Apify vs Captain Data
Apify (SaaS Platform) and Captain Data (Web SaaS) both compete in Lead Enrichment & Waterfall Orchestration. On pricing, Apify lists Free plan · $0/mo · Enterprise plan (free plan), whereas Captain Data lists From $5/mo (no free plan disclosed). Technically, Apify is rated L3 · Conditional automation with a 4.0/5.0 (Proprietary moat) moat, while Captain Data is rated L3 · Conditional automation with a 3.6/5.0 (Proprietary moat) moat. Corporate profile: Apify (founded 2016, HQ Prague, Hlavni mesto Praha, Czech Republic, $3.5M funding) vs. Captain Data (founded 2019, HQ Nantes, Pays de la Loire). Fact-checked by Tim Fenolz (Oct 23, 2026) for Apify and Anna Xia (Oct 14, 2026) for Captain Data. At a 5-seat team baseline, Apify starts at ~$0/mo vs Captain Data at ~$30/mo.
Apify
Cloud web scraping and browser automation marketplace offering 2,000+ ready-to-run Actors and MCP servers for GTM lead extraction and AI agents.
5-Seat Floor: ~$0/mo (Free plan · $0/mo · Enterprise plan) · Autonomy: L3 · Conditional automation · Moat: 4.0/5.0 (Proprietary moat)
Target fit: B2B Marketing & GTM Teams (SaaS Platform)
Captain Data
B2B data extraction and enrichment orchestration API designed for AI agents and revenue teams chaining data sources into unified outbound pipelines.
5-Seat Floor: ~$30/mo (From $5/mo) · Autonomy: L3 · Conditional automation · Moat: 3.6/5.0 (Proprietary moat)
Target fit: B2B SaaS, DTC / eCommerce, Enterprise Brands (Web SaaS)
How Apify and Captain Data differ
- Pricing model: Apify is freemium, Captain Data is subscription.
- Apify has a free plan; none is recorded for Captain Data.
- Published tier ladder: Apify documents 4 priced tiers (Free / Sandbox $0, Entry / Starter $0.01/mo, Growth / Professional $0.05/mo); Captain Data documents 3 priced tiers (Entry / Starter $5/mo, Growth / Professional $29.99/mo, Scale / Advanced $59.99/mo).
- Moat score: Apify scores 4.0/5.0 vs. Captain Data at 3.6/5.0 (Proprietary moat).
- Delivery: Apify is a SaaS Platform product; Captain Data is a Web SaaS product.
- Apify was founded earlier (2016) than Captain Data (2019).
- Headquarters: Apify in Prague, Hlavni mesto Praha, Czech Republic, Captain Data in Nantes, Pays de la Loire.
- Company headcount: Apify is 201-500 employees; Captain Data is 11-50 employees.
- Audience: Apify targets B2B Marketing & GTM Teams; Captain Data targets B2B SaaS, DTC / eCommerce, Enterprise Brands.
- Ecosystem stack: Apify connects with Salesforce, HubSpot, Pipedrive, Outreach; Captain Data connects with Apollo.io, LinkedIn, Twilio Segment, Stripe.
Computed from the fields below. Only editor-verified ratings and vendor-sourced prices are compared.
When to choose Apify vs Captain Data (and when to walk away)
Choose Apify if
- Target ICP & Stack Fit: You operate as B2B Marketing & GTM Teams requiring a SaaS Platform deployment for Sales Intelligence, with verified ecosystem connectivity for Salesforce, HubSpot, Pipedrive, Outreach.
- L3 Architecture & Defensibility: Apify commands a deep developer and GTM data-extraction moat through its marketplace of thousands of community-maintained scraping Actors, managed anti-blocking proxy infrastructure, and native Model Context Protocol (MCP) server for AI agents.
- Commercial Model Fit: Your procurement budget aligns with Free plan · $0/mo · Enterprise plan and want a self-serve free tier for zero-cost initial validation.
