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Apify VS Fast.com

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

Piloterr
Piloterr web scraping API handles headless browsers, rotates proxies for you, and offers a library featured
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Apify logo Apify

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

Fast.com logo Fast.com

Quickly test your internet speed with this fast-loading speed test powered by Netflix.
  • 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.

  • Fast.com Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-09-23

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.

Fast.com features and specs

  • Simplicity
    Fast.com has a clean and straightforward interface, making it very easy for users to test their internet speed without any distractions or complications.
  • Ad-Free
    The website does not contain any advertisements, providing a seamless and uninterrupted user experience.
  • Integration with Netflix
    Fast.com is created by Netflix, which ensures that the speed test results are optimized for streaming services, giving users a reliable indicator of how well they can stream content on the platform.
  • Quick Results
    The speed test begins automatically as soon as the website loads, providing users with rapid results without the need for additional clicks or inputs.
  • Mobile-Friendly
    Fast.com is optimized for mobile devices, making it easy for users to test their internet speed on smartphones and tablets.

Possible disadvantages of Fast.com

  • Limited Metrics
    Fast.com primarily focuses on download speed and does not provide as comprehensive a range of metrics as some other speed test websites, such as upload speed, latency, and jitter.
  • No Server Selection
    Users cannot choose which server to run the speed test against, which can sometimes result in less accurate measurements for specific network conditions.
  • No Historical Data
    Fast.com does not offer features to save or track historical speed test results, limiting users' ability to monitor their internet performance over time.
  • Lack of Customization
    There are no options to customize the test parameters, such as test duration or concurrency levels, which might be relevant for more advanced users.
  • Geared for Streaming
    Since Fast.com is tailored for Netflix streaming, it may not fully represent other usage scenarios, such as gaming or file downloads, which require different network performances.

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 Fast.com

Overall verdict

  • Yes, Fast.com is good for quickly assessing your internet download speed, particularly if you're interested in streaming quality on Netflix.

Why this product is good

  • Fast.com is a speed test tool developed by Netflix to help users evaluate their internet connection, particularly for streaming services. It is known for its simplicity, ease of use, and lack of ads, providing a quick way to measure download speeds using Netflix's servers.

Recommended for

  • Users who want a simple and ad-free internet speed test.
  • Anyone looking to check streaming speeds for Netflix.
  • People interested in basic information about their download speeds without detailed additional metrics.

Apify videos

+ Add

Apify product news - 2019/01/30

Fast.com videos

+ Add

Speedtest.net vs Fast.com | why different results ?

More videos:

  • Review - Measure your Internet speed with Fast.com
  • Review - Fast.com: Better than speedtest.net?

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Apify and Fast.com)

Apify

Fast.com

Web Scraping
100 100%
Web Scraping
0% 0
Speed Test
0 0%
Speed Test
100% 100
Data Extraction
100 100%
Data Extraction
0% 0
Developer Tools
0 0%
Developer Tools
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 Fast.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...
Source: www.dashtech.org

Fast.com Reviews

We have no reviews of Fast.com yet.
Be the first one to post

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Fast.com seems to be a lot more popular than Apify. While we know about 1685 links to Fast.com, we've tracked only 26 mentions of 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 / 3 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 / 10 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

Fast.com mentions (1685)

  • SLOWWWWWWWWWWWWWW VPN IPSEC HOW TO CONFIGURATION HELPPPP
    Is this for remote access VPN? If so, what kind of bandwidth are you seeing on a speed test site like fast.com (with the VPN off) compared to the VPN bandwidth you're experiencing? Source: over 1 year ago
  • I am a MacOS user, new to windows and my wifi won’t load fast enough; are these updates the issue?
    What result do you get from fast.com ? What about if you ping your router? Source: over 1 year ago
  • Is this good speed?
    Websites like speedtest.net, fast.com and etc do provide measurement in megabits, and even with that, speedtest.net provides it between you and your ISP(mostly) only. So if you want to download something from lets say, YouTube, the speed will be slightly different because now you're connecting to Google's server, not your ISP's server. This is because speedtest.net has partnership with ISPs so that speedtest.net... Source: over 1 year ago
  • Help!!! FPS AND downloading games speeds.
    If fast.com and speedtest.net are fast, then it's not the computer or your internet. Source: over 1 year ago
  • Internet shuts off when downloading
    If you try a speed test with only your PC connected via LAN (visit fast.com), do you get reasonable upload and download speeds? Are the speeds consistent? Source: over 1 year ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Apify and Fast.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.

Speedtest.net - Test your Internet connection bandwidth to locations around the world with this interactive broadband speed test from Ookla

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

Testmy.net - Accurately test your Internet connection speed with this powerful broadband speed test. Improve your bandwidth speed with the truth.

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

SpeedOf.Me - SpeedOf.Me is an HTML5 Internet speed test. No Flash or Java needed!

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