Best Alternatives to Apify
Two reasons teams leave Apify: compute-unit pricing stacks unpredictably with proxy and storage costs, and the custom Actor model requires engineering time most outbound teams cannot justify. Four alternatives ranked by workflow fit.
PhantomBuster replaces Apify for outbound teams: 130-plus pre-built Phantoms for LinkedIn and social platforms, plan-based pricing instead of compute-unit billing, no Actor development required. Stay with Apify for custom scrapers, residential proxy routing, or AI agent data pipelines via MCP; none of the alternatives here match that infrastructure depth.
The Alternatives
Best alternatives to Apify
Ranked by fit for the most common switching reasons. Each tool serves a different profile.
Apify is the right call for engineering teams scraping arbitrary URLs at scale with residential proxies, deploying custom serverless scrapers via SDK, or feeding live web data into AI agents via MCP. No alternative here matches that infrastructure depth.
Side-by-Side
Apify vs 4 alternatives: feature and price comparison
| Tool | Best for | Starting price | No-code setup | LinkedIn scraping | Custom scrapers | Free tier |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apify (current) | Custom scraping + AI data pipelines | $0 (Free) · $29/mo | ✗ (requires dev) | ✓ (via Actors) | ✓ SDK + API | ✓ |
| PhantomBuster | LinkedIn scraping + outreach | $56/mo (annual) | ✓ | ✓ (130+ Phantoms) | ✗ | ✓ 14-day trial |
| Make | No-code workflow automation | $9/mo | ✓ | ✗ (via 3rd party) | ✗ | ✓ Free plan |
| n8n | Self-hosted technical automation | Executions-based | Partial | ✗ (via nodes) | ✓ (code steps) | ✓ 14-day trial |
| Captain Data | B2B data API for AI products | 100 free credits | ✗ (API-first) | ✓ (endpoints) | ✗ | ✓ |
Apify plan prices are base prepaid amounts; proxy and storage overages add to the monthly total. n8n and Captain Data pricing require verification at n8n.io/pricing and captaindata.co before committing.
Which One to Pick
4 switching profiles: which alternative fits yours
PhantomBuster at $56/mo annual covers 20 execution hours and 10 Phantom slots with no proxy or storage overages. For non-LinkedIn workflows, Make Core at $9/mo offers similarly bounded, transparent billing.
PhantomBuster covers LinkedIn and social data extraction with 130-plus no-code Phantoms. Make covers multi-app workflow orchestration without custom automation logic; pick based on whether your need is scraping or orchestration.
n8n combines visual workflows with JavaScript and Python code steps, supports self-hosted Docker or Kubernetes, and prices by full workflow executions. Complex multi-step workflows typically cost less than Apify's per-compute-unit model.
Captain Data returns structured JSON from seven purpose-built B2B endpoints with MCP integration for AI agents. The 100 free credits require no credit card, making it the lowest-friction first test on this list.
Common Questions
Apify vs alternatives: common questions
PhantomBuster is the strongest replacement for teams using Apify primarily for LinkedIn and social scraping: 130-plus maintained Phantoms at a fixed monthly price, no engineering overhead. For broader no-code workflow automation, Make is the more practical choice.
Yes, for teams scraping arbitrary URLs at scale with residential proxies, deploying custom serverless scrapers via SDK, or feeding live web data into AI agents via MCP. Teams using Apify only for LinkedIn scraping pay for infrastructure they do not need.
Apify Starter is $29/mo in prepaid compute units with variable overages for proxy and storage. PhantomBuster Start is $56/mo annual with fixed execution hours, Phantom slots, and AI credits, and no usage-based overages.
Make and n8n replace Apify's workflow orchestration layer but not its scraping infrastructure: neither runs residential proxies nor deploys custom serverless scrapers. For teams using Apify as a workflow trigger and data router rather than for raw scraping, Make or n8n are simpler and cheaper.
Ready to make the switch?
Start with PhantomBuster: 130-plus pre-built Phantoms, predictable plan pricing, and a 14-day free trial.
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