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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.

The short answer

Entry price
The same for both — $19/mo
Free plan
Both have one
Public API
Both have one
Higher Trust score
Apify — 94 vs 85 for Context.dev
Best fit
Apify: Teams that would rather rent a maintained scraper than babysit their own · Context.dev: Developers building RAG systems that need fresh web pages as Markdown

From our own records as of each tool's last check. Anything we have not confirmed is left out rather than guessed. How we verify

ApifyMarketplace and cloud platform of ready-made scrapers ('Actors') plus infrastructure to run your ownContext.devWeb data API for scraping, crawling, search, answers and brand data, billed from one credit balance; formerly Brand.dev.

Side by side

FactApifyContext.dev
CategoryWeb Scraping & Data ExtractionWeb Scraping & Data Extraction
Pricing modelFreemiumFreemium
Starts at$19/mo$19/mo
Public APIYesYes
Trust score94 / 10085 / 100
PlatformsWeb, APIWeb, API
CompanyApify Technologies s.r.o.Context Dev Inc.
Launched2015—
Last verifiedOct 16, 2026Oct 15, 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 sensible pick when you want scraping, crawling, search and brand data behind one key and one bill instead of stitching three vendors together. The credit table is published per endpoint, so costs are predictable for plain scrapes; the heavier calls — answers, brand lookups, enrichment — burn credits ten to twenty times faster, and that is where a budget goes.

Pros

  • One API and credit balance covers scrape, crawl, search, answers, monitors and brand data
  • Free tier of 1,000 credits a month with no card
  • Credit cost per endpoint and overage rates are published on the pricing page
  • SDKs, a CLI and an MCP server for agent use

Cons

  • Answers, brand and style-guide lookups cost 10 credits and person enrichment 20, so mixed workloads drain plans quickly
  • Recent rebrand from Brand.dev means older docs and integrations may still use the old name
  • Developer tier caps concurrency at 10 requests

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 pages as Markdown
  • Teams needing structured brand data such as logos, colours and company profiles via API
  • AI agent builders who want an MCP server for web search and extraction

Apify vs Context.dev: the questions people ask

Is Apify cheaper than Context.dev?

Both publish the same entry price, $19/mo. The difference is what each plan includes, which the fact table above sets side by side.

Does Apify or Context.dev have a free tier?

Both: Apify has a free tier, and Context.dev has a free tier.

Which has a public API, Apify or Context.dev?

Both ship a public API, so either can be built on; the fact table above shows the platforms each one runs on.

More comparisons

All Context.dev alternatives →Browse all Web Scraping & Data Extraction →