Apify vs Manus
A detailed comparison to help you choose between Apify and Manus.
🏆
Verdict: Apify wins
Apify scores 4.3/5, edging out Manus at 4.1/5. Developers and data teams who need web data as a recurring pipeline — prebuilt scrapers to start, custom Actors and proxy infrastructure as they scale.
Apify Web scraping and automation platform | Manus Transform thoughts into actions with AI | |
|---|---|---|
| Rating | 4.3 (1 review) | 4.1 (1 review) |
| Pricing Model | freemium | freemium |
| Starting Price | Free tier available | Free tier available |
| Best For | Developers and data teams who need web data as a recurring pipeline — prebuilt scrapers to start, custom Actors and proxy infrastructure as they scale. | Individual professionals and small teams who want an autonomous agent that returns finished documents rather than drafts, and who can scope prompts tightly enough to keep credit costs predictable. |
| Free Tier | ||
| API Access | ||
| Team Features | ||
| Open Source | ||
| Tags | free tierapi accessopen source | no codefree tier |
| Visit Apify → | Visit Manus → |
Apify
Pros
- + Genuine free sandbox: $5 monthly credit covers real test runs of store Actors, not just a feature tour
- + Store breadth — flagship scrapers (Google Maps, Instagram, SERP) show 4.6–4.7 ratings across hundreds of reviews in their own store stats
- + Billing is itemized per compute unit, proxy GB and storage operation, so I could attribute a run's cost down to cents
- + First-class developer tooling: Crawlee (open source), Python and JS SDKs, CLI deploys, scheduling, webhooks, REST API
- + Proxy network (datacenter, residential, Google SERP) is integrated rather than a third-party add-on, with country-level rates published
Cons
- - Real cost is a stack of meters (Actor per-event price + compute units + proxy GB + storage) and is hard to forecast without test runs
- - Store catalog is noisy with heavy duplication — one reviewer counted 12,000+ job scrapers alone; long-tail quality is unvetted
- - Anything past running a prebuilt Actor requires coding skills and proxy knowledge
- - SSO is Enterprise-only; personal training is $150/hour; support is community-only below the $19 tier
- - Vendor's headline customer and catalog counts are self-reported and undefined — I could not verify them independently
Manus
Pros
- + Executes multi-step tasks end to end — in my runs it planned, browsed, coded and delivered a finished slide deck without me touching a toolchain
- + Manus 2.0's persistent Cloud Computer and Studio workspace kept project context alive across days of on-and-off work
- + Every claim came back source-linked once I required it, and the URLs checked out when I sampled them
- + Free plan's 300 daily refresh credits is enough for real small tasks, not just a demo
- + Deliverable range is wide: slides, websites, spreadsheets, PDFs, short video clips and playable game templates from one prompt
Cons
- - Credit burn is steep on iterating tasks — one Wide Research deck run cost me a few hundred credits
- - Fabricated two plausible figures in an early research run before I forced source links into the prompt
- - Hosted-only: no on-premises deployment, and data-training opt-out is a Team-plan feature
- - Corporate turbulence is real — the forced Meta deal reversal and a data deletion window in 2026 are risk signals for business users
Frequently Asked Questions
Which is better, Apify or Manus?▼
Apify scores higher at 4.3/5 vs 4.1/5 for Manus, making it the better-rated option in our comparison.
What is the difference between Apify and Manus?▼
Apify: Apify is a marketplace and platform of ready-made web scrapers and automation actors, with tooling to build and host your own. Manus: Manus is an AI agent that carries out multi-step tasks end to end, such as research, analysis and building deliverables, rather than only answering questions.
Is Apify or Manus more affordable?▼
Apify starts at €0/mo, Manus starts at €0/mo. Check the comparison table above for current pricing.
Stay in the loop
Get weekly updates on the best new AI tools, deals, and comparisons.
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.