Walk away from Apify if
- Walk away if your workflow requires uncapped enterprise volume on the Free plan · $0/mo · Enterprise plan entry plan without upgrading tiers.
- Walk away if your workflow cannot tolerate compute unit & residential proxy cost unpredictability: Because complex headless browser Actors and residential proxy traffic consume metered compute units and gigabytes ($8/GB to $19/month+ depending on tier), poorly optimized recursive crawls can exhaust monthly prepaid credits rapidly.
- Walk away if third-party actor maintenance dependency is a deal-breaker for your team: Many popular GTM and social scrapers in the Apify Store are built by independent community developers; when target websites alter their DOM structure or anti-bot defenses, workflows face temporary breakage bottlenecks until the maintainer patches the Actor.
Choose Captain Data if
- Target ICP & Stack Fit: You operate as B2B SaaS, DTC / eCommerce and Enterprise Brands requiring a Web SaaS deployment for Sales Intelligence, with verified ecosystem connectivity for Apollo.io, LinkedIn, Twilio Segment, Stripe.
- L3 Architecture & Defensibility: Centralized orchestration wrapper unifying headless scraping scripts, third-party data providers, and waterfall logic via an API-first execution layer.
- Commercial Model Fit: Your procurement budget aligns with From $5/mo.
Walk away from Captain Data if
- Walk away if your workflow requires uncapped enterprise volume on the From $5/mo entry plan without upgrading tiers.
- Walk away if your workflow cannot tolerate upstream scraper session invalidation: Automated extraction tasks relying on social networks or third-party web portals face brittle execution states when target DOM elements alter or authentication cookies expire.
- Walk away if latency overhead in waterfall cascades is a deal-breaker for your team: Chaining sequential data providers introduces compounding network request latency, causing batch jobs to experience substantial delays when processing thousands of concurrent rows.
Side-by-side facts
| Field | Apify | Captain Data |
|---|---|---|
| Subtrack | Lead Enrichment & Waterfall Orchestration | Lead Enrichment & Waterfall Orchestration |
| Pricing | Free plan · $0/mo · Enterprise plan | From $5/mo |
| Pricing model | Freemium | Subscription |
| Published pricing tiers | Free / Sandbox ($0) · Entry / Starter ($0.01/mo) · Growth / Professional ($0.05/mo) · Scale / Advanced ($0.13/mo) | Entry / Starter ($5/mo) · Growth / Professional ($29.99/mo) · Scale / Advanced ($59.99/mo) |
| Free access | Free plan | No free plan disclosed |
| Enterprise plan | Yes | Not recorded |
| AI autonomy level | L3 · Conditional automation | L3 · Conditional automation |
| Moat tier & score | 4.0 / 5.0 · Proprietary moat | 3.6 / 5.0 · Proprietary moat |
| Delivery | SaaS Platform | Web SaaS |
| Audience | B2B Marketing & GTM Teams | B2B SaaS, DTC / eCommerce, Enterprise Brands |
| Ecosystem integrations | Salesforce, HubSpot, Pipedrive, Outreach, Slack, LinkedIn | Apollo.io, LinkedIn, Twilio Segment, Stripe |
| Compliance & governance | SOC 2, GDPR, CCPA | — |
| Funding & backing | $3.5M · Backed by Y Combinator, J&T Ventures, Reflex Capital, INCOMMING ventures | Seed |
| Founders | Jakub Balada, Jan Čurn | Guillaume Odier, Marc Francis, Mathieu Gervais |
| Company size | 201-500 employees | 11-50 employees |
| Founded | 2016 | 2019 |
| Headquarters | Prague, Hlavni mesto Praha, Czech Republic | Nantes, Pays de la Loire |
| Fact-checked | Tim Fenolz, Oct 23, 2026 | Anna Xia, Oct 14, 2026 |
| Governance & docs | — | System Status ↗ · API & Docs ↗ · Changelog ↗ · DPA ↗ · Terms ↗ · Privacy ↗ |
Apify vs Captain Data: TCO & constraint stress test
Test how both tools behave under your team size, monthly budget ceiling, CRM ecosystem, and governance guardrails.
