# AlternativeTo Scraper (`muhammadafzal/alternativeto-scraper`) Actor

Scrape ranked software alternatives and product metadata from public AlternativeTo pages for competitive research and software discovery.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/muhammadafzal/alternativeto-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [Muhammad Afzal](https://apify.com/muhammadafzal) (community)
- **Categories:** Developer tools
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $16.00 / 1,000 software alternatives

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.
Since this Actor supports Apify Store discounts, the price gets lower the higher subscription plan you have.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

An Actor is a serverless cloud program that runs on the Apify platform. It has two run modes.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.

Apify vocabulary and the platform model are defined once, in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md.

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.

Do not guess an integration path. Every one of them is in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md: the Apify MCP server, Agent Skills with the Apify CLI, the JavaScript and Python clients, the REST API, and the account-free path for an agent with no human to sign in. It also carries the rule on stating cost before the first paid run.

For examples already wired to this Actor's own input schema, see the [API](#api) section below.

Each client library has reference documentation the quickstart does not restate: [JavaScript/TypeScript](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md) (`npm install apify-client`) and [Python](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md) (`pip install apify-client`).

# README

## AlternativeTo Scraper

Scrape ranked software alternatives, descriptions, likes, licenses, product categories, platforms, origin, icons, and AlternativeTo links for competitive research and software discovery.

**Free-plan limit:** Apify free-plan runs deliver at most **5 records per run**. Larger `maxResults` requests are reduced before browser crawling. Paid and agentic-payment runs follow the configured `maxResults` value.

### What it extracts

One dataset item represents one software alternative shown on a public AlternativeTo alternatives page.

| Field | Meaning |
|---|---|
| `sourceSoftware`, `sourceSlug`, `sourceUrl` | Product being compared and the exact source page |
| `position`, `pageNumber` | Display order and pagination position |
| `name`, `slug` | Alternative product name and AlternativeTo identifier |
| `description` | Description shown on the result card |
| `likes`, `alternativeCount` | Displayed community and catalog counts |
| `licenses`, `applicationTypes`, `platforms` | Cost/license, category, and platform labels |
| `origin`, `iconUrl` | Displayed origin and public icon URL |
| `aboutUrl`, `alternativesUrl` | Product detail and alternatives links |
| `sponsored` | Whether AlternativeTo labels the result as sponsored |

Use this Actor for product research, competitor mapping, migration analysis, open-source discovery, and software directory enrichment. It does not scrape user profiles, authenticated content, comments, or external vendor websites.

### Input

Provide `softwareSlugs`, `startUrls`, or both. Slugs are the segment after `/software/` in an AlternativeTo URL.

```json
{
  "softwareSlugs": ["slack", "notion"],
  "maxResults": 40,
  "maxPagesPerSoftware": 3,
  "includeSponsored": false
}
```

URL mode:

```json
{
  "startUrls": [
    { "url": "https://alternativeto.net/software/trello/" }
  ],
  "maxResults": 12
}
```

`maxResults` is a global cap across all inputs. The Actor deduplicates the same alternative within each source product. Set `includeSponsored` to `true` only if you want visibly labeled sponsored listings; the `sponsored` output field preserves that disclosure.

### Output example

```json
{
  "sourceSoftware": "Slack",
  "sourceSlug": "slack",
  "sourceUrl": "https://alternativeto.net/software/slack/",
  "pageNumber": 1,
  "position": 1,
  "name": "Zulip",
  "slug": "zulip-chat-server",
  "aboutUrl": "https://alternativeto.net/software/zulip-chat-server/about/",
  "alternativesUrl": "https://alternativeto.net/software/zulip-chat-server/",
  "description": "Threaded group conversations for organized team collaboration.",
  "likes": 275,
  "alternativeCount": 250,
  "licenses": ["Free Personal", "Open Source (Apache-2.0)"],
  "applicationTypes": ["Instant Messenger", "Group Chat"],
  "platforms": ["Mac", "Windows", "Linux", "Online"],
  "origin": "United States",
  "iconUrl": "https://img.alternativeto.net/icons/140/zulip-chat-server_251998.svg",
  "sponsored": false,
  "scrapedAt": "2026-08-29T12:00:00.000Z"
}
```

The `SUMMARY` key-value record classifies the run as `DATA`, `EMPTY`, `BLOCKED`, or `REJECTED` and reports page, result, and warning counts. A target challenge never becomes a fabricated empty success.

