A marketplace of scraper actors versus a focused business-data API.
What Apify is
Apify is a platform and marketplace for running web scraping and automation programs called Actors. An Actor is a serverless cloud program that accepts structured JSON input and produces structured output, and it can be run from the Apify console, API, CLI, or scheduler. The Apify Store hosts public Actors, including Google Maps and local-directory scrapers, and you can also build and host your own.
For local business data, Apify usually means choosing an Actor that matches your target, configuring its input, running it, inspecting the resulting dataset, and integrating that output downstream. You own Actor selection, run health, and how you handle schema or selector changes over time. That flexibility is the product: Apify is built for teams whose data sources change by project and who want a reusable execution model rather than a single fixed endpoint.
Head to head
| Dimension | Apify | biz collect |
|---|---|---|
| Primary model | Marketplace of scraper Actors you select, run, and maintain | Single API-first product: POST search, poll job, get JSON |
| Data freshness | Per-run; depends on the Actor and how often you schedule it | Per-request: each job runs Google Places search plus live website enrichment |
| Email/website enrichment | Depends on the Actor; often a separate step you add | Built in: emails, socials, and outgoing links extracted from each site, deduped |
| Output format | Structured dataset; schema varies by Actor | One stable JSON schema (20+ fields where available), OpenAPI 3.1 |
| Setup effort | Choose Actor, tune input, monitor runs, map fields | Two endpoints, one bearer token, three lines of code |
| Best for | Varied, changing scraping targets; teams that operate scrapers | Local business contacts by city + category for agents, automation, CRM |
| Pricing model | Platform plus per-Actor economics; check current pricing | Free tier, then credit-based plans from $19/mo (annual); polling is free |
Which fits the job
These tools often coexist. The best stack is usually the simplest reliable tool at each layer - not one tool forced to do every job.
biz collect vs Apify
For the specific job of getting local business contacts as JSON, yes. biz collect replaces the part of an Apify workflow where you only need city-plus-keyword business data with deduped website emails, without choosing or maintaining a scraper Actor. For broad, varied scraping across many sites, Apify remains the more flexible platform.
It depends on the Actor you run. Some Actors return emails, others return only listings and require an extra step to visit each website. With biz collect, website email extraction is part of the job and the contacts are deduped before you receive them.
No. biz collect runs the Google Places search and website enrichment pipeline for you and returns a stable JSON schema. There are no selectors, proxies, headless browsers, or Actor versions for you to manage.
biz collect exposes two endpoints and one OpenAPI 3.1 document, so an agent can fill location, keywords, and radius and parse a predictable response. Apify can be driven by agents too, but the agent often needs to know which Actor to run and how to interpret that Actor's specific output.
Yes. Many teams use biz collect for the local-business-contacts layer and reach for Apify when they need to scrape other, varied sources. The best stack is usually the simplest reliable tool at each layer.
Yes. biz collect includes 200 signup credits plus 20 daily login credits with no credit card, so you can test real searches before paying. Polling job status is free, so waiting on async jobs never costs extra credits.
Still have questions? Talk to us.
Sign up free with 200 signup credits, no credit card. POST a city and keywords, poll the job, and see the structured JSON for yourself.
