Apify vs Bright Data
Agent-native side-by-side. Scores are curated estimates on a 0–10 scale. Lock-in: higher = worse. Prefer JTBD picks via /api/decide when choosing for a job.
| Dimension | Apify | Bright Data |
|---|---|---|
| Overall | 8.2 | 7.7 |
| Capability fit | 9.0 | 9.2 |
| Price / performance | 7.5 | 5.5 |
| Latency / reliability | 8.6 | 9.0 |
| Developer & agent DX | 8.4 | 7.0 |
| Privacy / data retention | 7.5 | 7.0 |
| Lock-in risk (higher = worse) | 4.5 | 5.0 |
| Maturity / track record | 9.2 | 9.2 |
| Pricing | As of 2026-09-14 (apify.com/pricing): Free $0 ($5 usage). Starter $19/mo ($19 usage). Scale $199. Business $999. CU = 1 GB-RAM-hour: Free/Starter $0.20/CU, Scale $0.16, Business $0.13. Residential proxy $7–8/GB by plan. … | Enterprise proxy/scraping network; pay for bandwidth/success; Web Scraper IDE; SERP APIs. |
| Tagline | Depot pick when you need a scraper marketplace / reusable Actors, not just a crawl API. Firecrawl for… | Nuclear option for hard anti-bot targets. Start with Firecrawl/ScrapingBee; escalate here when blocked. |
Apify
Depot pick when you need a scraper marketplace / reusable Actors, not just a crawl API. Firecrawl for LLM-ready extract; Bright Data for enterprise proxy; Scrapfly/ZenRows for simpler request APIs. Strengths: Huge Actor Store marketplace; Agent-payable prepaid tokens; Proxies + browsers + scheduling in one.
Strengths
- Huge Actor Store marketplace
- Agent-payable prepaid tokens
- Proxies + browsers + scheduling in one
Weaknesses
- CU math harder than per-request APIs
- Failed runs still burn compute
- Overkill for simple LLM-ready crawl
Bright Data
Nuclear option for hard anti-bot targets. Start with Firecrawl/ScrapingBee; escalate here when blocked. Strengths: Largest proxy/residential network; Enterprise compliance options; SERP and unlocker products.
Strengths
- Largest proxy/residential network
- Enterprise compliance options
- SERP and unlocker products
Weaknesses
- Expensive and complex for indie agents
- Ethics/ToS considerations on residential
- Overkill for simple pages
More pairs: anthropic-vs-openai · openai-vs-google-ai · groq-vs-fireworks · fireworks-vs-together · qdrant-vs-pinecone · pinecone-vs-supabase-pgvector · e2b-vs-modal · browserbase-vs-firecrawl