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Apify vs Context.dev

Two fact sheets from our own research, side by side — pricing, platforms, API access and status re-checked by us rather than quoted from the vendors. Apify starts at $29, Context.dev at $25. Both have a free tier. Both ship a public API.

ApifyMarketplace and cloud platform of ready-made scrapers ('Actors') plus infrastructure to run your ownContext.devAPI for web scraping, structured extraction, and brand data, formerly branded Brand.dev.

Side by side

FactApifyContext.dev
CategoryWeb Scraping & Data ExtractionWeb Scraping & Data Extraction
Pricing modelFreemiumFreemium
Starts at$29 month$25 month
Public APIYesYes
PlatformsWeb, APIWeb, API
CompanyApify Technologies s.r.o.—
Launched2015—
Last verifiedSep 6, 2026Sep 1, 2026

What our research says

Apify

The Actor marketplace is the draw: for most popular sites someone has already built and maintains the scraper, and agent-facing interfaces (API, MCP) are first-class. Costs need watching, since compute units plus per-Actor fees stack on top of the subscription and are hard to predict before you run at volume.

Pros

  • Huge catalog of maintained scrapers for common targets
  • Real free tier with $5 of usage and no card required
  • SDKs, CLI, proxies and scheduling in one platform
  • Published discounts for startups, universities and nonprofits

Cons

  • Two-layer pricing (subscription plus usage plus Actor fees) complicates forecasting
  • Marketplace Actor quality varies by author
  • Large-scale scraping raises site-terms and legal questions the platform leaves to you

Context.dev

Context.dev is a solid option if you need web data piped into an AI pipeline without building your own crawler, since scraping, extraction, and classification all sit behind one API with official SDKs in five languages. The rebrand from Brand.dev means older references and integrations built against the old domain or name may need updating.

Pros

  • Single API covers scraping, crawling, search, extraction, and classification
  • Official SDKs in five languages plus an MCP server
  • Free tier requires no credit card

Cons

  • Recent rebrand from Brand.dev may break bookmarks or integrations built against the old name
  • Company leadership and location are not disclosed on the site
  • Per-credit costs at higher usage aren't fully broken out on the pricing page

Which one fits

Choose Apify if you need

  • Teams that would rather rent a maintained scraper than babysit their own
  • AI builders feeding agents live web data through the API or MCP server
  • Developers monetizing crawlers without running infrastructure

Choose Context.dev if you need

  • Developers building RAG systems that need fresh web context
  • Teams needing structured brand data (logos, colors, metadata) via API
  • AI agent builders wanting an MCP server for web search and extraction

More comparisons

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