Apify
Conditional Fit · Contract & Stack Caveats- Opaque Enterprise Quoting vs. SMB/Mid-Market Budget: Apify does not disclose a public self-serve floor (Free plan · $0/mo · Enterprise plan). Buyers with a $800/mo cap face high sales-qualification friction.
- Published Self-Serve Entry Floor: Apify publishes a transparent entry point (Free plan · $0/mo · Enterprise plan) with a free tier for initial validation before committing.
- Tier Fit for 5-Seat Scale: Entry / Starter ($0.01/mo): Verified $0.01/mo published rate on vendor pricing schedule.
- Primary Operational Bottleneck: Compute Unit & Residential Proxy Cost Unpredictability: Because complex headless browser Actors and residential proxy traffic consume metered compute units and gigabytes ($8/GB to $19/month+ depending on tier), poorly optimized recursive crawls can exhaust monthly prepaid credits rapidly.
Walk-Away Rule: Walk away if your workflow requires uncapped enterprise volume on the Free plan · $0/mo · Enterprise plan entry plan without upgrading tiers.
Negotiation Lever: Validate exact quota thresholds (seats, credits, or API calls) included in Apify's Free plan · $0/mo · Enterprise plan tier before converting from monthly to annual billing.
Captain Data
Conditional Fit · Contract & Stack Caveats- Published Self-Serve Entry Floor: Captain Data publishes a transparent entry point (From $5/mo) for initial validation before committing.
- Usage / Credit Burn Volatility: Captain Data uses credit or usage-metered billing (From $5/mo). High-volume automated workflows across 5 seats can trigger mid-cycle overage charges.
- Tier Fit for 5-Seat Scale: Growth / Professional ($29.99/mo): Verified $29.99/mo published rate on vendor pricing schedule.
- Primary Operational Bottleneck: Upstream Scraper Session Invalidation: Automated extraction tasks relying on social networks or third-party web portals face brittle execution states when target DOM elements alter or authentication cookies expire.
Walk-Away Rule: Walk away if your workflow requires uncapped enterprise volume on the From $5/mo entry plan without upgrading tiers.
Negotiation Lever: Validate exact quota thresholds (seats, credits, or API calls) included in Captain Data's From $5/mo tier before converting from monthly to annual billing.
Limitations
Apify
Operational limitations and technical trade-offs include: Compute Unit & Residential Proxy Cost Unpredictability: Because complex headless browser Actors and residential proxy traffic consume metered compute units and gigabytes ($8/GB to $19/month+ depending on tier), poorly optimized recursive crawls can exhaust monthly prepaid credits rapidly.Full limitations in the Apify review
Captain Data
Operational considerations and platform boundaries include: Upstream Scraper Session Invalidation: Automated extraction tasks relying on social networks or third-party web portals face brittle execution states when target DOM elements alter or authentication cookies expire.Full limitations in the Captain Data review
Pricing notes & tier schedules
Apify: Free plan · $0/mo · Enterprise plan
Apify uses a hybrid Freemium subscription plus pay-as-you-go compute consumption model, where monthly subscription fees are credited toward Actor compute units ($0.2 to $0.6 per compute unit), residential proxies, and rented Actors.
- Free / Sandbox ($0, 1–2 seats (Evaluation)): Entry free tier with capped usage or feature quotas for initial workflow testing.
- Entry / Starter ($0.01/mo, 1–2 seats): Verified $0.01/mo published rate on vendor pricing schedule.
- Growth / Professional ($0.05/mo, 5 seats): Verified $0.05/mo published rate on vendor pricing schedule.
- Scale / Advanced ($0.13/mo, 15 seats): Verified $0.13/mo published rate on vendor pricing schedule.
