TL;DR: Which API Should You Choose?
AlterLab is a unified, pay-as-you-go scraping API built for developers who want a single REST endpoint capable of handling headless browsers, proxy rotation, and anti-bot bypass natively. Choose AlterLab if you want completely predictable per-request pricing, no monthly subscriptions, and a balance that never expires.
Apify is a comprehensive cloud platform centered around a marketplace of pre-built scrapers (Actors) and custom computing infrastructure. Choose Apify if you need to run complex, long-running Node.js/Python scripts on managed cloud infrastructure, or if you prefer utilizing community-built, site-specific scraping applications rather than writing your own extraction logic.
Disclaimer: Pricing data based on public information as of 2026. Always verify current pricing on the vendor's website.
For a high-level summary of how we stack up against the broader market, you can also view our detailed comparison page.
Architectural Differences: Actors vs Unified API
When evaluating an Apify alternative in 2026, the first concept developers must grasp is the fundamental difference in system architecture. How you interface with the data provider dictates how you will design your internal data pipelines.
Apify's Actor Model
Apify operates essentially as a specialized cloud computing platform. Instead of just offering a scraping endpoint, Apify utilizes "Actors." These are serverless cloud programs that run on Apify's infrastructure. You can write your own Actors using frameworks like Crawlee (Apify's open-source scraping library), or you can rent pre-built Actors from their marketplace for specific sites (e.g., a "Google Maps Scraper" or "Amazon Product Scraper"). Because these are discrete applications running in the cloud, you interact with them by starting a job, waiting for the execution to finish, and then polling a dataset for the resulting JSON.
AlterLab's Unified REST API
AlterLab approaches data extraction entirely differently. Rather than hosting your scraping logic, AlterLab provides a hardened, unified API endpoint that acts as a secure, intelligent conduit to the web. You maintain your scraping logic, parsers, and application code on your own servers. When you need the HTML or JSON from a target webpage, you simply make an HTTP request to AlterLab. Behind the scenes, AlterLab executes JavaScript, rotates proxies, bypasses CAPTCHAs, and handles browser fingerprinting, returning the raw data directly in the HTTP response. There are no job queues to manage or external storage buckets to poll.
Pricing Comparison: Pay-As-You-Go vs Compute Subscriptions
Pricing in the web scraping industry can be notoriously opaque. Comparing Apify's compute-unit model to AlterLab's per-request model requires looking at how scaling impacts your bottom line.
Apify's Pricing Model
Apify relies on a subscription-based model that starts at $49/month for their Starter plan. Their pricing is primarily calculated using two metrics:
- Compute Units (CUs): You are billed for the RAM and time your Actors consume while running on Apify's servers. A script that runs for 10 minutes extracting data will cost more than a script that runs for 10 seconds.
- Shared/Dedicated Proxies: Apify bundles proxy usage into their subscription plans. If you exceed the proxy bandwidth or need specialized residential proxies to bypass strict anti-bot measures, costs increase rapidly.
This compute-based model is highly flexible for long-running batch jobs, but it introduces unpredictability. If a target website slows down, your scraping scripts take longer to execute, meaning your Compute Unit consumption increases—raising your costs even if you extract the exact same amount of data. Furthermore, unused subscription credits typically reset at the end of the month.
AlterLab's Pricing Model
AlterLab completely rejects the subscription model. You can view the full details on our AlterLab pricing page. We believe developers should only pay for successful requests.
AlterLab charges a flat, predictable rate starting at $0.0002 per request. There are no monthly minimums, no subscription tiers, and no hidden bandwidth fees. Most importantly, your credit balance never expires. You can load $20 into your account, and whether it takes you a week or three years to use those credits, they remain yours.
Because AlterLab bills per request rather than by compute time, you are insulated from target website latency. If a website takes 15 seconds to load instead of 2 seconds, AlterLab absorbs that compute cost. You pay the exact same predictable rate for the successful HTML payload.
Feature Comparison: Handling the Modern Web
Both platforms are fully capable of handling modern, JavaScript-heavy single-page applications (SPAs), but they solve the problem of bot mitigation differently.
Anti-Bot and Proxy Management
Websites in 2026 employ aggressive anti-bot protection (Cloudflare Turnstile, Datadome, PerimeterX).
Apify provides access to large pools of datacenter and residential proxies, but bypassing advanced protections often requires you to configure Crawlee or Puppeteer correctly within your Actor. You are responsible for managing browser fingerprint evasion, managing proxy session persistence, and keeping your scraping libraries up to date when anti-bot vendors change their algorithms.
AlterLab handles this natively via our 5-tier smart routing system. When you submit a request, AlterLab automatically analyzes the target URL and routes it through the most efficient tier:
- Tier 1: Standard Datacenter Proxies (for unprotected APIs and static sites).
- Tier 2: Premium ISP Proxies (for moderate protection).
