Apify Review — Web Scraping & Automation Platform

Overview

Apify is the platform I recommend first to anyone serious about web scraping and automation at scale. After using it across 100+ client projects, I can confidently say it's the most complete scraping ecosystem available today — combining a massive actor marketplace, built-in cloud infrastructure, proxy network, and developer-friendly SDK all in one place. Whether you need a no-code solution using one of 3,000+ pre-built actors, or you want to deploy fully custom scrapers on managed cloud infrastructure, Apify handles it. The Creator plan is a standout deal: $1/month unlocks $500 in platform credits — more than enough for dozens of scraping runs or continuous lead generation workflows. I've built Apify actors for clients ranging from real estate platforms to SaaS companies doing competitor monitoring, and the reliability has been consistently excellent.

Key Features

✓ 3,000+ pre-built actors — Google Maps, LinkedIn, Amazon, Instagram and more
✓ Residential & datacenter proxy pool included in all paid plans
✓ Full Python & JavaScript SDK for custom actor development
✓ Cloud scheduling, webhooks, and dataset storage built-in
✓ MCP (Model Context Protocol) integration — connect actors directly to GPT, Claude, or Gemini
✓ Dataset export to JSON, CSV, Excel, or direct API access
✓ Pay-per-use compute units — only pay for what you actually run
✓ Actor versioning, monitoring, and error alerting dashboard

Pros & Cons

✅ Pros

Best actor marketplace in the industry — covers almost every scraping use case
Creator plan ($1/mo) gives $500 credit — exceptional ROI for testing
Built-in proxy management eliminates a major operational headache
MCP support makes it the best choice for AI-powered scraping workflows
Scales seamlessly from 100 to 10 million records without infra changes
Active community and excellent documentation

⚠️ Cons

Custom actor development has a learning curve for beginners
Costs can grow quickly on large-scale continuous scraping
Some niche sites require significant custom actor work

Best Use Cases

B2B lead generation (LinkedIn, Google Maps, company directories) Price monitoring and competitor intelligence Real estate and job listing scraping Social media data collection AI agent data pipelines via MCP News and content aggregation

My Verdict Youssef Farhan · 155+ Projects

My go-to platform for nearly every client project. The combination of pre-built actors, managed infrastructure, and the Creator plan deal makes it unbeatable value. I build custom Apify actors as a service — reach out if you need one.

Get $500 Credit for $1 →

Apify