Apify Alternative with 98% Success Rate on Protected Sites
Apify's 10,000+ Actors sound powerful until you're managing different APIs for each site and watching compute units eat your budget. Scrapfly gives you one API that works everywhere with simple credit pricing.
Which Protected Sites Does Scrapfly Handle?
Scrapfly achieves 98% success across protected sites where most APIs struggle. Scrapeway benchmarks test all major web scraping APIs using default configurations.
E-commerce
Social Media
Professional
Local & Maps
One API vs 10,000 Actors
With Apify, you need to find, configure, and pay for separate Actors for each website. Different APIs, different pricing, different maintainers. Scrapfly provides a single unified API that handles any website with consistent behavior and predictable costs.
Unified Scraping Experience
- Same SDK for all websites
- Consistent parameter naming
- Predictable credit consumption
- No per-Actor learning curve
Full Stack Ownership
- Active anti-bot monitoring 24/7
- Bypass restoration in days, not weeks
- No third-party Actor dependencies
- Real browser TLS fingerprint matching
Quick Comparison: Scrapfly vs Apify
What matters most for production web scraping: success rate on protected sites, cost efficiency, and reliability with JavaScript rendering.
| Metric | Scrapfly | Apify |
|---|---|---|
| Success Rate (Protected Sites) | 98% | Varies by Actor |
| Free Trial | 1,000 API credits | $5 platform credits |
| Pricing Model | Simple credits | Subscription + compute units + Actor fees |
| Anti-Bot Bypass | ASP (full stack ownership) | Via specific Actors |
| Unified API | One SDK for all sites | Different Actor per site |
| AI Extraction | LLM prompts, auto-detection, templates | Via GPT Actors |
| Bandwidth Optimization | Proxy Saver (50% savings) | |
| Browser Automation | JS Scenarios | Puppeteer/Playwright Actors |
| Screenshot API | Full page + element capture | Via Screenshot Actors |
Success rate data from Scrapeway benchmark (at time of writing)
How Scrapfly's ASP Works
Scrapfly's Anti-Scraping Protection (ASP) achieves 98% success using stealth browser technology that mimics genuine browser behavior. Enable asp=True and the system handles everything automatically.
Real Browser Fingerprints
Matches authentic Chrome and Firefox signatures including TLS/JA3 fingerprints, HTTP/2 fingerprints, WebGL properties, and canvas rendering.
Adaptive Challenge Solving
Automatically solves Cloudflare, DataDome, and PerimeterX challenges. Recognizes challenge types and submits valid solutions.
Session Intelligence
Reuses unblocked stealth browser sessions when possible, reducing costs while maintaining high success rates.
ASP runs in dedicated cloud browser instances with full JavaScript execution and persistent sessions. Test your fingerprint with our free fingerprinting tools.
Transparent Pricing for Protected Sites
Scrapfly's ASP costs 30+ credits per request, varying by target complexity. You pay for what's actually needed, not a flat premium rate. View full pricing details.
| Configuration | Scrapfly | Apify |
|---|---|---|
| Entry Price | $30/month | $39/month + usage |
| Basic scrape | 1 credit | Varies by Actor (+ compute units) |
| JavaScript rendering | 6 credits | Compute units ($0.20-0.30/CU) |
| Protected site bypass | 30+ credits (varies by target) | Premium Actor fees + compute units |
Apify vs Scrapfly
The Actor marketplace sounds great until you're juggling 15 different Actor APIs and watching compute units drain your budget.
Complex Pricing
Apify charges platform subscription + compute units (billed per second of Actor runtime) + optional Actor fees. Memory-hungry scrapers or slow sites drain CUs faster than expected.
Scrapfly: fixed credit per request10,000+ Different APIs
Each Apify Actor has its own input schema: productUrls for Amazon, directUrls for Instagram, searchStringsArray for Google Maps. New site? Find and learn another Actor.
url parameter for any site
Third-Party Maintenance
Apify Actors are built by community developers with no SLA. When an Actor breaks, you open a GitHub issue and wait. Maybe days, maybe never.
Scrapfly: we own and support the stackWhat Developers Say
Capterra Rating: 4.9/5 (183 reviews)
"We needed something simpler than managing multiple Actors. Scrapfly's single API handles everything we were doing with 5 different Actors."
"Our compute unit costs were unpredictable. Some months we'd go way over budget. Scrapfly's credit system lets us know exactly what we're spending."
"When our Instagram Actor broke, we waited weeks for a fix. Scrapfly support responds same day and they actually own the tech stack."
Migration Takes 2 Hours
Most teams migrate from Apify to Scrapfly in under 2 hours with zero downtime and no data loss.
Migration Process
- Sign up for free 1,000 API credits
- Install the SDK (Python, TypeScript, Go, or Scrapy)
- Update client initialization and request parameters
- Test on your critical targets
Run both services in parallel during testing. Test Scrapfly on your targets while Apify handles production traffic.
