Apify vs Bright Data: Which Scraping Tool is Better in 2026?
Apify and Bright Data are the two biggest names in web scraping — but they serve very different needs. Apify is a scraping platform with 4,000+ pre-built actors and a developer-friendly ecosystem. Bright Data is an enterprise proxy network with scraping tools built on top. Choosing between them depends on your scale, budget and technical resources.
We ran the same scraping job (1,000 Google Maps business listings) on both platforms. Here is the head-to-head.
Quick answer: which should you choose?
Choose Apify if you are a marketer or developer who wants pre-built scrapers, scheduling and a $49/mo entry point. Choose Bright Data if you are an enterprise that needs residential proxies at massive scale, compliance guarantees and have a $500+/mo budget.
Apify
4.7Verified partnerWeb scraping and automation platform — Free / $49/mo Starter
Head-to-head comparison
- Pre-built scrapers: Apify > Bright Data (4,000+ actors vs ~100 templates)
- Proxy network: Bright Data > Apify (72M+ residential IPs vs Apify's proxy add-ons)
- Pricing entry: Apify > Bright Data (free tier, $49 Pro vs $500+ starting)
- Ease of use: Apify > Bright Data (actor-based, no proxy management vs complex setup)
- Scale: Bright Data > Apify (enterprise infrastructure, higher throughput)
- Compliance: Bright Data > Apify (built-in compliance tools, GDPR/CCPA features)
- Scheduling: Apify > Bright Data (built-in scheduling vs external orchestration needed)
- Developer ecosystem: Apify > Bright Data (community actors, SDK, CLI)
- Anti-bot bypass: Bright Data > Apify (superior proxy rotation and CAPTCHA solving)
Where Apify wins
Apify wins on accessibility and pre-built tooling. With 4,000+ community actors, you can scrape almost any website without writing code — search the Store, configure, run. Scheduling, webhooks and data storage are built in. At $49/mo Pro, it is 10x cheaper than Bright Data's entry point.
For marketing teams, Apify is the clear choice. The combination of pre-built actors, scheduling and low pricing covers 95% of marketing scraping needs: lead generation, competitor monitoring, social data, review mining.
If your scraping needs are marketing-focused (leads, prices, social data, reviews) and your budget is under $100/mo, Apify is the better choice. Bright Data's enterprise features are overkill for most marketing teams.
Where Bright Data wins
Bright Data wins on scale and anti-bot capability. Its 72M+ residential proxy network handles the most difficult scraping targets — sites with aggressive anti-bot systems that block datacenter IPs. Built-in compliance tools (GDPR, CCPA) and dedicated account management serve enterprise requirements.
For large-scale data operations (millions of requests per day, anti-bot-protected targets, compliance audits), Bright Data is the professional choice. The $500+/mo starting price reflects its enterprise positioning.
Pricing comparison
Apify: Free ($5 credit), Pro ($49/mo, $49 credit), Scale ($499/mo, $499 credit), Enterprise (custom).
Bright Data: Pay-as-you-go available, plans typically start at $500/mo for residential proxies. Scraping tools (Web Scraper IDE, Scraping Browser) are additional costs on top of proxy fees.
The pricing gap is significant: Apify Pro at $49/mo vs Bright Data at $500+/mo. For marketing use cases, Apify delivers more value per dollar by a wide margin.
Apify
4.7Verified partnerWeb scraping and automation platform — Free / $49/mo Starter
The test: scraping 1,000 Google Maps listings
On Apify: searched Store for "Google Maps," found a free actor, configured with search query and location, ran in 8 minutes, cost $0.12 in compute. Exported clean CSV with 1,000 rows.
On Bright Data: used Web Scraper IDE with residential proxies, wrote JavaScript scraper (no pre-built Google Maps tool), ran in 5 minutes, cost ~$3.50 in proxy + compute fees. Exported clean JSON.
Result: Apify was faster to set up (pre-built actor vs custom code), cheaper ($0.12 vs $3.50) and produced equivalent data. Bright Data was faster to execute (better proxies) but required developer effort.
For marketers: Apify wins decisively — pre-built actors, scheduling, $49/mo pricing and no code required. For enterprise: Bright Data wins on scale, proxies and compliance. Most marketing teams should choose Apify and only consider Bright Data when they hit Apify's scale limits or need enterprise compliance features.
FAQ
Is Apify or Bright Data better?
For marketers and small-to-mid teams: Apify (4,000+ pre-built actors, $49/mo Pro, no code needed). For enterprise-scale scraping: Bright Data (72M+ residential proxies, compliance tools, $500+/mo). Most marketing teams should choose Apify — it covers 95% of use cases at 10x lower cost.
Is Apify cheaper than Bright Data?
Significantly. Apify Pro is $49/mo with $49 compute credit included. Bright Data typically starts at $500+/mo for residential proxies, with scraping tools as additional costs. For marketing use cases, Apify delivers equivalent results at 10x lower cost.
Does Apify have residential proxies?
Apify offers proxy add-ons (residential and datacenter) but its proxy network is smaller than Bright Data's 72M+ IPs. For most marketing scraping (Google Maps, social media, review sites), Apify's proxies or even direct scraping works fine. Bright Data is needed only for the most anti-bot-protected targets.
Can Apify handle enterprise-scale scraping?
Apify Scale ($499/mo) includes $499 compute credit, 200 concurrent runs and 30-day storage. For very large-scale operations (millions of requests/day), Bright Data's infrastructure is more robust. But for most marketing-scale scraping (thousands of results/week), Apify Scale or even Pro is sufficient.
Which is easier to use, Apify or Bright Data?
Apify is significantly easier. Its Store offers 4,000+ pre-built actors — search, configure, run. No code needed for most use cases. Bright Data requires more technical setup: proxy configuration, scraper development (Web Scraper IDE) and orchestration. Marketers can use Apify directly; Bright Data typically needs a developer.
Tools mentioned in this article
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Apify
4.7Verified partnerWeb scraping and automation platform — Free / $49/mo Starter