Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Apify VS Follow That Page

Compare Apify VS Follow That Page 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.

Follow That Page logo Follow That Page

Follow That Page sends you an email when your favorite web pages have changed.
  • 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.

  • Follow That Page Landing page
    Landing page //
    2021-07-29

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.

Follow That Page features and specs

  • Ease of Use
    Follow That Page is user-friendly and doesn’t require any technical expertise, making it accessible for people who want to monitor web page changes without hassle.
  • Email Alerts
    The service sends email notifications when a monitored page changes, allowing users to stay updated without constantly checking the webpage manually.
  • Customizable Frequency
    Users can set how frequently they want each page to be checked for changes, ranging from every few minutes to daily or less, depending on their needs.
  • Free and Paid Plans
    Offers both a free version with core features and a paid plan with advanced options, allowing users to choose based on their requirements and budget.

Possible disadvantages of Follow That Page

  • Limited Free Option
    The free version comes with limitations, such as the number of pages that can be monitored and the frequency of checks, which may not be sufficient for heavy users.
  • Basic Interface
    The user interface is quite simple and may lack advanced functionalities and modern design that some users expect from contemporary web applications.
  • Email Dependency
    Notifications are heavily dependent on email, which might be inconvenient for users preferring mobile notifications or in-app alerts.
  • No Mobile App
    Does not offer a mobile app, which can limit accessibility and convenience for users who prefer managing services on their smartphones.

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

Follow That Page videos

No Follow That Page videos yet. You could help us improve this page by suggesting one.

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Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Apify and Follow That Page)
Web Scraping
100 100%
0% 0
Monitoring Tools
0 0%
100% 100
Data Extraction
100 100%
0% 0
Website Monitoring
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 Follow That Page

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...

Follow That Page Reviews

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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Apify should be more popular than Follow That Page. It has been mentiond 26 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 (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 / 27 days 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

Follow That Page mentions (3)

  • What are the chances of classes being cancelled tomorrow because of the typhoon?
    Just kidding. Most schools have a communication website that is updated with the latest information. If your school has one of these, try using a service that monitors webpages, and email you when it detects any changes. Source: over 2 years ago
  • Ask HN: Tool to Monitor Webpage for Changes
    I’ve had a good experience with https://followthatpage.com/. - Source: Hacker News / over 3 years ago
  • The Privacy, Security, & OSINT Show: 235-iOS 15 Privacy Guide
    Nothing fancy haha https://followthatpage.com/. Source: over 3 years ago

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Apify and Follow That Page, 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.

WebSite-Watcher - WebSite-Watcher detects website updates and highlights all changes in the text. WebSite-Watcher monitors web pages, password protected pages, disucssion forums and much more.

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

Sken.io - The most advanced tools for tracking changes on websites.

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

ChangeTower - ChangeTower offers website monitoring tools for new content and content changes.