Firecrawl vs Apify

The same comparison from the API:

curl -X POST https://scrapeselect.com/api/v1/compare \
  -H 'content-type: application/json' \
  -d '{"products":["firecrawl/api","apify/platform"],"workload":{"successful_pages_per_month":500000,"javascript_ratio":0.2,"anti_bot_level":"medium","target_country":"US","country_required":true,"peak_concurrency":40,"monthly_billing_only":true,"expected_success_rate":null,"average_page_size_kb":null,"average_browser_seconds":null}}'

{
  "products": [
    {
      "estimate": {
        "provider": "firecrawl",
        "provider_name": "Firecrawl",
        "product": "api",
        "product_name": "Firecrawl API",
        "category": "scraping_api",
        "billing_model": "credit",
        "architecture": "managed_api",
        "feasible": true,
        "low": {
          "plan_key": "growth",
          "plan_name": "Growth",
          "monthly_cost_usd": 399,
          "cost_per_1k_pages_usd": 0.798
        },
        "expected": {
          "plan_key": "growth",
          "plan_name": "Growth",
          "monthly_cost_usd": 399,
          "cost_per_1k_pages_usd": 0.798
        },
        "high": {
          "plan_key": "growth",
          "plan_name": "Growth",
          "monthly_cost_usd": 399,
          "cost_per_1k_pages_usd": 0.798
        },
        "rejected_plans": {
          "free": "concurrency 2 < 40",
          "hobby": "concurrency 5 < 40",
          "standard": "concurrency 25 < 40",
          "enterprise": "price not public"
        },
        "sources": [
          {
            "key": "billing",
            "url": "https://docs.firecrawl.dev/billing",
            "title": "Firecrawl billing",
            "observed_at": "2026-11-14T06:10:04.383306Z",
            "excerpts": [
              "Credits are the unit of usage in Firecrawl.",
              "Scrape 1 credit / page Convert a single URL into clean markdown, HTML, or structured data.",
              "Search 2 credits / 10 results",
              "Map 1 credit / call",
              "Interact 2–7 credits / browser minute",
              "JSON format (LLM extraction) +4 credits / page",
              "Firecrawl returned a document: 1 credit per page",
              "Firecrawl returned no document: 0 credits.",
              "Unused plan credits do not roll over by default: your monthly allotment resets each month.",
              "Annual Scale plans roll unused plan credits over 1 month, and annual Enterprise plans roll them over 2 months.",
              "Credits you buy stay on your account until you use them.",
              "You buy credits in increments of 5 USD.",
              "Hobby 5,000 5 Standard 100,000 25 Growth 500,000 50 Scale 1,000,000 100",
              "Hobby 1,000 Standard 2,000 Growth 2,500 Scale 5,000",
              "Enhanced proxy (proxy: \"enhanced\" or auto escalation) +0"
            ],
            "fact_type": "official_claim",
            "freshness": "fresh"
          },
          {
            "key": "pricing",
            "url": "https://www.firecrawl.dev/pricing",
            "title": "Firecrawl pricing",
            "observed_at": "2026-11-14T06:10:04.383306Z",
            "excerpts": [
              "Hobby: $19/month billed monthly ($16/month billed annually), 5,000 credits/month",
              "Standard: $99/month billed monthly ($83/month billed annually), 100,000 credits/month",
              "Growth: $399/month billed monthly ($333/month billed annually), 500,000 credits/month",
              "Scale: $749/month billed monthly ($599/month billed annually), 1,000,000 credits/month",
              "Free tier 1,000 credits every month, refreshed monthly, no credit card required.",
              "Enterprise: custom pricing, credits and concurrency.",
              "A scrape that returns no result is not charged. A page that responds with an error status such as 403 or 404 is still returned to you and costs 1 credit.",
              "2 concurrent requests",
              "5 concurrent requests",
              "25 concurrent requests",
              "50 concurrent requests",
              "100 concurrent requests",
              "1,000 extra credits per $5",
              "2,000 extra credits per $5",
              "2,500 extra credits per $5",
              "5,000 extra credits per $5",
              "Effective September 4, 2026"
            ],
            "fact_type": "official_claim",
            "freshness": "fresh"
          }
        ]
      },
      "features": [
        {
          "key": "javascript-rendering",
          "label": "JavaScript rendering",
          "value": true,
          "notes": null,
          "source": "scrape-docs"
        },
        {
          "key": "country-targeting",
          "label": "Country targeting",
          "value": true,
          "notes": "Uses the scope location object: ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country plus preferred languages; US by default.",
          "source": "scrape-docs"
        },
        {
