Gaffa vs. Apify

Gaffa is an API for web scraping and browser automation that gives developers control over real, full browsers with a single request, no headless-browser setup, proxy management, or infrastructure scaling required. Pages render with full JavaScript support by default, matching exactly what a real user would see. The platform covers the full range of automation needs: scraping, AI-powered data extraction into structured JSON using custom schemas, full-page screenshots, PDF export, infinite-scroll scraping, automated form filling, and converting webpages into clean Markdown for AI and LLM workflows. Reliability is built in through a rotating residential proxy network and automatic CAPTCHA and anti-bot handling, so requests succeed even against protected sites. Pricing follows a transparent, credit-based model tied to browser execution time and bandwidth, making costs predictable as usage scales. Gaffa is aimed at AI engineers, data-driven teams, and developers who need dependable, large-scale web data without the overhead of running their own scraping infrastructure.

Apify offers a comprehensive platform for web scraping, browser automation, and data extraction at scale. The platform combines managed cloud infrastructure with a marketplace of over 10,000 ready-to-use automation tools called Actors, making it suitable for both developers building custom solutions and business users seeking turnkey data collection. Actors are serverless cloud programs that handle the technical complexities of modern web scraping: proxy rotation, CAPTCHA solving, JavaScript rendering, and headless browser management. Users can deploy pre-built Actors for popular use cases like scraping Amazon product data, extracting Google Maps listings, collecting social media content, or monitoring competitor pricing. For specialized needs, developers can build custom Actors using JavaScript, Python, or Crawlee, Apify's open-source web crawling library. The platform operates a developer marketplace where programmers publish and monetize their automation tools. Apify manages infrastructure, usage tracking, and monthly payouts, creating a revenue stream for thousands of active contributors. Enterprise features include 99.95% uptime SLA, SOC2 Type II certification, and full GDPR and CCPA compliance. The platform integrates with workflow automation tools like Zapier, Make, and n8n, supports LangChain for AI applications, and provides an MCP server that allows AI assistants to dynamically discover and execute Actors.