```yaml
product: AlterLab
title: "Apify Alternative — One Endpoint Instead of 45,000+ Actors | AlterLab"
comparison_context: "AlterLab is an alternative to Firecrawl, ScrapingBee, and Bright Data."
source_url: https://alterlab.io/vs/apify
```

Apify Alternative

# The Simple Apify Alternative: One Endpoint, Zero Complexity

One endpoint, zero configuration. No Actors to choose from, no platform lock-in.

94%

Cheaper than Apify

Based on average usage across all tiers

99.9% uptime

195+ countries

No credit card

One API endpoint vs 45,000+ Actors

No monthly subscriptions

Balance never expires

No platform lock-in or vendor SDK

Built-in protected site handling across all tiers

Start with $10 instead of $29/month

See Pricing Comparison

### Is AlterLab a cheaper alternative to Apify?

Yes. AlterLab charges $0.0002 per Light request against Apify's $0.0035, 94% less, and $0.004 for browser rendering against $0.0035. There is no subscription and the balance never expires. Competitor prices are from public pricing pages, March 2026. See the [AlterLab web scraping API](https://alterlab.io/).

Common frustrations

## Why developers leave Apify

Real pain points from developers who switched to AlterLab

### 45,000+ Actors to manage

Finding and configuring the right Actor from a marketplace of 45,000+ is time-consuming. Many are outdated or broken.

### Developer-only platform

Apify requires coding skills to build and maintain Actors. No simple API-first approach.

### Unpredictable costs

Compute unit pricing is opaque. Hard to estimate costs before running a scraping job.

Verified Hard-Page Performance

## Real Success Rates, Not Marketing Claims

AlterLab's real-world success rate on the hardest pages in our difficulty benchmark, computed continuously from live production scrape outcomes, not a lab benchmark or a self-reported claim.

41,079 verified scrape encounters as of November 3, 2026, 90-day window.

| Protection Type | Difficulty Score | Trend | Encounters |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| [soft_block](https://alterlab.io/benchmark/vendor/soft-block) | 62.1 | 0.0 | 14,444 |
| [cloudflare_managed_challenge](https://alterlab.io/benchmark/vendor/cloudflare-managed-challenge) | 36.2 | 0.0 | 8,968 |
| [cloudflare_turnstile](https://alterlab.io/benchmark/vendor/cloudflare-turnstile) | 61.9 | 0.0 | 3,402 |
| [datadome](https://alterlab.io/benchmark/vendor/datadome) | 95.0 | 0.0 | 2,639 |
| [cloudflare_blocked](https://alterlab.io/benchmark/vendor/cloudflare-blocked) | 46.6 | 0.0 | 1,948 |

Platform-wide data across all AlterLab customers and every supported site -- not specific to any single competitor. [See full methodology and live data](https://alterlab.io/benchmark).

| Workload | AlterLab per 1k | Apify per 1k |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Basic HTML | $0.20$0.0002 per request | $3.50$0.0035 per request |
| JavaScript rendering | $4.00$0.004 per request | $3.50$0.0035 per request |

Interactive Calculator

## See How Much You Save

Drag the slider to calculate your exact savings vs Apify

pricing-calculator

Scraping Mode

Monthly Volume

100K

Best Price

AlterLab

$20.00

$0.0002 per request

Apify

$350.00

$0.0035 per request

Your Monthly Savings

$330.00

94% less every month with AlterLab

That's $4.0k back in your budget annually

No credit card

Up to 5,000 free requests

2-min setup

## Measured Benchmark Results

AlterLab's own results from the reproducible benchmark run on 2026-10-22: 24 public pages, 3 attempts each, caching off. This is not a head-to-head run against Apify; Apify was not measured, so no Apify figures are shown.

91.7%

Success rate

7.7s

p50 latency

44.5s

p95 latency

$1.31

Cost per 1k results

| Category | Targets | Success rate | Cost / 1k |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| E-commerce | 4 | 75.0% | $2.27 |
| News & Media | 4 | 100.0% | $1.75 |
| Finance | 4 | 100.0% | $0.23 |
| Government | 4 | 100.0% | $0.20 |
| Real Estate | 4 | 75.0% | $1.57 |
| Jobs & Directories | 4 | 100.0% | $2.17 |

See the [methodology](https://alterlab.io/benchmark/methodology#reproducible-benchmark) or download the raw data ([JSON](https://alterlab.io/benchmark/results.json), [CSV](https://alterlab.io/benchmark/results.csv)) and re-run it yourself.