# Apify Actor → Scrapfly: Unified API approach
from scrapfly import ScrapflyClient, ScrapeConfig
client = ScrapflyClient(key='YOUR_API_KEY')
# Instead of learning different Actor APIs for each site,
# use the same Scrapfly SDK for any target:
result = client.scrape(ScrapeConfig(
url='https://example.com',
render_js=True, # Replaces Actor-specific JS settings
asp=True, # Reliable bypass (no Actor dependencies)
country='us', # Built-in geo-targeting
format='json' # Structured output
))
# Extract data with AI (replaces custom Actor parsing)
from scrapfly import ExtractionConfig
extracted = client.extract(ExtractionConfig(
content=result.content,
content_type='text/html',
extraction_model='product' # Auto-detect product data
))
print(extracted.data)Full parameter mapping from popular Actors, workflow migration patterns, and examples:
View Full Migration GuideFrequently Asked Questions
Does Scrapfly really achieve 98% success on protected sites?
Yes. Scrapeway benchmarks all major web scraping APIs on identical protected targets, consistently showing Scrapfly achieving 98% success. This includes sites like LinkedIn, Walmart, Zillow, and Glassdoor where anti-bot protection is most aggressive.
Can I test Scrapfly on my specific targets before committing?
Yes. The free plan includes 1,000 API credits with no credit card required. Test your exact targets before upgrading.
How does Apify's pricing work and why do costs add up?
Apify charges through three separate layers: a platform subscription ($39-999/month), compute units consumed during Actor runs ($0.20-0.30 per CU), and sometimes additional per-result fees from premium Actors. This creates a "meter running" effect where longer-running scrapers or Actors that need more memory consume more CUs than expected. Scrapfly charges per API call with fixed credit costs, you see the price before making the request.
I use Apify's Amazon/Instagram/Google Maps Actors. What's the Scrapfly equivalent?
Scrapfly doesn't have site-specific "Actors" because our API works on any website with the same parameters. For structured data, our Extraction API auto-detects products, articles, jobs, and other common data types. The advantage: you learn one API instead of different Actor configurations for each site, and you're not dependent on whether a third-party Actor maintainer keeps their code updated.
What happens to my Apify datasets and request queues?
Scrapfly returns data directly in API responses rather than storing it in platform-specific datasets. This means you store results in your own database (MongoDB, PostgreSQL, S3, wherever). For crawling with URL queues, our Crawler API handles link discovery and URL management. The benefit: your data lives in your infrastructure, not locked into Apify's platform.
Can I run Puppeteer/Playwright code like in Apify Actors?
Scrapfly's JS Scenarios replace custom Puppeteer/Playwright page functions with a declarative JSON format. Instead of writing await page.click('.button'), you send {"click": {"selector": ".button"}}. For complex JavaScript, use the execute action to run custom code. You get browser automation without managing browser infrastructure or Actor deployments.
How does Scrapfly handle heavily protected sites?
Our ASP (Anti-Scraping Protection) automatically adapts to Cloudflare, DataDome, PerimeterX, and custom anti-bot systems by matching real browser TLS handshakes, fingerprints, and HTTP headers. No manual configuration required.
My Apify Actor broke and the maintainer isn't responding. Now what?
That's the core problem with Apify's marketplace model: Actors are maintained by third parties with no SLA and no support obligation. You open a GitHub issue and wait. Maybe they fix it in a week, maybe they've moved on to other projects. Scrapfly is different because we own and maintain the entire bypass system. When something breaks, you contact our support team directly and we fix it, it's our job, not a side project.
What happens when a request fails?
Scrapfly provides detailed error diagnostics showing why requests fail (blocks, timeouts, site issues). Automatic retries handle transient failures, and you're not charged for unsuccessful requests.
Does Scrapfly support JavaScript rendering?
Yes. Scrapfly uses dedicated cloud browser instances with headless browser JavaScript rendering for dynamic content. Enable the render_js parameter to capture content from React, Vue.js, Angular apps and SPAs.
What proxies does Scrapfly include?
Scrapfly includes residential and datacenter proxies in all plans. Both rotate across 50+ countries. All proxies are included in API credits with no separate fees. New to proxies? See our introduction to proxies in web scraping.
Does Scrapfly have an Extraction API?
Yes. Scrapfly's Extraction API transforms raw HTML into structured JSON data automatically. Choose from auto-extraction for common data types, LLM-powered extraction using natural language prompts, or template-based extraction with reusable rules.
See How Scrapfly Compares to Other APIs
Explore more comparisons to find the best web scraping solution for your needs.
Start For Free Today
Test Scrapfly on your targets before committing.
- 1,000 free API credits
- No credit card required
- Full API access
- Migration support
Methodology Note: Scrapeway benchmarks test web scraping APIs using default, out-of-the-box configurations, representing the real-world experience developers encounter when first integrating an API.