scale
- No-code hooks into Zapier, n8n and Make
- ✓LLM-ready output where Apify needs preprocessing
- ✓Real free plan against Apify's thin $5 credits
- ✓Strong value at scale (4.2)
- ✓Fast to integrate into AI pipelines
- ✗Narrower than Apify's full platform
- ✗No large proxy network of its own
- ✗Less suited to heavy non-AI scraping
| Criterion | Firecrawl | Apify |
|---|---|---|
| LLM-ready output | Yes | Manual |
| Free plan | 1,000 credits | $5 credits |
| Value (our score) | 4.2 | 4.0 |
| Features (our score) | 4.0 | 4.5 |
| From | $19 | $29 |
Switch if you are building AI pipelines and want clean, LLM-ready data out of the box, but Apify still wins when you need a full scraping platform with proxies, scheduling and a vast actor store.
Browse AI
Browse AI is the alternative for people who do not want to touch code at all. You open the page you want, click the data you need, and it builds a robot that repeats the extraction on a schedule and alerts you to changes. Where Apify asks you to understand actors and compute units, Browse AI is genuinely point-and-click, scoring 4.3 on ease and 4.6 on integrations, ahead of Apify on both. The trade-off is value, which scores a soft 2.8: pricing climbs quickly with volume, and heavy jobs get expensive. Browse AI is the better pick for non-developers and monitoring tasks, and the worse pick for large-scale or highly custom scraping. See the full Apify vs Browse AI comparison.
- Point-and-click robot building
- Scheduled monitoring and change alerts
- No code required at all
- Broad integration support (4.6)
- ✓Far easier than Apify for non-developers (4.3)
- ✓Real free plan to start
- ✓Great for monitoring and recurring jobs
- ✓Strong integrations (4.6 vs 4.5)
- ✗Weak value as volume grows (2.8)
- ✗Less suited to large-scale scraping
- ✗Thinner for complex custom logic
| Criterion | Browse AI | Apify |
|---|---|---|
| No-code | Yes | Partial |
| Ease (our score) | 4.3 | 3.8 |
| Value (our score) | 2.8 | 4.0 |
| Integrations (our score) | 4.6 | 4.5 |
| Free plan | Yes | $5 credits |
Switch if you want a no-code robot you can build by clicking and schedule for monitoring, but Apify still wins on value at volume and on large-scale, deeply custom scraping.
ScraperAPI
ScraperAPI is the alternative for developers who just want a single, dependable endpoint. You send a URL, it handles proxy rotation, header management, JavaScript rendering and retries, and returns the page, no platform to learn and no actor store to navigate. Where Apify is a whole environment, ScraperAPI is one predictable call, with a free tier of 1,000 credits a month and JS rendering charged only when needed. Apify still wins on depth and flexibility: its actors, datasets and automation do far more than fetch pages, and its features score (4.5) is higher. ScraperAPI is the better pick for clean, large-scale request handling, and the worse pick when you need orchestration, scheduling and storage in one place. Visit the ScraperAPI website to try it.
- One simple API for proxies and rendering
- JS rendering billed only when used
- Async scraper for large jobs
- Free 1,000-credit tier
- ✓Simpler than Apify's full platform (4.2 ease)
- ✓Predictable per-credit pricing (4.1 value)
- ✓Handles unblocking and retries for you
- ✓Free tier to start
- ✗Less depth than Apify's platform (3.9 vs 4.5)
- ✗No actor store or built-in orchestration
- ✗Storage and scheduling are your job
| Criterion | ScraperAPI | Apify |
|---|---|---|
| Single API | Yes | Platform |
| Free plan | 1,000 credits | $5 credits |
| Ease (our score) | 4.2 | 3.8 |
| Features (our score) | 3.9 | 4.5 |
| From | $49 | $29 |
Switch if you want one predictable API that handles proxies and rendering for you, but Apify still wins when you need orchestration, scheduling, storage and a vast actor store in one platform.
