SoftwareGlimpse

Apify vs Bright Data

Apify fits teams that want ready-made or custom actors rather than raw proxy ops; Bright Data fits data engineering teams needing reliable residential/datacenter proxy networks.

Independently recommendedLast updated Aug 18, 20265 evidence sources5 screenshotsHow we compare
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Apify logo

Apify

7.5/10

Actor platform for web scraping — Free $0 ($5 usage); Starter $29/mo ($26 annual); Scale $199; Business $999.

Best for

  • • Teams that want ready-made or custom Actors rather than raw proxy ops
  • • Developers who need compute + storage + proxy in one platform
  • • Projects that benefit from Apify Store scrapers

Starting from $29.00/user/mo

Free plan available

Visit Apify
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VS

Our verdict

Our verdict

Bright Data is the stronger overall fit

Same-cluster web data / proxy collection peer comparison. Choose Apify when Actor-based scraping and automation is the job — not Bright Data proxy GB by default. Choose Bright Data when web data collection at scale — with proxy network reliability — is the primary job and budget supports GB/commitment pricing. Overall: Apify 7.5 vs Bright Data 7.7. Not hands-on lab tested; confirm live pricing and packaging.

Apify is better for

  • ✓ Free plan

Bright Data is better for

  • ✓ ITSM depth
  • ✓ Source control depth
  • ✓ Hosting panel depth
  • ✓ Web data / proxy depth

Tie

  • • Observability depth
  • • Integrations

Choose Apify if: Teams that want ready-made or custom Actors rather than raw proxy ops

Choose Bright Data if: Data engineering teams needing reliable residential/datacenter proxy networks

See detailed comparison ↓
Stronger overall fit
Bright Data logo

Bright Data

7.7/10

Web data / proxy platform — pay-as-you-go from ~$4/GB residential; starter commitments from ~$499/mo.

Best for

  • • Data engineering teams needing reliable residential/datacenter proxy networks
  • • Enterprises with budget for committed web-data infrastructure
  • • Projects with clear compliance review and acceptable-use alignment

Starting from $499.00/user/mo

No free plan

Visit Bright Data
Read review

Quick verdict

Start here — then dig into the evidence below.

Choose Apify if…

  • Teams that want ready-made or custom Actors rather than raw proxy ops
  • Developers who need compute + storage + proxy in one platform
  • Projects that benefit from Apify Store scrapers
  • You prioritize free plan

Choose Bright Data if…

  • Data engineering teams needing reliable residential/datacenter proxy networks
  • Enterprises with budget for committed web-data infrastructure
  • Projects with clear compliance review and acceptable-use alignment
  • You prioritize itsm depth

Overall recommendation

Same-cluster web data / proxy collection peer comparison. Choose Apify when Actor-based scraping and automation is the job — not Bright Data proxy GB by default. Choose Bright Data when web data collection at scale — with proxy network reliability — is the primary job and budget supports GB/commitment pricing. Overall: Apify 7.5 vs Bright Data 7.7. Not hands-on lab tested; confirm live pricing and packaging.

Key trade-off

Apify trades toward free plan; Bright Data trades toward itsm depth.

Winner by category

Only dimensions with researched evidence for this pair.

DimensionWinnerWhy
Free planApify winsBetter for free plan
ITSM depthBright Data winsBright Data leads on ITSM depth (8/10 vs 9/10). Landscape or cluster fit from vendor documentation.
Observability depthTieApify and Bright Data are close on observability depth (8/10 vs 8/10). Landscape or cluster fit from vendor documentation.
Source control depthBright Data winsBright Data leads on source control depth (8/10 vs 9/10). Landscape or cluster fit from vendor documentation.
Hosting panel depthBright Data winsBright Data leads on hosting panel depth (8/10 vs 9/10). Landscape or cluster fit from vendor documentation.
Web data / proxy depthBright Data winsBright Data leads on web data / proxy depth (8/10 vs 9/10). Landscape or cluster fit from vendor documentation.
Security & adminBright Data winsBright Data leads on security & admin (7/10 vs 8/10). Landscape or cluster fit from vendor documentation.
IntegrationsTieApify and Bright Data are close on integrations (8/10 vs 8/10). Landscape or cluster fit from vendor documentation.

Side-by-side feature matrix

Normalized availability from product research — empty rows are not shown.

Capabilities

FeatureApifyBright Data
Incident managementLimitedLimited
Change & problem managementLimitedLimited
Service catalogLimitedLimited
Infrastructure monitoringLimitedLimited
APM & distributed tracingLimitedLimited
Log managementLimitedLimited
Source control & reposLimitedLimited
CI/CD & automationModerateModerate
Hosting control panelLimitedLimited
Proxy / web data networkStrongStrong
ITSM AI assistanceLimitedLimited
Developer AI assistanceStrongModerate
On-call & pagingLimitedNot evidenced
Enterprise security & SSOModerateStrong
Analytics & reportingStrongStrong

Pricing comparison

Pricing evidence last checked Sep 8, 2026.

