TL;DR
For most projects, Apify costs less than building your own. The break-even point is around 100,000+ requests per month at simple sites. For complex sites with anti-bot measures, the break-even is much higher.
The Real Question
Should you use Apify or build scrapers yourself? The answer depends on math, not preference.
Let's run the numbers.
Cost of Building Your Own
Development Time
A production scraper takes time to build:
| Task | Simple Site | Complex Site |
|---|---|---|
| Initial scraper | 4-8 hours | 20-40 hours |
| Error handling | 2-4 hours | 8-16 hours |
| Proxy integration | 2-4 hours | 8-16 hours |
| Anti-bot bypass | 0 hours | 20-60 hours |
| Testing | 2-4 hours | 8-16 hours |
| Total | 10-20 hours | 64-148 hours |
At $75/hour developer cost: $750-$1,500 for simple sites, $4,800-$11,100 for complex sites.
Infrastructure Costs
Running scrapers requires servers:
- VPS hosting: $20-100/month
- Proxy service: $50-500/month
- Database: $10-50/month
- Monitoring: $10-50/month
Monthly infrastructure: $90-700/month minimum.
Maintenance
Sites change. Scrapers break. Expect:
- 2-4 hours/month for simple sites
- 8-20 hours/month for complex sites
At $75/hour: $150-$1,500/month in ongoing maintenance.
Cost of Using Apify
Platform Fees
| Plan | Monthly Cost | What You Get |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | $5 monthly credit |
| Starter | $49 | $49 platform credit + features |
| Scale | $499 | $499 credit + priority support |
Per-Use Costs
Pre-built actors charge per result or per compute unit. Examples:
- Google Maps scraper: ~$0.003 per business
- Amazon product scraper: ~$0.004 per product
- LinkedIn profile scraper: ~$0.005 per profile
1,000 results = $3-5. 10,000 results = $30-50.
Break-Even Analysis
Simple Site Example
Scraping a basic e-commerce site, 5,000 products daily:
DIY approach:
- Development: $1,000 (one-time)
- Hosting: $50/month
- Proxies: $100/month
- Maintenance: $150/month
- Year 1 total: $4,600
Apify approach:
- 5,000 products x 30 days x $0.004 = $600/month
- Platform fee: $49/month (absorbed in credit)
- Year 1 total: $7,200
DIY wins for high-volume simple sites after initial investment pays off.
Complex Site Example
Scraping a protected site with anti-bot measures, 5,000 pages daily:
DIY approach:
- Development: $8,000 (one-time)
- Hosting: $100/month
- Residential proxies: $400/month
- Maintenance: $750/month
- Year 1 total: $23,000
Apify approach:
- 5,000 pages x 30 days x $0.005 = $750/month
- Platform handles proxies and anti-bot
- Year 1 total: $9,000
Apify wins by a wide margin for complex sites.
When to Build Your Own
- You scrape 100,000+ pages monthly from simple sites
- You have in-house developers with scraping experience
- You need custom logic that pre-built actors cannot handle
- You already have proxy and hosting infrastructure
When to Use Apify
- You scrape complex sites with anti-bot protection
- You need results fast (days, not weeks)
- Developer time costs more than platform fees
- You want to avoid infrastructure management
- A pre-built actor already does what you need
The Hybrid Approach
Many teams use both. Pre-built actors for common sites. Custom actors on Apify's platform for unique needs. Best of both worlds.
Try Before You Decide
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