Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Apify VS Ask.com

Compare Apify VS Ask.com and see what are their differences

Note: These products don't have any matching categories. If you think this is a mistake, please edit the details of one of the products and suggest appropriate categories.

Apify logo Apify

Apify is a web scraping and automation platform that can turn any website into an API.

Ask.com logo Ask.com

Ask.com is the #1 question answering service that delivers the best answers from the web and real people - all in one place.
  • Apify Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-09-30

Apify is a JavaScript & Node.js based data extraction tool for websites that crawls lists of URLs and automates workflows on the web. With Apify you can manage and automatically scale a pool of headless Chrome / Puppeteer instances, maintain queues of URLs to crawl, store crawling results locally or in the cloud, rotate proxies and much more.

  • Ask.com Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-05-09

Apify features and specs

  • Ease of Use
    Apify provides a user-friendly interface that makes it easy for users of all technical levels to create and manage web scraping tasks.
  • Scalability
    Apify is built to handle tasks of various sizes, from small-scale projects to enterprise-level operations, making it a scalable solution.
  • Integration and API Support
    It offers extensive API support, allowing for seamless integration with other tools and systems to enhance automated workflows.
  • Customizability
    Users can customize their scraping bots (actors) with different settings and scripts to fit specific needs and requirements.
  • Cloud-based
    Being a cloud-based platform, Apify allows users to run their scraping tasks without needing local resources, which is convenient and efficient.
  • Comprehensive Documentation
    Apify provides thorough documentation and tutorials, which help users get started quickly and solve issues efficiently.
  • Community and Support
    Apify has an active community and solid customer support to assist users with their needs and enhance their overall experience.

Possible disadvantages of Apify

  • Learning Curve
    While the interface is user-friendly, there may still be a learning curve for those new to web scraping and automation.
  • Cost
    Apify can be expensive compared to other web scraping tools, particularly for extensive use cases that require high volumes of data.
  • Dependency on External Factors
    Web scraping often depends on the stability of the target websites. Changes in website structures can break scripts, requiring ongoing maintenance.
  • Performance Limitations
    The performance of cloud-based scraping tasks can be affected by network latency and other external factors beyond user control.
  • Potential Legal Issues
    Web scraping can raise legal concerns, particularly when scraping data from websites that restrict such activities in their terms of service.
  • Resource Intensity
    Complex scraping tasks can be resource-intensive, potentially requiring higher-tier subscriptions and more computing resources, driving up costs.

Ask.com features and specs

  • User-Friendly Interface
    Ask.com has a simple and intuitive interface, making it easy for users to navigate and search for information efficiently.
  • Question-Based Search
    The platform encourages users to ask specific questions, which can lead to more direct and relevant search results.
  • Diverse Content
    Ask.com provides access to a variety of content types, including web links, images, news, and videos, offering a comprehensive search experience.
  • Answer Community
    Users can engage with the community for answers to specific questions, similar to a Q&A platform, which can enhance the quality of information by leveraging collective knowledge.

Possible disadvantages of Ask.com

  • Less Comprehensive Search Results
    Compared to major search engines like Google, Ask.com often provides a narrower range of search results, which may not always fulfill the user's needs.
  • Limited Search Algorithms
    The search technology behind Ask.com is less advanced compared to industry leaders, potentially affecting the relevance and speed of search results.
  • Advertising Intrusion
    Ask.com includes a significant amount of sponsored content and advertising, which can sometimes distract from and clutter the search experience.
  • Dependence on Third-Party Content
    The platform relies heavily on third-party sources for information, which can affect the credibility and reliability of the search results.

Analysis of Apify

Overall verdict

  • Yes, Apify is considered a good choice for web scraping and automation needs due to its comprehensive features, user-friendly interface, and strong community support. It is especially beneficial for those who require efficient, large-scale data extraction and workflow automation.

Why this product is good

  • Apify is an established platform known for its robust web scraping and automation capabilities. It provides a powerful API, pre-built actors for common tasks, and allows you to create custom web scrapers with ease. The platform is scalable, supports a variety of programming languages, and offers features like scheduling, proxies, and data storage solutions. This versatility makes it a valuable tool for businesses and developers needing efficient data retrieval and workflow automation.

Recommended for

  • Developers looking for a versatile web scraping solution.
  • Businesses needing to automate data collection processes.
  • Researchers and analysts requiring extensive data from the web.
  • Marketers seeking competitive analysis through data scraping.
  • Tech enthusiasts interested in exploring web automation tools.

Apify videos

Apify product news - 2019/01/30

Ask.com videos

How Do I Get Rid of Ask.com?

More videos:

  • Tutorial - How To Use Ask.com and Amazon.com To Attract Your Ideal Client Online
  • Review - Preacher Tells The Truth About Ask.com - Video Review

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Apify and Ask.com)
Web Scraping
100 100%
0% 0
Questions And Answers
0 0%
100% 100
Data Extraction
100 100%
0% 0
AI
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Apify and Ask.com

Apify Reviews

Top 15 Best TinyTask Alternatives in 2022
This is another tinytask alternative. For you to link various web services and APIs, Apify has provided many web integration options. You can add data processing and customised computation processes in addition to letting the data flow between them. With the data that is freely accessible on the web, you may provide crucial insights, and easy lead creation allows you to...