Apify logo

Apify

From $29.00/user/mo

Free plan availableNo free trial evidenced
  • Free$0.00/user/mo
  • Starter$29.00/mo
  • Scale$199.00/mo
  • Business$999.00/mo
  • EnterpriseCustom
Bright Data logo

Bright Data

From $499.00/user/mo

No free planNo free trial evidenced
  • Pay-as-you-goCustom
  • Starter commitment$499.00/mo
  • EnterpriseCustom

Seat-count estimates

Labeled estimates from verified starting per-seat pricing — not invoices.

SeatsApifyBright Data
5~$145.00/mo (5 × starting seat)~$2,495.00/mo (5 × starting seat)
10~$290.00/mo (10 × starting seat)~$4,990.00/mo (10 × starting seat)
25~$725.00/mo (25 × starting seat)~$12,475.00/mo (25 × starting seat)
50~$1,450.00/mo (50 × starting seat)~$24,950.00/mo (50 × starting seat)

Estimate from verified starting per-seat pricing — actual total depends on plan, annual discounts, and add-ons.

Research 2026-08-18 from first-party pages. Affiliate economics excluded. Confirm live packaging — seats, hosts, GB, CI minutes, and add-ons change TCO.

Open cost calculator →

Best for

Scenario picks from researched strengths — not a universal ranking.

  • → Apify

    Teams that want ready-made or custom Actors rather than raw proxy ops

    Pick Apify for Teams that want ready-made or custom Actors rather than raw proxy ops.

  • → Apify

    Developers who need compute + storage + proxy in one platform

    Pick Apify for Developers who need compute + storage + proxy in one platform.

  • → Apify

    Projects that benefit from Apify Store scrapers

    Pick Apify for Projects that benefit from Apify Store scrapers.

  • → Bright Data

    Data engineering teams needing reliable residential/datacenter proxy networks

    Pick Bright Data for Data engineering teams needing reliable residential/datacenter proxy networks.

  • → Bright Data

    Enterprises with budget for committed web-data infrastructure

    Pick Bright Data for Enterprises with budget for committed web-data infrastructure.

  • → Bright Data

    Projects with clear compliance review and acceptable-use alignment

    Pick Bright Data for Projects with clear compliance review and acceptable-use alignment.

The differences that actually matter

Pair-specific analysis for Apify vs Bright Data — not generic category copy.

  • Free plan

    Apify ahead

    On free plan, Apify is ahead. Apify: Better for free plan. Bright Data: Trails Apify on this criterion. Feature evidence also diverges on Developer AI assistance (Apify: Strong; Bright Data: Moderate); Enterprise security & SSO (Apify: Moderate; Bright Data: Strong).

  • ITSM depth

    Bright Data ahead

    On itsm depth, Bright Data is ahead. Apify: Trails Bright Data on this criterion. Bright Data: Bright Data leads on ITSM depth (8/10 vs 9/10). Landscape or cluster fit from vendor documentation..

  • Source control depth

    Bright Data ahead

    On source control depth, Bright Data is ahead. Apify: Trails Bright Data on this criterion. Bright Data: Bright Data leads on source control depth (8/10 vs 9/10). Landscape or cluster fit from vendor documentation..

  • Hosting panel depth

    Bright Data ahead

    On hosting panel depth, Bright Data is ahead. Apify: Trails Bright Data on this criterion. Bright Data: Bright Data leads on hosting panel depth (8/10 vs 9/10). Landscape or cluster fit from vendor documentation..

  • Web data / proxy depth

    Bright Data ahead

    On web data / proxy depth, Bright Data is ahead. Apify: Trails Bright Data on this criterion. Bright Data: Bright Data leads on web data / proxy depth (8/10 vs 9/10). Landscape or cluster fit from vendor documentation..

  • Security & admin

    Bright Data ahead

    On security & admin, Bright Data is ahead. Apify: Trails Bright Data on this criterion. Bright Data: Bright Data leads on security & admin (7/10 vs 8/10). Landscape or cluster fit from vendor documentation..

Pros and cons

Product-specific for this pair — derived from researched outcomes and editorial notes.

Apify logo

Apify

Pros

  • Stronger on free plan

Cons

  • Trails on itsm depth
  • Trails on source control depth
  • Trails on hosting panel depth
Bright Data logo

Bright Data

Pros

  • Stronger on itsm depth
  • Stronger on source control depth
  • Stronger on hosting panel depth
  • Stronger on web data / proxy depth

Cons

  • Trails on free plan

Who should not choose each product

Decision quality improves when we say who should walk away.

