Apify is a well-known name among developers, data scientists, and businesses looking to gather data from websites and automate all sorts of web-related tasks. Besides letting you build, deploy, and monitor browser automation and web scraping tools, the platform offers a proxy package to ensure efficient web scraping.
So, in this review, we’ll focus on Apify proxies and discuss their features and pricing so you can decide if they are the best choice for you. Before we jump into the features, let’s back up and talk about Apify so you can understand what this company does and what customers it serves.
Apify Introduction
Apify is a one-stop shop for all web scraping and web automation needs. It’s a cloud-based platform that allows you to build reliable web scrapers and automate myriad online tasks in a web browser. The company was founded in 2015 in Prague to help businesses of all sizes improve their online operations.
Some of the products it offers include hundreds of ready-made scrapers, a web scraping and browser automation library, web scraping code templates, actors that perform actions based on a script, and proxies that can be used outside the Apify platform.
Apify Features
Apify Proxy is offered as a separate product for users looking for proxies. Even though it integrates well with the company’s actors, you can use it with your own custom web crawler or scraper.
Apify claims it covers worldwide locations but fails to mention the exact locations of its IP addresses. Instead, it lets you specify the country you want your IPs to be from, a feature Apify calls custom or IP geolocation. No city and state-level targeting is mentioned here, so you only get to choose the country of your IPs.
It’s the same with the proxy pool size. “Too many to count” is just not enough for most users. It gives a sense that it’s not big enough to point out. Even though we may be wrong, it’s always better to know the size and location coverage of a proxy network before subscribing.
The source of their residential IPs is a P2P network, meaning the number of IPs available and active is smaller than the total number of IP addresses in the pool. Apify regularly checks its proxy network and removes nonfunctional or dead IPs. Also worth noting is that it offers you an endpoint instead of proxy lists.
Types of Proxies
Apify offers residential and datacenter proxies in three versions: shared datacenter, dedicated datacenter, and residential (rotating) IPs. It also offers Google SERP proxies, which can only be used for Google Search, Google Shopping, and Google Shopping Search, so you can’t use them for other websites.
Although you can order shared datacenter, residential, and Google SERP proxies at any time, the dedicated datacenter ones are available on request, so you’ll have to contact the support team if you want to make an order.
All proxies support the HTTPS protocol, ensuring high security online. However, the lack of SOCKS5 support means less flexibility, as this protocol makes proxies suitable for a wide range of applications. In terms of authentication methods, Apify allows you to authenticate via username and password only, so you won’t find IP authentication here.
Both datacenter and residential proxies are rotating, changing your IP address after each request. However, sessions are available for both proxy types, so you can keep the same residential IP address for only 1 minute and the same datacenter IP for 26 hours. Not bad for datacenter proxies, but very limiting for residential.
Apify Proxy Speed and Performance
Apify doesn’t give specifics about the proxy speed. Instead, it only says it offers fast datacenter proxies. What we found is that the proxies have average speed and high performance, so they are not easy to detect and ban.
The provider even lets you mix the two proxy types and make the system rotate them interchangeably so you can find the ideal balance between high performance and low cost. The proxies have high uptime, meaning they are reliable.
They are also compatible with many popular sites and integrate easily with systems that can help you avoid detections and bans.
Additional Tools
Apify is a lot more than a proxy provider. It offers plenty of tools for web scraping, data extraction, and browser automation. Some of the most popular products in the company’s catalog include ready-made scrapers, the open-source web scraping library called Crawlee, actors for time-consuming serverless jobs, code templates, etc.
As a proxy user, you might be interested in Apify’s free proxy scraper and checker. It will help you find the best free or public proxies, scraping numerous free proxy sites simultaneously and testing each proxy individually.
Purchase Simplicity
Making an account on Apify is straightforward. You just enter your email and password or sign up with Google or GitHub. The only thing the company asks you in this process is whether you develop software.
