Apify vs Apollo.io (and is ScrapeField better?)
Apify is a platform of more than 80,000 scrapers, called Actors, most written by third parties. Apollo.io is a sales platform: a contact database, sequences, a dialer and a CRM. Here is how they differ, when to choose which, and where ScrapeField fits.
| Apify | Apollo.io | ScrapeField | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What it is | A platform of more than 80,000 scrapers, called Actors, most written by third parties | A sales platform: a contact database, sequences, a dialer and a CRM | An API for five platforms, Google Maps, LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok and X |
| What it covers | Almost any site, an Actor for each | Its own database of people and companies; a Google Maps business search on paid plans | Google Maps, LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok and X: 45 endpoints |
| How you use it | Start an Actor’s run, wait for it, and read its dataset, from the console or the API | An app with a seat per person, and an API | From code, an agent or the MCP server: one GET returns the answer |
| How it bills | Compute units or a price per result, set by each Actor; from $19 a month after the free plan | Free; then $49, $79 or $119 per seat a month billed annually, with credits per seat | Credits per call, in packs from $39; they never expire |
| Free to try | $5 of usage a month on the free plan | A free plan | 2,000 credits once, and a demo with no account at all |
| Needs your login | Each Actor’s author decides: the big LinkedIn Actors need none, a few ask for your cookies | No | Never: no login, cookie or session of yours, for any reason |
| What you get back | Each Actor’s own shape: two Google Maps Actors, two schemas | Contact and company records from its database | One documented schema per platform, named after its official API |
Checked 3 October 2026 against each vendor’s own pricing page. Rechecked quarterly — tell us if something here is out of date and we will fix it.
Which to choose
Choose Apify if you need a site nobody else covers, an Actor someone has already written, or schedules and storage on one platform.
Choose Apollo.io if you are a sales team that wants contacts with emails and phone numbers, sequences and a dialer in one seat.
Is ScrapeField better?
Only for one job. Choose ScrapeField if you need Google Maps, LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok or X data in your code, at a price per call you can multiply, without lending us an account. For anything else, choose Apify or Apollo.io as above.
Each has a full comparison with us, including where it wins: ScrapeField vs Apify and ScrapeField vs Apollo.io.
Try it before you decide
Every endpoint has a playground that runs against the live API with no key and no account. If the response shape does not fit your code, you will know in about a minute.