Octoparse
Octoparse is the alternative for people who want serious scraping without writing code. It is a visual, point-and-click desktop app where you build workflows by clicking through a page, handles pagination, logins and dynamic content, and adds AI-assisted field detection. Where Apify is developer-first, Octoparse keeps everything in a visual builder, scoring 4.1 on ease, ahead of Apify's 3.8. The trade-off is value and reach: paid plans start at 99 dollars a month, integrations are narrower (3.6), and it leans on a desktop app rather than a cloud platform. Octoparse is the better pick for no-code workflow building, and the worse pick when you need code-level control, a big actor store or tight automation. Visit the Octoparse website to try it.
- Full visual no-code workflow builder
- Handles pagination, logins and dynamic pages
- AI-assisted field detection
- Free plan to start
- ✓Easier than Apify for non-coders (4.1)
- ✓No code needed for complex flows
- ✓Good for recurring scheduled scrapes
- ✓Visual debugging of selectors
- ✗Pricier entry at $99/mo (value 3.4)
- ✗Narrower integrations than Apify (3.6 vs 4.5)
- ✗Desktop-led rather than cloud-native
| Criterion | Octoparse | Apify |
|---|---|---|
| No-code builder | Visual | Code-first |
| Ease (our score) | 4.1 | 3.8 |
| Integrations (our score) | 3.6 | 4.5 |
| Free plan | Yes | $5 credits |
| From | $99 | $29 |
Switch if you want to build full scraping workflows visually with no code, but Apify still wins on integrations, code-level control and a far larger ready-made actor store.
Oxylabs
Oxylabs is the alternative when proxies are the heart of the problem, not an add-on. It runs a premium network of over 100 million residential IPs, pairs it with general and domain-specific scraper APIs, and offloads IP rotation, geotargeting and unblocking with strong reliability. Where Apify treats proxies as a billed extra, Oxylabs makes the network the product, scoring 4.5 on features and 4.3 on support. Apify still wins on approachability and value: Oxylabs has no real free plan, value scores a soft 3.3, and its enterprise focus means more setup. Oxylabs is the better pick for proxy-heavy, large-scale work, and the worse pick for a cheap, simple start or a one-off job. Visit the Oxylabs website to try it.
- Over 100 million residential IPs
- General and domain-specific scraper APIs
- Strong geotargeting and unblocking
- Reliable enterprise support (4.3)
- ✓Far bigger proxy network than Apify's add-on
- ✓Deep features for large-scale scraping (4.5)
- ✓Solid support and reliability
- ✓Domain-specific APIs ready to go
- ✗No genuine free plan and pricier (value 3.3)
- ✗Steeper for non-enterprise users (3.7 ease)
- ✗Overkill for small or one-off jobs
| Criterion | Oxylabs | Apify |
|---|---|---|
| Proxy network | 100M+ IPs | Add-on |
| Free plan | Trial only | $5 credits |
| Features (our score) | 4.5 | 4.5 |
| Value (our score) | 3.3 | 4.0 |
| Support (our score) | 4.3 | 4.0 |
Switch if proxies are your core need and you want a huge premium network with deep targeting, but Apify still wins on value, a credit-based free start and a friendlier all-in-one platform.
Thordata
Thordata is the alternative when price is the deciding factor. It offers proxy access and scraping at a low entry cost, which is its main appeal against both Apify and the premium proxy vendors, and its value scores a respectable 3.5. If your budget is tight and you mostly need affordable IPs, it does the basic job. The honest trade-offs are real: support is the weakest in this list at 2.4, features and integrations are thinner at 3.4 and 3.2, and overall it scores 2.9 against Apify's 4.2. Thordata is the better pick when cost beats everything, and the worse pick when you need depth, polish or dependable help. See the full Apify vs Thordata comparison.
