Apify Alternative: 5 Scraping & SERP APIs Tested (2026)

Apify is a scraping-actor marketplace. Instead of one managed endpoint, you browse a store of “actors” — containerized scrapers, mostly community-built — then pick, configure, and run them on Apify’s compute. Community actors cover Google SERP and even AI Overview, so you can assemble a pipeline without writing every scraper yourself.

That flexibility is the whole pitch, and it’s the right shape when target diversity is the value. It’s also where the search for an Apify alternative usually starts: for a repeating Google SERP workload, you don’t want to own third-party actors that break when Google’s layout shifts. Most teams shopping Apify alternatives in 2026 want the opposite of a marketplace — one managed SERP endpoint with an SLA, AI Overview parsed in the default response, and a bill that isn’t stitched together from subscription + compute + proxy + per-run fees.

The alternatives below split on that fork: cheaper or broader scraper platforms on one side, and managed parsed SERP APIs that remove the actor-maintenance problem entirely on the other. We tested five.

The 5 best Apify alternatives at a glance

Tool	Model	Entry price	Google SERP rate (~1k)	AI Overview
cloro	Parsed AI-native SERP API	$100/mo (500 free credits)	$1.25–$2.00 /1k (n=10 + AIO)	✅ deep, default
Bright Data	Proxy + SERP layer	PAYG; Business ~$999/mo	~$1–$1.50 /1k (Google, high end)	⚠️ Web Unlocker, DIY parse
Oxylabs	Proxy + SERP Scraper API	$49/mo	~$2 /1k results	⚠️ parsed SERP, limited AIO
ScraperAPI	Credit-based scraper	$49/mo (1k free credits)	25 credits/call ($12 /1k Google)	❌ no AIO
ScrapingBee	Headless-browser scraper	$49/mo (1k free credits)	credit multipliers (JS ×5+)	❌ no AIO
Apify	Actor marketplace	~$39/mo + compute + per-actor	actor-dependent	⚠️ via community actor

The alternatives split on two axes that matter for an Apify replacement: whether you get parsed SERP JSON or scraper access you assemble and maintain yourself, and whether onboarding is self-serve or an enterprise sales motion. Apify sits at the assemble-it-yourself end. Every alternative below moves you toward a managed endpoint, cheaper proxies, or both.

What Apify is actually built for

Apify is a runtime for arbitrary scrapers. An actor is a containerized scraper with a fixed input schema, an output dataset shape, and its own runtime behavior; you pick one from the Apify Store, configure it in Apify Console, run it on the platform’s compute, and pull the results by API or webhook. The Store covers an enormous range of public sites — that breadth is the product. Pricing reflects the composition: a platform subscription (Starter around $39/month) plus compute units, proxy bandwidth on actors that need it, and per-run fees on paid actors. There is no single managed SERP endpoint with an SLA — a SERP is whatever community actor you wire up.

Where the actor marketplace earns its keep

For the right workload, nothing in this list replaces Apify one-for-one:

• Aggregator scraping that spans hundreds of different sites under one platform.
• Vertical or rare targets — legal records, real-estate filings, niche marketplaces — where no vendor ships a ready API.
• Teams already running Apify for adjacent jobs, adding SERPs to a pipeline they already operate.
• Cases where rolling your own actor is genuinely cheaper than buying any managed API.

If your bottleneck is “how many different site types can we reach,” the actor library is a real advantage and you should keep it.

Where actor maintenance becomes overhead

For a repeating Google SERP workload, most of that model is cost you carry without the benefit:

• You inherit third-party actor maintenance. When Google ships a SERP layout change, the actor that scrapes it breaks — and the author may patch it the same day, in three weeks, or never. Community actors carry no SLA.
• AI Overview is not first-class. The Google SERP actors on the Store don’t return a structured AI Overview field, so citation extraction and People Also Ask hydration are custom work on top.
• The bill is composed, not flat. Subscription + compute + proxy + per-run fees usually total more than a flat per-call SERP API at the same call count, and the effective Google rate is actor-dependent.

That’s the gap the alternatives below close — either by being a cheaper scraper, or by removing the actor-and-parser problem entirely.

