Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Puppeteer API VS Apify

Compare Puppeteer API VS Apify and see what are their differences

Puppeteer API logo Puppeteer API

Convert website into API

Apify logo Apify

Apify is a web scraping and automation platform that can turn any website into an API.
  • Puppeteer API Landing page
    Landing page //
    2021-08-23
  • 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.

Puppeteer API features and specs

  • Headless Automation
    Puppeteer allows for headless browsing, enabling developers to perform automated tasks such as web scraping, testing, and screenshot generation without needing a visible browser UI, which can be more efficient and resource-friendly.
  • Full Control Over Chrome
    Puppeteer provides a high level of control over Chrome or Chromium, allowing developers to script almost every action a user can perform in the browser, which is beneficial for emulating complex user interactions in automated scenarios.
  • Compatibility and Maintenance
    As an officially supported Google product, Puppeteer is often updated concurrently with new Chrome releases, ensuring high compatibility with the latest web technologies and standards.
  • Rich Ecosystem
    Being popular in the developer community, Puppeteer benefits from a wealth of community resources, including tutorials, plugins, and example scripts, making it easier for developers to leverage its features and troubleshoot issues.
  • Flexible and Powerful API
    Puppeteer offers a comprehensive API that enables complex web interactions, such as handling iframes, simulating mouse and keyboard events, and managing network requests, making it highly versatile for various use cases.

Possible disadvantages of Puppeteer API

  • Resource Intensive
    Running headless browsers can be more resource-intensive compared to other web scraping libraries that don’t require a full browser environment, potentially leading to higher server costs.
  • JavaScript Requirement
    Puppeteer requires JavaScript knowledge as it’s based on Node.js, which might limit its accessibility to developers who are familiar with other programming languages but not with JavaScript.
  • Limited to Chromium-based Browsers
    Puppeteer is primarily designed for Chrome and Chromium, which might not be suitable for testing or automation tasks that require cross-browser compatibility or specific behaviors in other browsers.
  • Complex Setup for Script Debugging
    Debugging Puppeteer scripts can sometimes be complex, especially for beginners, because it involves asynchronous operations and managing promises, which can become cumbersome without proper understanding.
  • Potential for Blocked Requests
    Websites may have measures to detect and block automated browsing activities from Puppeteer, especially when scraping content, which can disrupt operations unless countermeasures are taken.

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.

Puppeteer API videos

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Apify videos

Apify product news - 2019/01/30

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Puppeteer API and Apify)
APIs
100 100%
0% 0
Web Scraping
3 3%
97% 97
API Tools
100 100%
0% 0
Data Extraction
0 0%
100% 100

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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 seems to be more popular. 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.

Puppeteer API mentions (0)

We have not tracked any mentions of Puppeteer API yet. Tracking of Puppeteer API recommendations started around Mar 2021.

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 / 8 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 / about 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 / 8 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 / 10 months ago
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What are some alternatives?

When comparing Puppeteer API and Apify, you can also consider the following products

APIsentris - Build APIs instantly from MySQL, PostgreSQL, Google BigQuery and more

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.

Leaf PHP - Create clean, simple but powerful web apps and APIs quickly.

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

ScrapingBee - ScrapingBee is a Web Scraping API that handles proxies and Headless browser for you, so you can focus on extracting the data you want, and nothing else.

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