- Low entry pricing for proxies
- Decent value for the cost (3.5)
- Straightforward proxy access
- Workable for basic scraping
- ✓Cheaper entry than premium proxy vendors
- ✓Reasonable value for the price (3.5)
- ✓Simple to get started for basic needs
- ✓Useful when budget is the priority
- ✗Weakest support in this list (2.4)
- ✗Thinner features and integrations (3.4 / 3.2)
- ✗Lowest overall score here (2.9)
| Criterion | Thordata | Apify |
|---|---|---|
| Entry price | Low | $5 credits |
| Support (our score) | 2.4 | 4.0 |
| Features (our score) | 3.4 | 4.5 |
| Integrations (our score) | 3.2 | 4.5 |
| Overall (our score) | 2.9 | 4.2 |
Switch if low cost is the only thing that matters and your needs are basic, but Apify still wins clearly on features, integrations and dependable support.
How to choose an Apify alternative
The right alternative depends on why Apify stopped fitting. Start from your real reason for leaving, scale, AI output, no-code, a simple API or proxy power, then match it to the tool below. Our scores weight five criteria evenly, ease of use, value, features, support and integrations, so a higher overall reflects a genuine all-round balance, not one standout number. Here is how we would steer the most common cases.
Leaving over scale
Feeding an LLM
Want no-code
Migrating from Apify
- Name your real reason for leaving: scale, AI output, no-code, a simple API or proxy power.
- Check whether you need a genuine free tier, and which tools offer real monthly credits.
- Project the true cost: watch for per-result, per-event and compute-unit fees stacking up.
- Decide if you want a full platform or just one predictable scraping API.
- Confirm the proxy network and unblocking match the sites and volume you target.
- Export a sample dataset from Apify and test the import or a trial run before you commit.
Apify alternatives, the FAQ
What is the best free alternative to Apify?
The best free alternative to Apify in 2026 depends on what you scrape, but Firecrawl is the standout for most people. Apify's free tier is only 5 dollars in monthly platform credits that do not roll over, whereas Firecrawl gives you 1,000 credits a month and returns clean, LLM-ready data by default. ScraperAPI also offers a free plan of 1,000 API credits a month, Browse AI has a free no-code plan, and Octoparse has a free tier to start on. All three let you run a real scraping job without paying. The trade-off with free tiers is that they cap volume, advanced features and concurrency, so they are best as a starting point you grow out of rather than a permanent ceiling for high-volume work.What is a cheaper alternative to Apify?
If price is the deciding factor, the cheapest credible options are Firecrawl and ScraperAPI for API-based scraping, both of which start with a free 1,000-credit tier and paid plans from 19 and 49 dollars respectively. Thordata is the budget pick for raw proxy access, with low entry pricing, though support is thin at 2.4 in our test. Remember that the cheapest sticker price is not always cheapest in practice: with Apify in particular, Store actors often add per-result or per-event fees on top of compute units, so a job that looks cheap can climb. Always estimate your real monthly volume and check how each tool meters usage before you commit.Is Bright Data better than Apify?
It depends on what you need, and in our test both score 4.2 out of 5 overall, so neither is simply better. Bright Data wins if you scrape at enterprise scale and need the biggest proxy network, ready-made datasets and the deepest features, where it beats Apify on both features (4.8 vs 4.5) and integrations (4.7 vs 4.5). Apify wins if you want a friendlier all-in-one platform, a credit-based free start and better value, since Bright Data has no real free plan and scores a soft 3.2 on value. The honest split is this: Bright Data is the heavyweight for high-volume, proxy-heavy work, while Apify is the more approachable, flexible platform for varied jobs and smaller teams.What is the best Apify alternative for non-developers?
For non-developers the two best Apify alternatives are Browse AI and Octoparse, both fully no-code. Browse AI is the easiest: you open a page, click the data you want, and it builds a robot that repeats the extraction on a schedule and alerts you to changes, scoring 4.3 on ease in our test. Octoparse is the more powerful visual builder, a desktop app where you design full workflows by clicking through a page, handling pagination, logins and dynamic content. Apify, by contrast, is developer-first and scores 3.8 on ease because it expects you to understand actors and compute units. Pick Browse AI for monitoring and simple recurring jobs, and Octoparse when you need richer, more complex no-code workflows.What is the best Apify alternative for AI and LLMs?
