# Apify alternatives for AI agents

Apify alternatives for an AI agent: 5 of 7 Apify jobs covered, each priced per call. See which jobs move to an agent and which stay.

## Live prices

Prices read on 2026-11-04 from the live looot catalog. They change when a provider changes its price.

| What Apify does | Cheapest provider on looot | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Run a ready-made Actor | Apify | $0.0600 per call |
| Scrape a page to markdown | Jina AI | $0.0002 per call |
| Google results without proxies | Serper | $0.0010 per call |
| Google Maps places | Serper | $0.0010 per call |
| Public social profiles | TikHub | $0.0010 per call |
| Host your own scraper code | not on looot | no price |
| Proxy pool and stored datasets | not on looot | no price |

## 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.

Covered: run a ready-made actor, scrape a page to markdown, google results without proxies, google maps places and public social profiles.

Not covered: host your own scraper code and proxy pool and stored datasets. For these, keep Apify or use another tool beside looot.

## Other tools in the same job

- ScraperAPI (/can-i-replace/scraperapi): verdict yes.
- ScrapingBee (/can-i-replace/scrapingbee): verdict yes.
- SerpApi (/can-i-replace/serpapi): verdict kinda.
- Firecrawl (/can-i-replace/firecrawl): verdict kinda.
- Outscraper (/can-i-replace/outscraper): verdict yes.
- Octoparse (/can-i-replace/octoparse): verdict yes.

## Or let your agent do the Apify jobs

- Run a ready-made Actor: covered. Providers: apify.
- Scrape a page to markdown: covered. Providers: jina, steel, context-dev, scrapegraphai.
- Google results without proxies: covered. Providers: serper, searchapi-io, dataforseo, serpapi.
- Google Maps places: covered. Providers: serper, searchapi-io, dataforseo, serpapi.
- Public social profiles: covered. Providers: scrapecreators, tikhub, brightdata.
- Host your own scraper code: not covered. looot runs provider calls, not code you write and deploy.
- Proxy pool and stored datasets: not covered. looot rents no proxies and keeps no datasets; results come back in the call.

## 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.

## Agent 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.

## Apify versus an agent running looot

- What it is: A 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 compared: 7 jobs | 5 covered
- Not covered: host your own scraper code and proxy pool and stored datasets | 2 jobs the agent cannot do through looot
- How you use it: The Apify app | A prompt to the agent you already use
- Pick Apify if: 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 pay: See Apify for its own terms | Pay per call, with the price shown before each run
- Last reviewed: 2026-11-03 | Prices read live from the catalog

## Why do people look for an Apify alternative?

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.

## Is there an Apify alternative without compute units?

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.

## What are the best Apify alternatives?

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.

## Is there a Apify alternative for AI agents?

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

## Is there a free Apify alternative?

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 vs looot, which fits an agent?

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.

## Which Apify jobs can an agent do with looot?

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.

## Which Apify jobs can an agent not do?

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

## How do I replace Apify with an agent?

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.

## How does looot price a Apify alternative?

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.

## More

- /can-i-replace/apify
- Category: Scraping and data
- /alternatives

## Agent skill for this page

https://looot.ai/alternatives/apify/skill.md sets an agent up for exactly the jobs on this page, with the live price of each, and offers the page's starter task once the user has picked a job and seen the price. The line to give an agent is under "Give this to your agent" below.

## For agents

### Give this to your agent

```text
set up looot for Apify jobs - https://looot.ai/alternatives/apify/skill.md
```