### Pricing

This Actor uses **pay-per-event** pricing. These are the current Apify Store event prices:

| Event | Price (USD) | When it is charged |
|---|---:|---|
| `apify-default-dataset-item` | FREE: $0.02; BRONZE: $0.02; SILVER: $0.02; GOLD: $0.016; PLATINUM: $0.016; DIAMOND: $0.016 | Software alternative — One schema-valid AlternativeTo software alternative written to the default dataset. |
| `apify-actor-start` | $0.005 | Actor Start — Charged when the Actor starts running. Number of events charged depends on Actor memory (one event per GB, minimum one event). — Charged once per run. |

Apify platform usage for this Actor run is included alongside the event prices above; no separate per-run platform-usage fee is passed to users.

This covers Apify platform usage for this Actor run. Other Apify products or usage outside this Actor run may still follow your account plan.

### Reliability and limits

AlternativeTo currently challenges basic datacenter HTTP requests with Cloudflare. The Actor therefore uses a real browser, coherent sessions, conservative concurrency, and an Apify residential US proxy by default. Images, fonts, ads, and analytics are blocked to reduce bandwidth. You can supply another proxy configuration, but turning the proxy off may produce a truthful `BLOCKED` outcome.

The Actor never solves CAPTCHAs, uses login cookies, or bypasses authentication or paywalls. It retries bounded transient failures and preserves already delivered records if later pages fail. AlternativeTo can change rankings and counts at any time; output reflects the source at scrape time.

### Responsible use

Scrape only public pages and use the output in accordance with AlternativeTo's terms, robots directives, copyright rules, and applicable law. Keep request volumes reasonable. Do not use this Actor to profile individuals, infer sensitive traits, or republish copyrighted descriptions as a competing directory without appropriate rights.

For support, include the Actor run ID, input with secrets removed, and the affected AlternativeTo URL.

### Use cases

- Add a repeatable structured-data step to applications, agents, and automation pipelines.
- Run a one-off research job and export the structured result as JSON, CSV, Excel, XML, or RSS from Apify.
- Schedule the same input to monitor changes over time and send completed datasets to a webhook or integration.
- Feed schema-shaped records into a database, spreadsheet, BI tool, or AI workflow with the source URL retained for verification.

### Run AlternativeTo Scraper with the Apify API

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

const client = new ApifyClient({ token: process.env.APIFY_TOKEN });
const run = await client.actor('muhammadafzal/alternativeto-scraper').call({
  "softwareSlugs": [
    "slack"
  ],
  "startUrls": [],
  "maxResults": 20,
  "maxPagesPerSoftware": 3,
  "includeSponsored": false,
  "maxConcurrency": 2
});
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
console.log(items);
```

You can also run the Actor from Apify Console, schedules, webhooks, the REST API, Make, Zapier, n8n, or the hosted Apify MCP server.

The Actor uses the owner's DataImpulse proxy through the `DATAIMPULSE_PROXY_URL` secret. No proxy setting is required in run input.

# Actor input Schema

## `softwareSlugs` (type: `array`):

Use this when you know the AlternativeTo software slug. Enter one slug per line, for example 'slack' or 'notion'. Maximum 20; this is not a general keyword search.

## `startUrls` (type: `array`):

Use this when you already have alternatives pages. Provide URLs such as https://alternativeto.net/software/slack/. Only public /software/<slug>/ alternatives pages are accepted; maximum 20.

## `maxResults` (type: `integer`):

Use this to cap total dataset records and result-event charges across all inputs. Enter 1 to 500. Default is 20. Apify free-plan runs are capped at 5 records even when a larger value is requested; paid and agentic runs use this setting.

## `maxPagesPerSoftware` (type: `integer`):

Use this to cap pagination for each software page. Enter 1 to 25; each page normally contains about 12 alternatives. Default is 3.

## `includeSponsored` (type: `boolean`):

Use this to include records visibly labeled Sponsored by AlternativeTo. Default is false; sponsorship is always disclosed in the output.

## `maxConcurrency` (type: `integer`):

Use this to control simultaneous browser pages. Enter 1 to 5. Default is 2; lower values are gentler on AlternativeTo and more session-stable.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "softwareSlugs": [
    "slack"
  ],
  "startUrls": [],
  "maxResults": 20,
  "maxPagesPerSoftware": 3,
  "includeSponsored": false,
  "maxConcurrency": 2
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `results` (type: `string`):

Schema-validated records in the default dataset.

## `summary` (type: `string`):

Outcome, counts, and warnings in the SUMMARY key-value record.

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("muhammadafzal/alternativeto-scraper").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = {}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("muhammadafzal/alternativeto-scraper").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{}' |
apify call muhammadafzal/alternativeto-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,muhammadafzal/alternativeto-scraper"
        }
    }
}
```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/vsLdtUkuRfVjPKTmg/builds/TdKvBvu9NqnMaQYqA/openapi.json