          "key": "premium-proxy",
          "label": "Premium proxy",
          "value": true,
          "notes": "Enhanced proxy costs the same 1 credit.",
          "source": "billing"
        },
        {
          "key": "screenshot",
          "label": "Screenshot",
          "value": true,
          "notes": null,
          "source": "scrape-docs"
        },
        {
          "key": "cookie-persistence",
          "label": "Cookie persistence",
          "value": true,
          "notes": "Persistent browser profiles save cookies, localStorage and sessions across scrapes.",
          "source": "interact-docs"
        },
        {
          "key": "json-output",
          "label": "Json output",
          "value": true,
          "notes": "+4 credits per page.",
          "source": "billing"
        }
      ],
      "limits": [
        {
          "key": "max-queued-jobs",
          "value": 50000,
          "unit": "jobs",
          "plan": "free",
          "notes": null,
          "source": "rate-limits"
        },
        {
          "key": "max-queued-jobs",
          "value": 50000,
          "unit": "jobs",
          "plan": "hobby",
          "notes": null,
          "source": "rate-limits"
        },
        {
          "key": "max-queued-jobs",
          "value": 50000,
          "unit": "jobs",
          "plan": "standard",
          "notes": null,
          "source": "rate-limits"
        },
        {
          "key": "max-queued-jobs",
          "value": 100000,
          "unit": "jobs",
          "plan": "growth",
          "notes": null,
          "source": "rate-limits"
        },
        {
          "key": "max-queued-jobs",
          "value": 200000,
          "unit": "jobs",
          "plan": "scale",
          "notes": "200,000+; the page groups Scale and Enterprise in one row.",
          "source": "rate-limits"
        },
        {
          "key": "max-queued-jobs",
          "value": 200000,
          "unit": "jobs",
          "plan": "enterprise",
          "notes": "200,000+; the page groups Scale and Enterprise in one row.",
          "source": "rate-limits"
        },
        {
          "key": "requests-per-minute",
          "value": 10,
          "unit": "requests",
          "plan": "free",
          "notes": "On /scrape, /map and /search; /crawl and /agent allow 2/min.",
          "source": "rate-limits"
        },
        {
          "key": "requests-per-minute",
          "value": 100,
          "unit": "requests",
          "plan": "hobby",
          "notes": "On /scrape, /map and /search; /crawl and /agent allow 20/min.",
          "source": "rate-limits"
        },
        {
          "key": "requests-per-minute",
          "value": 500,
          "unit": "requests",
          "plan": "standard",
          "notes": "On /scrape, /map and /search; /crawl and /agent allow 100/min.",
          "source": "rate-limits"
        },
        {
          "key": "requests-per-minute",
          "value": 5000,
          "unit": "requests",
          "plan": "growth",
          "notes": "On /scrape, /map and /search; /crawl and /agent allow 1000/min.",
          "source": "rate-limits"
        },
        {
          "key": "requests-per-minute",
          "value": 10000,
          "unit": "requests",
          "plan": "scale",
          "notes": "On /scrape, /map and /search; /crawl and /agent allow 2000/min.",
          "source": "rate-limits"
        }
      ],
      "notes": [
        "One credit per scraped page. JSON extraction adds 4 credits/page; PDF parsing adds 1 per PDF page; Zero Data Retention adds 1; question, query, highlights, audio and video formats add 4 each; PII redaction adds 4; the prompt-injection check adds 4 (or 5 when the scrape fails after the check).",
        "Enhanced proxy is free (+0 credits); basic and enhanced requests both cost 1 credit.",
        "Search costs 2 credits per 10 results (rounded up) plus scrape costs for results that are scraped. Map costs 1 credit per call. Interact costs 2-7 credits per browser minute with a one-minute minimum. Agent has 5 free runs per day, then dynamic pricing.",
        "A scrape that returns no document costs 0 credits. A 403 or 404 returned as a document costs 1 credit. Threat protection adds 2 credits per scanned URL.",
        "Plan credits reset monthly and do not roll over, except annual Scale (1 month) and annual Enterprise (2 months). Purchased credits stay until used and expire if the subscription is cancelled.",
        "Pay-as-you-go needs a paid plan. Credits are bought in $5 increments and a user-set monthly cap applies; the temporary overage buffer is headroom, not kept credits.",
        "X/Twitter URLs use the Grok API and cost 30 credits for a typical request (34 with JSON). LinkedIn URLs are served by third-party providers at their credit cost.",
        "Location sets an appropriate proxy if one is available and emulates the country's language and timezone; it is not a guarantee that every country has an exit IP."
