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Apify

A cloud web scraping and browser automation platform used for programmatic data extraction from the open web to build proprietary datasets and feed AI diligence pipelines.

apify.com
Use case

Web scraping, actor-based compute, scheduling, exporting scraped data.

Access controls

2FA

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Vendor profile
What it is

A cloud platform for web scraping, data extraction, and browser automation, built around reusable programs called "Actors" and a marketplace ("Apify Store").

Core functionality

Run 25,000–35,000+ pre-built Actors (scrapers/automations) or build custom ones with the open-source Crawlee library; managed proxies (datacenter and residential), scheduling, storage/datasets, and a complete data pipeline. Outputs to JSON, CSV, Excel, HTML; access via web UI, REST API, JS/Python SDKs, or webhooks.

AI & data capabilities

Ships an official Apify MCP server (mcp.apify.com) exposing thousands of Store Actors as tools to AI clients (Claude, Cursor, VS Code) via OAuth or token; supports a RAG Web Browser Actor for AI search; experimental agent-native payment flows (x402/USDC, Skyfire). Strong fit for feeding web data into RAG/AI pipelines (LangChain, n8n, Make).

Pricing

Subscription plus usage. Free ($5 monthly platform credits, no card); Starter ~$29/month ($29 prepaid usage); Scale ~$199/month; Business and Enterprise higher. Billed in Compute Units (1 CU = 1 GB RAM for 1 hour; $0.04/CU on free) plus per-Actor fees, proxies, storage, data transfer. Discounts for students, nonprofits, and startups (30% off Scale).

Integrations & ecosystem

Make, Zapier, Slack, Airbyte, GitHub, Google Sheets/Drive, LangChain, n8n; REST API; official MCP server; webhooks.

Security & compliance

SOC 2/GDPR status best confirmed via Apify's trust documentation. Web scraping carries legal/ToS considerations depending on target sites and jurisdictions.

Company background

Czech-founded (Prague), developer-focused. By late 2024 the store reportedly held 35,000+ Actors used by 52,000+ customers, with revenue around $13.3M on minimal outside funding. Bootstrapped/lightly funded.

VC / GE fit

Useful for custom data collection — building proprietary datasets for deal sourcing (e.g., scraping directories, job boards, app stores, review sites, maps), competitive/market mapping, and feeding AI/RAG diligence pipelines. MCP server makes it accessible to AI agents.

Limitations

Two-layer billing (platform CUs + per-Actor fees) can surprise first-time users; residential-proxy bandwidth can dominate costs; Actor quality varies (vet success rates/recency); legal/compliance considerations around scraping; requires technical comfort for custom work.