Compared on Nov 4, 2026.

Apify alternatives: the data you describe, with no Actor to choose

SpecStream is the best alternative to Apify for teams that want extracted data without building or fixing scrapers. On Apify you pick an Actor from more than 108,000 in its Store, fill in that Actor's input, pay the price its author set, and get a dataset with the fields that author chose. SpecStream is the live web data engine for teams and agents: you describe the data in plain words, and one request covers every site that has the facts, joined into one record per match. You see the most a run can cost before it starts, and you pay from one published rate card for each row delivered.

Describe your data

New accounts get $10 of work for their first 30 days, no card.

SpecStream and Apify side by side

	SpecStream	Apify
What you send	The data you want in plain words, with the conditions every row must meet	An Actor from the Store, filled in with that Actor's input
What you get back	Structured rows, one record per company, place or filing, with facts from many sites joined. Source URL and read time on every value	A dataset with the fields the Actor's author set. An unnamed dataset is kept for 7 days
Data already held	Public databases read every morning at specstream.ai/data: every company that filed a Form D since 2023 with its filing history, nearly 2 million US nonprofits, every US bank failure since 1934, federal rules, open federal contracts and grants, and local businesses. Signals such as funding rounds, new executives and layoffs at specstream.ai/signals. Ask for your own cut of any of them	A Store of more than 108,000 Actors that fetch data when you run them. Datasets hold the output of your own runs, unnamed ones for 7 days
A list you already have	Import a CSV, Excel file, Google Sheet or Airtable base of up to 20,000 rows. SpecStream fills in or checks each row and matches it to one identity, with any namesakes shown alongside their evidence. Import is free. A row that matches pays its rate, and a row that does not costs 5¢	Lead enrichment Actors in the Store (more than 10,000 results for that search), each with its own input, fields and price
The unit you pay for	A delivered row: 5¢, 15¢ or $1 by how much the row needs, plus 5¢ for an email and 15¢ for a phone. The same rate on every plan	Set by each Actor's author: per result or event (Instagram Scraper, $2.30 per 1,000 results) or compute units at $0.13 to $0.20. Plans from $0 to $999 a month
What failed or empty work costs	Nothing. A row left out, a retry and a run that finds nothing are not charged	Set per Actor. RAG Web Browser charges for fetched pages that hold no text
The cost cap before a run	The most the run can cost, quoted before it starts. Nothing runs until you approve it, and there are no automatic overages	A maximum charge limit you set yourself when you start a run
Reruns and change labels	Hourly to yearly. Each row comes back labeled changed, unchanged or no longer matching. A changed or new row costs half its rate, an unchanged row 1¢	Schedules for Actors and tasks. Change labels: not stated
MCP and API	MCP server, REST API, Python and TypeScript SDKs, a CLI and A2A. An agent can buy one request with no account, by card or in USDC	Hosted and local MCP servers, API and CLI
Where the data goes	Google Sheets, Excel, Airtable, Notion, monday.com, HubSpot, Salesforce, Pipedrive, Attio, Slack, Teams, Zapier, Make, n8n and signed webhooks	Exports as JSON, CSV, Excel and other formats. Zapier, Make, n8n, Airtable, Google Drive and HubSpot

Why Apify buyers move to SpecStream

One request in place of an Actor per site

Each Actor returns the fields its author picked. On SpecStream you name the records and the facts you want: "Shopify stores in the UK that sell vegan skincare, with the founder and an email", or "clinical trials recruiting in France for type 2 diabetes, with the sponsor and the site". SpecStream reads the request back as parts you can edit, the conditions every row must meet and the facts to bring back, then finds the matches on the live web and joins the facts from every site into one record. There is no Actor to choose, no input to learn and nothing for you to fix when a site changes.

One price list, the same on every plan

Across the Apify Store, each Actor carries the price its author set. SpecStream has one rate card: 5¢ for a row with up to 5 facts, 15¢ for up to 15 facts and one set of related records, $1 for a deep row with no limit, plus 5¢ for an email and 15¢ for a phone. The rate is the same on Free, Pro, Scale and Team, and a top-up never expires.

The price is quoted before the run

On Apify you set a maximum charge limit yourself when you start a run. On SpecStream every request gets a quote of the most it can cost, good for 30 minutes, and nothing runs until you approve it. The charge never goes past that amount, and whatever the run does not use goes back to your balance.

Pages without the data cost nothing

You pay for the rows that meet your request, and nothing else. A page that holds none of the facts, a company left out, a retry and a run that finds nothing are not charged. Rows you already own are never charged again.

Reruns label every row and land in your tools

Save the request and it reruns hourly to yearly. Each row comes back labeled changed, unchanged or no longer matching. A changed or new row costs half its rate (3¢, 8¢ or 50¢) and an unchanged row costs 1¢. New matches land in Slack, Teams, Sheets, HubSpot, Salesforce, Pipedrive or Attio with no code, or in your agent through the MCP server.

