Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Azure File Storage VS Apify

Compare Azure File Storage VS Apify 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.

Azure File Storage logo Azure File Storage

Try Azure File Storage for managed file shares that use standard SMB 3.0 protocol. Share data with on-premises and cloud servers, integrate with apps, and more.

Apify logo Apify

Apify is a web scraping and automation platform that can turn any website into an API.
  • Azure File Storage Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-04-11
  • 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.

Azure File Storage features and specs

  • Scalability
    Azure File Storage can seamlessly scale up to support your data storage needs without sacrificing performance, ensuring that businesses can grow without concerns about storage limitations.
  • Managed Service
    As a fully managed service, Azure takes care of the maintenance, updates, and infrastructure, reducing administrative overhead for IT teams, and allowing them to focus on other business-critical tasks.
  • Integration
    Azure File Storage integrates well with other Microsoft products such as Windows Server and other Azure services, enabling a cohesive and efficient ecosystem for consistent and smooth user experiences.
  • Access Control
    Provides robust access control through Azure Active Directory, setting up specific permissions, ensuring that data remains secure and only accessible to authorized users.
  • Cross-platform Access
    Supports the SMB protocol, allowing access from various operating systems including Windows, Linux, and macOS, enabling diverse environments to interact seamlessly with the storage service.

Possible disadvantages of Azure File Storage

  • Cost
    Costs can accumulate rapidly, especially in scenarios involving large volumes of data, frequent access, or high redundancy, potentially leading to substantial operational expenses.
  • Complex Pricing Model
    The pricing model can be complex with various tiers and charges based on operations, data redundancy, and outbound data transfer, making it difficult to predict the exact costs effectively.
  • Latency
    While generally fast, there can be latency issues, particularly in situations where files are accessed from regions that are geographically distant from the storage location, affecting performance.
  • Limited Customization
    Compared to on-premise solutions, there is limited capacity for customization of the infrastructure and may not meet specific needs of certain businesses that require tailor-made setups.
  • Dependency on Internet Connectivity
    Azure File Storage relies on stable internet connectivity, which can be a risk for businesses situated in areas with unstable networks or outages, impacting the ability to access data.

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.

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.

Azure File Storage videos

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Apify videos

Apify product news - 2019/01/30

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Azure File Storage and Apify)
Cloud Storage
100 100%
0% 0
Web Scraping
0 0%
100% 100
Project Management
100 100%
0% 0
Data Extraction
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 Azure File Storage and Apify

Azure File Storage Reviews

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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...

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Apify should be more popular than Azure File Storage. 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.

Azure File Storage mentions (14)

  • A Step by Step Guide on How to Migrate from AWS to Azure
    If your workloads require shared storage, Azure Files is a nice pick. - Source: dev.to / 6 months ago
  • Searching for online alternative for a synology
    Azure Files perhaps? Or if you need frequently accessed files to be quicker then Azure File Sync. Source: almost 2 years ago
  • How To Upload and Delete files in Azure Blob Storage Using Blazor Apps With .NET 7
    ​To know more details: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/products/storage/files/. - Source: dev.to / about 2 years ago
  • Hosted, mappable storage?
    If you have a use case that affords any kind of budget, maybe consder Azure Files. It is an SMB share you access over the internet. Basically, windows file server but hardened and entirely managed by Microsoft. This is as hands-off as it gets for an SMB share. Source: about 2 years ago
  • Microsoft cloud drive options
    I have a client that (finally!) decided to go all-in on Azure; I had prepared the owner to expect additional costs based on their need for a file share -- I was expecting to have to use Azure Files. Source: over 2 years ago
View more

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 / 29 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
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What are some alternatives?

When comparing Azure File Storage and Apify, you can also consider the following products

Cyberduck - A libre FTP, SFTP, WebDAV, S3, Backblaze B2, Azure & OpenStack Swift browser.

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.

Igloo Software - Igloo is a modern intranet, it connects people with the information they need to do their best work.

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

IBM Cloud File Storage - IBM Cloud File Storage is flash-backed, durable, fast, and flexible NFS-based file storage.

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