Extracto vs Apify
Apify is a full scraping platform with Actors, proxies, scheduling, and scale. Extracto is one focused API call for typed, schema-validated JSON. Honest take.
How they differ
Apify is a full web-scraping and automation platform, far broader in surface area than Extracto. It offers thousands of pre-built scrapers called Actors, cloud execution, scheduling, datasets, integrations, and its own proxy service with both datacenter and residential IPs. It can take on very large and very complex jobs across a whole domain. The trade-off is a real learning curve, because success depends on choosing and configuring the right Actor for your target.
Extracto is the opposite shape: a single focused API call with almost no setup. You describe the fields you want as a JSON schema, send a URL, and get back typed JSON validated against that schema, with null for anything missing. Every request runs through a real headless browser and includes a managed anti-bot bypass layer that handles protected sites such as Cloudflare, DataDome, and PerimeterX, with proxies and anti-bot handling taken care of for you and no setup. It works on any public HTTPS URL, including JavaScript-rendered and anti-bot-protected pages. There is no Actor to pick and no platform to learn, just a URL and a schema.
Feature comparison
| Feature | Extracto | Apify | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Scope | One focused API call | Full platform | Apify spans scrapers, scheduling, storage, and integrations; Extracto is a single endpoint for structured extraction. |
| Pre-built scrapers (Actors) | No | Thousands | Apify's Actor marketplace covers many sites out of the box; Extracto has no marketplace, you just send a URL and schema. |
| Proxies | Included (no setup) | Yes (DC + residential) | Apify runs its own proxy service you configure; Extracto manages proxies for you with nothing to set up. |
| Anti-bot-heavy sites | Yes, managed | Often, with config | Extracto includes a managed anti-bot bypass layer that handles Cloudflare, DataDome, and PerimeterX out of the box; Apify can too once the right Actor and proxies are configured. |
| Scheduling & large crawls | No | Yes, managed | Apify schedules runs, stores datasets, and handles large crawls; Extracto is per-call with no scheduler or crawl engine. |
| Setup / learning curve | Minutes, describe fields | Higher, pick + configure Actor | Extracto needs only a schema and a URL; Apify's power comes with choosing and tuning the right Actor for the job. |
| Typed schema-validated output | Yes, every response | Varies by Actor | Extracto validates output against your schema before returning; Actor output shape depends on the specific Actor you run. |
| No selectors to maintain | Yes, schema-first | Depends on Actor | Extracto describes data by schema with no selectors; many Actors still rely on selectors that need upkeep on redesigns. |
| Null instead of guessed values | Yes, never guesses | Depends on Actor | Extracto returns null for fields it cannot find rather than fabricating one; behavior across Actors is not uniform. |
| Free tier | 100 pages, no card | Free credits / usage | Extracto's free plan needs no credit card; Apify offers free usage credits, so compare on your real workload. |
Pricing
As of 2026, Extracto's free plan is 100 pages with no credit card and paid starts at $14/month (Hobby, 5,000 pages). Apify's paid plans start at roughly $29/month, but Apify also meters compute, proxy usage, and storage on top, so total cost depends heavily on the Actor and scale. For a single focused extraction job, Extracto is simpler to predict; for large or complex pipelines, Apify's platform pricing reflects far more capability. With Extracto you only pay when it works: failed requests and cache hits are free.
Pricing for Apify reflects their public plans at the time of writing. Check their site for current numbers.
Migrating to Extracto
- 1
Identify the single-page extractions
Find the parts of your Apify workflow that are really just structured fields from one URL. Those are the pieces Extracto can take over with a schema, leaving whole-site crawls and scheduling on Apify.
- 2
Rewrite Actor output as a schema
Take the fields the Actor produced and express them as a JSON schema. Send the same URL plus that schema to Extracto, which returns typed JSON validated against it, with null for missing fields.
- 3
Keep Apify for scale and crawls
Leave scheduling, large multi-page crawls, datasets, and broad platform integrations on Apify. Extracto does not replace the platform, it replaces the per-URL structured-extraction step, including on anti-bot-protected pages it reaches with its managed bypass.
- 4
Wire Extracto into your existing pipeline
Call Extracto from the same code that triggered the Actor and store its JSON wherever you stored Actor results, so the rest of your pipeline stays unchanged while setup drops to a schema.
When to choose which
Choose Apify when you need scale and platform breadth: scheduled runs, large multi-page crawls across a domain, datasets, pre-built Actors, and integrations. Apify is a managed platform built for complex automation and orchestration, and on those jobs it is far more capable than Extracto, which extracts from the single URL you give it rather than crawling a site.
Choose Extracto when the job is a single focused extraction from a public URL and you want it done with almost no setup. Describe the fields, send the URL, get validated JSON. Extracto works on any public HTTPS URL, including JavaScript-rendered and anti-bot-protected pages, with proxies and a managed anti-bot bypass layer handled for you and no setup. If you do not need a platform, scheduling, or whole-site crawling, Extracto avoids the Actor learning curve and gives you typed, schema-validated output directly.