Apify features (comprehensive overview)
Apify is a cloud platform for web scraping, browser automation, and data pipelines. You can run thousands of prebuilt tools (Actors), build your own with Crawlee and the SDKs, and wire everything into the rest of your stack with storage, scheduling, webhooks, MCP, and integrations.
Quick Answer
Apify's key features are: Apify Store (30,000+ Actors), Crawlee SDK, managed proxies, cloud execution, datasets/KV storage, scheduling, webhooks, MCP server, and 30+ integrations.
Create an Apify account to use the same features on the Free plan (within monthly credit limits) or upgrade when you need higher limits and chat support.
1. Apify Store and Actors
- 30,000+ Actors for scraping, enrichment, and automation. Browse the Apify Store or read what Actors are.
- Run from the Console, API, CLI, or integrations (Zapier, Make, n8n, etc.).
- Publish custom Actors for private use or monetize in the Store.
Popular Store starting points:
2. Developer stack (Crawlee, SDKs, API, CLI)
- Crawlee: open-source crawling and scraping for Node.js and Python; the same patterns power many Store Actors.
- Apify SDK: first-class Actor runtime helpers (pushing data, storages, migrations).
- Apify API: start runs, read datasets, manage webhooks programmatically (API tutorial).
- Apify CLI: local dev,
apify push, and CI/CD (GitHub CI/CD guide).
3. Cloud execution and compute
- Runs execute in isolated containers with configurable memory and timeouts.
- Usage is metered in compute units (CUs); plan credits cover platform CUs, while some Store Actors add per-result or per-event fees (pricing, CUs).
4. Storage built for scraping workflows
| Primitive | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Dataset | Structured output items (typical scraper results). |
| Key-value store | Files, screenshots, arbitrary blobs, run metadata. |
| Request queue | Crawl frontier and deduplication for large crawls. |
Details: Apify storage guide.
5. Automation: Tasks, schedules, webhooks
- Tasks: saved input presets for any Actor.
- Schedules: cron-style recurring runs (Tasks & schedules).
- Webhooks: notify your systems when runs start, succeed, or fail. This is a common pattern for n8n, internal orchestrators, and serverless handlers.
6. Proxies and anti-blocking
- Apify Proxy: rotating datacenter and residential traffic to reduce blocks (Apify Proxy).
- Combine with Crawlee session rotation, browser fingerprints, and conservative concurrency for difficult sites (scraping dynamic sites).
7. Integrations and ecosystem
Native and documented connectors include Make, n8n, Zapier, Slack, Google Drive, Google Sheets, Airbyte, and AI stacks (LangChain, LangGraph, LlamaIndex). See the integrations hub.
8. MCP server (AI agents and IDEs)
Apify ships an Apify MCP Server so agents and tools that speak MCP can discover Actors, start runs, and read datasets. This is useful with Claude Desktop, Cursor, and similar clients (MCP on Apify).
9. Monitoring and collaboration
- Run logs, metrics, and notifications in the Console.
- Paid plans raise RAM ceilings, concurrent runs, and add in-app chat support (free vs Starter).
- Business tiers add workspace features for teams (see pricing).
10. Data-for-AI and RAG workflows
Apify positions web data for LLMs, RAG, and agents. Pair crawlers and extractors with your embedding and retrieval stack (Data for AI & RAG).
Free vs paid: which features apply where?
Platform capabilities are largely the same across plans; limits and support change as you move from Free to Starter, Scale, and Business. Actor-specific charges (pay per result, rental, etc.) apply on any plan when the Actor defines them.
| Capability | Free ($0, $5/mo credits) | Paid (Starter / Scale / Business) |
|---|---|---|
| Run Store & custom Actors | Yes (within credits) | Yes (higher monthly credits) |
| Crawlee + SDK + API + CLI | Yes | Yes |
| Datasets, KV stores, request queues | Yes; named storages kept indefinitely, unnamed (default) storages expire after 7 days | Configurable retention window in Billing; named storages kept indefinitely |
| Tasks & schedules | Yes | Yes |
| Webhooks | Yes | Yes |
| Apify Proxy | Yes (Free includes 5 datacenter IPs; usage billed per policy) | Yes, with higher default platform allowances |
| MCP server | Yes (needs API token) | Yes |
| Zapier / Make / n8n / Sheets / Drive | Yes | Yes |
| Max Actor RAM | 8 GB | 32–256 GB by plan (pricing table) |
| Max concurrent runs | 25 | 32–128+ by plan |
| In-app chat support | No (community + Help Center) | Starter+ (free plan comparison) |
| Store discount tiers | None | Bronze / Silver / Gold on paid plans (discounts) |
| Priority support add-on | Optional purchase | Optional $100/mo add-on (community & support) |
Pick one Store Actor for a concrete URL or query list → save a Task + Schedule → add a webhook or Sheet export → only then invest in custom Crawlee Actors for edge cases.
They cluster into: Apify Store (30,000+ Actors), Crawlee and SDKs, managed proxies, cloud execution and compute units, datasets/key-value/request-queue storage, Tasks and schedules, webhooks, the Apify MCP server, and 30+ integrations with automation and AI tools.
An Actor is a packaged scraper, crawler, or automation job that runs in the cloud. You configure inputs, start a run, and read structured outputs from a dataset. See Apify Actors.
Crawlee is an open-source library maintained by Apify. You can use it locally or inside Apify Actors; it powers many official Store scrapers.
Yes. The Free plan includes Tasks and schedules within platform limits; webhooks work the same way. Limits on RAM, concurrent runs, dataset retention, and monthly credits differ from paid plans. See Apify Free Plan.
Start with the Apify Docs platform section for Actors, storage, schedules, and integrations, and use Apify’s LLM-oriented index at apify.com/llms.txt for machine-readable summaries.
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