Other Apify alternatives

Firecrawl

Search, Scrape, Crawl and Agent endpoints billed in credits: 1 a page, 4 more for JSON and 2 per 10 search results, on paid plans from $19 a month for 5,000 credits to $749 a month for 1,000,000. A 403 or 404 page costs 1 credit. On SpecStream the pages read to find a row are not billed.

Bright Data

Proxy networks, a Web Unlocker, SERP and Web Scraper APIs and a datasets marketplace. The Web Scraper API costs $1.50 per 1,000 records pay as you go, or $499 a month with 384,000 records included, and a record is one extracted item, such as one LinkedIn profile. Datasets have a $250 minimum order. A SpecStream row joins the facts from many sites into one record that meets every condition you wrote.

Exa

A search API. Search costs $4 (lite) or $7 (auto) per 1,000 requests, and Exa Agent costs $0.012 to $1.00 a request at a fixed effort level. Its pricing page does not say what a failed or empty Agent run costs. SpecStream quotes the whole job before it runs and bills only the rows delivered.

How to switch from Apify

Write the data you want in plain words, in place of the Actor and the input you fill in today. Sign up and you get $10 of work for your first 30 days, no card. At 5¢ a row, that is up to 200 rows.

Or send the request from code. This call spends nothing: the 402 reply shows how SpecStream read the request, the columns and the most it can cost.

curl -i https://api.specstream.ai/v1/agent/lists \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"request": "Shopify stores in the UK that sell vegan skincare, with the founder and an email", "count": 25}'

Approve that maximum by card through Stripe's Link agent wallet, or in USDC, and you pay only for the rows found. On an account, your agent uses the MCP server at https://api.specstream.ai/mcp and your team uses the workspace, from the same balance.

Describe your data

Frequently asked questions

Something we didn't answer? Talk to a human

What is the best Apify alternative?

SpecStream. You describe the data once in plain words and get structured rows that meet every condition you wrote, joined from every site that has the facts. The most a run can cost is approved first, only delivered rows are billed, and the saved request reruns into your CRM, sheet or Slack.

What does SpecStream cover?

SpecStream covers the whole job of getting data from the web. It searches the live web, reads every page that holds the facts, and extracts them into rows. It draws on the public databases it already holds, fills in or checks a list you bring, reruns on a schedule with every change labeled, shows places on a map, and delivers the rows to your sheet, CRM, Slack or agent through MCP and the API. On Apify each step is an Actor, a program for one site or task, at the price its author set.

Do I need to pick or maintain an Actor?

No. The request is the whole setup: the records, the conditions they must meet and the facts you want as columns. SpecStream finds them on the live web each time it runs, so there is no input to fill in and no code to keep working.

How does the price compare with Apify Actors?

Apify Actors charge what their authors set, per result, per event or in compute units at $0.13 to $0.20. SpecStream charges 5¢, 15¢ or $1 per delivered row, the same on every plan, and a run that finds nothing costs nothing.

Can SpecStream fill in a list I already have?

Yes. Importing a list is free. Each row that matches your request pays its row rate, and a row that does not match costs a 5¢ check.

Sources

SpecStream wrote this page. Each rival figure comes from that company's own page.

SpecStream pricingspecstream.ai/pricing, read Nov 4, 2026
SpecStream for agentsspecstream.ai/agents.md, read Nov 4, 2026
Apify pricingapify.com/pricing, read Nov 4, 2026
Apify Storeapify.com/store, read Nov 4, 2026
Apify Actorsdocs.apify.com/actors, read Nov 4, 2026
Apify Actors in Storedocs.apify.com/platform/actors/running/actors-in-store.md, read Nov 4, 2026
Apify schedulesdocs.apify.com/actors/running/schedules, read Nov 4, 2026
Apify datasetsdocs.apify.com/storage/dataset, read Nov 4, 2026
Apify integrationsdocs.apify.com/integrations, read Nov 4, 2026
Apify MCPdocs.apify.com/mcp, read Nov 4, 2026
Apify RAG Web Browserapify.com/apify/rag-web-browser, read Nov 4, 2026
Firecrawl pricingfirecrawl.dev/pricing, read Nov 4, 2026
Bright Data pricingbrightdata.com/pricing, read Nov 4, 2026
Bright Data Web Scraper API pricingbrightdata.com/pricing/web-scraper, read Nov 4, 2026
Bright Data datasetsbrightdata.com/products/datasets, read Nov 4, 2026
Exa pricingexa.ai/docs/admin/pricing.md, read Nov 4, 2026
SpecStream dataspecstream.ai/data, read Nov 4, 2026
SpecStream signalsspecstream.ai/signals, read Nov 4, 2026