Don't choose Apify if…

  • You need Bright Data's stronger itsm depth more than Apify's strengths
  • You need Bright Data's stronger source control depth more than Apify's strengths
  • You need Bright Data's stronger hosting panel depth more than Apify's strengths
  • Your primary fit looks closer to: Data engineering teams needing reliable residential/datacenter proxy networks

Don't choose Bright Data if…

  • You need Apify's stronger free plan more than Bright Data's strengths
  • Your primary fit looks closer to: Teams that want ready-made or custom Actors rather than raw proxy ops
  • Your primary fit looks closer to: Developers who need compute + storage + proxy in one platform

Alternatives worth considering

When neither product is the right fit.

  • Oxylabs logoOxylabs

    Enterprise proxy + Web Scraper API — Residential Starter 5GB $30/mo ($6/GB); Web Scraper API from $49/mo; ISO 27001.

  • ScraperAPI logoScraperAPI

    Managed scraping API — Free 1,000 credits; Hobby $49/mo ($44.10 annual); 7-day trial with 5,000 credits.

  • ThorData logoThorData

    Budget proxy + scraper tooling — Residential from $2/GB (1GB pack); Web Scraper API credit packs from ~$30.

  • Decodo (Smartproxy) logoDecodo (Smartproxy)

    Decodo (formerly Smartproxy) residential proxies — 3GB $11.25/mo ($3.75/GB); PAYG $4/GB; advertised $2/GB at 1000GB. 3-day trial. Slug remains smartproxy.

Final verdict

Scenario-level close — not a repeat of the intro.

Apify wins when…

Teams that want ready-made or custom Actors rather than raw proxy ops

Bright Data wins when…

Data engineering teams needing reliable residential/datacenter proxy networks

  • Teams that want ready-made or custom Actors rather than raw proxy opsApify
  • Developers who need compute + storage + proxy in one platformApify
  • Projects that benefit from Apify Store scrapersApify
  • Data engineering teams needing reliable residential/datacenter proxy networksBright Data

Which one should you choose?

Choose Apify if:

  • Teams that want ready-made or custom Actors rather than raw proxy ops
  • Developers who need compute + storage + proxy in one platform
  • Projects that benefit from Apify Store scrapers

Choose Bright Data if:

  • Data engineering teams needing reliable residential/datacenter proxy networks
  • Enterprises with budget for committed web-data infrastructure
  • Projects with clear compliance review and acceptable-use alignment

Product screenshots

Real product UI from our media library — no placeholders.

Apify

  • Official Open Graph / marketing visual from https://apify.com/.

Bright Data

  • Official Bright Data integrations marketing visual from brightdata.com — not a SoftwareGlimpse lab screenshot.
  • Official Bright Data Open Graph marketing visual from brightdata.com — not a SoftwareGlimpse lab screenshot.
  • Official Bright Data Web Scraping API marketing visual — not a SoftwareGlimpse lab screenshot.
  • Official Bright Data integrations marketing visual from brightdata.com — not a SoftwareGlimpse lab screenshot.

FAQ

Is Apify better than Bright Data?
Bright Data is the stronger overall fit. Same-cluster web data / proxy collection peer comparison. Choose Apify when Actor-based scraping and automation is the job — not Bright Data proxy GB by default. Choose Bright Data when web data collection at scale — with proxy network reliability — is the primary job and budget supports GB/commitment pricing. Overall: Apify 7.5 vs Bright Data 7.7. Not hands-on lab tested; confirm live pricing and packaging.
Which It Development fits which team?
Apify: Teams that want ready-made or custom Actors rather than raw proxy ops Bright Data: Data engineering teams needing reliable residential/datacenter proxy networks
Does Apify or Bright Data have a free plan?
Apify: Free plan available. Bright Data: No free plan.
How does Apify vs Bright Data pricing compare?
Apify starts from $29.00/user/mo. Bright Data starts from $499.00/user/mo. Confirm live vendor pricing before purchasing.
How did SoftwareGlimpse compare these products?
We map both products to the same category criteria, then evaluate trade-offs using verified product, pricing and feature evidence. Affiliate relationships never change outcomes.

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  • No invented scores or prices
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Affiliate disclosure: some links may be affiliate links. We may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Rankings and scores are never based on commission. Full disclosure

Methodology disclosure: scores and recommendations follow SoftwareGlimpse evaluation criteria (version 1.0.0). Affiliate relationships do not determine rankings.

How we recommend: product claims are tied to recorded research where available.

AI-assisted disclosure: drafts may be AI-assisted from approved facts and assessments. Humans approve publishable editorial judgments. AI does not invent live prices or claim hands-on testing.

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