Apify vs Bright Data 2026
Short answer: pick Apify if you want ready-made scrapers, a single bill and a $29 entry point, pick Bright Data if you need a 400M+ residential IP pool and >99% success on Cloudflare-grade targets. Same overall score (4.2/5) in our hands-on tests, two very different products.
The fresh detail nobody updated: Apify dropped its Starter plan from $39 to $29 and is retiring rental Actors entirely by 1 October 2026, while Bright Data grew its pool to 400M+ IPs and gates residential access behind a live-video KYC interview. Those two shifts decide most of this match.
30,000+ ready Actors, $29 entry, one bill for compute, proxies and storage.
Try Apify for free →Read the full Apify review →400M+ residential IPs, 99.95% claimed success, but $499/mo floor and KYC.
Try Bright Data for free →Read the full Bright Data review →Who wins for you
1,500+ production-vetted Actors, form-based inputs, $29/month entry and no sales call. Live in 20 minutes.
Try Apify for free →400M+ residential IPs, 99.95% claimed success and native Snowflake/BigQuery beat Apify on protected targets.
Try Bright Data for free →Pre-built datasets refreshed daily, Parquet/JSON output and a Web MCP free tier (5K req/month) for prototyping.
Try Bright Data for free →Apify hosts code, proxies and storage on one bill, or run its Actors with Bright Data proxies for hard targets.
Try Apify for free →Apify vs Bright Data at a glance
Every cell below is grounded in each vendor's official pricing and docs as of June 2026. The billing units differ, so read the billing row first.
| Apify | Bright Data | Edge | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Billing unitDifferent models fit different workloads | Compute Units (CPU x RAM x time) plus per-event fees per Actor | Per-GB for proxies, or per-1K results for Web Unlocker | — |
| Entry paid priceFar lower barrier on Apify | Starter $29/month (was $39), $0.20/CU, 8 GB RAM, 25 concurrent | ~$4/GB residential PAYG, or $499/month for 141 GB | Apify |
| Free tier | $5 monthly credits, no card, fully self-serve | Web MCP 5K req/month free; proxies only get $5 to $20 trial credits | Apify |
| Pre-built scrapersApify on coverage, Bright Data on assurance | 30,000+ Actor Store (1,500+ production-vetted, community-maintained) | ~120 official scrapers, team-maintained with quality guarantees | — |
| Proxy pool | Undisclosed size, datacenter and residential offered | 400M+ residential IPs across 195 countries | Bright Data |
| Anti-bot bypass | Built-in rotation plus CAPTCHA handling inside Actors | Web Unlocker beats Cloudflare, Akamai, DataDome, PerimeterX | Bright Data |
| Developer workflow | CLI, GitHub CI/CD, Crawlee open-source, Git-based deploys | Browser IDE, API-first, no local dev or Git integration | Apify |
| Data warehouse integration | Webhooks plus Airbyte/Keboola connectors (middleware needed) | Native Snowflake, Databricks, S3, Azure Blob, BigQuery | Bright Data |
| AI-ready datasets | Integrated dataset storage, you run the Actor yourself | Pre-built datasets refreshed daily, Parquet/JSON/CSV output | Bright Data |
| MCP server (AI agents) | Apify MCP makes 30,000+ Actors callable by agents | Web MCP: search plus scrape as Markdown, 60+ pro tools | — |
| Compliance gateBright Data is more compliant, Apify has less friction | No KYC for access, GDPR-compliant infrastructure | Live-video KYC for residential, 24 to 72h approval, SOC 2 II plus ISO 27001 | — |
| Ideal user | Growth teams, no-code scrapers, developers under $500/month | Enterprise data teams, AI pipelines, hard-target scraping | — |
Prices checked June 2026 on apify.com/pricing and brightdata.com pricing pages. Apify bills compute in USD, Bright Data bills per GB or per 1K results, so totals are not directly comparable.
Criterion by criterion, head to head
The same five criteria we scored on each tool's review page. Equal scores still get a clear pick.
01 Round 1: getting the first scrape running.
A genuine draw at 3.8 each, and neither is pure no-code. Apify's Actor Store lets a non-dev get a Google Maps or TikTok scraper live in about 20 minutes through form-based inputs, no code needed. The moment you want a custom Actor, you are back in JavaScript or Python. Bright Data ships Instant Scraper APIs for 20+ platforms that also need zero coding, but the dashboard stacks five distinct products with separate billing and config panels, and first-time users told us they spent 20 minutes just working out which product they actually needed.