Developer Experience

## 19,000 Actors vs One Endpoint

Apify requires you to find, configure, and manage Actors for every scraping task. AlterLab gives you one API endpoint that handles everything.

A

### Apify Workflow

4 steps to scrape a page

1

Browse Marketplace

Search 19,000+ Actors to find the right one

2

Configure Actor

Set inputs, proxy, memory, timeout per Actor

3

Manage Compute Units

Monitor CU consumption, estimate costs

4

Monitor Runs

Check run status, debug failures, retry

AL

### AlterLab Workflow

1 step to scrape a page

1

POST a URL

One endpoint, one request — done

// That's it. One request.

curl -X POST https://api.alterlab.io/v1/scrape \

-H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" \

-d '{"url": "https://example.com"}'

Pricing Transparency

## Compute Units Are Unpredictable

Apify charges per compute unit, but costs vary wildly by Actor, memory allocation, and runtime. AlterLab charges a flat rate per request.

Apify Actor

CU / Run

Apify Cost

AlterLab

Web Scraper

0.05–0.5

$0.25–$2.50

$0.0002

Cheerio Scraper

0.01–0.1

$0.05–$0.50

$0.0002

Puppeteer Scraper

0.1–1.0

$0.50–$5.00

$0.004

Instagram Scraper

0.5–5.0

$2.50–$25.00

$0.004

Apify costs vary by Actor, memory allocation (128 MB–32 GB), and runtime duration. Ranges shown are typical for simple scraping tasks. AlterLab pricing is flat per request regardless of complexity.

$29/mo

Apify minimum subscription (Starter)

$10

AlterLab minimum deposit (one-time)

Never

AlterLab balance expiry

Feature-by-Feature

## Every feature, side by side

See exactly how AlterLab compares to Apify across all key features

| Feature | AlterLabWinner | Apify |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Getting startedTime to first scrape | 2 minutes (POST a URL) | 15+ minutes (find Actor, configure, run) |
| API complexityIntegration approach | 1 REST endpoint | 45,000+ Actors with different configs |
| SDK dependencyRequired client libraries | Any HTTP client (curl, fetch, requests) | Apify SDK required for full features |
| Vendor lock-inCan you switch easily | Standard REST API | Actor ecosystem lock-in |

Save 94% vs Apify

### Same features, 94% less

Get the same capabilities at a fraction of the cost. Start with up to 5,000 free requests — no credit card required.

[View Detailed Pricing](https://alterlab.io/pricing)

Live API Preview

## See AlterLab in action

One endpoint. Any website. Results in under 2 seconds. No Apify complexity.

AlterLab API Playground

URL to scrape

Click Run to see the response

```
// Response will appear here...
```

Try it yourself with up to 5,000 free requests

No credit card required. Get your API key in 30 seconds.

Migration Time: 10 minutes

## Switch from Apify in 10 minutes

Simple easy migration process. No downtime, no complex setup.

### Migration Steps

### Code Migration Example

Before (Apify)

Python

```
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

const client = new ApifyClient({ token: 'YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN' });

// Find the right Actor, read its docs, configure inputs...
const run = await client.actor('apify/web-scraper').call({
  startUrls: [{ url: 'https://example.com' }],
  pageFunction: async function pageFunction(context) {
    return { title: document.title };
  }
});
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
```

After (AlterLab)

Python

```
// AlterLab — one endpoint, zero configuration
const response = await fetch('https://api.alterlab.io/v1/scrape', {
  method: 'POST',
  headers: {
    'X-API-Key': 'YOUR_ALTERLAB_KEY',
    'Content-Type': 'application/json'
  },
  body: JSON.stringify({
    url: 'https://example.com',
    render_js: "auto"
  })
});
const data = await response.json();
```

### Compatibility Notes

- •AlterLab handles web scraping use cases with a single API endpoint — no Actors to configure
- •No SDK needed — any HTTP client works (curl, fetch, requests, etc.)
- •Actor-specific features (scheduling, storage) have different solutions in AlterLab
- •For complex workflows, use AlterLab's batch API for parallel requests

### Ready to make the switch?

Start with up to 5,000 free requests. No credit card required.

