Apify: Deploy Web Scrapers to the Cloud in 5 Minutes (Free Tier)

Building a scraper locally is one thing. Running it reliably in the cloud is another. Apify handles deployment, scheduling, proxy rotation, and storage — so you focus on the scraping logic.

What is Apify?

Apify is a cloud platform for web scraping and automation. You write a scraper (called an "Actor"), deploy it, and Apify runs it on their infrastructure.

Deploy in 5 Minutes

# Install CLI
npm install -g apify-cli

# Create new project
apify create my-scraper
cd my-scraper

# Write your scraper in src/main.js
# ... (your scraping code)

# Test locally
apify run

# Deploy to cloud
apify push

Free Tier

• $5/month compute credit (free)
• Enough for ~100 scraper runs
• No credit card required

Why Not Just Use a Cron Job?

Feature	Cron + VPS	Apify
Proxy rotation	Manual setup	Built-in
Storage	Manage yourself	Included
Scheduling	Crontab	UI scheduler
Error handling	DIY	Auto-retry
Scaling	Limited by VPS	Auto-scale

My Setup

I have 77 scrapers on Apify, covering:

• YouTube (Innertube API)
• Reddit (JSON endpoint)
• Bluesky (AT Protocol)
• Google News, Trustpilot, HN, arXiv
• Email extraction, SEO audit, and more

All use the API-first approach — querying JSON endpoints instead of parsing HTML.

Quick Example: Google News Scraper

import { Actor } from 'apify';

Actor.main(async () => {
  const input = await Actor.getInput();
  const { query } = input;

  const url = `https://news.google.com/rss/search?q=${encodeURIComponent(query)}&hl=en`;
  const res = await fetch(url);
  const xml = await res.text();

  // Parse RSS XML and push to dataset
  // ... (parsing code)

  await Actor.pushData(articles);
});

Resources

• Apify Store — 2000+ ready-made scrapers
• My 77 scrapers
• MCP Market Research Server — queries 9 APIs

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Need a custom scraper built and deployed? $20-50. I'll build, test, and deploy it to Apify. Email: [e-mail] | Hire me