- Tier 3: Residential Proxies (for IP-reputation blocking).
- Tier 4: Mobile Proxies (for mobile-only APIs).
- Tier 5: AI-driven Browser Engine (solves CAPTCHAs, manages TLS fingerprinting, and handles Canvas/WebGL spoofing completely autonomously).
You do not need to configure which proxy to use; AlterLab upgrades the routing tier automatically if a request encounters a block, ensuring maximum success rates without developer intervention.
JavaScript Rendering
Apify handles JS rendering brilliantly by allowing you to run Playwright or Puppeteer directly inside an Actor. This gives you absolute control over the browser. You can inject custom scripts, click specific coordinates, and intercept network requests.
AlterLab handles JS rendering via a simple API parameter. By passing render_js: true in your JSON payload, AlterLab spins up a headless browser in our infrastructure, waits for network idle and DOM mutations, and returns the fully rendered HTML. This is significantly easier to implement but offers slightly less granular control than writing raw Playwright scripts in Apify.
When to Choose Apify
Apify is a robust, mature platform that excels in several specific scenarios. You should strongly consider Apify if:
- You don't want to write code: Apify's Actor marketplace is incredible for non-developers or teams that need data quickly. Renting an existing Twitter or Instagram scraper for a few dollars a month is much faster than reverse-engineering the APIs yourself.
- You want managed execution: If you do not want to run your own servers, cron jobs, or database infrastructure, Apify can host the entire pipeline.
- You need enterprise SLAs and massive proxy diversity: Apify has been in the market for years and offers heavy-duty enterprise contracts for organizations scraping billions of pages a month with highly specific proxy targeting requirements.
When to Choose AlterLab
AlterLab was built specifically for engineering teams that want to maintain control of their application architecture while outsourcing the headache of infrastructure maintenance and anti-bot bypass. You should choose AlterLab if:
- You hate subscriptions and compute math: The pay-as-you-go model with no expiry dates is perfect for startups, solo developers, and teams with bursty, unpredictable scraping needs. Instant sign-up allows you to start developing immediately.
- You prefer a simple API: If you are building an AI agent, an LLM RAG pipeline, or an automated monitoring tool, making a single REST API call is vastly simpler than deploying discrete Actors.
- You want hands-off anti-bot bypass: AlterLab’s 5-tier smart routing automatically navigates CAPTCHAs and fingerprinting without you having to write a single line of evasion code.
- You want to run on your own infrastructure: AlterLab fits perfectly into your existing AWS, GCP, or Vercel deployments. We return the data to your servers instantly, keeping your proprietary parsing logic strictly internal.
Migration Guide: Apify to AlterLab
Migrating from Apify’s SDK to AlterLab is a straightforward process of replacing asynchronous job executions with synchronous HTTP requests. For an in-depth look at client configuration, read our Getting started guide.
Here is a typical Python migration example:
```python title="migrate_to_alterlab.py" {3-6}
Before: Apify (Requires running inside an Actor or polling for dataset results)
from apify_client import ApifyClient
apify_client = ApifyClient("YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN")
run = apify_client.actor("some-actor").call(run_input={"url": "https://example.com"})
for item in apify_client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
print(item)
After: AlterLab (Direct, synchronous extraction)
client = alterlab.Client("YOUR_ALTERLAB_API_KEY")
AlterLab returns the parsed data or fully rendered HTML immediately
response = client.scrape("https://example.com", render_js=True)
print(response.text)
If you prefer to keep dependencies to an absolute minimum, AlterLab can be accessed from any language using standard HTTP tools like cURL:
```bash title="Terminal — Quick start"
curl -X POST https://api.alterlab.io/v1/scrape \
-H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{
"url": "https://example.com",
"render_js": true,
"smart_routing": true
}'
Because AlterLab uses a standard REST interface, integrating it into existing Node.js, Go, or Rust applications takes only minutes.
Key Takeaways
- Different Philosophies: Apify is a cloud execution platform with a marketplace of pre-built scraping apps. AlterLab is a unified REST API designed to handle browser infrastructure and anti-bot bypass on behalf of your existing application stack.
- Predictable Pricing: Apify uses a subscription and compute-unit model that fluctuates based on target site speed. AlterLab offers a purely pay-as-you-go model with per-request pricing, no monthly minimums, and credits that never expire.
- Automated Evasion: While Apify requires developers to correctly configure and manage proxy sessions within their Actors, AlterLab utilizes a completely autonomous 5-tier smart routing system to ensure high success rates.
Compare Other Alternatives
Depending on your exact requirements, other platforms might also be worth investigating. Check out our other in-depth technical comparisons to see how the web scraping API ecosystem shapes up in 2026:
Ready to leave subscriptions behind and try an API built for developer experience? Get your API key and free sign-up today to test our 5-tier smart routing for yourself.
