Apify

Scrape and Actor platform, the third leg next to Firecrawl and Exa.

From $19/mo Free tier 4.8 on Capterra

Lead generation Sourcing MCP (opens in a new tab)API

Ask AI about Apify: ChatGPT (opens in a new tab) Claude (opens in a new tab) Grok (opens in a new tab)

Bottom line

Actor marketplace and scraping platform with MCP. Free includes $5 usage; paid Starter is $19/mo plus pay-as-you-go.

Stands out for: Hosted MCP at mcp.apify.com plus a Store of ready-made Actors, on a prepaid usage meter with overage billed on paid plans.

Watch out for: Unused prepaid usage expires each cycle. Usage beyond Starter's $19 is billed on the next invoice, and residential proxy costs extra per GB.

Overview

Apify is a cloud platform for Actors: scrapers, automations, and agents. Free is $0 with $5 to spend, $0.20 per compute unit, and community support. Starter is $19/mo plus pay-as-you-go with $19 prepaid usage and chat support. Scale is $199/mo at $0.16/CU. Business is $999/mo at $0.13/CU. Unused prepaid usage expires at cycle end. Free users who burn the $5 wait until next month; paid plans invoice overage.

Teams pick Apify when they want Store Actors or custom crawls without running browsers themselves. MCP is https://mcp.apify.com (OAuth or bearer token). Platform API docs live at docs.apify.com. Add-ons include extra concurrent runs, RAM, datacenter IPs, and $150/hour training. Residential proxy starts at $8/GB on Free and Starter. A separate six-month $500 builder credit is for people shipping their own Actors, not a sales trial.

Who it's for

Best for

Builders running scrapers and agents in the cloud
GTM teams buying ready-made Store Actors
Desks that want MCP to search and run Actors
Startups that will start on Free with $5 usage

Not ideal for

Buyers who need unused credits to roll over
Non-technical teams that will not operate Actors

Key features

Actor store. Run scrapers for jobs, companies, and profiles as sourcing infrastructure.

MCP. First-party server at mcp.apify.com. An agent can search and run Actors. Set spend limits.

AI features

What the AI does	Plan
MCP server to search and run Actors	Included
Apify AI chat in Console	Included

Only features named in the vendor's own documentation. Anything sold separately is marked as an add-on.

MCP server

https://mcp.apify.com

First-party MCP at mcp.apify.com. Official vendor-hosted server. Connect Claude or ChatGPT with the recruiter own login.

All tools with MCP Check your stack in the MCP readiness checker

Pricing

Starting price $19/mo

Free tier ✓

Plan	Price	What you get
Free	$0	$5/mo of platform usage
Starter	$19/mo	Plus pay-as-you-go
Scale	$199/mo
Business	$999/mo	Lower compute-unit rates

Free is $0 with $5 a month of platform usage. Starter is $19/mo plus pay-as-you-go, Scale $199/mo and Business $999/mo, each including that amount of prepaid usage, with lower compute-unit rates on higher plans. Unused prepaid usage expires at the end of each cycle, extra usage is billed on the next invoice, and proxies and extra resources are add-ons. Confirm current terms on the vendor site.

Checked 19 Sep 2026. Vendors change prices without notice.

See current pricing on Apify (opens in a new tab)

Is Apify expensive?

Apify starts at $19/mo. We list 196 lead generation tools in total. 49 have a free tier, and those with a public price typically start around $49 a month.

30 quote-based
49 free tier
151 public price

Worked out automatically from every lead generation listing, so it updates as the directory changes.

Pros and cons

Pros

Free plan with $5 usage, no card
Starter $19/mo plus overage
Hosted MCP at mcp.apify.com

Cons

Prepaid usage expires each month
Overage on paid plans can surprise finance
Residential proxy is billed per GB extra

How Apify compares

See all Apify alternatives, with what each one does differently and a head to head for every pairing.

Tool	Free tier	From	MCP	API	Compare
Apify (this tool)	✓	$19/mo	✓	✓
Firecrawl Hosted crawl API if you want pages-as-markdown more than an Actor store.	✓	$19/mo	✓	✓	Compare
PhantomBuster Cloud Phantoms if LinkedIn and social automations are the whole job.	✓	$69/mo	✓	✓	Compare
Scrap.io Simpler B2B scrape UI if you do not want to operate Actors.	–	$49/mo	✓	✓	Compare
n8n Workflow automation if scraping is one step in a larger pipeline.	✓	€20/mo	✓	✓	Compare

Firecrawl

$19/mo Free tier MCP API

Hosted crawl API if you want pages-as-markdown more than an Actor store.

View listing Compare with Apify

PhantomBuster

$69/mo Free tier MCP API

Cloud Phantoms if LinkedIn and social automations are the whole job.

View listing Compare with Apify

Scrap.io

$49/mo MCP API

Simpler B2B scrape UI if you do not want to operate Actors.

View listing Compare with Apify

n8n

€20/mo Free tier MCP API

Workflow automation if scraping is one step in a larger pipeline.

View listing Compare with Apify

Frequently asked questions

What is Apify?

Scrape and Actor platform, the third leg next to Firecrawl and Exa. Apify is a scrape and Actor platform. Apify is listed under Lead generation and Sourcing in the Work Insiders directory.

Is Apify free?

Partly. Apify has a free tier with paid plans above it. See all free recruiting tools. See free Lead generation.

Does Apify have an MCP server or API?

Yes. Apify has a first-party MCP server and a public API.

What are alternatives to Apify?

Apify alternatives worth comparing are Firecrawl, PhantomBuster, Scrap.io and n8n. The comparison table above shows free tier, starting price, MCP and API side by side.