Apify vs Webz.io: full comparison for 2026
Last updated: June 2026
Quick verdict
Apify (3.8/5) edges ahead of Webz.io (3.6/5) overall. Apify is the better choice for developers needing flexible, customisable data extraction from any web source with managed proxies and no infrastructure overhead. Webz.io is the stronger option for security, intelligence, and brand monitoring teams needing real-time access to news, forums, and dark web sources with entity-level filtering. The right choice depends on your project size, budget, and required tech stack.
Apify vs Webz.io: head-to-head summary
| Criterion | Apify | Webz.io |
|---|---|---|
| Founded | 2015 | 2015 |
| HQ | Prague, Czech Republic | Tel Aviv, Israel |
| Team size | 51–200 | 51–200 |
| Rating | 3.8 / 5 | 3.6 / 5 |
| Best for | Developers needing flexible, customisable data extraction from any web source with managed proxies and no infrastructure overhead | Security, intelligence, and brand monitoring teams needing real-time access to news, forums, and dark web sources with entity-level filtering |
| Pricing model | Usage-based ($5 free platform credits/month; $49/month starter); Actor runs billed per compute unit | Subscription-based; pricing not publicly disclosed — requires contact |
| 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, Java SDK |
| Industries served | E-commerce, Marketing Analytics, Research & Academia, AI / LLM Workflows | Government, Financial Services, Media Monitoring, Research & Academia |
Apify vs Webz.io: 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).
Webz.io
Webz.io (formerly Webhose.io) provides a web data API aggregating content from 500M+ news, blog, forum, and dark web sources in real time. Unlike SERP APIs that return search engine results, Webz.io indexes the raw web at source level, enabling filtering by publication date, sentiment, language, country, site type, and entity mentions. The News API covers 240+ languages and 50+ topics. The Cyber API provides access to paste sites, hacker forums, and dark web marketplaces for threat intelligence use cases. Webz.io was founded in 2015 and is headquartered in Tel Aviv, Israel. It serves government agencies, financial institutions, and Fortune 500 brands (per company website; independently unverifiable).
Services and capabilities: Apify vs Webz.io
| Capability | Apify | Webz.io |
|---|---|---|
| Real-time web search | ✗ | ✗ |
| News & event intelligence | ✗ | ✓ |
| Structured JSON output | ✓ | ✓ |
| AI / LLM pipeline integration | ✗ | ✗ |
| Scheduled monitoring | ✗ | ✓ |
| Multi-language coverage | ✗ | ✓ |
Tech stack comparison: Apify vs Webz.io
| Framework / platform | Apify | Webz.io |
|---|---|---|
| REST API | ✓ | ✓ |
| Python SDK | ✓ | ✓ |
| JSON output | N/A | ✓ |
| LLM validation | N/A | N/A |
| Webhook delivery | N/A | N/A |
Pricing comparison: Apify vs Webz.io
| Criterion | Apify | Webz.io |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum engagement | $5/month (Free plan with $5 platform credits) | Not publicly disclosed |
| Engagement models | Free tier, Monthly subscription, Enterprise contract | API subscription, Enterprise contract |
| Rate transparency | Minimum disclosed | Minimum disclosed |
| Price tier | Accessible | Mid-market |
Target audience comparison: Apify vs Webz.io
| Dimension | Apify | Webz.io |
|---|---|---|
| Best company size | Startup to mid-market | Startup to mid-market |
| Best industries | E-commerce, Marketing Analytics, Research & Academia | Government, Financial Services, Media Monitoring |
| 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 | Cyber threat intelligence monitoring across dark web forums and paste sites for exposed credentials or attack planning, Brand reputation monitoring tracking mentions across 500M+ news and community sources in real time |
| Typical project type | Free tier | API subscription |
Apify vs Webz.io: 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 |
| Webz.io | |
|---|---|
| + | Dark web and paste site coverage via Cyber API — unique in this category for threat intelligence and OSINT workflows |
| + | 500M+ indexed web sources at publication time — covers regional and niche sources not in mainstream search engine indexes |
| + | 240+ language filtering enables global monitoring across non-English sources that SERP APIs do not cover |
| + | Entity-level pre-filtering reduces downstream NLP processing needed to extract structured signals from raw text |
| + | Government and intelligence agency clients — proven in high-security and regulated environments (per company website; independently unverifiable) |
| - | Pricing not publicly disclosed — requires enterprise sales contact before technical evaluation |
| - | Not a SERP API — does not return search engine result pages; unsuitable for SEO rank tracking or Google result retrieval |
| - | Dark web data may trigger additional procurement and legal review before production use in some organisations |
| - | Smaller developer community and fewer third-party integrations than SERP API providers like SerpAPI or Exa |
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 Webz.io?
Webz.io is the right choice for security, intelligence, and brand monitoring teams needing real-time access to news, forums, and dark web sources with entity-level filtering.
Only provider in this category with both surface web news intelligence and dark web/paste site monitoring via the Cyber API — a single platform for OSINT and brand risk. Minimum engagement starts at Not publicly disclosed. Works best with clients in Government, Financial Services, Media Monitoring, Research & Academia.
Decision matrix: Apify vs Webz.io
| Your situation | Recommended choice |
|---|---|
| You need maximum recall across trade press and regional sources | Compare coverage benchmarks directly |
| 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 Webz.io (Not publicly disclosed) |
| You need structured data for downstream LLM processing | Apify |
| You need scheduled monitoring with deduplication | Webz.io |
| You need enterprise compliance (SOC2, GDPR, ISO) | Verify compliance certifications directly |
Use case fit: Apify vs Webz.io
| Use case | Apify fit | Webz.io 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 |
| Cyber threat intelligence monitoring across dark web forums and paste sites for exposed credentials or attack planning | Limited | Strong | Webz.io |
| Brand reputation monitoring tracking mentions across 500M+ news and community sources in real time | Limited | Strong | Webz.io |
| Financial risk monitoring | Limited | Strong | Webz.io |
| LLM knowledge base population | Limited | Limited | Both equally |
Verdict: Apify vs Webz.io
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.
Webz.io (3.6/5) is the better choice when security, intelligence, and brand monitoring teams needing real-time access to news, forums, and dark web sources with entity-level filtering. If your situation matches those criteria, Webz.io is a competitive option.
Related comparisons
Apify vs Webz.io FAQ
Is Apify better than Webz.io?
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. Webz.io is better for security, intelligence, and brand monitoring teams needing real-time access to news, forums, and dark web sources with entity-level filtering.
How do Apify and Webz.io 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). Webz.io uses subscription-based; pricing not publicly disclosed — requires contact 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 Webz.io?
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 Webz.io?
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. Webz.io's primary differentiator is: only provider in this category with both surface web news intelligence and dark web/paste site monitoring via the cyber api — a single platform for osint and brand risk. 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 Government, Financial Services).
Last reviewed: June 2026. Verify all details directly with each provider before making a decision.