The 5 real Apify alternatives, tested

1. cloro — best for parsed, AI-native SERP data

cloro’s SERP API is the inverse of an actor marketplace: no store to browse, no actor to maintain, no compute to reason about. One endpoint family returns parsed JSON for Google Search and News, Google AI Overviews and AI Mode, plus ChatGPT, Perplexity, Copilot, Gemini, and Grok — each with the cited source URLs that surface used. Where a community actor hands you a raw dataset to shape, cloro returns organic results, ads, AI Overview (with citations), People Also Ask, and related searches in a single response.

That cross-surface coverage is the 2026 differentiator: tracking classic rank without tracking AI citations now misses half the SERP. cloro also drops into existing pipelines through n8n, Zapier, LangChain, and MCP, with synchronous calls plus async/batch and webhook delivery for large query sets.

Pros: Deepest AI Overview parsing in this list, returned by default. One managed API across Google and every major AI surface — no actors to pick or patch. Self-serve signup with a free 500-credit trial.

Cons: Focused on search intelligence — it doesn’t run arbitrary site scrapers the way Apify’s marketplace does. Newer than the longest-running scraper platforms.

Pricing: Credit-based from $100/month (Hobby, 250,000 credits at $0.40 per 1,000 credits), scaling down to $0.31 per 1,000 on the largest self-serve tier and $0.25 on a custom Enterprise contract. A Google call is 3 credits at n=10, +2 with AI Overview — see the comparison card above for the per-1,000-call cost, and the pricing page for full tiers.

2. Bright Data — largest proxy network with a SERP layer

Bright Data is a different escape hatch from actor maintenance: instead of community scrapers you get one of the largest proxy networks on the planet — 72M+ residential IPs across 195+ countries — with a SERP API riding on top. It’s the pick when the proxy layer matters as much as the parsing, but onboarding is an enterprise motion: KYC, an MSA, and a sales conversation before access, with committed plans (Business lands near $999/month) where the effective rate drops. AI Overview isn’t a clean parsed field — you’re back to a DIY parse via Web Unlocker.

Pros: Proxy scale and country coverage nobody here matches. Rigorous compliance posture for regulated buyers. SERP API around $1–$1.50 per 1,000 for Google at the high-volume end.

Cons: Enterprise procurement (KYC, MSA) means days to first call. No structured AI Overview — you build the parser. Multi-axis billing across bandwidth, CPM, and geo premiums.

Pricing: Pay-as-you-go available; committed Business tier ~$999/month. Google SERP ~$1–$1.50 per 1,000 at the high end (Bright Data SERP pricing).

3. Oxylabs — closest like-for-like proxy + SERP infrastructure

Oxylabs is the nearest match to Bright Data’s core offering, and a solid Apify alternative when you want infrastructure rather than a marketplace: a 100M+ residential and datacenter IP pool with a dedicated SERP Scraper API on top. The entry tier is self-serve from around $49/month (~$2 per 1,000 results), so you skip most of the sales motion while keeping enterprise-grade scale.

Pros: Proxy scale in Bright Data’s league. Self-serve entry tier. Parses SERP results rather than handing back raw HTML.

Cons: Still fundamentally proxy-first; AI Overview parsing is limited versus a purpose-built SERP API. Higher tiers drift back toward enterprise pricing.

Pricing: SERP Scraper API from $49/month; roughly $2 per 1,000 results at the entry tier (Oxylabs SERP Scraper pricing).

4. ScraperAPI — developer-friendly scraper with structured endpoints

ScraperAPI is closer to a developer product than a marketplace: one API key, proxy rotation and retries handled for you, and structured JSON endpoints for popular targets including Google Search. No actors to audit, no compute to reason about — but the credit model bites on Google. The structured Google endpoint bills at 25 credits per request, so the $49/month Hobby plan (100,000 credits) is about 4,000 Google calls — an effective rate near $12 per 1,000. There’s no structured AI Overview field.

Pros: Self-serve, developer-first, with a free 1,000-credit tier and a 7-day trial. Structured Google endpoints (organic, ads, PAA, related) out of the box.

Cons: Credit weighting makes Google SERP calls expensive relative to a flat per-call API. No AI Overview parsing. Costs vary by target difficulty.

Pricing: Hobby $49/month (100,000 credits; Google = 25 credits/call). Free 1,000 credits plus a 7-day trial (ScraperAPI pricing).

