Apify Alternative

Bright Data and Apify serve different primary purposes. Bright Data excels at proxy infrastructure (150M+ residential IPs with unlimited bandwidth), officially maintained scraper APIs, dataset marketplace, and enterprise support. Apify specializes in serverless automation with 10,000+ community-built Actors and flexible deployment.

Choose Bright Data if you need: the world's largest proxy network, unlimited bandwidth (vs Apify's $8/GB), 99.99% guaranteed uptime, 24/7 support on all paid plans (vs Apify's Business plan only), officially maintained scrapers, and ready-made datasets. Choose Apify if you need: serverless automation platform, community-built tools, custom Actor development, and pay-as-you-go compute pricing.

Bright Data's 120+ APIs are professionally built and maintained by our in-house engineering team with guaranteed uptime, enterprise SLAs, continuous updates when target sites change, and dedicated support. Each API is production-ready with consistent data formats.

Apify's 10,000+ Actors offer incredible variety but are primarily community-built. Quality, maintenance, and support vary by developer. While Apify has more total tools, Bright Data focuses on reliability and guaranteed performance for mission-critical operations. For enterprises requiring SLAs and guaranteed uptime, officially maintained solutions provide better risk management than community tools.

Bright Data includes unlimited bandwidth with all proxy types—residential, datacenter, ISP, and mobile. You pay per IP or data collected, not per GB transferred. This makes costs predictable for high-volume operations.

Apify charges proxies separately as add-ons: $8/GB for residential proxies and $0.60-$1/IP for datacenter proxies. For operations requiring significant bandwidth (e.g., video scraping, large file downloads), Bright Data's unlimited bandwidth typically provides much better value. A project using 1TB/month would cost $8,000 in proxy fees alone on Apify, while Bright Data includes unlimited bandwidth.

Migration time depends on your use case. If you're using Apify primarily for its proxy service, migration to Bright Data's superior infrastructure (150M+ IPs, unlimited bandwidth) takes 24-48 hours. If you're using Apify Actors, you'll need to identify Bright Data API equivalents or rebuild in our Web IDE.

The process involves: (1) Identifying Bright Data equivalents for your Apify Actors, (2) Setting up Bright Data's proxy infrastructure, (3) Running parallel tests comparing bandwidth costs and performance, (4) Gradual migration. Our support team assists throughout and can help determine if a hybrid approach works (Apify for custom automation + Bright Data for proxy infrastructure).

Both platforms offer robust capabilities with different focuses. Apify features: 10,000+ community Actors, serverless platform, console with code editor, proxy add-ons (charged per GB), JSON/CSV/Excel/XML exports, and extensive integrations.

Bright Data features: 150M+ proxy network with unlimited bandwidth, 120+ officially maintained APIs, browser-based Web IDE with AI building, dataset marketplace, NDJSON support, 24/7 dedicated support on all paid plans, no-code visual tools, and guaranteed 99.99% uptime. While Apify is developer-focused for serverless automation, Bright Data provides complete infrastructure with enterprise-grade reliability.

Bright Data operates the world's largest proxy network: 150M+ residential IPs, 1.3M+ datacenter IPs, 1.3M+ ISP IPs, and 7M+ mobile IPs across 195 countries. All proxy types include unlimited bandwidth, 99.99% uptime SLA, city-level targeting, ASN targeting, and mobile carrier selection.

Apify offers proxies as a paid add-on service with per-GB billing ($8/GB residential). Apify's proxy network is not their core product—they partner with third-party providers. For proxy-intensive operations, Bright Data's owned infrastructure, unlimited bandwidth, included access (not separate add-on), and enterprise SLAs provide superior value and reliability.

Absolutely. Bright Data offers free trials on all products with no credit card required. We recommend running parallel tests for 24-48 hours, especially to compare proxy performance and bandwidth costs. Many customers discover significant savings switching from Apify's per-GB proxy pricing to Bright Data's unlimited bandwidth.

Many companies use both platforms together—Apify for custom automation workflows and serverless Actor deployment, and Bright Data for proxy infrastructure, officially maintained scrapers, and enterprise data collection. Our team can help you design an optimal architecture combining both platforms if that fits your needs.

Bright Data supports all major programming languages including Python (with Scrapy support), JavaScript/Node.js, Java, PHP, Ruby, C#, Go, and Bash. We provide comprehensive SDKs, code examples, and documentation for each language. Bright Data's Web IDE allows browser-based development without local setup.

