Apify: web scraping, data extraction, and automation tools for AI

What do you like best about the product?

The Apify Store has ready-made actors for most common sources, so I can get structured data in minutes instead of writing and maintaining my own scrapers. Runs happen in the cloud, proxies and retries are handled for you, and the results are easy to export as JSON or CSV or pull through the API. Scheduling runs is simple, the docs are clear, and the platform has been reliable and fast for my scraping jobs.

What do you dislike about the product?

Actor quality varies a bit since many actors in the Store are community-built, so it's worth checking ratings and testing before relying on one. Usage-based pricing can also take some estimating up front for larger scraping jobs. Neither has been a real problem for me.

What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?

I needed reliable, structured data from public websites without building and babysitting custom scrapers. Apify lets me pick an existing actor, configure it, and get clean datasets back through the API, with proxies, retries and scheduling handled by the platform. It saves a lot of engineering time and lets me focus on using the data rather than collecting it.

What do you like best about the product?

easy to use when looking or searching for whatever you are using

What do you dislike about the product?

easy to use, downside is not enough free credits and sometimes bugs

What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?

it's helping me find job postings relevant to my experience

What do you like best about the product?

Apify lets me run ready-made scrapers (Actors) without writing code. I connected it to Claude, so I describe what data I need in plain language and Claude runs the Actor and returns the results. Setup took minutes, and I did not need to learn a programming language or the platform’s console. Results come back as structured datasets that I can export to CSV for analysis. Pay-per-result pricing also makes costs easy to estimate before a run.

What do you dislike about the product?

The free plan caps results at 10 items per run, so I could not collect a full dataset until I upgraded. The message after each run also pushes a paid plan, which is easy to miss. Actor quality varies: the Twitter/X scrapers differ a lot in price, reliability, and input options, and it takes time to compare them. Pricing per result is clear, but total cost is hard to predict before a large run.

What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?

Apify solves the problem of getting social media data out of platforms that make it hard to access. My dissertation needs tweets containing a specific phrase, plus the full replies in each thread. NodeXL’s X import returned empty results and truncated conversation IDs, and the X API limits search to 7 days on basic access. Apify’s Actors search and return structured tweet data with full conversation IDs, so I can rebuild the threads without manual copying. Because I can request this through Claude in plain language, I spend less time on technical setup and more time on analysis.

What do you like best about the product?

What I like most is how Apify works alongside Claude in my VS Code environment. It helps me access web data more efficiently and reduces the need to handle everything manually. It's a valuable addition to my development workflow.

What do you dislike about the product?

I haven't experienced any major issues so far. I'm still exploring its features, so there is more for me to learn.

What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?

Apify makes it easier to work with web data while using AI development tools. This saves time and allows me to focus more on building and improving my projects.

What do you like best about the product?

I set up an automated routine and now my social media monitoring runs by itself

What do you dislike about the product?

the quote that can be reached without warning

What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?

retrieves KPIs (likes, views, etc.), audio for me, and it's a huge time saver

What do you like best about the product?

The Actor marketplace. Having different scrapers available for Google Maps and other websites saves a lot of setup time. I also like being able to export results as structured datasets. The platform is reasonably easy to navigate and API integration is very useful for me.

What do you dislike about the product?

Not every Actor works perfectly, and the results can sometimes include duplicates, missing fields, or irrelevant records. Also, the scraping speed depends on the actor, so it’s worth testing before you fully rely on any random actor.

What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?

It helps me collect business information at a scale that would be difficult to manage manually. For example, when researching companies in a particular industry or location, I can gather business names, categories, addresses and other available information much faster.

What do you like best about the product?

Life saviour. I can use apify actors to run multiple functions that would have taken hours of manual labor

What do you dislike about the product?

sometimes limited to actors as it all depends on 3rd party developers

What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?

saves time by finding me the right data

What do you like best about the product?

cheap and easy. i use to automatize internal processes

What do you dislike about the product?

i don't think there is nothing to be dislike for

What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?

reduce complexity for my tech stack

What do you like best about the product?

It is easy to find the best solution for your problem, and then you have the comfort of reading other people's reviews. So you save a lot of time because you already see the outcome for other people.

What do you dislike about the product?

It is harder to see which tools or APIs you have selected already.

What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?

Scraping data, I believe, the top one helped to solve. But some other smaller issues too.

What do you like best about the product?

What I like most about Apify is how much time it saves me. I don’t have to build every scraping or automation workflow from scratch, I can start with an existing Actor, tweak it for my use case, and get things running pretty quickly. The flexibility is probably the biggest reason I keep coming back to it.

What do you dislike about the product?

The main thing I’d say is that there’s a bit of a learning curve when you first get started. With so many Actors, settings, and customization options, it can feel slightly overwhelming initially. Some of the more advanced workflows also take a little time to figure out. But once you get familiar with the platform, it becomes much easier to use.

What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?

Apify helps me automate a lot of the repetitive work involved in collecting and processing web data. Instead of manually gathering information or spending time building scraping infrastructure from scratch, I can automate the process and get the data I need much faster.

For me, the biggest benefit is saving development time and being able to focus more on the actual product and analysis rather than worrying about the underlying scraping and automation setup.