5. ScrapingBee — headless-browser scraper for JS-heavy targets

ScrapingBee is a headless-browser scraping API: it renders JavaScript, rotates proxies, and returns the page, with a Google Search endpoint on top. Like ScraperAPI it removes the actor-maintenance problem, but pricing runs on credit multipliers — JavaScript rendering ×5, premium proxy ×25, stealth mode up to ×75 — so the effective cost depends heavily on how hard your target is. There’s no AI Overview parsing.

Pros: Handles JS-heavy and interactive pages well. Self-serve with a free 1,000-credit trial. Simple single-API integration.

Cons: Credit multipliers make cost hard to predict on difficult targets. No structured AI Overview field. SERP is one endpoint on a general scraper, not the core product.

Pricing: Discovery $49/month (150,000 credits) up to Enterprise $599/month (8M credits); credits multiply by rendering, proxy, and stealth options (ScrapingBee pricing).

Apify alternatives: price and parsing compared

Headline rates mislead here, because the number that matters is total delivered cost — the per-1,000 rate plus the engineering you spend turning a community actor’s output (or raw proxy access) into parsed SERP rows. An actor at “$0.50/1k” that you patch every time Google shifts is not cheaper than a managed API that returns structured JSON.

Vendor	Model	Google SERP rate (~1k)	You maintain scrapers?	AI Overview
cloro	Parsed SERP API	$1.25–$2.00 (n=10 + AIO)	No	✅ default
Apify	Actor marketplace	actor-dependent + compute	Yes (third-party actors)	⚠️ community actor
Bright Data	Proxy + SERP layer	~$1–$1.50 (Google, high end)	Parser only	⚠️ DIY / Web Unlocker
Oxylabs	Proxy + SERP Scraper API	~$2 /1k results	No	⚠️ limited
ScraperAPI	Credit scraper	~$12 /1k Google (25 cr/call)	No	❌
ScrapingBee	Headless-browser scraper	credit multipliers (JS ×5+)	No	❌

Headline takeaways:

• Removes the actor-maintenance problem entirely: cloro, Oxylabs, ScraperAPI, and ScrapingBee are all managed — no third-party actors to patch when Google shifts. Apify is the only option here where you own that maintenance.
• Lowest total delivered cost for parsed Google + AI Overview: cloro, because the AI Overview parser, citation extraction, and PAA hydration are already done — nothing to build.
• Closest infrastructure swap if you need proxies too: Oxylabs at self-serve scale, or Bright Data at enterprise scale.
• Most expensive for Google specifically: ScraperAPI, where the 25-credit weighting pushes the effective Google rate near $12/1k.

For the price-only view see Cheapest SERP API 2026; for the full managed-API roundup see Best SERP APIs in 2026.

Decision tree: which Apify alternative to pick

• Never wanted to maintain scrapers — you just need parsed Google SERPs with AI Overview, plus ChatGPT/Perplexity/Gemini citations through one API? cloro.
• Need a raw proxy pool alongside SERP scraping? Oxylabs for self-serve enterprise scale, or Bright Data if you need its compliance posture and country breadth.
• Want proxy-backed scraping with a developer-first API and structured Google endpoints? ScraperAPI.
• Scraping JS-heavy or interactive pages, not just SERPs? ScrapingBee.
• Genuinely need to scrape many site types and don’t mind owning actors? Stay on Apify — the marketplace is the point.

The bottom line

Apify is a runtime for arbitrary scrapers, and the best Apify alternative depends on why you’re leaving. If your bottleneck is “how many different site types can we reach,” the actor marketplace is the right tool and you should keep it. If it’s “how reliably can we read Google SERPs at scale,” the actor framework is overhead — you’re maintaining third-party scrapers to solve a problem managed APIs already solved.

If you need proxies under the scraping, Oxylabs and Bright Data are the like-for-like swaps — one self-serve, one enterprise-scale. If you want proxy-backed scraping with a friendlier API, ScraperAPI or ScrapingBee fit. But if the reason you’re leaving is that you never wanted to own actors and SERP parsers in the first place, the answer isn’t another scraper — it’s a parsed SERP API. cloro returns organic results, ads, AI Overview with citations, and People Also Ask in one self-serve call, across Google and every major AI surface, with a free 500-credit trial to baseline your own keywords before you commit.