Comparison
Apify vs ScrapeCreators for ad-library data: what each returned on the same ten advertisers
The two routes most people compare for pulling competitor ads, measured on the same day against the same Meta and TikTok advertisers: ads returned, fields filled, latency, and what each actually costs per page.
Written for people asking: What are the key differences between Apify and ScrapeCreators?Apify vs ScrapeCreators, which is better for a weekly competitor ad research agent?What are some alternatives to ScrapeCreators?
On 15 September 2026, for the same ten advertisers, ScrapeCreators and Apify returned the same Meta creatives: 30 active ads a page at $0.0019 and about 4 seconds on ScrapeCreators, 20 ads at $0.10 and 28 seconds (over a minute at p95) on Apify's Meta Ads Scraper. Apify adds fields ScrapeCreators lacks, such as page like counts, categories and the EU reach and spend fields, but on US-targeted advertisers those EU fields were empty on all 200 ads. On TikTok both routes found ads for the same six or seven advertisers and none for the rest, because TikTok's library has no US region; Apify's actor was $0.033 per 11-ad page and needed region 'all', ScrapeCreators $0.0019 a call. For a weekly first-page check ScrapeCreators is 50 times cheaper for the same creatives; Apify earns its price when you need EU transparency fields or want a whole library paginated in one run.
Why people compare these two
They are the two routes that a search for “ad library scraper” or “competitor ads API” turns up first, and they look interchangeable from the outside: both read the public Meta and TikTok ad libraries and return JSON. They are built differently. ScrapeCreators is a hosted API: you send an advertiser or keyword, it returns a page of ads, billed per call. Apify is a marketplace of scraper actors: you start a run with a URL or search, the actor crawls, and you are billed per result returned. That difference shows up in every column below.
Same advertisers, same day
Ten advertisers (HubSpot, Notion, monday.com, ClickUp, Grammarly, Canva, Shopify, Semrush, Apollo.io, lululemon), one call per route, first page only, 15 September 2026. Raw responses on the evidence page.
| Route | Returned | Ads per call | p50 | p95 | Cost per call | Billing |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apify · Meta Ads Scraper | 10 | 20 | 40,062 ms | 51,041 ms | $0.100 | per result |
| ScrapeCreators · Meta, by page name | 10 | 29.5 | 7,020 ms | 11,417 ms | $0.0019 | per call |
| ScrapeCreators · Meta, keyword search | 10 | 30 | 7,466 ms | 10,384 ms | $0.0019 | per call |
| Route | Returned | Zero ads | Ads per call | p50 | p95 | Cost per call | Billing |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apify · TikTok Ads Library | 10 | 4 | 9 | 22,972 ms | 33,990 ms | $0.027 | per result |
| ScrapeCreators · TikTok ad library | 10 | 1 | 8 | 6,259 ms | 9,210 ms | $0.0019 | per call |
| TikHub · TikTok Creative Center top ads | 10 | 10 | 0 | 5,166 ms | 9,437 ms | $0.0010 | per call |
| Route | Ads | Creative | Dates | Placement | Status | Spend | Reach | Landing | Copy |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apify · Meta Ads Scraper | 200 | 100% | 100% | 100% | 99% | 0% | 0% | 98% | 100% |
| ScrapeCreators · Meta, by page name | 260 | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 0% | 0% | 99% | 99% |
| ScrapeCreators · Meta, keyword search | 297 | 100% | 100% | 100% | 100% | 0% | 0% | 99% | 100% |
The differences that matter
- Price per page of the same creatives: 50×. ScrapeCreators returned 30 active Meta ads for $0.0019; Apify returned 20 of the same ads for $0.10 (20 × $0.005). Over ten competitors weekly that is $0.02 against $1.00.
- Latency: seconds versus a minute. ScrapeCreators answered in about 4 seconds at the median on Meta and 3 on TikTok. Apify’s Meta run took 28 seconds at the median and 61 seconds at p95, because it launches a crawler per request; its TikTok actor took 9 seconds at the median and 19 at p95. An agent calling Apify synchronously needs a timeout of a minute or more.
