shouldiuse.io

Categories

VERDICT

Apify Review

Depends

Should I use Apify?

Thousands of tools to automate your business. Get real-time web data, track competitors, generate leads, and integrate your apps and AI agents. - apify.com

· 1 month ago

Buy if your team needs recurring web data, lead gen, or scraping APIs feeding apps or AI agents. Skip it if you need a one-off scrape or no-code simplicity — usage billing and a learning curve will cost you more than the tool saves.

Confidence

High. Based on 20+ public sources: G2, Trustpilot, Reddit, vendor docs, CVE databases, and pricing analyses.

Ratings

  • Value for money
  • Ease of use
  • Feature depth
  • Support qualityNo supporting evidence found
  • Security posture

Pricing

$0

Free

ModelNot disclosed
Monthly feesNot disclosed
HardwareNot disclosed
Free tierYes
StarterPaid; price has changed over time (formerly ~$29/mo)
Scale / BusinessUsage-based, scales with compute

Best for

  • Lead-gen and sales data teams
  • Developers automating web scraping
  • AI teams feeding agents real-time data
  • Price and competitor monitoring

Not for

  • One-off scrapes — a freelancer or free tool is cheaper
  • Non-technical teams wanting plug-and-play simplicity
  • Anyone who hates variable usage-based bills
  • Small teams with a single simple automation

Gotchas - check before you buy

high

Usage-based billing can balloon: one developer reported a bill 5x higher than expected

medium

Plan prices have shifted; Starter reportedly fell from $29/mo, breaking user budgets

medium

Reviewers say pricing is their main gripe despite loving the product

medium

Each marketplace actor prices separately (roughly $7–8/GB), so costs stack across tools

Pros and cons

Pros

  • 4.7/5 on G2 across 616 reviews
  • 4.8/5 'Excellent' rating on Trustpilot
  • Thousands of prebuilt scrapers and automations in one marketplace
  • SOC 2 Type II compliant with a public trust center
  • Free plan with $5 monthly credits to test before paying

Cons

  • Pricing confusion is a recurring user complaint
  • Users report bills far higher than expected
  • Starter plan price changed, frustrating existing subscribers
  • Learning curve — beginner-friendly competitors position against it

Sources & method

- 10 sources - SOC 2 Type II compliant with a trust center, but 2026 CVEs and a reported email-data breach exist.

official x2review x5security x2news x1
  • CVE-2026-50143: MCP Server auth bypass, Authentication bypass vulnerability disclosed in Apify's MCP server.
  • CVE-2026-46341: Medium vulnerability, Medium-severity vulnerability associated with Apify tracked in public databases.
  • Reported email data exposure, Third-party report claims an Apify security breach exposed email data on the dark web; treat as unverified.

Key stats

  • Value for money: 3/5

    Rating

  • $0

    Starting price

  • 10

    Sources

  • Analyzed

  • Value for money: 3/5. Good when usage is managed; surprise bills reported
  • Ease of use: 3/5. Powerful but a learning curve; beginners steered elsewhere
  • Feature depth: 5/5. Thousands of prebuilt actors plus full scraping platform
  • Support quality. No supporting evidence found
  • Security posture: 3/5. SOC 2 Type II, but 2026 auth-bypass CVE reported
  • 4.7/5 G2 rating 616 reviews
  • 4.8/5 Trustpilot Rated 'Excellent'
  • Yes Free tier $5 monthly credits
  • 10,000+ Customers Per LeadIQ estimate

Pricing

Free

$0

  • $5 monthly platform credits
  • Test actors before committing

Starter

Paid; price has changed over time (formerly ~$29/mo)

  • For regular individual use
  • Platform fee plus usage

Scale / Business

Usage-based, scales with compute

  • Higher usage allowances
  • For teams and heavy workloads

Security

SOC 2 Type II compliant with a trust center, but 2026 CVEs and a reported email-data breach exist.

  • CVE-2026-50143: MCP Server auth bypassAuthentication bypass vulnerability disclosed in Apify's MCP server.⁷
  • CVE-2026-46341: Medium vulnerabilityMedium-severity vulnerability associated with Apify tracked in public databases.
  • Reported email data exposureThird-party report claims an Apify security breach exposed email data on the dark web; treat as unverified.⁸

What users say

Users rate Apify very highly (4.7/5 G2, 4.8/5 Trustpilot), with pricing surprises the most common complaint.

Alternatives

Compare Apify with each alternative.

  • Bright Data

    Enterprise-scale data collection; the head-to-head comparison target on G2

  • ScraperAPI

    Simpler developer API when you need scraping, not a marketplace

    Apify vs ScraperAPI

  • Octoparse

    No-code scraping for non-developers

  • Thunderbit

    Beginner-friendly browser alternative for light scraping jobs

Full analysis

Based on 20+ public sources: G2, Trustpilot, Reddit, vendor docs, CVE databases, and pricing analyses.

Powerful scraping marketplace rated 4.7/5 on G2 — great for data-hungry teams, bill-shocking overkill for casual users.

Methodology

Based on 20+ public sources: G2, Trustpilot, Reddit, vendor docs, CVE databases, and pricing analyses.

Read how a report is made.

Sources

  1. Apify Products — 616 G2 reviewsg2.com
    review
  2. Apify on Trustpilot — 4.8/5 Excellenttrustpilot.com
    review
  3. My Apify Bill Was 5x Higher Than Expected (DEV Community)dev.to
    review
  4. Confusion on Apify Pricing (Reddit)reddit.com
    review
  5. Apify pricing pageapify.com
    official
  6. Apify Security documentation (SOC 2)docs.apify.com
    official
  7. CVE-2026-50143: Apify MCP Server Auth Bypasssentinelone.com
    security
  8. Apify.com Security Breach Exposes Email Datainsecureweb.com
    security
  9. Apify Pricing 2026 Review (imisofts)imisofts.com
    review
  10. Apify Revenue & Funding (GetLatka)getlatka.com
    news

Add this review to your site

This check for Apify says Depends.

Put the badge on your site.

Visitors see the independent review.

The link points here, and search engines follow it.

This is the badge visitors see on your site.

Depends Apify Independent review on Should I Use It

Paste one snippet. Keep the link as it is. A nofollow tag stops search engines from following it.

Rate this review

Anonymous. You can change your vote.

Loading votes…

Comments

One queue. No nested comments. Give a display name first. Limit: 200 words per comment and 7 comments per day. You can edit or delete yours.

Save a name to write a comment.

0 / 200 words

No comments yet.