## Built for production workloads

Real platform metrics — not marketing promises

700+

Developers building

99.9%

Uptime target

195+

Countries covered

<1s

Avg response time

Start free — no credit card, no commitment

## Frequently Asked Questions

Last updated: October 2026

Want the full analysis?

[AlterLab vs Apify — In-Depth ReviewActor marketplace architecture, per-actor compute pricing, and real benchmark data compared in detail.](https://alterlab.io/blog/alterlab-vs-apify-which-scraping-api-is-better-in-2026)

## More Comparisons

See how AlterLab stacks up against other scraping APIs

[AlterLab vs ScraperAPI10x cost multipliers](https://alterlab.io/vs/scraperapi)[AlterLab vs FirecrawlExpiring monthly balance](https://alterlab.io/vs/firecrawl)[AlterLab vs ScrapingBee75x cost for hard sites](https://alterlab.io/vs/scrapingbee)[AlterLab vs Bright DataComplex enterprise tooling](https://alterlab.io/vs/brightdata)[AlterLab vs ZenRowsMonthly subscription required](https://alterlab.io/vs/zenrows)[AlterLab vs CrawlbaseConfusing token types](https://alterlab.io/vs/crawlbase)[AlterLab vs ZyteEnterprise complexity](https://alterlab.io/vs/zyte)[AlterLab vs OxylabsEnterprise minimums, no developer API](https://alterlab.io/vs/oxylabs)[AlterLab vs SmartproxyBandwidth billing, unpredictable costs](https://alterlab.io/vs/smartproxy)[AlterLab vs ScrapflyCredits expire monthly, complex pricing](https://alterlab.io/vs/scrapfly)[AlterLab vs Crawl4AIMonthly subscription required](https://alterlab.io/vs/crawl4ai)[AlterLab vs DiffbotMonthly subscription required](https://alterlab.io/vs/diffbot)[AlterLab vs TavilySummarized snippets, not full page content](https://alterlab.io/vs/tavily)[AlterLab vs SerpAPISearch-only, no destination page extraction](https://alterlab.io/vs/serpapi)[AlterLab vs ScrapeBadgerMonthly subscription required](https://alterlab.io/vs/scrapebadger)[AlterLab vs ScrapelessFlat $1 per 1,000 for every page](https://alterlab.io/vs/scrapeless)[AlterLab vs ScrapeCreatorsFixed list of platform endpoints](https://alterlab.io/vs/scrapecreators)[AlterLab vs ScrapingAnt1–125 credits per request](https://alterlab.io/vs/scrapingant)[AlterLab vs Scrapingdog$40/month plan minimum](https://alterlab.io/vs/scrapingdog)

Want measured numbers? See our [reproducible benchmark (methodology + raw data)](https://alterlab.io/benchmark#reproducible-benchmark).

## More Scraping API Resources

Part of the [Web Scraping API Documentation](https://alterlab.io/docs) cluster

[Web Scraping API DocumentationComplete API reference with 5-tier auto-escalation — Curl to challenge resolution.Pillar page](https://alterlab.io/docs)[AlterLab vs ScraperAPI10x cost multipliers vs pay-as-you-go pricing.](https://alterlab.io/vs/scraperapi)[AlterLab vs Bright DataComplex enterprise tooling vs simple API integration.](https://alterlab.io/vs/brightdata)[AlterLab vs FirecrawlExpiring monthly balance vs credits that never expire.](https://alterlab.io/vs/firecrawl)[AlterLab vs ScrapingBee75x cost for hard sites vs auto-escalation pricing.](https://alterlab.io/vs/scrapingbee)[AlterLab vs ZenRowsMonthly subscription required vs pay-per-request.](https://alterlab.io/vs/zenrows)[AlterLab vs CrawlbaseConfusing token types vs transparent per-request billing.](https://alterlab.io/vs/crawlbase)[Web Scraping API BenchmarksReal success rate and cost data across scraping APIs — no vendor data.](https://alterlab.io/benchmark)

## Stop managing Actors. Start scraping smarter.

Switch from Apify in under 10 minutes. No credit card required.

[Start free — up to 5,000 free requests](https://alterlab.io/signup?utm_source=apify-comparison&utm_medium=vs-page)

Pay-as-you-go pricing. Balance never expires.