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It's a split decision.
Pick Firecrawl for a focused web-data API that searches, scrapes, and interacts with pages; pick Apify for a marketplace of ready-made or custom Actors plus cloud tools. Both have free plans and start at $19 monthly. Annual billing lowers Firecrawl Hobby to $16 per month and Apify Starter to $17.10. The cost model differs: Firecrawl sells credits, while Apify bundles prepaid usage and bills compute, with proxies and other add-ons potentially extra.
01Side by side
| Firecrawl | Apify | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | $19 monthly; $16 monthly equivalent annually | $19 monthly; $17.10 monthly equivalent annually |
| Free plan | Yes; 1,000 credits monthly | Yes; $5 monthly prepaid usage |
| Best for | Search, scraping, and page interaction through an API | Ready-made or custom web data-collection Actors |
| Core strength | One API for search, scraping, and page actions | Actor marketplace plus cloud infrastructure |
| Learning curve | Comparative learning-curve data not published | Comparative learning-curve data not published |
| Integrations and data | Search, scrape, interact; Markdown, JSON, screenshots | MCP, CLI, Skills, APIs, and data exports |
| Team and seat costs | Seat pricing not listed; 2–100 concurrent requests | Seat pricing not listed; 5–256 concurrent runs |
| Support | Basic to priority support; Enterprise has dedicated support and SLA | Community to priority chat; Business has account manager |
Firecrawl Choose Firecrawl if
- Choose Firecrawl if you want one API for search, scraping, and page actions.
- Choose Firecrawl if credit-based usage suits your workload.
- Choose Firecrawl if you need Markdown, JSON, or screenshot outputs.
Apify Choose Apify if
- Choose Apify if you want ready-made web data-collection Actors.
- Choose Apify if you need MCP, CLI, or Skills connections.
- Choose Apify if you want usage-based compute and proxy options.
02Pricing compared
Both offer a free plan and a paid entry plan listed at $19 per month. Firecrawl’s Hobby plan drops to $16 per month with annual billing and includes 5,000 credits, equivalent to 2,500 searches or 5,000 scraped pages. Its Free plan includes 1,000 credits monthly, with low rate limits and two concurrent requests.
Apify’s Starter plan costs $19 monthly or $17.10 per month billed annually. It includes $19 in monthly prepaid usage, then charges by usage; compute costs $0.20 per unit on Starter. The Free plan includes $5 monthly usage and five concurrent runs. Apify says unused prepaid credits expire at the end of each billing cycle. Firecrawl sells extra credits in plan-specific bundles, while Apify lists add-ons including concurrent runs, RAM, and datacenter proxies. Compare expected usage, not just entry prices.
03Features and depth
Firecrawl is the more focused web-data API. It searches the web and returns full content from results, turns websites into Markdown, JSON, screenshots, and other outputs, and can interact with pages by clicking, scrolling, typing, waiting, or navigating. It also parses documents such as PDFs and DOCX files. Its homepage presents Alexandria as a library of the live web, official providers, and specialized indexes.
Apify centers on its marketplace of Actors: ready-made tools for scraping websites, social media, maps, and e-commerce, plus the option to build and deploy custom Actors. It also lists agent connections through MCP, CLI, or Skills, and exports or APIs for running Actors. Its cloud offering includes proxies, unblocking, deployment, monitoring, and data processing. Apify’s broader catalog may suit teams that want different task-specific tools; Firecrawl’s listed feature set is more directly aimed at search, extraction, and page interaction. Neither description alone tells you whether a particular Actor or workflow fits your target sites.
04Ease of use and learning curve
Firecrawl’s narrower API focus may be easier to evaluate if the job is simply to search, scrape, or interact with pages. The listed workflows cover common extraction outputs and page actions, and the Hobby plan allows five concurrent requests.
Apify gives you a choice: start with a ready-made Actor or build and deploy your own. That flexibility comes with more choices to assess, including Actor fit, compute use, and possible proxy costs. Apify provides code templates and guides for custom Actors, and offers MCP, CLI, and Skills connections for agents. On paper, Firecrawl is the more direct starting point for a defined web-data workflow; Apify makes more sense when a marketplace or custom tools matter.
Questions people ask
Which is cheaper, Firecrawl or Apify?
At the entry paid tier, both list $19 monthly. Annual billing brings Firecrawl Hobby to $16 per month and Apify Starter to $17.10. Their usage models differ: Firecrawl sells credits, while Apify includes prepaid usage and charges for compute, with some extras priced separately.
Can I use Firecrawl or Apify for free?
Yes. Firecrawl’s Free plan includes 1,000 credits per month, with two concurrent requests and low rate limits. Apify’s Free plan includes $5 in monthly prepaid usage, $0.20 per compute unit, 16 GB Actor RAM, and five concurrent runs. Apify says unused prepaid credits expire each billing cycle.
Should I choose Firecrawl or Apify for AI agents?
Choose Firecrawl if you want one focused API for web search, scraping, page interaction, and document parsing. Choose Apify if ready-made or custom Actors, marketplace breadth, or cloud tools such as proxies and deployment fit the workflow. Apify lists MCP, CLI, and Skills connections; Firecrawl lists search and extraction features.
What extra costs should I check before scaling?
For Firecrawl, check the credit allowance and the price of extra credits for your plan; pay-as-you-go credit additions are available to paid plans. For Apify, estimate compute usage and check any need for extra runs, RAM, or proxies. Its listed add-ons include $5 per concurrent run and datacenter proxies from $0.60 per IP.