APIFY ALTERNATIVE

The Apify alternative that's just an API

Apify is a full platform — Actors, compute units, and orchestration. If you just want to send a URL and get data back, WebScraping.AI gives you flat per-request pricing, pay-only-for-success billing, and AI extraction, from $29/mo.

2,000 free API credits · No credit card required

Abstract illustration comparing WebScraping.AI and Apify

WebScraping.AI vs Apify at a glance

An honest, side-by-side comparison. Verify the numbers — this is a market where you should.

WebScraping.AI Apify
Model Simple HTTP API (URL in, data out) Platform: Actors, compute units, storage
Pricing Fixed credits per request (known up front) Compute units + proxy + storage + transfer
Cost predictability Known before you run Often known only after a run completes
Pay only for success Yes — failures are free No — failed runs and retries consume compute
Entry price $29/mo (250k credits) $29/mo Starter ($29 platform credit)
Pay-as-you-go Yes — prepaid credits from $20, no monthly plan Usage-based, but a monthly platform plan is required
JS (Chromium) rendering Yes (5 credits) Yes (via Actors / browser)
AI extraction Yes (/ai/question, /ai/fields) Yes (AI actors)
MCP server for AI agents Yes Yes
Pre-built scraper marketplace Yes (thousands of Actors)
No-code / scheduling / orchestration Yes

Pricing and credit costs last checked July 2026. Sources: Apify pricing · WebScraping.AI pricing.

What Apify does well

No tool is right for everyone. Apify is a capable product, and these are the areas where it genuinely shines — worth weighing before you switch.

A marketplace of thousands of pre-built Actors for hard targets (social media, maps, marketplaces) — often faster than writing your own scraper.
Crawlee, a widely used open-source crawling library, plus a mature SDK for building and deploying custom scrapers.
Orchestration built in — scheduling, webhooks, queues, retries, and actor-to-actor pipelines for complex workflows.
Managed datasets and storage with exports and integrations (Make, Zapier, and more).

Why developers look for a Apify alternative

The most common reasons teams evaluate a switch.

You learn the cost after the run

Apify bills in compute units (memory × time) plus proxies, storage, and data transfer — so a job's real cost is often clear only once it finishes. WebScraping.AI charges a fixed credit cost per request, known before you run it.

You pay for failed runs

On Apify, failed attempts and retries still consume compute units and proxy traffic — you pay for them. WebScraping.AI charges only for successful requests; failures are always free.

A platform to learn for a simple job

Actors, compute-unit tuning, memory settings, storage, and proxy configuration are a lot to learn if all you need is the data from a URL. WebScraping.AI is one HTTP endpoint with an SDK in your language.

Community-actor quality varies

Marketplace Actors are built by many different authors and can break when a target site changes. A first-party API gives you a single, consistent contract you don't have to babysit.

Transparent, published pricing

Every request type has a fixed, published credit cost — no surprises, and you only pay for successful requests.

Request type
No JS
+ JS render
Datacenter proxies
1 credit
5 credits
Residential proxies
10 credits
25 credits
Stealth proxies
50 credits
50 credits
AI extraction add-on
+5 credits

Plans from $29/mo (250k credits) · $99/mo (1M) · $249/mo (3M) · or pay-as-you-go from $20 (100k credits, no subscription, valid 12 months). Failed requests are always free. See full pricing.

A predictable price, not a compute bill

Apify's compute-unit model is flexible, but it means your bill is a function of memory, runtime, proxy traffic, storage, and data transfer — variables you estimate rather than know. Two runs of the same scraper can cost different amounts.

WebScraping.AI publishes one fixed cost per request type: 1 credit for datacenter, 5 with JS, 10–25 for residential, 50 for stealth, +5 for AI extraction. Multiply by your request count and you have your bill — before you run anything.

Only pay for what works

Because Apify charges for the compute a run consumes, failed requests and retries cost money. On a flaky target, that can add up quickly.

WebScraping.AI bills only for successful requests. A blocked or errored request is free, so a hard target doesn't quietly inflate your bill.

Switching is one API call

Point your requests at WebScraping.AI — here's the equivalent call in your language.

curl -G "https://api.webscraping.ai/ai/fields" \
  --data-urlencode "api_key=YOUR_API_KEY" \
  --data-urlencode "url=https://example-store.com/product/widget" \
  --data-urlencode "fields[title]=The product title" \
  --data-urlencode "fields[price]=The current price as a number" \
  --data-urlencode "fields[in_stock]=Whether the product is in stock (true/false)"
# Response:
# { "title": "Widget", "price": 19.99, "in_stock": true }
# pip install webscraping_ai
# https://pypi.org/project/webscraping-ai/
from webscraping_ai import Client

client = Client(api_key="YOUR_API_KEY")
result = client.fields(
    "https://example-store.com/product/widget",
    fields={
        "title": "The product title",
        "price": "The current price as a number",
        "in_stock": "Whether the product is in stock (true/false)",
    },
)
print(result)
# Response:
# { "title": "Widget", "price": 19.99, "in_stock": true }
// npm install webscraping-ai
// https://www.npmjs.com/package/webscraping-ai
import { WebScrapingAI } from 'webscraping-ai';

const client = new WebScrapingAI({ apiKey: 'YOUR_API_KEY' });
const result = await client.fields({
  url: 'https://example-store.com/product/widget',
  fields: {
    title: 'The product title',
    price: 'The current price as a number',
    in_stock: 'Whether the product is in stock (true/false)',
  },
});
console.log(result);
// Response:
// { "title": "Widget", "price": 19.99, "in_stock": true }
<?php
// composer require webscraping-ai/webscraping-ai-php
// https://packagist.org/packages/webscraping-ai/webscraping-ai-php
require 'vendor/autoload.php';

use WebScrapingAI\Client;