Firecrawl is the best Apify alternative for AI and LLM work in 2026. It crawls a site and returns clean markdown and structured JSON that a language model can ingest directly, cutting token consumption sharply versus raw HTML, which is exactly what RAG and agent pipelines need. It has a generous free tier of 1,000 credits a month, paid plans from 19 dollars, and no-code hooks into Zapier, n8n and Make. Apify can absolutely feed an LLM too, but you have to wire up the cleaning yourself, whereas Firecrawl makes AI-ready output the default. If your scraped data goes straight into a model, Firecrawl saves you the preprocessing step and usually the token cost as well.Why is Apify hard to predict on price?
Apify uses compute-unit billing tied to the RAM and runtime each actor consumes, which is flexible but asks you to think like an engineer about cost. On top of that, many actors in the Apify Store charge per result, per event or a monthly rental in addition to the compute your run uses, so the headline price is rarely the final bill. Residential proxy traffic is billed separately at around 8 dollars per gigabyte. Add several actors together and forecasting a monthly spend gets genuinely hard, which is why value scores 4.0 in our test despite the platform's strength. If you want predictability, a flat per-credit API like ScraperAPI or Firecrawl is far easier to reason about.Apify vs Browse AI: which should I choose?
Choose Browse AI if you do not want to code and mostly need to monitor pages or run recurring scrapes, since you build robots by clicking on the data you want and it scores 4.3 on ease and 4.6 on integrations, both ahead of Apify. Choose Apify if you are a developer who wants code-level control, a vast actor store, built-in proxies and flexible automation, since its features score 4.5 and it handles large, custom jobs that a no-code robot cannot. The catch with Browse AI is value, which scores a soft 2.8 as volume grows. In short, Browse AI is the no-code monitoring specialist, while Apify is the deeper, more flexible developer platform. Trial both with your target sites first.What is the best Apify alternative for proxies?
If proxies are your core need rather than an add-on, the two best Apify alternatives are Bright Data and Oxylabs. Bright Data runs one of the largest residential and mobile proxy networks in the world, with ready-made datasets and scraper APIs layered on top, and scores 4.8 on features in our test. Oxylabs offers a premium network of over 100 million residential IPs plus general and domain-specific scraper APIs, with strong support at 4.3. Both go far beyond Apify's pay-as-you-go proxy add-on, with bigger networks and finer geotargeting and unblocking controls. The trade-off is value: neither has a genuine free plan, so they suit enterprise and high-volume teams rather than a cheap, casual start.Can I migrate my scrapers from Apify easily?
Yes, in most cases. Moving off Apify is mostly about re-pointing your data flow rather than rewriting everything. You export your datasets from Apify as CSV or JSON, then recreate the jobs in the new tool: a single API call in ScraperAPI or Firecrawl, a point-and-click robot in Browse AI, a visual workflow in Octoparse, or a scraper API job in Bright Data or Oxylabs. Output formats map cleanly to CSV and JSON, scheduled runs need re-creating in the new scheduler, and any proxy configuration moves to the new vendor. For a simple job expect an afternoon, rising to a day or two if you run many actors or have heavy custom logic. Always test a trial run with your own target sites first.Which Apify alternative is best for a simple, predictable API?
ScraperAPI is the best Apify alternative when you want one predictable API call instead of a whole platform. You send a URL, and it handles proxy rotation, header management, JavaScript rendering and retries, returning the page without any actor store or compute units to learn. It charges per API credit, bills JS rendering only when needed, and starts with a free 1,000-credit tier and paid plans from 49 dollars, which makes the monthly bill far easier to forecast than Apify's compute-unit model. The trade-off is depth: ScraperAPI fetches pages well but does not give you Apify's orchestration, scheduling, storage or vast actor library. If you are a developer who wants simplicity and predictability over a full platform, it is the cleanest pick.
