Apify vs Diffbot: full comparison for 2026
Last updated: June 2026
Quick verdict
Apify (3.8/5) edges ahead of Diffbot (3.7/5) overall. Apify is the better choice for developers needing flexible, customisable data extraction from any web source with managed proxies and no infrastructure overhead. Diffbot is the stronger option for aI and data applications needing structured entity data, company intelligence, or clean article extraction from arbitrary web pages at scale. The right choice depends on your project size, budget, and required tech stack.
Apify vs Diffbot: head-to-head summary
| Criterion | Apify | Diffbot |
|---|---|---|
| Founded | 2015 | 2010 |
| HQ | Prague, Czech Republic | Menlo Park, CA, USA |
| Team size | 51–200 | 51–200 |
| Rating | 3.8 / 5 | 3.7 / 5 |
| Best for | Developers needing flexible, customisable data extraction from any web source with managed proxies and no infrastructure overhead | AI and data applications needing structured entity data, company intelligence, or clean article extraction from arbitrary web pages at scale |
| Pricing model | Usage-based ($5 free platform credits/month; $49/month starter); Actor runs billed per compute unit | Monthly subscription ($299–$499/month on published tiers); Enterprise custom |
| Min. engagement | $5/month (Free plan with $5 platform credits) | Not publicly disclosed |
| Primary tech stack | REST API, JavaScript/Node.js SDK, Python SDK | REST API, Python SDK, JavaScript SDK |
| Industries served | E-commerce, Marketing Analytics, Research & Academia, AI / LLM Workflows | AI / LLM Workflows, Financial Services, Research & Academia, E-commerce |
Apify vs Diffbot: overview
Apify
Apify is a cloud web scraping and automation platform that provides search API capabilities through its Actor marketplace — a library of 3,000+ pre-built web scrapers and automation scripts runnable via REST API. Actors for Google Search, Bing, DuckDuckGo, Amazon, and hundreds of other sources are available as ready-to-use endpoints. Unlike SERP API SaaS products, each Actor runs in an isolated container with managed proxies and configurable output schemas. Apify was founded in 2015 by Jan Curn and Jakub Kopecký and is headquartered in Prague, Czech Republic. It serves 50,000+ developers and 1,000+ enterprise clients (per company website; independently unverifiable).
Diffbot
Diffbot combines automatic web page extraction (Article API, Product API, Discussion API) with a continuously-updated knowledge graph of 10 billion+ entities including companies, people, products, and events. Its Knowledge Graph Search API queries this structured dataset using natural language rather than keywords, enabling precise entity-level retrieval beyond what SERP APIs provide. Diffbot was founded in 2010 by Mike Tung at Stanford University and is headquartered in Menlo Park, California. It uses computer vision and machine learning to extract structured data from any web page without custom selectors. Clients include Snapchat, DuckDuckGo, Cisco, and Goldman Sachs (per company website; independently unverifiable).
Services and capabilities: Apify vs Diffbot
| Capability | Apify | Diffbot |
|---|---|---|
| Real-time web search | ✗ | ✓ |
| News & event intelligence | ✗ | ✗ |
| Structured JSON output | ✓ | ✓ |
| AI / LLM pipeline integration | ✗ | ✓ |
| Scheduled monitoring | ✗ | ✗ |
| Multi-language coverage | ✗ | ✓ |
Tech stack comparison: Apify vs Diffbot
| Framework / platform | Apify | Diffbot |
|---|---|---|
| REST API | ✓ | ✓ |
| Python SDK | ✓ | ✓ |
| JSON output | N/A | N/A |
| LLM validation | N/A | N/A |
| Webhook delivery | N/A | N/A |
Pricing comparison: Apify vs Diffbot
| Criterion | Apify | Diffbot |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum engagement | $5/month (Free plan with $5 platform credits) | Not publicly disclosed |
| Engagement models | Free tier, Monthly subscription, Enterprise contract | Monthly subscription, Enterprise contract |
| Rate transparency | Minimum disclosed | Minimum disclosed |
| Price tier | Accessible | Mid-market |
Target audience comparison: Apify vs Diffbot
| Dimension | Apify | Diffbot |
|---|---|---|
| Best company size | Startup to mid-market | Startup to mid-market |
| Best industries | E-commerce, Marketing Analytics, Research & Academia | AI / LLM Workflows, Financial Services, Research & Academia |
| Best use cases | Competitive intelligence scraping across dozens of sources using community Actors rather than building custom scrapers, E-commerce price monitoring across multiple retailers with normalised JSON output schemas | Company intelligence enrichment — automatically extract firmographic data, funding, and leadership from company web pages, News monitoring where clean structured extraction (title, author, body, date) matters more than raw URL ranking |
| Typical project type | Free tier | Monthly subscription |
Apify vs Diffbot: pros and cons
| Apify | |
|---|---|
| + | 3,000+ pre-built Actors for Google, Bing, Amazon, LinkedIn, and niche sources — no custom scraper code required |
| + | Each Actor runs in an isolated container with managed proxies — eliminates scraping infrastructure and proxy rotation |
| + | Highly customisable: modify Actor source code, define output schemas, chain Actors for multi-step extraction pipelines |
| + | Scheduling and webhooks enable event-driven and recurring data collection without custom orchestration |
| + | $5 monthly free credit covers meaningful testing across multiple Actors before committing to paid usage |
| - | Billing complexity — compute units, Actor costs, and proxy usage billed separately, harder to estimate than per-query SERP pricing |
| - | Google Search Actors are community-maintained — quality and freshness vary; some break when Google updates its HTML structure |
| - | Actor cold-start latency makes Apify unsuitable for real-time or sub-second search response requirements |
| - | No SOC2, SLA, or enterprise compliance certifications documented for the core platform |
| Diffbot | |
|---|---|
| + | 10B+ entity knowledge graph continuously updated from the web — returns structured entity facts, not raw HTML or URL lists |
| + | Article API auto-extracts clean body text, author, publish date, and images from any news URL without custom selectors |
| + | Natural language knowledge graph search enables entity queries not achievable with keyword-based SERP APIs |
| + | Computer vision extraction adapts to layout changes automatically — no maintenance when target sites redesign |
| + | Clients include DuckDuckGo and Goldman Sachs (per company website; independently unverifiable) |
| - | $299/month minimum subscription is high for low-query-volume use cases — no pay-as-you-go tier documented |
| - | Knowledge graph depth varies: company and person data is comprehensive; niche topics and non-English entities may be sparse |
| - | Not a real-time SERP API — knowledge graph reflects Diffbot's crawler cadence; breaking news may lag by hours |
| - | GraphQL interface for knowledge graph queries has a steeper learning curve than standard REST/JSON SERP APIs |
Who should choose Apify?