- Credit & Usage Burn Multiplier: Automated workflows consume metered credits/usage quotas; multi-step enrichment, voice minutes, or high-frequency agent runs can trigger mid-cycle top-up packs.
- Compute Unit & Residential Proxy Cost Unpredictability: Because complex headless browser Actors and residential proxy traffic consume metered compute units and gigabytes ($8/GB to $19/month+ depending on tier), poorly optimized recursive crawls can exhaust monthly prepaid credits rapidly.
Captain Data: From $5/mo
Captain Data utilizes an API-centric, usage-based commercial framework billed via monthly operational credits. Commercial access is structured from $5/month, scaling in lockstep with the volume of processed records across individual pipeline runs.
- Entry / Starter ($5/mo, 1–2 seats): Verified $5/mo published rate on vendor pricing schedule.
- Growth / Professional ($29.99/mo, 5 seats): Verified $29.99/mo published rate on vendor pricing schedule.
- Scale / Advanced ($59.99/mo, 15 seats): Verified $59.99/mo published rate on vendor pricing schedule.
- Annual Billing Headline vs. Monthly Premium: Headline entry rates reflect annual billing commitments (SAVE 50%); month-to-month flexibility carries a higher effective monthly rate or requires annual prepayment.
- Credit & Usage Burn Multiplier: Automated workflows consume metered credits/usage quotas; multi-step enrichment, voice minutes, or high-frequency agent runs can trigger mid-cycle top-up packs.
Frequently asked questions: Apify vs Captain Data
How does Apify pricing compare to Captain Data in 2026?
Apify is listed at Free plan · $0/mo · Enterprise plan (freemium, free plan), whereas Captain Data is listed at From $5/mo (subscription, no free plan disclosed).
How do Apify and Captain Data compare on AI autonomy and moat depth?
On the MarTechRadar L1–L5 scale, Apify is rated L3 · Conditional automation with a Proprietary moat moat (4.0/5.0), while Captain Data is rated L3 · Conditional automation with a Proprietary moat moat (3.6/5.0).
Which teams are Apify and Captain Data built for?
Apify is a SaaS Platform product in Lead Enrichment & Waterfall Orchestration designed for B2B Marketing & GTM Teams. Captain Data is a Web SaaS product in Lead Enrichment & Waterfall Orchestration designed for B2B SaaS, DTC / eCommerce, Enterprise Brands.
What are the main limitations of Apify vs Captain Data?
For Apify: Operational limitations and technical trade-offs include: Compute Unit & Residential Proxy Cost Unpredictability: Because complex headless browser Actors and residential proxy traffic consume metered compute units and gigabytes ($8/GB to $19/month+ depending on tier), poorly optimized recursive crawls can exhaust monthly prepaid credits rapidly. For Captain Data: Operational considerations and platform boundaries include: Upstream Scraper Session Invalidation: Automated extraction tasks relying on social networks or third-party web portals face brittle execution states when target DOM elements alter or authentication cookies expire.
What are the hidden TCO drivers and contract negotiation levers for Apify vs Captain Data?
For Apify: Credit & Usage Burn Multiplier (Automated workflows consume metered credits/usage quotas; multi-step enrichment, voice minutes, or high-frequency agent runs can trigger mid-cycle top-up packs.) Negotiation lever: Validate exact quota thresholds (seats, credits, or API calls) included in Apify's Free plan · $0/mo · Enterprise plan tier before converting from monthly to annual billing. For Captain Data: Annual Billing Headline vs. Monthly Premium (Headline entry rates reflect annual billing commitments (SAVE 50%); month-to-month flexibility carries a higher effective monthly rate or requires annual prepayment.) Negotiation lever: Validate exact quota thresholds (seats, credits, or API calls) included in Captain Data's From $5/mo tier before converting from monthly to annual billing.
Excerpts are quoted verbatim from each fact-checked review. Last updated Oct 23, 2026.