AI Tool Comparison
Apify vs n8n
A side-by-side breakdown to help you pick the right tool for your workflow.
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.
n8n
Visually connect apps, APIs, and AI models into multi-step automations, free and self-hostable, or run on Cloud with per-execution pricing.
Bottom Line
Last reviewed: August 2026
Apify and n8n both compete in Automation, overlapping most directly on automation. n8n carries the higher rating (4.7 vs 4.6), but a gap that size rarely overrides a real workflow fit on its own.
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.
Choose n8n if…
Best for teams that want automation they can self-host and fully control, and its edge is free and self-hostable, with the same visual workflow builder as the paid competitors. The best choice when you want Zapier's flexibility without the recurring cost.
| Attribute | Apify | n8n |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Automation | Automation |
| Pricing | freemium | freemium |
| Pricing Detail | Free ($5 credits) / $29/mo Starter / $199/mo Scale | Free (self-hosted) / €20/mo Cloud Starter / €50/mo Cloud Pro |
| Rating |
Key Features
Apify
- 2,000+ pre-built scrapers (Actors)
- AI web scraping from natural language
- Proxy management
- Scheduled runs
- API and webhooks
n8n
- 400+ integrations
- AI nodes (LangChain)
- Self-hosting option
- Code nodes (JavaScript/Python)
- Complex branching logic
- Natural-language AI Assistant for building workflows
Pros
Apify
- •Largest library of pre-built scrapers anywhere
- •AI can scrape any site without code
- •Reliable proxy rotation
- •Excellent for large-scale data collection
n8n
- •Open source and self-hostable
- •More powerful than Zapier for technical users
- •AI nodes are excellent
- •Great value vs Zapier
Cons
Apify
- Can get expensive for high usage
- Some sites actively block scraping
- Setup complexity for custom scrapers
n8n
- Higher technical bar than Zapier
- Self-hosting requires maintenance
- Debugging complex flows can be hard