Once you’re in, you can see a lot of things on the dashboard, with a separate section for proxies. As a new user, you get $5 free credits, so if you want to make a purchase, you need to upgrade to a premium plan. Once you choose the plan, you can expand it with add-ons. Then, you just need to enter your billing details and pay via credit or debit card or PayPal.
Apify Pricing
Apify combines the subscription and pay-as-you-go pricing model, offering one free and three premium monthly plans that allow you to pay as you go after reaching the limit. The free plan automatically applies to all new users, providing them with $5 free credits. There’s also an enterprise plan that’s 100% custom.
Apify’s residential proxies are charged by the amount of GBs ordered, starting at $13 per GB. Even though the price per GB can decrease to $10, it’s still rather expensive.
The datacenter proxies available on the dashboard are shared proxies, and they are charged by the number of IPs ordered. You can order at least 30 IPs as part of the starter plan for $44 a month and then order as many IPs as you want for $1 per IP.
If you want dedicated datacenter proxies, you’ll have to contact the sales agents. These proxies cost $7 per IP, which is quite costly. The SERPs proxies are charged by the number of SERPs returned, starting at $3 per 1,000 SERPs.
Apify Discounts
Apify has a promo code you can use to get a 10% discount on their products. It also gives you a 10% discount on annual plans, so this is the most cost-effective option if you need proxies for a longer time.
Is Apify Legit or a Scam?
Apify is 100% legitimate, offering useful tools for developers, data scientists, and businesses around the world. It’s trusted by over 15,000 businesses worldwide, helping them streamline their automation and web scraping needs.
Surprisingly, the company has zero reviews on Trustpilot, but a solid 8.6 score on TrustRadius.
Customer Support
Apify offers various ways to contact their support team, including live chat, Discord, and email. However, members of the free plan and those who still haven’t signed up on the platform can only access Discord support.
So, if you want to talk to a person rather than a bot, you’ll have to subscribe to a premium plan or wait for several days. Paying subscribers praise the company’s support agents for providing swift and helpful replies.
Can You Earn Money With Apify?
Apify has an affiliate program that lets you earn up to 30% recurring commissions. The program is suitable for developers and freelancers, educators and trainers, digital agencies, industry influencers, content creators, and forum admins for tech communities.
Affiliates are paid via PayPal or bank transfer 30 days after their first referral. The cookie duration is 45 days, and you can track everything in real-time from a transparent dashboard.
Apify Pros and Cons
After going through Apify proxies, it’s time to talk about its biggest advantages and disadvantages.
Final Verdict
Even though proxies are not Apify’s flagship product, they are still an option to consider if you’re looking for reliable rotating HTTPS proxy servers. Since they have been developed with web scraping and automation in mind, you can use them with almost any system that will help you avoid detections and bans.
But if you need SOCKS5 proxies with IP authentication or residential proxies with longer sticky sessions, you should probably look elsewhere.
Ratings
Alternatives
Having a few more options in mind will help you make the right decision, so here are three other proxy providers and their most significant traits:
- IPRoyal – over 8 million proxies from over 195 locations, HTTP/HTTPS and SOCKS5 support, precise sticky session control (from 1 sec to 7 days), pay-as-you-go residential proxies, dual authentication, non-expiring residential traffic.
- ProxyCrawl– over 2 million proxies from over 45 locations, automatic rotation, HTTP/HTTPS support, unlimited bandwidth, and a free trial.
- ProxyRack – over 5 million proxies from over 140 locations, good session control system, HTTP/HTTPS and SOCKS5 support, versatile plans, and a 7-day paid trial.
FAQ
Can I use Apify proxies outside of the Apify platform?
Yes, you can use these proxies outside the Apify platform if you subscribe to a premium plan. Free plan users can use the proxies only within the Apify Console.
Can I use Apify proxies in a web browser?
Paying subscribers can use Apify proxies for web browsing or testing the sites you want to scrape. You just need to install a proxy browser extension and enter the Apify Proxy configuration.
Can I try Apify for free?
Yes, the company gives you $5 free credits as soon as you create an account. The free plan includes proxies, but you can only use them within the platform.
