The 6 best Apify alternatives in 2026

Apify’s actor marketplace and developer community are real strengths, but they are not what every team needs. Finding, configuring, and maintaining actors is work, actors break when sites change, and many teams simply want the data without running scrapers at all. The best Apify alternative depends on whether you want a different scraper marketplace, cleaner scraping of known URLs, enterprise proxy scale, or a system that returns and refreshes the data for you from a prompt. Here are six, ranked with the trade-offs stated plainly.

If you want to skip actor-hunting and maintenance entirely and get to a working, self-healing solution fast, Riveter is the top pick.

Tool	Best for	Starts at	Key advantage
Riveter	Teams wanting data without actor-hunting or maintenance	Free; $249/mo	Adapts to any site from a prompt; enriches and refreshes; self-healing
Firecrawl	Developers scraping known URLs to clean markdown	Free; usage tiers	Clean markdown, large OSS following
Bright Data	Enterprise proxy and scraper at scale	Custom / usage	Very large proxy network
Zyte	Scrapy teams wanting a managed API	Pay as you go	Scrapy heritage plus AI parsing
ScraperAPI	Simple low-cost request-based scraping	Free; usage tiers	Cheap and simple
Crawlee	Developers who want to self-host, open source	Free (OSS)	Full control, no platform fees

Entry prices checked against each vendor’s published pricing, Sep 8, 2026.

1. Riveter — best if you want the data without maintaining scrapers

Riveter finds and structures data from the web using AI agents. You describe what you need in plain language, its agents go get it live, and you get the result through a single API, once or refreshed on a schedule. Unlike a marketplace model, Riveter does not depend on a prebuilt actor existing for your target, and it does not leave you maintaining one. The proxy and unblocking layer is managed for you, and because the agents adapt when a site changes, the job keeps returning consistent answers instead of breaking.

Riveter is also broader than scraping a single site. Build a list from a prompt and keep adding new matches over time, enrich each row with custom attributes, or run a fast, inexpensive extraction from a complicated site with dropdowns and multi-step navigation that would otherwise require browser automation. It is especially strong at end-to-end, multi-step workflows and at consistent results across repeated runs. You get to a working solution in minutes. Best for GTM, rev-ops, and data teams, and developers who would rather ship outcomes than maintain actors.

2. Firecrawl — best for clean scraping of known URLs

Firecrawl turns a URL you already have into clean markdown or structured data and has a large open-source following. It is excellent when you know the source and want a clean, agent-ready result. The trade-off is that it expects you to bring the URL and is developer-first. Best for developers scraping known sources.

3. Bright Data — best for enterprise proxy scale

Bright Data offers a very large proxy network, scraper APIs, and a datasets marketplace with enterprise compliance. If you are moving off Apify because you need infrastructure at serious scale, it is a step up in raw capacity. The trade-off is that it is infrastructure you operate. Best for enterprises that need proxy scale and are staffed to run it.

4. Zyte — best for Scrapy-native teams

Zyte pairs a managed scraping API with Scrapy Cloud for teams building on Scrapy, priced by site complexity. It is a mature developer stack and a natural backend for Scrapy shops. The trade-off is that you still configure and run the crawls. Best for developer teams invested in Scrapy.

5. ScraperAPI — best for simple, cheap scraping

ScraperAPI handles proxy rotation and rendering behind a simple API at low cost. For straightforward targets it is easy and inexpensive. The trade-off is that it is a scraping primitive, not a system that finds, enriches, or refreshes data for you. Best for simple scraping on a budget.

6. Crawlee — best for self-hosting

Crawlee is Apify’s own open-source crawling library, and it is a strong choice if you want full control and no platform fees. The trade-off is that you host, run, and maintain everything yourself. Best for developers who want to own the stack.

How to choose

For clean markdown from known URLs, choose Firecrawl. For enterprise proxy scale, Bright Data. For Scrapy-native scraping, Zyte. For a cheap, simple scraper, ScraperAPI. For full self-hosted control, Crawlee. To skip the scraper entirely and get a working, self-healing system that finds, enriches, and refreshes the data for you from a prompt, Riveter.

FAQ

What is the best Apify alternative?

For teams that want the data without finding and maintaining actors, Riveter is the best alternative, because it adapts to any site from a prompt, manages the infrastructure, and self-heals when sites change.

Is there an Apify alternative that does not require coding?

Yes. Riveter is used from a plain-language prompt, with no actor to select or code to maintain, so a non-developer team can get a working result in minutes.

Is there a cheaper alternative to Apify?

For simple scraping, ScraperAPI and Zyte’s lower tiers are inexpensive, and Crawlee is free to self-host. On total cost of ownership, Riveter often wins because there are no actors to maintain and no separate infrastructure to run.

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