The best Apify Google Maps Scraper alternative depends on whether you want a scraping platform or a lead list. If you want Google Maps businesses with email addresses at one price per lead and no actor to configure, MapScraper includes email in every lead and sells one-time packs: 100 free leads with no card, then 1,000 leads for $5 (launch price), 5,000 for $19, 20,000 for $49 and 50,000 for $99. Apify's Google Maps Scraper charges $3 per 1,000 places on its Starter plan plus $2 per 1,000 for contact enrichment, inside a $19/month subscription; it is the better pick if you need reviews, images, social profiles or very large volumes on a Business plan.
Every Apify figure below comes from Apify's own pages, read on 2 November 2026: the Google Maps Scraper actor page, its pricing tab and the Apify platform pricing page. Prices change, so check those pages before you buy. MapScraper figures come from our own pricing.
MapScraper vs Apify Google Maps Scraper at a glance
| MapScraper | Apify Google Maps Scraper | |
|---|---|---|
| What you use | A web app: pick a business type and area, or type a search | An "actor" you configure and run on the Apify platform |
| Free allowance | 100 leads once per new account, no card | Free plan: $5 of usage per month, no card |
| Place price | Packs: 1,000 / $5 (launch), 5,000 / $19, 20,000 / $49, 50,000 / $99 | Per 1,000 places: $4 Free, $3 Starter, $2 Scale, $1.50 Business |
| Subscription | None, one-time packs | Starter $19/mo, Scale $199/mo, Business $999/mo, each including that amount of usage, then pay as you go |
| Email addresses | Included in every lead, crawled from the business's own website | Optional "company contacts enrichment": $2 per 1,000 on Free and Starter, $1.50 Scale, $1.05 Business |
| Unused balance | Leads never expire | Prepaid usage expires at the end of each billing cycle |
| Cost before you run | Free pre-count of how many businesses a scan will return | Not stated on the pages above |
| 120-result Maps limit | Area split into cells, de-duplicated by place_id | Bypassed with a location input; searches without one capped at 120 |
| Export | Excel, CSV | JSON, CSV, Excel, XML, HTML |
| Extras | Lead filters: no website, has phone, minimum rating; digital weakness score | Reviews, images, social profile enrichment, named business leads, email verification, AI competitor analysis |
Two honest notes. Apify's actor collects far more kinds of Google Maps data than we do; if you need reviews or photos, it covers more ground. And "not stated" means we did not find it on those pages, not that the feature is missing.
What a lead list with emails costs on each
Most people searching for an Apify alternative are not unhappy with the data. They are unhappy with working out the bill: a base event per place, add-on events per feature, a plan tier that changes every price, and a monthly subscription on top. Here is the like-for-like cost of a list with emails, using Apify's published per-event prices for "scraped place" plus "company contacts enrichment", and picking the cheapest Apify plan for each volume.
| Businesses with emails | Apify usage (place + contacts) | Cheapest Apify plan | Apify total for the month | MapScraper |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1,000 | $5.00 on Starter ($6.00 on Free) | Starter ($19, usage included) | $19 | $5 (launch pack) |
| 5,000 | $25.00 on Starter | Starter: $19 + $6 overage | $25 | $19 |
| 20,000 | $100.00 on Starter | Starter: $19 + $81 overage | $100 | $49 |
| 50,000 | $175.00 on Scale ($250 on Starter) | Scale ($199, usage included) | $199 | $99 |
How the Apify column is worked out: on Starter, a place is $3 per 1,000 and contact enrichment $2 per 1,000, so $5 per 1,000 businesses with contacts. At 20,000 that is $100 of usage; the $19 plan covers the first $19 and the rest is pay as you go. On Scale, the rate is $3.50 per 1,000, but the plan itself is $199 a month. Three assumptions, all in Apify's favour or neutral:
- Contact enrichment is counted on every place. If Apify bills it only for places with a website, real lists cost somewhat less.
- Overage is billed at the listed per-event prices. Apify's pricing page describes paid plans as "pay as you go".
- No other add-ons. Filters ($1 per 1,000 on Starter), additional place details ($2 per 1,000) or email verification ($4 per 1,000) would add to the Apify column.
What the table shows:
- Under about 800 leads a month, Apify's Free plan is cheaper. Its $5 of monthly usage covers roughly 833 places with contacts at the Free rate of $6 per 1,000, and it renews. MapScraper's 100 free leads are a one-time trial.
