Category
Scraping/Crawling
Rating
4.8/5 (1136 Reviews)
Availability
HQ
Prague, Czech Republic
Pricing
From $19/mo
Free tier
Yes
Best for
Also in
Capabilities
Tags
What is Apify?
Apify is a platform for running pre-built, task-specific data extractors called Actors, used in recruiting to pull structured data from job boards, LinkedIn, and company career pages. The core object is an Actor: a purpose-built script targeting one source that returns a structured dataset - a job posting list, a company employee roster, or hiring signals from a specific board. Apify owns the Actor marketplace, cloud execution infrastructure, and the export layer; datasets connect into Clay, n8n, or CRMs via the Apify API. Each Actor is scoped to a specific source, so the data model is set by the Actor chosen.
What are Apify's key features?
LinkedIn Actors extract public profiles, employee lists, and job postings at scale.
Some LinkedIn Jobs Actors return the person who posted the role and their profile.
Actors run on a schedule or on-demand and push results to a dataset or downstream API.
Standby mode lets any Actor run as an MCP server for direct integration with AI agents.
The Actor store includes community-built scrapers for Apollo, job boards, and companies.
How do recruiting teams use Apify?
- A multi-desk agency runs a LinkedIn Jobs Actor on a schedule to extract new postings in a target sector, building a structured list of companies with active hiring needs for BD outreach.
- A boutique agency's sourcing team runs a LinkedIn profile Actor to build a shortlist with each candidate's public work history before outreach.
- A TA team's recruiting ops function runs Apify's LinkedIn Jobs Actors on a recurring schedule to track competitor hiring activity by role and department.
Who is Apify best for?
- Staffing and recruiting agencies and in-house talent teams that need data from specific platforms - LinkedIn profiles, job boards, company pages - via pre-built Actors rather than a custom scraper
- Teams building custom recruiting data workflows that want Actor outputs as a pluggable data source inside an existing automation or pipeline
- When the data need is contact enrichment or company signals from a structured provider with a fixed data model, a dedicated enrichment or signals platform fits better
What are Apify's pros and cons?
Pros
- Store Actors built for a named source, such as a job board, run without any scraper code.
- Output from any Actor is fetched through the same Apify API, whichever source the Actor targets.
- Apify Proxy and cloud execution are built in, so runs need no servers or proxies of the buyer's own.
- Each Actor has an Issues tab for raising problems with its author, platform admins and other users.
Cons
- Community Actors are maintained by their own developers, not Apify, so fixes depend on that author.
- Each Actor defines its own output fields, so data from different Actors needs mapping before it lines up.
- Covering several job boards usually means running, scheduling and checking a separate Actor for each.
What are people saying about Apify?
Reviewers describe needing a scraper for a specific site, finding a maintained Actor for it, and having data flowing in minutes instead of building anything. The managed infrastructure and scheduling keep it running unattended, and several route it through an agent over MCP. The cost is discovery: Actor quality varies, and with no way to preview output, people describe paying for runs to find out an Actor does not return the fields they need, and learning rate limits only through failed attempts.
Consolidated from 1136 reviews across G2, Capterra · Updated October 11, 2026
How does Apify compare to alternatives?
| Feature | Apify | Firecrawl | Rapid API |
|---|---|---|---|
| Category | Scraping/Crawling | Scraping/Crawling | Scraping/Crawling |
| AI-first | |||
| API | |||
| MCP | |||
| GDPR | |||
| Best for | Agency, In-House | Agency, In-House | Agency, In-House |
Swipe right to see more →
Frequently asked questions about Apify
Other Scraping/Crawling tools
4 toolsReady to Fill Your Pipeline?
Book a free 30-minute strategy call. We'll map your current stack, identify the biggest opportunity, and show you exactly how AI can accelerate your pipeline.
30-minute call · No obligation · Custom strategy for your niche