Ask.com Reviews

Top 10 Best Google Search Engine Alternative List of 2019
Ask.com originally named Ask Jeeves which is still around. He is no longer a Wodehousian Butler. However, a computer-generated bank manager. Isn’t it weird?
12 Google Alternatives: Best Search Engines To Use In 2019
Ask, previously known as Ask Jeeves, is loved by many people for its simple question and format. It is an average search engine that returns search results if you type in any term that is not asked as a question.
Source: fossbytes.com
A List of Search Engines to Use Instead of Google
You might remember a time when Ask was called Ask Jeeves. Although it's not nearly as powerful as Google or Bing, lots of people have long loved Ask for its simple question and answer format.
Say goodbye to Google: 14 alternative search engines
WolframAlpha is a ‘computational knowledge engine’, or super clever nerd to you and me. Ask it to calculate any data or ask it about any fact and it will give you the answer. Plus it does this awesome ‘computing’ thing while it thinks about your answer (which can take a short while.)

Social recommendations and mentions

Ask.com might be a bit more popular than Apify. We know about 29 links to it since March 2021 and only 26 links to Apify. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Apify mentions (26)

  • How to scrape TikTok using Python
    For deployment, we'll use the Apify platform. It's a simple and effective environment for cloud deployment, allowing efficient interaction with your crawler. Call it via API, schedule tasks, integrate with various services, and much more. - Source: dev.to / about 1 month ago
  • How to scrape Bluesky with Python
    We already have a fully functional implementation for local execution. Let us explore how to adapt it for running on the Apify Platform and transform in Apify Actor. - Source: dev.to / 2 months ago
  • Web scraping with GPT-4o: powerful but expensive
    We've had the best success by first converting the HTML to a simpler format (i.e. markdown) before passing it to the LLM. There are a few ways to do this that we've tried, namely Extractus[0] and dom-to-semantic-markdown[1]. Internally we use Apify[2] and Firecrawl[3] for Magic Loops[4] that run in the cloud, both of which have options for simplifying pages built-in, but for our Chrome Extension we use... - Source: Hacker News / 9 months ago
  • Current problems and mistakes of web scraping in Python and tricks to solve them!
    Developed by Apify, it is a Python adaptation of their famous JS framework crawlee, first released on Jul 9, 2019. - Source: dev.to / 9 months ago
  • Show HN: Crawlee for Python – a web scraping and browser automation library
    Hey all, This is Jan, the founder of [Apify](https://apify.com/)—a full-stack web scraping platform. After the success of [Crawlee for JavaScript](https://github.com/apify/crawlee/) today! The main features are: - A unified programming interface for both HTTP (HTTPX with BeautifulSoup) & headless browser crawling (Playwright). - Source: Hacker News / 11 months ago
View more

Ask.com mentions (29)

  • ask.com task bar, how to PERMANENTLY remove, its a pain in the ass. windows 11
    This has been bugging me for ages, and I just got a new computer, installed chrome, and fucking ask.com is showing up and annoying me again. How do I rmeove this shit permanently because I dont want to keep uninstalling and reinstalling chrome. Source: over 1 year ago
  • Potential Virus on A old computer (Mac OS X Yosemite Version 10.10.5)
    My parents computer has gotten a virus that acts up very weirdly. It doesnt let them open new tab unless you force quit chrome and restart it, redirects them to either bing, spanish yahoo, search marquis or ask.com. I checked for extensions and there isn't anything, a big concern is that I received an email saying passwords have been leaked/exposed and now the google account says "Managed by organization" despite... Source: almost 2 years ago
  • Before Google was the main search engine there was Ask Jeeves
    Jeeves is gone, but you can still ask: https://ask.com/. Source: almost 2 years ago
  • It is interesting how Greta is regularly Arrested, but still has access to travel all over Europe. Meanwhile; David Icke writes books that Expose The Illuminati and he gets Banned from Most of Europe...
    All these answers can be found here. Source: over 2 years ago
  • Is it worth watching rebels and Star Wars resistance?
    I don't understand why is this sub allowed to be watered down to a ask.com alternative. Source: over 2 years ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Apify and Ask.com, you can also consider the following products

import.io - Import. io helps its users find the internet data they need, organize and store it, and transform it into a format that provides them with the context they need.

Ask AI App - Ask AI Questions: Chat with Ask AI and get answers to your questions – you can ask about anything from business, to wellness, to any of life's problems. The AI will help guide you finding a solution.

Scrapy - Scrapy | A Fast and Powerful Scraping and Web Crawling Framework

NoteGPT.io - NoteGPT - AI Summary for YouTube, Podcast, Book, PDF, Audio, Video and taking notes. Save your time and improve learning efficiency by 10x.

ParseHub - ParseHub is a free web scraping tool. With our advanced web scraper, extracting data is as easy as clicking the data you need.

Pi - Personal AI - Pi, your personal AI