      ],
      "url": "/products/firecrawl/api"
    },
    {
      "estimate": {
        "provider": "apify",
        "provider_name": "Apify",
        "product": "platform",
        "product_name": "Apify Platform",
        "category": "scraping_platform",
        "billing_model": "compute_unit",
        "architecture": "self_managed",
        "feasible": true,
        "low": {
          "plan_key": "scale",
          "plan_name": "Scale",
          "monthly_cost_usd": 522.89,
          "cost_per_1k_pages_usd": 1.0458
        },
        "expected": {
          "plan_key": "scale",
          "plan_name": "Scale",
          "monthly_cost_usd": 738.92,
          "cost_per_1k_pages_usd": 1.4778
        },
        "high": {
          "plan_key": "business",
          "plan_name": "Business",
          "monthly_cost_usd": 999,
          "cost_per_1k_pages_usd": 1.998
        },
        "rejected_plans": {
          "enterprise": "price not public",
          "free": "needs 812 more usd than the plan allows"
        },
        "sources": [
          {
            "key": "pricing",
            "url": "https://apify.com/pricing",
            "title": "Apify pricing",
            "observed_at": "2026-11-14T06:10:04.383306Z",
            "excerpts": [
              "Starter $19 / month + pay as you go $19 to spend in Apify Store or on your own Actors $0.2 per compute unit",
              "Compute units (CU) 1 GB of RAM/hour $0.2 / CU $0.2 / CU $0.16 / CU $0.13 / CU Custom Actor RAM 16 GB 64 GB 256 GB 512 GB Custom Max concurrent runs 5 32 128 256 Custom",
              "Residential proxies $8 / GB $8 / GB $7.5 / GB $7 / GB Custom",
              "Unblocker $1.5 / 1,000 requests $1.5 / 1,000 requests $1.25 / 1,000 requests $1 / 1,000 requests",
              "Bill monthly -10% Bill annually",
              "If you're a paying user, you can continue using the platform and will be charged for overage until you reach the usage limit configured in the billing. If you're on the free plan, you'll be blocked until the next billing cycle.",
              "If you don't consume all your prepaid usage, it disappears at the end of the billing cycle."
            ],
            "fact_type": "official_claim",
            "freshness": "fresh"
          },
          {
            "key": "usage-docs",
            "url": "https://docs.apify.com/platform/actors/running/usage-and-resources",
            "title": "Usage and resources",
            "observed_at": "2026-11-14T06:10:04.383306Z",
            "excerpts": [
              "running an Actor with 1024MB of allocated memory for 1 hour will consume 1 CU",
              "The minimum granularity is a second."