The friction gap is real on signup. Apify is fully self-serve with no card and no call. Bright Data's free trial still routes through a sales call, and full residential access waits behind KYC. Both ship 200+ documentation guides with code examples. For a non-technical user starting today, Apify wins on friction-free onboarding. For a technical team that reads docs first, it is a true tie.
Choose Apify if you want a working scraper this afternoon with no sales call.
Choose Bright Data if you can navigate five product panels for deeper unblocking.
02 Round 2: where the bill actually lands.
Apify takes this 4.0 to 3.2, and the gap is structural. Its Starter is $29/month (down from $39) and Scale is $199, against Bright Data's $499/month minimum for residential scale. Apify also folds compute, proxies, storage and scheduling into one bill with no per-product SKUs to track. Bright Data charges its PAYG Web Unlocker at $1.50/1K, 15% more than the committed $1.30/1K rate, and city or ZIP targeting adds a 20 to 40% surcharge on residential proxies.
Run the dossier math at 500K monthly extractions. Apify Scale at $199 plus roughly 600 CUs at $0.16 lands near $295. Bright Data Web Unlocker Scale at $499 for 380K, plus 120K overage at $1.30/1K, comes to about $655. Apify wins on cost at that volume, unless your targets need Bright Data's residential unblocking on LinkedIn, Amazon or Google. One honest bémol: multiple Bright Data Capterra reviewers flag a complicated payment and bonus system, and one was charged for unsuccessful PAYG queries.
Choose Apify if you are under $500/month or hit common targets like Maps.
Choose Bright Data if hard-target success rate is worth the higher floor.
03 Round 3: raw infrastructure and scraper depth.
Bright Data edges this 4.8 to 4.5, because the two go deep in different directions. Bright Data brings 400M+ residential IPs against Apify's undisclosed pool, a claimed 99.95% success rate, four proxy types (residential, ISP, datacenter, mobile), the Web Unlocker API, a Scraping Browser, a SERP API and AI-ready datasets with daily refresh in Parquet, JSON or CSV. That is raw scraping infrastructure with few peers.
Apify answers with breadth and developer power: 30,000+ Actors (1,500+ production-vetted), the open-source Crawlee framework, scheduling, webhooks, an MCP server for AI agents, integrated dataset storage and a CLI with Git CI/CD. The honest trade-off is quality assurance. Bright Data's roughly 120 official scrapers carry maintenance guarantees, while Apify's community Actors are 250x larger in count but can break when target sites change. Both shipped MCP server integrations across 2025 and 2026, which matters for agent workflows. Bright Data wins on infrastructure depth and dataset products, Apify wins on scraper variety and workflow.
Choose Apify if you value scraper variety, Crawlee and developer workflow.
Choose Bright Data if proxy depth and ready-made datasets are the priority.
04 Round 4: who answers when a scrape breaks.
Bright Data takes this 4.4 to 4.0, mostly on enterprise muscle. It puts dedicated account managers on $1K+/month plans, bundles technical consulting and data-expert consultations, runs live chat with a 2 to 4 hour response and has documented proactive downtime credits. For a data team running mission-critical pipelines, that level of hand-holding is hard to match.
Apify is no slouch: an account manager lands on Business ($999/month), priority chat under 2 hours on Scale, and a Discord community of 8,000+ developers that answers free users in 12 to 24 hours. Both ship 200+ documentation guides with multi-language code examples, and neither offers phone support at any tier. The friction caveat sits on Bright Data: a mandatory sales call before the trial slows self-service evaluation, where Apify lets you self-serve from minute one. So Bright Data edges enterprise support quality and proactive management, Apify wins the self-service path.
Choose Apify if you self-serve through docs, priority chat and Discord.
Choose Bright Data if you want an account manager and proactive credits.
05 Round 5: data pipelines vs no-code automation.
Bright Data takes this 4.7 to 4.5, and the split is clean. Bright Data ships native, zero-glue connectors to Snowflake, Databricks, AWS S3 and Lambda, Azure Blob and Functions, and GCP BigQuery and Cloud Functions, with SDKs in Python, Node.js, Java, C#, Go and PHP, plus 70+ officially supported integrations and AI/ML-optimised Parquet output. For an enterprise data stack, that is first-class delivery with no ETL glue.
Apify counters with a REST API, official Python and JS SDKs, webhooks to Slack, Make.com and Zapier, GitHub integration that auto-creates an issue when an Actor fails, and Airbyte or Keboola for warehouse delivery, plus an MCP server. The trade-offs run both ways: Apify has no native Zapier app and needs middleware for warehouses, while Bright Data has no Make.com or Zapier connectors and neither ships out-of-the-box BI connectors for Tableau or Power BI. Bright Data wins for enterprise pipelines and AI/ML stacks, Apify wins for no-code automation through n8n or Make.com.
