Apify review

Apify is a marketplace of web tools called Actors. You can run ready-made Actors to collect data from websites, social media, maps and e-commerce sites, or build and deploy your own using code templates and guides. The platform also provides cloud infrastructure for running Actors, including proxies, unblocking, deployment, monitoring and data processing.

For AI workflows, Apify says you can connect agents through MCP, CLI or Skills. You can export collected data or run Actors through an API. Creators can publish Actors in the marketplace; Apify handles billing, taxes and invoicing for them.

The practical distinction is that Apify is more than a scraper you point at a page. It combines a catalog of ready-to-run tools with a place to run custom code and connect its output to other systems. That flexibility also means you need to understand usage-based costs before scaling.

Apify’s main advantage is choice. A team can start with a ready-made Actor, then move to a custom one when the workflow needs more control. Data exports and API runs make it possible to use collected data elsewhere, while the cloud services cover deployment, monitoring, proxies and unblocking. Those pieces suit workflows that need more than a one-off browser export.

The AI-agent connections are another useful option. One Reddit thread describes connecting Apify MCP to Claude and using it for autonomous research; that is an individual user’s report, not a guarantee of what every Actor can do. The official feature list also names CLI and Skills connections.

There is a free plan with $5 in monthly prepaid usage, 16 GB of Actor RAM and five concurrent runs. Paid entry starts at $19 per month for Starter, which includes $19 in monthly prepaid usage, 64 GB RAM and 32 concurrent runs. That gives small projects a defined starting point, while the higher plans offer more capacity: Scale is $199 monthly with 128 concurrent runs, and Business is $999 with 256.

Apify’s headline subscription price is not the whole bill. The Free plan charges $0.20 per compute unit, and Starter lists the same rate; Scale lists $0.16 and Business $0.13. Each paid plan includes prepaid usage, then bills additional use on the next invoice. Unused prepaid credits expire at the end of each billing cycle, according to the pricing details. Heavy browser workloads or premium proxies can push costs up; users in one Reddit discussion warn that costs can spiral, though that is anecdotal.

Capacity beyond plan limits is also priced separately: concurrent runs cost $5 per run, Actor RAM costs $1 per GB, and datacenter proxies start at $0.60 per IP. Enterprise pricing and its compute rates are custom, not published. A Reddit commenter also called Apify pricey for a Google Maps lead workflow and said it lacked built-in data management; treat that as one user’s assessment, not a product-wide finding.

Before scaling, estimate compute use, proxy needs and concurrency—not just the monthly plan fee. Compare that expected spend with a simpler tool or a self-hosted scraper if you only need a narrow workflow.

Apify has a free plan, but paid use combines a monthly subscription with compute and possible add-ons. According to the pricing details checked November 6, 2026, Free costs $0 and includes $5 in monthly usage, then charges $0.20 per compute unit. Starter is $19 monthly, or $17.10 per month billed annually, with $19 in usage and the same compute-unit rate. Scale jumps to $199 monthly ($179.10 annually), with compute at $0.16 per unit; Business jumps again to $999 ($899.10 annually), with compute at $0.13 per unit. Enterprise pricing is custom.

The monthly plans include prepaid usage, not unlimited work: usage beyond it is billed on the next invoice. Unused prepaid credits expire at the end of each billing cycle. Add-ons include concurrent runs at $5 per run and Actor RAM at $1 per GB; datacenter proxies start at $0.60 per IP. Annual billing saves 10%, but estimate compute and proxy needs before choosing a tier. The published pricing does not give a typical total cost for a workload.

Switching to Apify may mean selecting marketplace Actors or building custom ones, then connecting your workflows through its APIs or AI-agent options. The product information says you can build and deploy Actors, but it does not say whether existing scraper code can be imported unchanged or provide migration tooling. Treat the effort as dependent on how much of your current workflow needs rebuilding.

For a move away, Apify says users can export scraped data, but the published information does not specify formats, retention periods, or whether Actor configurations export with it. Inventory your Actors, schedules, integrations, proxy needs, and data destinations before you switch; those are the pieces you may need to replace. Using Apify’s marketplace, cloud infrastructure, and billing can also make a later move involve more than copying data. The published material includes no Reddit posts or comments, so we can’t substantiate why users leave or describe a common complaint. Confirm export options and migration requirements with Apify before committing.