Apify primarily supports JavaScript/Node.js and Python with deep integration for Puppeteer, Playwright, Selenium, Cheerio, BeautifulSoup, and their Crawlee library. Both platforms serve developers well—Apify focuses on serverless JavaScript/Python execution, while Bright Data offers multi-language API access with proxy infrastructure that works with any technology stack.

Bright Data provides 24/7 global support via live chat, email, and phone in multiple languages on all paid plans. All customers receive dedicated account managers, free migration assistance, technical consultation, and comprehensive documentation. Our support team includes experienced developers.

Apify offers community support on free plan, chat support on Starter/Scale plans ($39-$199/month), and account managers only on Business plan ($999/month). They have an active 11,500+ member Discord community. Both platforms provide good support, but Bright Data's 24/7 availability and dedicated account managers at all paid tiers (not just top tier) make it better for enterprises with global operations.

Apify Store contains 10,000+ Actors (as of December 2024)—an impressive community-driven marketplace with tools for scraping, automation, data processing, and AI integration. Quality varies as most are community-maintained. The platform paid $563K to developers in September 2024.

Bright Data offers 120+ officially maintained scraper APIs plus a dataset marketplace with pre-collected data. While smaller in quantity, all APIs have guaranteed uptime, enterprise SLAs, and dedicated in-house support. For mission-critical operations requiring reliability over variety, officially maintained solutions with guaranteed support often provide better risk management than community tools.

Bright Data supports JSON, NDJSON (newline-delimited JSON for streaming), CSV, Excel, and direct database integrations (MySQL, PostgreSQL, MongoDB). We also offer webhook delivery, cloud storage integration (Amazon S3, Google Cloud Storage), and scheduled automatic exports.

Apify supports JSON, CSV, Excel, XML, HTML Table, RSS, and JSONL formats through dataset storage. Both platforms offer comprehensive export options with slight differences—Apify includes RSS and HTML Table, while Bright Data emphasizes NDJSON for streaming large datasets and direct database integrations for enterprise workflows.

Bright Data offers comprehensive no-code tools: (1) Visual data selector for point-and-click extraction, (2) Pre-built scraper templates requiring zero coding, (3) Browser extension for extraction while browsing, (4) Scheduled automatic collection with delivery options, (5) Direct integrations with Google Sheets, Zapier, and Make.

Apify is primarily developer-focused. Users can configure and run pre-built Actors through the console without coding, but creating custom scrapers requires JavaScript or Python knowledge. Bright Data empowers non-technical team members (marketers, analysts, business users) more effectively, while Apify is optimized for developers who want full programmatic control.

Bright Data offers transparent pricing with unlimited bandwidth included—you pay for proxy access and data collected, not for bandwidth consumption. This makes costs predictable for high-volume operations. All features are clearly priced upfront.

Apify uses a compute-unit model ($0.20-$0.30 per compute unit) plus separate charges for proxies ($8/GB residential), storage, and data transfer. While flexible for variable workloads, costs can be harder to predict for large-scale operations. Apify's pay-as-you-go works well for development and testing, while Bright Data's unlimited bandwidth model is typically better for production workloads.

Yes, both serve enterprise customers. Bright Data serves 20,000+ customers including Fortune 500 companies with infrastructure supporting unlimited bandwidth, automatic scaling, 150M+ residential IPs across 195 countries, and 99.99% uptime SLA.

Apify processes 6.8 billion API calls annually (as of 2024) and serves Microsoft, T-Mobile, Accenture, and Groupon. Their serverless infrastructure auto-scales and they're SOC2 Type II certified. Both handle enterprise scale—Bright Data excels at proxy infrastructure with unlimited bandwidth and guaranteed SLAs, while Apify excels at serverless automation and developer flexibility with community-driven innovation.

Bright Data is fully compliant with GDPR, CCPA, and international data protection regulations. We maintain ISO 27001, SOC 2 Type II, and CSA STAR Level 1 certifications. All proxy IPs are ethically sourced with explicit user consent, full audit trails, and data processing agreements (DPAs) available.

Apify is GDPR and CCPA compliant with SOC 2 Type II certification. They provide data processing agreements and security documentation. Both platforms meet enterprise security requirements. Bright Data's additional ISO 27001 and CSA STAR certifications, plus transparent ethical proxy sourcing with KYC-first approach, make us the preferred choice for heavily regulated industries requiring comprehensive compliance frameworks.