            ],
            "fact_type": "official_claim",
            "freshness": "fresh"
          }
        ]
      },
      "features": [
        {
          "key": "javascript-rendering",
          "label": "JavaScript rendering",
          "value": true,
          "notes": "Via browser-based Actors.",
          "source": "usage-docs"
        },
        {
          "key": "residential-proxy",
          "label": "Residential proxy",
          "value": true,
          "notes": null,
          "source": "residential-docs"
        },
        {
          "key": "country-targeting",
          "label": "Country targeting",
          "value": true,
          "notes": null,
          "source": "residential-docs"
        },
        {
          "key": "sticky-session",
          "label": "Sticky session",
          "value": true,
          "notes": null,
          "source": "residential-docs"
        },
        {
          "key": "self-managed-code",
          "label": "Self managed code",
          "value": true,
          "notes": "You build or pick an Actor; anti-bot handling is your responsibility.",
          "source": "pricing"
        }
      ],
      "limits": [
        {
          "key": "max-concurrent-runs",
          "value": 5,
          "unit": null,
          "plan": "free",
          "notes": "Concurrent Actor runs; one run can crawl many pages in parallel.",
          "source": "pricing"
        },
        {
          "key": "max-concurrent-runs",
          "value": 32,
          "unit": null,
          "plan": "starter",
          "notes": null,
          "source": "pricing"
        },
        {
          "key": "max-concurrent-runs",
          "value": 128,
          "unit": null,
          "plan": "scale",
          "notes": null,
          "source": "pricing"
        },
        {
          "key": "max-concurrent-runs",
          "value": 256,
          "unit": null,
          "plan": "business",
          "notes": null,
          "source": "pricing"
        }
      ],
      "notes": [
        "The subscription price is prepaid platform usage; compute, proxy and storage are drawn from it and extra usage is billed as overage on paid plans.",
        "Compute is billed by RAM-time whether or not a page succeeds, so failed attempts cost money.",
        "Pages per compute unit are not published as a price. Apify's own Website Content Crawler README reports roughly 0.8 CU per 1,000 pages over raw HTTP and 2-20 CU per 1,000 pages with a headless browser; the cost engine uses these as labelled assumptions.",
        "Annual billing is 10% off; exact annual prices were not verifiable in the static page.",
        "Store Actors can instead be priced per event/result by their developers; not modelled here.",
        "Free-plan concurrency conflicts between the pricing page (5) and the limits doc (25)."
      ],
      "url": "/products/apify/platform"
    }
  ],
  "assumptions": [
    {
      "key": "success_rate",
      "label": "Success rate",
      "value": "97% / 93% / 88%",
      "origin": "default",
      "note": "Low / expected / high scenario for medium anti-bot targets. Only changes cost where failed attempts are billed."
    },
    {
      "key": "protected_share",
      "label": "Pages needing premium proxies",
      "value": "20% / 30% / 45%",
      "origin": "editorial",
      "note": "Share of pages behind anti-bot protection for medium targets."
    },
    {
      "key": "difficulty_tier",
      "label": "Website difficulty tier",
      "value": "2 / 3 / 4",
      "origin": "editorial",
      "note": "Only used by providers that price by site tier (e.g. Zyte); their own estimator gives the real tier."
    },
    {
      "key": "page_size_kb",
      "label": "Average page size",
      "value": "300 KB",
      "origin": "default",
      "note": "Drives cost for traffic-billed products and proxy traffic."
    },
    {
      "key": "browser_traffic_multiplier",
      "label": "Browser page traffic",
      "value": "4x the HTML size",
      "origin": "editorial",
      "note": "Rendered pages also load scripts, styles and images."
    },
    {
      "key": "browser_seconds",
      "label": "Browser time per rendered page",
      "value": "10 s",
      "origin": "default",
      "note": null
    },
    {
      "key": "compute_units",
      "label": "Compute per 1,000 pages",
      "value": "0.8 CU (HTTP), 6 CU (browser)",
      "origin": "public_observation",
      "note": "From Apify's Website Content Crawler README (0.8 CU HTTP, 2-20 CU browser)."
    },
    {
      "key": "geotargeting",
      "label": "Country targeting",
      "value": "US (required)",
      "origin": "user",
      "note": "Some providers only allow country targeting with premium proxies."
    }
  ],
  "engine_version": "0.1.0",
  "meta": {
    "data_checked_at": "2026-11-14T06:10:04.383306Z",
    "freshness": "fresh",
    "schema_version": "1.0"
  }
}