Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Apify VS Blur

Compare Apify VS Blur and see what are their differences

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Apify logo Apify

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

Blur logo Blur

Blur is a software application available for both Google Chrome and your smartphone. It's developed by Abine, an online privacy company trusted by more than twenty million people. Read more about Blur.
  • 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.

  • Blur Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-11-04

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.

Blur features and specs

  • Privacy Protection
    Blur provides robust privacy features such as masking your email, phone number, and credit card information to protect your personal data online.
  • Password Manager
    Blur includes a secure password manager that helps you create, store, and autofill complex passwords across different sites.
  • Tracker Blocking
    The service offers tracker blocking to prevent advertisers and other entities from tracking your online activity, enhancing your privacy.
  • Ease of Use
    Blur has a user-friendly interface that makes it easy to manage your privacy settings, passwords, and masked information.
  • Cross-platform Sync
    The product supports cross-platform synchronization, allowing you to access your passwords and masked information on multiple devices.

Possible disadvantages of Blur

  • Pricing
    Blur's premium features come at a cost, which might be expensive for some users compared to other privacy protection tools.
  • Complexity for Beginners
    The array of features can be overwhelming for users who are new to privacy tools and may require a learning curve.
  • Browser Extension Performance
    Some users report that the browser extension can slow down browsing performance or occasionally cause issues with web pages.
  • Data Export Limitations
    Exporting data from Blur can be cumbersome, limiting options for users who may want to switch to another service.
  • Manual Entry Requirement
    Users may need to manually enter or update information in the system, which can be time-consuming and inconvenient.

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.

Analysis of Blur

Overall verdict

  • Blur by Abine is generally considered a good choice for individuals seeking to enhance their online privacy and security. It effectively masks personal information and can be a valuable tool for proactive privacy management. However, its effectiveness can vary depending on individual needs and usage patterns.

Why this product is good

  • Blur by Abine is a privacy-focused tool that helps users protect their personal information online. It offers features such as masking email addresses, phone numbers, and credit card details, which can help reduce spam and protect against identity theft. It is particularly useful for users who are concerned about their privacy and want to minimize their digital footprint while browsing or making transactions online.

Recommended for

  • Individuals who frequently make online purchases and want to protect their payment information.
  • Users concerned about email spam and phishing attempts who wish to keep their primary email address private.
  • Privacy-conscious individuals looking to minimize data collection by websites and advertisers.
  • People who want to manage their online accounts with added layers of security.

Apify videos

Apify product news - 2019/01/30

Blur videos

Blur Review

More videos:

  • Review - Blur Review
  • Review - Blur - The Magic Whip ALBUM REVIEW

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Apify and Blur)
Web Scraping
100 100%
0% 0
Security & Privacy
0 0%
100% 100
Data Extraction
100 100%
0% 0
Productivity
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 Blur

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...

Blur Reviews

9 Best KeePass Alternatives
Abine Blur ($39/year) is more than a password managerโ€”itโ€™s an entire privacy service that also blocks ad trackers and masks your email address, phone number, and credit card number. With those features, it offers the best value to those living in the United States.
The best password managers for 2018
Blur is a product that creates instant virtual credit card numbers, manages passwords, provides a dedicated private phone number and more. Blur is the only all-in-one solution to protect your passwords, payments and privacy. Blur is built on an extremely secure Password Manager foundation, with a wide variety of unique online privacy features that have never been combined...
Source: www.cnet.com

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Apify should be more popular than Blur. It has been mentiond 46 times since March 2021. 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 (46)

  • Google's News API has been gone since 2016, and people still search for it
    That runs News Scraper on Apify, which is the same forty lines plus the parts that are Tedious rather than hard: both feeds, the nested publisher element, the date Normalisation, and deduplication. - Source: dev.to / 10 days ago
  • WHOIS is gone, RDAP replaced it, and a 404 does not mean what you think
    That runs an Apify Actor I maintain, Domain Scraper, because the Tedious parts are the RDAP bootstrap, the vcard unpacking and the provider Fingerprinting rather than the HTTP call. If you would rather do it yourself, Https://rdap.org/domain/ is the whole API and it needs no key. - Source: dev.to / 10 days ago
  • How I Turned Canadian Open Government Data Into a Live Licence-Verification Site + API (Build Log, 2026)
    Data collection: Apify actors, one per source, that scrape the open-data endpoints and normalize them. Quebec RBQ ships a daily bulk CSV (inside a 10.8 MB zip, ~924k rows that dedupe to ~54k active licences). Ontario HCRA has no bulk file โ€” it's an internal JSON API behind the public registry. - Source: dev.to / 29 days ago
  • How to Track US Startup Funding Rounds in Real Time (Before TechCrunch Writes About Them)
    Create a free Apify account and grab your API token from Settings โ†’ API & Integrations. - Source: dev.to / about 1 month ago
  • I built a Claude Code skill that finds customers, not competitors, on Reddit & LinkedIn
    BYOK. It runs on your own Apify token. No shared keys, no lock-in, no licensing chokepoint โ€” a lesson the whole "Proxycurl shut down and stranded everyone" saga taught the space. - Source: dev.to / about 2 months ago
View more

Blur mentions (7)

  • How to mask your name on a debit card/online purchase? Here are my study notes & possible sites that might be able to do this, i dont know.
    Https://abine.com (not sure, now its called ironvest.com). Source: over 3 years ago
  • Someone has been online stalking me (29f ) using my dead grandparents names to make accounts .
    That's super creepy. Would use a service to get your info off the internet for starters. I use abine.com. Source: almost 4 years ago
  • Virtual Cards for Europe
    I see *not allowed to write it* posted a lot here but they refuse to service non Americans and Revolut wants to give you a physical card which isn't what I'd be after, so what I wanna know is if anyone know of like abine.com for virtual cards but actually support European countries. Source: over 4 years ago
  • Looking for a forwarding service similar to AnonAddy/SimpleLogin, except for Phone Numbers
    Blur may have the function you're looking for. You can find it at https://abine.com. Source: about 5 years ago
  • I tried using Blur (AKA Abine.com) Virtual Credit Card but it has $400 limit. Anything better?
    Blur (AKA Abine.com) only allows you to load up $400 on each card at a time... Privacy.com is pretty limited with their new account spending limits also.... Im looking for a better solution so that I can place bigger orders. Source: over 5 years ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Apify and Blur, 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.

AdBlock - Ad blocker for Chrome, Safari and Opera on desktop and Safari for iOS devices.

Octoparse - Octoparse provides easy web scraping for anyone. Our advanced web crawler, allows users to turn web pages into structured spreadsheets within clicks.

AdClear - AdClear platform provides Tracking, Analysis and Optimization of the online marketing activities.

Bright Data - World's largest proxy service with a residential proxy network of 72M IPs worldwide and proxy management interface for zero coding.

SponsorBlock - SponsorBlock is an open-source crowdsourced browser extension to skip sponsor segments in YouTube videos.