AI Tool Comparison
Activepieces vs Apify
A side-by-side breakdown to help you pick the right tool for your workflow.
Activepieces
Build unlimited-run AI workflows and MCP-connected automations without per-task fees, self-hostable under an MIT license for full data control.
Apify
Pull structured data from any website using 30,000+ ready-made scrapers and managed proxies, without running your own servers. Now has an MCP server so agents can invoke Actors directly.
Bottom Line
Last reviewed: August 2026
Activepieces and Apify both compete in Automation, overlapping most directly on automation. Apify carries the higher rating (4.6 vs 4.5), but a gap that size rarely overrides a real workflow fit on its own.
Choose Activepieces if…
Best for teams that want Zapier-style automation but need to keep sensitive data on their own infrastructure, and its edge is fully self-hostable and open-source, so workflow data never has to touch an external server. A genuine privacy-first alternative to Zapier, the app integration library is still noticeably smaller.
Choose Apify if…
Best for teams that need to extract data from websites at scale without building and maintaining scrapers in-house, and its edge is a marketplace of 1,000+ pre-built scrapers covering common targets like Amazon listings and LinkedIn data. The most complete scraping infrastructure available, costs add up fast at high usage volume.
| Attribute | Activepieces | Apify |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Automation | Automation |
| Pricing | freemium | freemium |
| Pricing Detail | Free (10 flows) / self-host free / $5/active flow Standard | Free ($5 credits) / $29/mo Starter / $199/mo Scale |
| Rating |
Key Features
Activepieces
- Visual flow builder
- AI pieces (OpenAI, Claude)
- Self-hosting
- 100+ apps
- Branching and loops
Apify
- 2,000+ pre-built scrapers (Actors)
- AI web scraping from natural language
- Proxy management
- Scheduled runs
- API and webhooks
Pros
Activepieces
- •Clean modern interface
- •Open source with active development
- •Good AI integration pieces
- •Better pricing than Zapier
Apify
- •Largest library of pre-built scrapers anywhere
- •AI can scrape any site without code
- •Reliable proxy rotation
- •Excellent for large-scale data collection
Cons
Activepieces
- Smaller app library than Zapier
- Community support only for self-hosted
- Enterprise pricing is steep
Apify
- Can get expensive for high usage
- Some sites actively block scraping
- Setup complexity for custom scrapers