Choose Apify if your destination is n8n, Make.com or a webhook-driven flow.
Choose Bright Data if you deliver into Snowflake, BigQuery or Databricks.
The real cost, plan by plan
Two billing models that do not map onto each other. We list the plans, then run the exact cost examples the data supports, assumptions stated.
| Apify | Bright Data | Edge | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free / entryApify is fully self-serve from $0 | Free: $5 credits, no card. Starter: $29/mo, $29 usage, $0.20/CU | Web MCP free 5K req/mo. Residential PAYG ~$4/GB, no card-free proxy tier | Apify |
| Mid plan | Scale $199/mo, $199 usage, $0.16/CU, 32 GB RAM, 32 concurrent | Web Unlocker Scale $499/mo for 380K requests, $1.30/1K overage | Apify |
| Team / large planDifferent scope: compute vs bandwidth | Business $999/mo, $999 usage, $0.13/CU, 128 GB RAM, 256 concurrent | Residential Large $999/mo, $3.00/GB, 332 GB included | — |
| Enterprise | Custom: negotiated CU rate, dedicated account manager, SLA | Residential $1,999/mo, $2.50/GB, 798 GB, best for 100M+ req/mo | — |
| Worked: 50K TikTok profiles/moApify base plan dominates total until 10k+ CUs/month | Scale $199 plus ~240 CUs at $0.16 = $237.40/mo | Residential proxy plus your own scraper, no flat equivalent quoted | Apify |
| Worked: 380K Web Unlocker req/moCommitting to Scale saves $71/mo but adds $1.30/1K overage risk | Use Apify Actors with proxies, no direct unblocking equivalent | PAYG 380K at $1.50/1K = $570, or Scale plan $499 flat | Bright Data |
| Worked: 500K extractions/mo, common targetsApify wins unless targets need residential-grade unblocking | Scale $199 plus ~600 CUs at $0.16 = ~$295/mo | Web Unlocker $499 for 380K plus 120K at $1.30/1K = ~$655/mo | Apify |
Prices checked June 2026. Apify retires rental Actors on 1 October 2026, migrating all to pay-per-event; unoptimised Actors can burn credits faster under PPE. Bright Data adds a 20 to 40% surcharge for city or ZIP targeting on residential proxies.
Pick by scenario
Choose Apify if…
- You need Google Maps, TikTok, LinkedIn or Instagram data without writing code, the Actor Store covers it in under 20 minutes
- You want one monthly bill for compute, proxies, scheduling and storage instead of juggling Bright Data product SKUs
- You are under $500/month, Starter at $29 and Scale at $199 have far lower entry points
- You want developer-first workflows: CLI, Git deploys, Crawlee, CI/CD hooks and GitHub failure notifications
- You are building an AI-agent-ready scraper with MCP server access and pay-per-event pricing that suits sporadic agent runs
Choose Bright Data if…
- You scrape Cloudflare, Akamai, DataDome or PerimeterX-protected sites at success rates Apify's pool cannot match
- You already run your own scrapers (Playwright, Puppeteer, Selenium) and just need the best proxy infrastructure to plug in
- You need pre-built, AI-ready datasets (Amazon, LinkedIn, SERP, real estate) refreshed daily without running any infrastructure
- Your stack is Snowflake, Databricks, BigQuery or Delta Lake and native connectors remove the ETL glue
- You need mobile 4G/5G or ISP proxies for carrier-sensitive or app-level targets that residential IPs alone cannot unlock
Frequently asked questions
Is Apify free?
Yes, Apify has a permanent free plan with no credit card required. It includes $5 of monthly platform credits (they reset each cycle and do not roll over), 25 concurrent runs, 8 GB of RAM and community Discord support. That is enough to test three or four Actors and extract roughly 5,000 to 10,000 data points a month. Once the credits run out, usage is billed at $0.20 per Compute Unit. Compared with Bright Data, the difference is the self-serve path: Apify needs no sales call and no KYC to get started.Is Bright Data free?
There is no permanent free proxy or Web Unlocker plan. New accounts receive $5 to $20 in trial credits. The Web MCP Server for AI agents has a free tier of 5,000 requests a month, launched in August 2025, but that is a separate product from the core proxy and unblocking infrastructure. The minimum committed spend for serious proxy usage is $499 a month. For low-volume testing without a budget, Apify's $5 monthly credits are the more practical free option.Apify vs Bright Data vs Oxylabs, which proxy network is biggest?
