Best Apify alternatives in 2026
8 direct alternatives to Apify, compared on pricing, features, and best-for use cases. Pick the right replacement without the marketing fluff.
Curated by Louis Corneloup · Updated Cite this list: Toolradar, best Apify alternatives 2026, toolradar.com/alternatives/apify
Why people consider alternatives to Apify
Apify is a web scraping and automation platform that enables developers to build, run, and scale data extraction workflows. Here are the real cost and limitation gotchas that push teams to look elsewhere:
- •Platform credits are consumed by compute (Actor runs), storage (datasets, key-value stores), and proxy bandwidth, all three meters run simultaneously
- •Residential proxy traffic costs significantly more credits per GB than datacenter proxies, scraping sites with aggressive bot detection drains credits fast
- •Actor compute is billed per compute unit (1 CU = 1 GB RAM x 1 hour). Browser-based scrapers (Puppeteer/Playwright) use 4-10x more CUs than HTTP-based ones
- •Storage costs accumulate if you do not clean up datasets, old crawl results are retained and billed until deleted
The 8 alternatives below cover the same core job (developer tools) with different trade-offs. Ranked by real-signal score: G2 and Capterra ratings, media mentions, and editor review.
8 alternatives to Apify
Ranked by G2 and Capterra ratings, media mentions, and editor review, plus how directly they replace Apify.
- 1
Decodo (formerly Smartproxy)
PaidScale web data collection with diverse proxies and AI-powered scraping
Direct alternative4.6(687)Compare Apify vs Decodo (formerly Smartproxy) → - 2
Bright Data
PaidUnlock any website for large-scale, reliable web data collection
Direct alternative4.7(374)Compare Apify vs Bright Data → - 3
ScrapingBee
FreemiumHigher rated by usersThe best web scraping API to avoid getting blocked, with AI-powered data extraction and headless browser management.
Direct alternative4.9(237)Compare Apify vs ScrapingBee → - 4
Playwright
FreeFree alternativeAutomate modern web testing across browsers with auto-waiting
Direct alternative4.7(14)Compare Apify vs Playwright → - 5
AgentQuartz
FreeFree alternativeBuild, deploy, and manage autonomous AI agents for complex workflows
Direct alternativeCompare Apify vs AgentQuartz → - 6
H Company
FreemiumAutomate complex web and enterprise tasks with AI agents
Direct alternativeCompare Apify vs H Company → - 7
Puppeteer
FreeFree alternativeControl headless Chrome for testing, screenshots, and crawling
Direct alternativeCompare Apify vs Puppeteer → - 8
Scrapy
FreemiumThe world's most-used open-source framework for fast and powerful web data extraction.
Direct alternativeCompare Apify vs Scrapy →
Frequently asked questions
What is the best alternative to Apify?
Based on real-signal scoring (G2 and Capterra ratings, media mentions, and editorial review), the top alternatives to Apify are Decodo (formerly Smartproxy), Bright Data, ScrapingBee. Each solves the same core job with different trade-offs on pricing, features, and integrations.
Is there a free alternative to Apify?
Yes. ScrapingBee is one of the freemium alternatives to Apify listed here (The best web scraping API to avoid getting blocked, with AI-powered data extraction and headless browser management). Other freemium options are flagged in the list below.
Why do people look for Apify alternatives?
Common reasons teams switch away from Apify: pricing that scales aggressively, missing integrations with the rest of their stack, performance or scale limits, or a specific feature gap in developer tools. The alternatives on this page solve the same core problem with different trade-offs.
Side-by-side comparisons
In-depth comparison pages for Apify versus each alternative.
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