$client = new Client('YOUR_API_KEY');
$result = $client->fields('https://example-store.com/product/widget', [
    'title'    => 'The product title',
    'price'    => 'The current price as a number',
    'in_stock' => 'Whether the product is in stock (true/false)',
]);
print_r($result);
// Response:
// { "title": "Widget", "price": 19.99, "in_stock": true }
# gem install webscraping_ai
# https://rubygems.org/gems/webscraping_ai
require 'webscraping_ai'

client = WebScrapingAI::Client.new(api_key: 'YOUR_API_KEY')
result = client.fields(
  'https://example-store.com/product/widget',
  fields: {
    title:     'The product title',
    price:     'The current price as a number',
    in_stock:  'Whether the product is in stock (true/false)',
  }
)
puts result.inspect
# Response:
# { "title": "Widget", "price": 19.99, "in_stock": true }
// go get github.com/webscraping-ai/webscraping-ai-go/v4
// https://pkg.go.dev/github.com/webscraping-ai/webscraping-ai-go/v4
package main

import (
    "context"
    "fmt"

    webscrapingai "github.com/webscraping-ai/webscraping-ai-go/v4"
)

func main() {
    client, _ := webscrapingai.NewClient(&webscrapingai.Config{APIKey: "YOUR_API_KEY"})
    result, _ := client.Fields(context.Background(), &webscrapingai.FieldsOptions{
        URL: "https://example-store.com/product/widget",
        Fields: map[string]string{
            "title": "The product title",
            "price": "The current price as a number",
            "in_stock": "Whether the product is in stock (true/false)",
        },
    })
    fmt.Println(result.Result)
}
// Response:
// { "title": "Widget", "price": 19.99, "in_stock": true }
// Maven: ai.webscraping:webscraping-ai:4.0.0
// https://central.sonatype.com/artifact/ai.webscraping/webscraping-ai
import ai.webscraping.Client;
import ai.webscraping.Config;
import ai.webscraping.option.FieldsOptions;
import ai.webscraping.result.FieldsResult;

Client client = new Client(Config.builder().apiKey("YOUR_API_KEY").build());
FieldsResult result = client.fields(FieldsOptions.builder()
    .url("https://example-store.com/product/widget")
    .addField("title", "The product title")
    .addField("price", "The current price as a number")
    .addField("in_stock", "Whether the product is in stock (true/false)")
    .build());
System.out.println(result.getResult());
// Response:
// { "title": "Widget", "price": 19.99, "in_stock": true }
// dotnet add package WebScrapingAI
// https://www.nuget.org/packages/WebScrapingAI
using WebScrapingAI;

var client = new WebScrapingAIClient(new WebScrapingAIClientOptions { ApiKey = "YOUR_API_KEY" });
var result = await client.FieldsAsync(new FieldsRequest {
    Url = "https://example-store.com/product/widget",
    Fields = new Dictionary<string, string> {
        ["title"] = "The product title",
        ["price"] = "The current price as a number",
        ["in_stock"] = "Whether the product is in stock (true/false)",
    },
});
Console.WriteLine(result.Result);
// Response:
// { "title": "Widget", "price": 19.99, "in_stock": true }

Switch to WebScraping.AI if…

You want a simple HTTP API — send a URL, get HTML, text, or structured data back.
You want predictable pricing you know before a job runs, not a compute bill after — or prepaid credits with no monthly plan at all.
You want to pay only for successful requests, with failures free.
You want AI extraction and an MCP server without learning a platform.

Stick with Apify if…

You want ready-made scrapers for specific sites (Instagram, Google Maps, Amazon) from the Actor marketplace.
You need orchestration — scheduling, queues, pipelines, and managed result storage.
You're building on Crawlee or want a no-code way to run scrapers from a UI.
Your workflow benefits from a full platform, not just an API endpoint.

Frequently asked questions

Is WebScraping.AI a good Apify alternative?

Yes, if you want a simple per-request scraping API rather than a platform. You send a URL and get HTML, text, or AI-extracted data back, with pricing you know up front. Apify is the better fit if you need pre-built Actors, orchestration, or a no-code interface.

How is WebScraping.AI's pricing different from Apify's?

WebScraping.AI charges a fixed credit cost per request, known before you run a job, and bills only for successful requests. Apify bills in compute units plus proxy, storage, and data-transfer usage, so the true cost of a run is often clear only after it finishes.

Does WebScraping.AI offer pay-as-you-go pricing?

Yes — prepaid credits with no monthly plan required, from a $20 minimum top-up ($0.0002 per credit, so $20 buys 100,000 credits). Apify's pricing is usage-based but still requires a monthly platform plan. Credits stay valid for 12 months and each new top-up extends the entire balance another 12 months; if you do have a monthly plan with us, pay-as-you-go credits are only consumed after that month's quota runs out.

Does WebScraping.AI charge for failed requests like Apify?

No. Failed requests are always free on WebScraping.AI. On Apify, failed runs and retries still consume compute units and proxy traffic, so they cost money.

Does WebScraping.AI have pre-built scrapers like Apify Actors?

There's no Actor marketplace. Instead, /ai/fields extracts structured data from any page using a natural-language field description, and /html, /text, and /selected handle general scraping — so you don't depend on a per-site scraper being available and maintained.

Does WebScraping.AI support AI agents and MCP?

Yes — it ships an MCP server and CLI alongside /ai/question and /ai/fields. Apify also runs an MCP server, so both fit agent workflows; the difference is flat per-request pricing versus compute-unit billing.

Compare other alternatives

Try WebScraping.AI as your Apify alternative

Get started with 2,000 free API credits. No credit card required.

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