Bright Data claims 400M+ residential IPs across 195 countries. Oxylabs claims 175M+. Apify does not publish a proxy pool size, because it is designed as a managed scraping platform where proxies come bundled rather than sold standalone. For pure proxy scale, Bright Data leads, Oxylabs is second, and Apify sits in a different category: you pick it for ready-made Actors and one consolidated bill, not for raw IP count. If headline pool size is your decision criterion, Bright Data wins it outright.How do I migrate from Bright Data to Apify?
You cannot migrate proxy sessions or configurations directly, they are fundamentally different products. Migration means three steps: identify your Bright Data use case (proxy-only, Web Unlocker or dataset), find an equivalent Apify Actor for your target sites in the Actor Store, then test success rates on your hardest targets. For targets that still need Bright Data-grade residential proxies, consider the hybrid path: run Apify Actors with Bright Data proxies set in the Actor input. That combines Apify's orchestration with Bright Data's IP network on one workflow.What is the cheapest way to scrape Google Maps at scale?
Apify's Google Maps Scraper Actor (193K+ users, 4.8 stars) on the Starter plan at $29 a month pulls business names, addresses, reviews and coordinates. On Scale at $199 a month ($0.16/CU), 10,000 location queries consume roughly 50 to 100 CUs, so $8 to $16 in compute on top of the base plan. Total for 100K monthly locations sits around $199 to $215 on Apify, against Bright Data's $499+ minimum. For common targets like Google Maps, Apify is clearly cheaper, since you are not paying a residential-proxy floor you do not need.Does Bright Data require KYC to access residential proxies?
Yes. Bright Data requires a live video KYC interview with a compliance officer before granting full residential proxy access. The interview reviews your business, use case and scraping targets, and approval takes 24 to 72 hours from signup. Prohibited use cases include adult content, gambling and cryptocurrency, among others in the Acceptable Use Policy. Datacenter and ISP proxies can be bought self-serve without KYC. Apify has no equivalent KYC gate, which is part of why its onboarding is faster for teams that want to start the same day.Can Apify use Bright Data proxies together?
Yes, many teams run Apify Actors with Bright Data proxies set as a custom proxy source in the Actor input. The hybrid approach uses Apify's orchestration (scheduling, storage, webhooks, Actor marketplace) while leveraging Bright Data's 400M+ residential IP pool for hard-to-scrape targets. You pay both Apify's Compute Unit costs and Bright Data's per-GB proxy costs separately, so it is not the cheapest setup, but it pairs the best scraper workflow with the strongest unblocking when a single vendor will not clear a target.What happened to Apify rental pricing in 2026?
Apify deprecated its rental Actor model. New rental Actor publishing stopped on 1 April 2026, and all remaining rental Actors will be migrated to pay-per-event (PPE) pricing by 1 October 2026. PPE aligns cost with actual usage: you pay per task, result or event rather than a fixed monthly subscription per Actor. Apify grants a 14-day cooling period for each Actor price change, and its survey reported 73% of customers preferred PPE. The honest caveat: Actors with unoptimised code can exhaust credits faster than expected under the new model.Apify vs Bright Data for AI agent workflows in 2026?
Both now ship MCP (Model Context Protocol) server integrations. Bright Data's Web MCP Server, launched in August 2025, offers 5,000 free requests a month in basic mode and 60+ specialised tools in Pro mode for vertical scraping. Apify's MCP server makes its 30,000+ Actors callable by AI agents. Apify's pay-per-event pricing suits agents that run Actors sporadically, with no fixed per-Actor subscription overhead. Bright Data's Web MCP is better when an agent needs real-time search plus structured web data from protected sources. The pick follows your agent's job.Is Bright Data worth it for small projects under $200/month?
No. Bright Data's minimum meaningful commitment starts at $499 a month for residential proxies or $499 for Web Unlocker (380K requests). Pay-as-you-go at $1.50/1K Web Unlocker requests or $4/GB residential exists but is uneconomical at low volume. For budgets under $200 a month, Apify Scale at $199 or ScrapingBee at $49 to $249 are better fits. Bright Data only makes financial sense above roughly $500 a month, or for enterprise targets where its 99.95% claimed success on protected sites saves the engineering cost of fighting blocks.
Test both, then decide
Free to start on either side. The fastest way to know is to run one real scrape on each.
Best for growth teams and developers who want ready-made Actors, a $29 entry and one bill for compute, proxies and storage. Free $5 credits, no card.
Try Apify for free →Read the full Apify review →Best for enterprise data teams that need a 400M+ residential IP pool, hard-target unblocking and native warehouse delivery. Web MCP free tier to prototype.
Try Bright Data for free →Read the full Bright Data review →Affiliate links: if you sign up through them, you support our independent hands-on tests at no extra cost to you. We score both tools the same way and disclose the weak spots on each.
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