Apify is the right choice for developers needing flexible, customisable data extraction from any web source with managed proxies and no infrastructure overhead.
3,000+ pre-built Actors (scrapers) for any website, each runnable as an API endpoint — more flexible than fixed-schema SERP APIs, at the cost of actor-level quality variance. Minimum engagement starts at $5/month (Free plan with $5 platform credits). Works best with clients in E-commerce, Marketing Analytics, Research & Academia, AI / LLM Workflows.
Who should choose Diffbot?
Diffbot is the right choice for aI and data applications needing structured entity data, company intelligence, or clean article extraction from arbitrary web pages at scale.
10B+ entity knowledge graph searchable by natural language — returns structured facts about companies, people, and products, not raw SERP result lists. Minimum engagement starts at Not publicly disclosed. Works best with clients in AI / LLM Workflows, Financial Services, Research & Academia, E-commerce.
Decision matrix: Apify vs Diffbot
| Your situation | Recommended choice |
|---|---|
| You need maximum recall across trade press and regional sources | Diffbot |
| You need sub-second real-time results | Apify |
| Your budget is at the lower end | Compare: Apify ($5/month (Free plan with $5 platform credits)) vs Diffbot (Not publicly disclosed) |
| You need structured data for downstream LLM processing | Apify |
| You need scheduled monitoring with deduplication | Neither; check alternatives for monitoring features |
| You need enterprise compliance (SOC2, GDPR, ISO) | Verify compliance certifications directly |
Use case fit: Apify vs Diffbot
| Use case | Apify fit | Diffbot fit | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|
| Competitive intelligence scraping across dozens of sources using community Actors rather than building custom scrapers | Strong | Limited | Apify |
| E-commerce price monitoring across multiple retailers with normalised JSON output schemas | Strong | Limited | Apify |
| Company intelligence enrichment — automatically extract firmographic data, funding, and leadership from company web pages | Limited | Strong | Diffbot |
| News monitoring where clean structured extraction (title, author, body, date) matters more than raw URL ranking | Limited | Strong | Diffbot |
| Financial risk monitoring | Limited | Strong | Diffbot |
| LLM knowledge base population | Limited | Strong | Diffbot |
Verdict: Apify vs Diffbot
Apify (3.8/5) is the stronger overall choice for most Web Search API projects. 3,000+ pre-built Actors (scrapers) for any website, each runnable as an API endpoint — more flexible than fixed-schema SERP APIs, at the cost of actor-level quality variance. It is best for developers needing flexible, customisable data extraction from any web source with managed proxies and no infrastructure overhead.
Diffbot (3.7/5) is the better choice when aI and data applications needing structured entity data, company intelligence, or clean article extraction from arbitrary web pages at scale. If your situation matches those criteria, Diffbot is a competitive option.
Related comparisons
Apify vs Diffbot FAQ
Is Apify better than Diffbot?
Apify (3.8/5) scores higher overall, but "better" depends on your use case. Apify is better for developers needing flexible, customisable data extraction from any web source with managed proxies and no infrastructure overhead. Diffbot is better for aI and data applications needing structured entity data, company intelligence, or clean article extraction from arbitrary web pages at scale.
How do Apify and Diffbot differ in pricing?
Apify uses usage-based ($5 free platform credits/month; $49/month starter); actor runs billed per compute unit pricing with a minimum engagement of $5/month (Free plan with $5 platform credits). Diffbot uses monthly subscription ($299–$499/month on published tiers); enterprise custom pricing with a minimum engagement of Not publicly disclosed. Neither firm publishes a full rate card; a discovery call is required for project-specific quotes.
Which is better for enterprise: Apify or Diffbot?
Apify is the larger team and typically the better enterprise-scale choice. For very large programmes, verify team size and compliance coverage directly with each provider before shortlisting.
What are the main differences between Apify and Diffbot?
Apify's primary differentiator is: 3,000+ pre-built actors (scrapers) for any website, each runnable as an api endpoint — more flexible than fixed-schema serp apis, at the cost of actor-level quality variance. Diffbot's primary differentiator is: 10b+ entity knowledge graph searchable by natural language — returns structured facts about companies, people, and products, not raw serp result lists. They also differ in team size (51–200 vs 51–200), minimum engagement ($5/month (Free plan with $5 platform credits) vs Not publicly disclosed), and primary industries served (E-commerce, Marketing Analytics vs AI / LLM Workflows, Financial Services).
Last reviewed: June 2026. Verify all details directly with each provider before making a decision.