- From 1,000 to 50,000 leads with emails, MapScraper costs less, about half at 20,000 and 50,000, because email is not a second line item and there is no monthly plan to carry.
- At Business-plan scale, Apify's rate falls to $2.55 per 1,000 with contacts ($1.50 + $1.05), but the plan is $999 a month. That only pays off at hundreds of thousands of places a month.
One more difference that shows up on the bill: Apify's prepaid usage expires at the end of each billing cycle. A Starter month where you scrape 2,000 places still costs $19. MapScraper packs are bought once and the leads never expire.
Three practical differences beyond price
1. No actor to configure
Apify is a general scraping platform that runs "actors", and the Google Maps Scraper is one of them. You set search terms, locations, the maximum number of places, which add-ons to switch on, then run it and download the dataset. That flexibility is the point for developers. For a salesperson or agency owner it is setup. In MapScraper you pick a business type and a city, or type "roofers in Denver", or ask Scout, our agent, to build the search. See how to scrape Google Maps without coding for the no-code options side by side.
2. You see the count before you spend
Before a MapScraper scan runs, a free pre-count estimates how many businesses it will return. Nothing is charged until you confirm, and if you stop a scan early you pay only for the rows already delivered. On a per-event platform, the cost depends on how many places the run finds and which add-ons fire, so the final number is set by the run.
3. Email is part of the lead
Google Maps shows no email addresses at all (how to extract emails from Google Maps explains why). Both tools get them by visiting each business's website. MapScraper crawls the home, contact and about pages and puts the email in the same row at the same price. On Apify, contact enrichment is off by default; if you forget to switch it on, you get a list without emails and pay again to enrich it.
Who should stay with Apify
Switching is not always right. Stay with Apify if:
- You pull fewer than about 800 businesses a month. The Free plan's $5 renews monthly; our trial does not.
- You need reviews, images, popular times, social profiles or named decision-makers. Apify's actor has add-ons for all of these; MapScraper focuses on the business record and its email.
- You already run other Apify actors and want one platform, one API and one bill for all your scraping.
- You scrape hundreds of thousands of places a month on a Business plan, where the per-place rate drops to $1.50 per 1,000.
- You need JSON, XML or HTML output, or a map view of results.
Who MapScraper fits better
- Agencies selling websites or local SEO. Filter for businesses with no website (finding businesses without a website) or sort by the digital weakness score. There is a ready-made use case for no-website leads.
- B2B sales and cold-email teams who need phone, email and website in one row and no monthly plan. See the full Google Maps lead generation pipeline.
- Cold callers who want phone numbers in E.164 format, ready for a dialer (cold calling lists).
- Occasional buyers. If you need 5,000 leads this month and none next month, a one-time pack is cheaper than a subscription whose unused usage expires.
Every lead has 41 fields, including name, category, phone as shown and in E.164, email, website, full address split into parts, coordinates, place_id, rating, newest review date, opening hours and the digital weakness score. The full list is on the fields page.
How to test both in fifteen minutes
- Pick one real search you would buy, for example "dentists in Chicago".
- In MapScraper, sign up free and run the pre-count. It shows how many businesses the area holds before any lead is used.
- Run it with your 100 free leads and download the CSV.
- In Apify, open the Google Maps Scraper on the Free plan, enter the same search and location, switch on company contacts enrichment, and run it.
- Compare how many rows have a working email and phone, how long setup took, and what the next 5,000 would cost on each.
For the side-by-side page we keep updated, see MapScraper vs Apify. Comparing other tools too? Read the Outscraper alternative breakdown and Google Maps API vs scraping.
Summary
Apify's Google Maps Scraper is a configurable actor on a general scraping platform: $3 per 1,000 places on Starter, emails as a $2 per 1,000 add-on, a $19 to $999 monthly plan, and usage that expires each cycle. It wins on breadth (reviews, images, social profiles, named leads) and on tiny volumes thanks to the renewing $5 free usage. MapScraper does one job, turning a Google Maps search into a lead list with email included, sold in one-time packs that never expire. From 1,000 to 50,000 leads with emails, MapScraper costs less, about half at 20,000.
Try it on your own market: start free with 100 leads, no card needed. After that, the launch pack is 1,000 leads with emails for $5, one-time, and the leads never expire.