- Fields: Apify has more, but they were empty. Apify adds page like counts, ad categories,
containsSensitiveContent, and the EU transparency block (reach, impressions text, targeted countries, spend, currency). On 200 ads across ten US-targeted advertisers, spend, reach and EU impressions were null on every one, which is exactly what Meta’s rules predict: those fields exist only for political ads and EU-delivered ads. The core fields both routes return, creative, dates, placement, active flag, landing page and copy, were filled at the same rate on both. - Pagination: cursor versus cap. ScrapeCreators returns a cursor and the library total (HubSpot 191 active ads, Shopify 4,986), so you page as far as you want at $0.0019 a page. Apify takes a result cap and crawls to it in one run, so pulling Shopify’s whole library is one long run billed per ad rather than 167 short calls.
- TikTok coverage is the same, and the same gaps. Both found ads for HubSpot, Notion, Canva, Shopify and lululemon; neither found monday.com or ClickUp. That is the library, not the route: TikTok’s ad library covers Europe and a list of other countries, not the United States.
- Keys and accounts. ScrapeCreators bills prepaid credits that never expire (100 free on signup). Apify bills per result against a platform balance with a $5 free monthly credit; empty runs and how they are charged are not stated on its pages.
Who each fits
- Weekly competitor monitoring, four platforms, one key: ScrapeCreators. Paginate with the cursor for competitors with more than a page of ads.
- EU competitors and you need reach, impressions and targeting: Apify’s Meta scraper with details per ad, on EU-delivered ads. Budget a minute per call.
- Pull an entire library once: Apify, one run to the cap.
- Google ads: neither is distinctive; ScrapeCreators’ Google route and SerpApi returned the identical 377 ads for the same ten domains (platform page).
What this run cannot tell you
First page only, one day, ten mostly US-targeted advertisers. A cohort of EU advertisers would show Apify’s extra fields populated. Pagination depth, rate limits at volume, and how quickly a new ad appears in each route were not exercised. Creative URLs on both routes point at the platforms’ CDNs and expire; store the file, not the link.
Next step
- Provider docs and prices: ScrapeCreators, Apify Facebook Ads Scraper, Apify TikTok Ads Library.
- The cross-platform comparison with Google and LinkedIn included: choose an ad-library API. What no route can return: the data fields guide.
- Reproduce it: the advertiser cohort, runner and scorer are on the evidence page.
Questions this page answers
What are the key differences between Apify and ScrapeCreators for ad-library data?
Billing and shape. ScrapeCreators is a hosted API billed per call ($0.0019 on the routes measured) that returns one page of ads in about 1 to 7 seconds depending on the platform. Apify runs a scraper actor billed per result ($0.005 per Meta ad, $0.003 per TikTok ad) that takes 10 to 60 seconds a run and returns more fields, most of them only populated for EU-delivered ads. On the same ten advertisers the creatives, dates, placements and landing pages were the same.
Is Apify or ScrapeCreators better for a weekly competitor ad research agent?
For a weekly first-page check across Meta, Google, TikTok and LinkedIn, ScrapeCreators: about $0.08 a week for ten competitors on four platforms, one key, sub-10-second calls. Apify for the Meta job when you need EU reach and targeting fields on EU advertisers or want to paginate an entire library in one run, at about $1 a week for the same ten competitors.
What are some alternatives to ScrapeCreators for ad libraries?
Apify's Facebook Ads Scraper and TikTok Ads Library actors for Meta and TikTok; SerpApi's Google Ads Transparency Center route for Google, which returned the identical ads to ScrapeCreators at $0.015 a call; and the platforms' own APIs, which are limited to EU-delivered or political ads (Meta), EEA ads (Google) and European data (TikTok). No route returns spend for commercial ads.
What is better than Apify for pulling competitor ads?
For ad-library data it depends on the job. For a first-page check of Meta, ScrapeCreators returned the same creatives as Apify's Meta Ads Scraper on 15 September 2026 for $0.0019 a page in about 4 seconds, against $0.10 and 28 seconds. On Google, ScrapeCreators and SerpApi returned the identical 377 ads for ten domains. Apify is still the fit for EU reach and targeting fields, or for pulling a whole library in one run.
What does Apify cost per ad at small and large volume?
At small volume, what this site measured: Apify's Facebook Ads Scraper returned 20 Meta ads for $0.10 a run on each of seven weekly runs between 15 September and 26 October 2026, which is $0.005 an ad, and its TikTok Ads Library actor ran at $0.001 to $0.0032 an ad over the same runs. The $0.002 an ad that Apify quoted on 26 September 2026 for an overnight pull of 133,000 live ads from 6,055 companies across Meta, Google and LinkedIn is a vendor case study at a volume this site has not run, so treat it as the large-volume figure and $0.005 as what ten advertisers and one page each actually cost.
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