Apify vs Zyte (2026): which should you pick?

Pick Apify if

• Fits if you'd rather run a ready-made Google or Maps scraper than write one
• Works for developers who want their own scrapers hosted, scheduled and monitored

Look elsewhere if

• Watch out: each store Actor sets its own price, usually per result or per event, so two jobs that look alike can cost different amounts
• Tight if you're on Free, where Actors stop once the month's $5 of usage is spent
• Watch out: prepaid usage you don't spend expires each billing cycle, and use beyond it lands on the next invoice
• Pricey if you need residential proxies at $7 to $8 per GB or Google SERP proxies at $1.70 to $2.50 per 1,000 searches
• Pricey if you outgrow Starter, since the next plan is Scale at $199 a month

Pick Zyte if

• Fits if you already write spiders in Scrapy and want them hosted next to the API
• Works for pulling up to 100 search results per call by country, language or city

Look elsewhere if

• Pricey if you want the lower rates, which need a commitment of at least $100 a month
• Watch out: Zyte puts each site in one of five price tiers and reviews them every quarter, so a request's cost can change
• Watch out: screenshots ($1.34 per 1,000), AI extraction ($0.27 to $1.07 per 1,000 per data type), actions and residential IPs all cost extra
• Tight if you're only testing, as the $5 credit covers the first month and the account is suspended once it's spent

Apify

• Store Actors set their own prices, so the cost of a job depends on which Actor runs it and how many results it returns.
• Use beyond a paid plan's prepaid amount is added to the next invoice; on the free plan, Actors stop until the next month.
• Prepaid usage that is not spent expires at the end of each billing cycle.
• Residential proxies cost $7 to $8 per GB and Google SERP proxies $1.70 to $2.50 per 1,000 searches, depending on plan.

Zyte

• Without a commitment, pay as you go costs $0.13 to $1.27 per 1,000 HTTP responses and $1.01 to $16.08 per 1,000 rendered ones, up to $100 a month.
• Each site sits in one of five price tiers that Zyte assigns and reviews quarterly, so the cost of a request depends on the site.
• Screenshots ($1.34 per 1,000), automatic extraction ($0.27 to $1.07 per 1,000 per data type), actions and residential IPs cost extra.
• When the $5 free credit runs out, the account is suspended until a spending limit is set.

Apify

Apify Store

Nearly 97,000 ready-made Actors for sites such as Google, Google Maps, TikTok and Instagram. Each sets its own price, usually per result or per event.

Google Search Results Scraper

Apify's own Actor returns organic and paid results, People Also Ask, related queries, AI Overviews and AI Mode by country and language, from $1.80 per 1,000 pages.

Build and host your own Actors

Start from Python, JavaScript or TypeScript templates, use the open-source Crawlee library, and run, schedule and monitor the Actors on Apify.

Proxies and unblocking

Datacenter and residential proxies, Google SERP proxies priced per 1,000 searches, and an unblocker billed per 1,000 requests.

API, CLI, webhooks and MCP

Run Actors and fetch results over a REST API or CLI, get webhooks when runs finish, chain Actors together, or call them from AI agents through an MCP server.

Automation integrations

Connectors for Make, n8n, Zapier and other automation tools, and setups for coding agents such as Claude Code, Cursor and OpenAI Codex.

Zyte

Automatic ban handling

Zyte API chooses between datacenter and residential IPs and browser rendering for each site, solves CAPTCHAs and rotates IPs, and charges only for successful responses.

Browser rendering and actions

Render JavaScript in a headless browser, script clicks, form fills and navigation, keep sessions, take screenshots and download files of up to 100MB.

AI extraction

Automatic extraction returns product, article, job and other page types as JSON; custom attributes let you describe extra fields, billed by AI tokens.

Search results endpoint

Returns up to 100 organic results in one call, with AI Overview content and country, language or city targeting. Pages 2 to 10 cost about 29% less than page 1.

Scrapy Cloud

Hosting for Scrapy spiders: a free low-resource unit with 1-hour jobs and 7 days of data, or $9 a month per unit for unlimited run time and 120 days.

Zyte MCP

A remote MCP server lets agents such as Claude Code, Codex CLI, GitHub Copilot CLI and VS Code fetch pages, extract data and run crawls.

Apify

• Free$0

  $5 of usage a month at $0.20 per compute unit, 16 GB of Actor memory and 5 concurrent runs. Stops when the $5 is spent.

• Starter$19

  per month, billed monthly, with $19 of usage included

  $0.20 per compute unit, 64 GB of Actor memory, 32 concurrent runs, chat support and the Bronze Store discount. Extra usage is billed.

• Scale$199

  per month, billed monthly, with $199 of usage included

  $0.16 per compute unit, 256 GB of memory, 128 concurrent runs, priority chat support, the Silver Store discount and lower proxy rates.

• Business$999

  per month, billed monthly, with $999 of usage included

  $0.13 per compute unit, 512 GB of memory, 256 concurrent runs, an account manager and the Gold Store discount.

• EnterpriseCustom

  Custom scraping solutions, pricing and limits, with SLAs on data and a dedicated team. Through sales.

Zyte

• Standard, $100 commitment$100

  per month minimum commitment

  $0.10 to $0.95 per 1,000 HTTP responses and $0.75 to $12.00 per 1,000 browser-rendered ones, by site tier. Search first pages $0.63 per 1,000.

• Standard, $200 commitment$200

  per month minimum commitment

  $0.08 to $0.76 per 1,000 HTTP responses and $0.60 to $9.60 per 1,000 browser-rendered ones. Search first pages $0.51 per 1,000.

• Standard, $500 commitment$500

  per month minimum commitment

  $0.06 to $0.61 per 1,000 HTTP responses and $0.48 to $7.68 per 1,000 browser-rendered ones. Search first pages $0.40 per 1,000.

• EnterpriseCustom

  Larger volume discounts, $200 of free credit, 10,000 requests a minute, onboarding engineers and 24/7 support with SLAs. Through sales.

Apify

• Annual discount

  Save 10% with annual billing

  Apify's pricing page shows a 10% discount for billing annually instead of monthly.

• Education

  30% off Starter and Scale for students

  Apify's pricing FAQ says students are eligible for 30% off the Starter and Scale plans.

• Nonprofit

  Personalized discount for nonprofits

  Apify's pricing FAQ says nonprofit organizations can get a personalized discount on paid plans.

• Startups

  30% off the Scale plan for startups

  Apify's pricing FAQ offers startups a 30% discount on the Scale plan.

Zyte

• Education

  Free Scrapy Cloud unit for students

  Zyte's Scrapy Cloud pricing page says students get the benefits of one purchased unit, normally $9 a month, for free.