Bright Data vs Apify
The two scraping platforms on our list. Both cover Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and X, but Bright Data sells its own scrapers at one price, while Apify is a marketplace of scrapers built by itself and by others. Apify goes deeper on every platform if you’ll vet each scraper; Bright Data gives you one price and one workflow for bulk jobs.
Researched by Which Social API editorial teamLast reviewed 29 October 2026How we review
Which Social API uses a mix of qualitative and quantitative review methods, based on each provider’s documentation, published pricing and public user reviews. We never accept money in exchange for a higher ranking or a better review. Who runs this site
The quick answer
For most teams, Apify. Between Apify’s own Actors and third-party ones, it covers nearly everything on the four main platforms, including the follower lists, Instagram hashtag search and X keyword search that Bright Data doesn’t offer at all. It’s also cheaper to start, with a free plan and $19 a month for Starter, and its scheduling, webhooks and no-code integrations are the most mature here.
Bright Data wins when consistency and scale matter more than depth. Every platform costs the same, $1.50 per 1,000 records pay as you go and $1.30 on the $499 Scale plan, and every scraper runs through the same sync or async flow with webhook or S3 delivery. If you already know which profiles and posts you want, need them in bulk, and want SSO, an SLA and a vendor that won in court against Meta, it’s the safer buy.
Choose Bright Data if
You collect known profiles and posts in bulkYou want one price and one schema style on every platformYou need an enterprise contract, SLA and SSOChoose Apify if
You need follower lists, hashtag search or X searchYou want scheduled runs and no-code exportsYou’ll pick and check each scraper yourselfHead to head
Our ratings, judged on breadth and consistency across platforms. The longer bar is better in every row.
For cost, the lower number gets the longer bar. How we review
For cost, the lower number gets the longer bar. How we review
For cost, the lower number gets the longer bar. How we review
For cost, the lower number gets the longer bar. How we review
Who covers more, and where
Share of the data types we check for that each returns. Darker is higher.
Pricing compared
Bright Data charges one rate per record on every platform. Apify charges per result through a monthly plan credit, and the rate depends on which Actor you run. On Instagram and TikTok, the popular Actors cost five to ten times as much as cheap third-party ones.
Features side by side
If you’re building on the API
Bright Data is one API with many scrapers behind it. Every call takes a dataset ID, runs synchronously or as an async job, and can deliver to a webhook or S3 in JSON, NDJSON or CSV. Bulk requests take up to 5,000 URLs, and the vendor says concurrency is unlimited on pay-as-you-go and Scale. Records are flat and wide, at 25 to 50 fields each. There’s a Python SDK and an MCP server.
Apify is a platform for running other people’s code. You start an Actor, then read its dataset, either in one synchronous call for short runs or asynchronously with webhooks. The JavaScript and Python clients, CLI and MCP server are mature, and exports come as JSON, CSV, Excel or XML. The catch is that every Actor has its own input rules and output schema, so four platforms means four integrations. Concurrent runs are capped by plan, from 5 on Free to 256 on Business.
Bright Data API
- Platforms
- Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, X
- Auth
- API key (Bearer)
- SDKs
- Python, MCP server
- Delivery
- Sync, or async to webhook or S3
- Schemas
- One style across platforms
Apify API
- Platforms
- Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, X
- Auth
- API token
- SDKs
- JavaScript, Python, CLI, MCP server
- Delivery
- Sync for short runs, or async with webhooks
- Schemas
- Different for every Actor
Where each falls short
Bright Data
It’s thinner than the specialists. There are no follower lists on any platform, no Instagram hashtag or keyword search, no Instagram stories and no X keyword search, so it can’t start a job from a search on two of its four platforms. Records that fail because of bad input are still billed, despite the “pay only for success” marketing. Trustpilot reviews from September and October 2026 complain about an AI bot in front of ticket support.
Apify
It isn’t one API. Each Actor has its own author, price, schema and maintainer, and every X Actor worth using is third party. Quality varies: Apify’s own Instagram hashtag Actor rates 3.49, and API Dojo’s YouTube Actor shows 82% run success over 30 days in the Store’s own stats. Add-on events for run starts, transcripts and filters push real costs above the headline price, and at least two October 2026 Trustpilot reviews disclose a reward from Apify.
Alternatives to both
See all 7 multi-platform scraping APIs in our ranking
Questions
Is Bright Data or Apify better?
Apify for most teams: it covers more on every platform and costs less to start. Bright Data if you collect known profiles and posts in bulk and want one price, one workflow and an enterprise contract.
Which is cheaper?
It depends on the Actor. Bright Data is $1.50 per 1,000 records on every platform. Apify’s own Instagram Actors, Clockworks’ TikTok Actor and Streamers’ YouTube Actor cost more than that on Starter, while API Dojo’s versions cost a fifth to a tenth as much. On X, Apify’s third-party Actors are far cheaper.
Can either get follower lists?
Apify can, through third-party Actors for Instagram and X and Clockworks’ TikTok scraper. Bright Data has no follower lists on any platform.
Do I need to write code?
Not for Apify, which has a console, scheduling and Make, Zapier and n8n integrations. Bright Data has no-code scrapers in its control panel, but it’s built for teams calling the API.
Has Bright Data been sued over scraping?
Yes, by Meta and by X. Bright Data won summary judgment against Meta in January 2024 over logged-off scraping of public data. X’s scraping and resale claims were dismissed in May 2024, and the narrower claims that survived ended in a confidential settlement in 2025.