The short answer
Apify can package a site-specific workflow into an Actor; ScraperAPI can supply retrieval for a workflow you already own. Actor maintenance, output-schema stability and dataset retrieval are material differences, not implementation footnotes.
| Provider | A good reason to choose it | Important caveat |
|---|---|---|
| Apify | A recurring or site-specific collection job that benefits from an existing Actor or a custom hosted scraper. | Apify is a platform, not one universal page-extraction schema. Actor fees, compute, proxy use and output quality must be checked for the particular Actor. |
| ScraperAPI | An existing HTTP collection pipeline that wants managed page retrieval while retaining its own parsing and validation. | The base retrieval endpoint, structured endpoints and asynchronous jobs return different shapes. Rendering and premium settings can consume additional credits. |
Side-by-side differences
| Requirement | Apify | ScraperAPI |
|---|---|---|
| Primary workflow | Hosted Actor runs and datasets | Page retrieval, async jobs and structured endpoints |
| Returned content | Actor-defined records or files | HTML/body on the base endpoint; structured outputs elsewhere |
| Rendering/control | Actor implementation determines browser behavior | Rendering and premium options |
| Job model | Run creation, status and dataset retrieval | Synchronous base API; separate asynchronous API |
| Integration boundary | Pin Actor identity, version and input schema | Keep retrieval and downstream parsing explicit |
| Cost driver | Actor charges, compute, storage and proxy usage | Credits, domain and render/proxy options |
Pricing: make the units comparable
| Provider | Billing model | What to check |
|---|---|---|
| Apify | Platform usage plus Actor-specific pricing | Plans include platform spend; individual Actors can use compute, per-result or other pricing. Do not infer total job cost from the platform's compute-unit rate alone. |
| ScraperAPI | Credit-based plans with feature multipliers | Measure credits for your target domain and configuration. Structured endpoints and rendered page retrieval should not share an assumed per-call price. |
For 1,000 accepted pages, record attempted URLs, render mode, retries and schema failures. A low HTML-request price can require separate parsing; an extraction credit can include work that another vendor bills separately. Do not rank cost until the output passes the same acceptance check.
For a buying decision, calculate total spend divided by accepted outputs at your expected volume. Keep free evaluation access, paid production access, annual commitments and overages separate. We have not measured a cost or speed winner for this pair.
What changes in the integration?
| Apify | ScraperAPI | |
|---|---|---|
| Method and URL | POST https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/{actorId}/runs | GET https://api.scraperapi.com |
| Authentication | Bearer API token | API key in api_key |
| Inputs | Actor-specific JSON input, authenticated with a token | api_key and url; optional render, premium and country_code |
| Output | Run metadata; retrieve finished output from the run's dataset or use an appropriate synchronous endpoint. | Retrieved page body; use separate structured or async endpoints for those workflows. |
Apify: migration check
Pin an Actor and its schema/version in the adapter. Wait for terminal run status, then validate dataset items; the run-creation response is not the scraped data.
ScraperAPI: migration check
Set a timeout appropriate for managed retrieval, then normalize retry policy. A submitted async job is not a completed scrape; wait for the result before recording success.
How to test them fairly
- Build an authorized test set spanning static HTML, JavaScript-rendered pages, tables and long articles. Save expected fields and the permitted access conditions.
- Use the same URLs, country, device settings and freshness window. Keep cache hits separate from fresh fetches.
- Mark challenge pages, empty main content and invalid structured fields as failures even if the HTTP status is 200.
- Measure time to a usable document or completed dataset, not only time to job creation. Include polling, retries and client-side parsing.
- Report total billed credits, browser time, proxy charges and actor fees per accepted document. Respect site terms, privacy, robots guidance and access controls; do not test bypassing protected accounts.
Record the plan, request settings, time window and acceptance rules with every run. That makes a later result interpretable when a vendor changes a model, source set or pricing tier.
Prefer a common request format?
POST /api/v1/web-scraping/extractReview the request contract and tell us the coverage you need. Access requires enablement; this endpoint does not execute or bill requests yet.
View endpoint and request accessSources and review dates
Documentation reviewed October 28, 2026. These are integration and plan comparisons, not measured speed or accuracy rankings. Availability, licensing and prices should be confirmed for the chosen plan.
Corrections: email faizank@docsalot.dev with an official source.