webclaw vs Apify
Apify is an established web scraping platform with a marketplace of 21,000+ pre-built scrapers (Actors). Here's how it compares to webclaw for web extraction and LLM data pipelines.
webclaw
Rust / MIT
Apify
Node.js / TypeScript (Crawlee) / Open source
webclaw pricing
1 credit = 1 page. No multipliers.
Apify pricing
Compute-unit based.
Feature comparison
| Feature | webclaw | Apify |
|---|---|---|
| Scrape (HTML to markdown) | Via Website Content Crawler Actor | |
| Crawl (BFS with depth control) | ||
| Batch (parallel multi-URL) | ||
| Search (web search + scrape) | Via Google Search Actor | |
| Extract (LLM structured data) | Via third-party Actors | |
| Screenshot (full page) | ||
| Browser actions (click, type, scroll) | ||
| Anti-bot bypass (TLS level) | Proxy-based (separate product) | |
| JS rendering | Yes (Playwright/Puppeteer) | |
| PDF extraction | Via third-party Actors | |
| MCP server | ||
| CLI tool | Yes (Apify CLI) | |
| Self-hostable | Crawlee only (not the platform) | |
| Open source (MIT) | Crawlee is Apache-2.0. Platform is proprietary. | |
| Credit multipliers | None. 1 credit = 1 page. | Compute-unit based (variable cost) |
Pricing comparison
| Plan | webclaw | Apify |
|---|---|---|
| Free | 500 pages/mo (renews) | $5 free usage |
| Starter | $49/mo — 10,000 pages | $29/mo + pay as you go |
| Mid | $99/mo — 100,000 pages | $0.30 per compute unit |
| High | $399/mo — 500,000 pages | Custom enterprise |
webclaw credit model: 1 credit = 1 page, always. No extra charges for JSON extraction, proxies, or JS rendering.
Apify credit model: Compute-unit based. You pay for server time, not pages. Costs depend on how long your scraper runs and how much memory it uses.
Apify strengths
- 21,000+ pre-built scrapers (Actors) for specific sites
- Mature platform with scheduling, storage, and monitoring
- Strong proxy infrastructure (separate product)
- Large enterprise customer base (Microsoft, T-Mobile, Siemens)
- Flexible compute model for complex, long-running scrapes
Apify limitations
- Complex pricing (compute units, not pages)
- Overkill for simple extraction tasks
- Platform lock-in (Actors run on Apify infrastructure)
- Slower for simple scrape tasks (platform overhead)
- Not designed specifically for LLM output formats
Which one should you use?
Use webclaw when
You need fast, simple web-to-markdown extraction for LLMs, want predictable per-page pricing, or need a lightweight tool without platform overhead.
Use Apify when
You need pre-built scrapers for specific platforms (TikTok, Instagram, Amazon), have complex multi-step scraping workflows, or need enterprise-grade scheduling and monitoring.
OTHER COMPARISONS