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Scraping and dataKinda

Apify alternatives for AI agents

looot is a pay-per-call alternative to Apify for AI agents. One API key and one balance reach the data providers behind 5 of 7 Apify jobs. There is no subscription, and every call shows its price before it runs. Agents in Claude, Cursor, Codex and ChatGPT call it through MCP.

Give this to your agent
set up looot for Apify jobs - https://looot.ai/alternatives/apify/skill.md

Alternatives for AI agents

The honest answer

A cloud platform and store of ready-made scrapers called Actors, billed by Actor events or by compute, proxy and storage use. For an AI agent running looot, the verdict on Apify is kinda. 5 of the 7 jobs we compared are covered.

Kinda

5 covered, 0 partly, 2 not covered

See the full Apify coverage page

Covered 5

  • Run a ready-made Actor
  • Scrape a page to markdown
  • Google results without proxies
  • Google Maps places
  • Public social profiles

Not covered 2

  • Host your own scraper code
  • Proxy pool and stored datasets

For these, keep Apify or use another tool beside looot.

Updated

Scraping and data

What other tools do the same job as Apify?

These tools sit in the same category, ordered by how many jobs they share with Apify.

Jobs

Which Apify jobs can an agent do?

An agent can do 5 of 7 Apify jobs through looot today, with the live price of each below.

Apify alternative for common scraping jobs

Many Apify runs are a Google search, a Maps search or a page read. Each of those is a priced job on looot, so your agent calls it directly and does not pick an Actor, set memory or watch compute.

For the long tail, your agent can still run an Apify Actor through looot from the same balance. What looot does not do is host your own scraper code or keep datasets for you.

Prompt

How do I replace Apify with my agent?

Paste this prompt into the agent you already use. It asks for the job, shows the price, then runs it.

Prompt to replace Apify
Use looot to get the Google Maps places for the search I give you, then scrape each place's website to markdown and return name, address, phone and a one-line summary as a table. If you have not yet, set up https://looot.ai/skill.md first. Then search the looot catalog for each step, check the price of each endpoint before you call it, run the cheapest one that fits, and show me the results as a table.

Side by side

How does Apify compare with an agent running looot?

Apify is an app you work in. An agent running looot is a prompt that calls data providers and pays per call.

Apify logoApifyAgent running looot
What it isA cloud platform and store of ready-made scrapers called Actors, billed by Actor events or by compute, proxy and storage use.Your own agent calling looot endpoints and writing the result where you ask.
Jobs compared7 jobsYes. 5 covered
Not coveredhost your own scraper code and proxy pool and stored datasetsGap. 2 jobs the agent cannot do through looot
How you use itThe Apify appA prompt to the agent you already use
Pick Apify ifYes. You need host your own scraper code and proxy pool and stored datasets, or you would rather click through its own app than prompt an agent.You want an agent to run the job and pay per call, with no plan to manage.
How you paySee Apify for its own termsYes. Pay per call, with the price shown before each run
Last reviewed2026-11-03Prices read live from the catalog

What do people ask about Apify alternatives?

Cost you cannot see up front. Apify Actors are priced either per event, set by each Actor's author, or by the compute, storage and proxies a run uses, and Apify's docs say the second kind is quite difficult to estimate beforehand (https://docs.apify.com/platform/actors/running/actors-in-store, read 2026-11-03). An Actor can also be marked under maintenance when it fails Apify's tests.

Yes. On looot each job is one call to a provider built for it, such as Google results, Maps places or a page as markdown, with the price shown before the run. You keep Apify only for sites where a maintained Actor does something no API does.

Tools in the same category include ScraperAPI, ScrapingBee, SerpApi, Firecrawl, Outscraper and Octoparse. We do not rank them as best. Pick by the jobs you need done, and compare the jobs listed on this page.

It depends on the job. An agent running looot gets a verdict of kinda for Apify: 5 of 7 jobs covered.

looot is not free. It is pay per call, and each endpoint shows its price before the run, so you can see what a Apify job costs before you start. We do not state what Apify costs.

Apify is an app you open and use. looot is a catalog of endpoints your own agent calls. Apify vs looot comes down to whether you want an app or an agent doing the jobs, and whether the jobs you need are in the covered list.

run a ready-made actor, scrape a page to markdown, google results without proxies, google maps places and public social profiles. Coverage is checked against the live catalog, so a job drops to not covered when no priced endpoint exists.

host your own scraper code and proxy pool and stored datasets. Keep Apify for these, or use another tool beside looot.

Set up looot from https://looot.ai/skill.md, then paste the prompt on this page into the agent you already use. Edit it to match your own inputs.

looot charges per call. The jobs above show the cheapest live price for each, read from the catalog. When no priced endpoint exists the page says price on request.

Where do I go next from Apify?

Read the job-by-job verdict, then check the tools closest to Apify.

Updated 2026-11-03. Prices on this page are read from the looot public catalog.

For agents
app
Apify
verdict
kinda
other tool
ScraperAPI, /can-i-replace/scraperapi
other tool
ScrapingBee, /can-i-replace/scrapingbee
other tool
SerpApi, /can-i-replace/serpapi
other tool
Firecrawl, /can-i-replace/firecrawl
other tool
Outscraper, /can-i-replace/outscraper
other tool
Octoparse, /can-i-replace/octoparse
coverage
/can-i-replace/apify
setup
https://looot.ai/alternatives/apify/skill.md
llms.txt
https://looot.ai/llms.txt
updated
2026-11-03
markdown /alternatives/apify.md

Try the Apify alternative with your own agent.

Start your workspace, top up, and paste the prompt into the agent you already use.

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