Comparison · No-code tools and platforms
Apify is a platform for running web scraping and automation programs called Actors, with a large store of ready-made Actors and a Professional Services team that builds and operates custom solutions. Import.io sells a self-service extraction platform, managed web data delivery and a pricing intelligence application. Who maintains what depends on the route, so this page compares them route by route.
Published by Import.io. Sources and verification scope are recorded below. Features and terms vary by plan and agreement.
Comparable routes are compared with each other. Documentation gaps are not evidence that a capability is missing. Compare the named product and confirm contractual scope.
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| Dimension | Import.io self-service | Apify self-service |
|---|---|---|
| Offering | Import.io platform on the Standard, Professional or Advanced plan (self-service) | Apify platform plan with your own Actors or Store Actors |
| Build | Point-and-click or AI-assisted extractors with schema detection, configured by your team | Your team codes its own Actors, or selects a Store Actor maintained by its publisher |
| Scheduling and delivery | Hourly to monthly schedules. CSV, JSON and webhook on all plans; S3 and SFTP on Professional and above. API: rate-limited on Standard, full API and webhooks on Professional and above | Platform schedules and integrations are documented; your team configures the workflow |
| Site changes | Run reporting flags failed and empty runs; your team updates the extractor. A managed engagement transfers this work | Your team maintains its own Actors; Store Actor updates depend on the publisher |
| QA | Per-run success, failure and empty-row reporting; acceptance checks configured by your team | Platform monitoring and data validation tools, configured by your team |
| Reliability | Platform availability and run reporting. End-to-end reliability depends on how your team configures and monitors the workflow | Actor monitoring and alerts; end-to-end assurance depends on your configuration |
| Cost | From $199 a month on a 12-month term billed monthly ($249 month-to-month): 50,000 successful queries, then $7 per 1,000. Professional $399 (200,000), Advanced $699 (500,000). Blocked and failed requests are not billed | Plan credits plus usage; Store Actors bill per event or per usage; proxy allowances vary by plan |
| Governance | GDPR and CCPA processing terms, PII detection and removal, audit logs. You approve sources, purposes and downstream use | Confirm controls and data handling for the selected plan and Actors |
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| Dimension | Import.io managed | Apify managed |
|---|---|---|
| Offering | Import.io Managed Services, scoped per agreement | Apify Professional Services, scoped per agreement |
| Build | Import.io engineers build each source against a written schema contract and acceptance tests you approve | Apify builds custom scrapers and pipelines |
| Scheduling and delivery | Agreed cadence to S3, GCS, Azure Blob, Snowflake, BigQuery, Databricks, SFTP or API, with a manifest on every delivery; backfills per agreement | Operated by Apify within the agreed scope |
| Site changes | Detected on the next run by QA against the baseline. AI proposes a fix, an engineer verifies it. Repair and escalation times are set in the agreement | Maintenance and response terms under the agreed SLA |
| QA | Automated checks against source HTML and the contracted schema, plus human review. Deliveries that fail are held, not shipped, as defined in the agreement | Monitoring per the agreement; confirm the validations included |
| Reliability | SLAs on coverage, freshness, correctness and response, with fees at risk, as defined in the agreement | SLA per the Professional Services agreement; compare metrics and remedies |
| Cost | Per source maintained, with fixed onboarding, on an annual agreement billed monthly. Scope changes are quoted | Separately scoped service fee plus platform usage per agreement |
| Governance | Named controls, data processing agreement and audit trail. You retain approval of sources and permitted use | Confirm controls, terms and retained customer duties in the agreement |
Apify combines plan credits with usage charges; Store Actors bill pay-per-event or pay-per-usage and inclusions vary by Actor; proxy allowances depend on the plan. Add your team’s maintenance effort for self-built Actors, or the separately scoped Professional Services fee. Import.io self-service is query-based with published plans; managed is priced per source maintained.
Model your own numbers with the calculator on web scraping as a service, and see published plans on pricing.
Apify Actors are serverless programs that accept input and produce results. Teams can run their own code or select a Store Actor. This is useful when reusable automation is the product you need; identify who owns updates to every Actor in a production workflow. [1]
Apify documents schedules, API access, webhooks and integrations, including MCP. A platform with these facilities is more than a raw scraping endpoint. Check how your chosen Actor exposes output and how a failed or partial run reaches your monitoring system. [2]
Apify advertises custom scraping solutions, dedicated expertise and SLAs on its Custom offering. Compare that proposal with managed delivery, rather than comparing Import.io managed operations only against a self-service Actor plan. [3]
Estimate platform usage, Actor charges, storage, access costs and your operating time. For a Store dependency, document publisher responsibility, data handling and replacement options. A familiar marketplace workflow may be preferable to rebuilding an existing automation stack. [3]
Explore Import.io MCP and self-service extraction. See our MCP, Firecrawl and Playwright guide for an agent-workflow perspective.
Research updated: . The linked primary sources support the updated discussion below. Import.io publishes this comparison; it is not an independent review. Compare the operating model and plan you would actually buy. Public documentation changes, and a listed feature is not a guarantee for every source or agreement.
This comparison is published by Import.io. It evaluates the named products and service models using the primary sources linked below, checked on 25 September 2026. Features, limits and prices vary by plan and agreement. Fit depends on your sources, required output and the operational work your team wants to retain.
A provider’s product page shows what it advertises; it does not prove achieved uptime, accuracy or coverage. The source check recorded for this edition is 25 September 2026. Confirm current plans and terms with each provider before buying. Spot something out of date? Tell us.
Answers about the products and service models compared above.
It is a program run on the Apify platform. Assess its input schema, output, dependencies and maintenance ownership as you would any production component.
No. Store Actors are an alternative to custom code. Test the specific Actor, not just the platform brand, against your source and output requirements.
Yes. Its Custom offering advertises services and SLA commitments. Obtain a written scope before deciding which operating responsibilities move to the provider.
Yes. Its integrations documentation includes MCP. Compare the tools and data returned to your agent, and the limits that apply to the selected Actor.
Match self-service with self-service, or scoped services with scoped services. Include Actor ownership, downstream validation and total operating cost in the comparison.
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