Market Gap Finder -- Apify Store Niche Analyzer

Discover underserved niches on the Apify Store before you build. Market Gap Finder scans every category in the Apify Store, analyzes supply (actor count), demand (user volume), quality (success rates), and pricing distribution, then scores each category with a composite gap score so you know exactly where the best opportunities are. Stop guessing what to build -- let data tell you.

Features

• Analyzes all 17 Apify Store categories (or specific ones you choose)
• Calculates demand-per-actor ratio to find underserved markets
• Samples real actor success rates from recent run history
• Maps pricing distributions to identify price gaps
• Detects market concentration (single actor dominance)
• Generates a composite gap score (0-100) per category
• Produces actionable opportunity recommendations with specific data points
• Outputs a ranked top-5 summary so you can act immediately

Use Cases

• Apify developers: Find the most profitable niche to build your next actor in by identifying categories with high demand and few competitors.
• Product managers: Prioritize your actor development roadmap based on actual market data rather than gut feeling.
• Entrepreneurs: Evaluate the Apify ecosystem before investing development time, identifying categories where quality actors are scarce.
• Agency owners: Spot categories where existing actors have low success rates, signaling an opportunity to build a premium alternative.
• Investors: Assess the maturity and opportunity landscape of the Apify marketplace across different verticals.

How to Use

1. Go to Market Gap Finder on the Apify Store.
2. Click Try for free.
3. Enter your Apify API Token (find it at Settings > Integrations).
4. Optionally specify which categories to analyze (leave empty for all).
5. Click Start and wait for the run to complete (typically 2-5 minutes for all categories).
6. View the results in the Dataset tab -- each category gets its own row plus a summary row with top 5 opportunities.

Input Parameters

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
apiToken	string	Yes	--	Your Apify API token. Used to query the Store API and sample actor run history.
categories	string[]	No	All 17	Specific categories to analyze. Valid values: AI, AGENTS, AUTOMATION, DEVELOPER_TOOLS, ECOMMERCE, JOBS, LEAD_GENERATION, NEWS, SEO_TOOLS, SOCIAL_MEDIA, TRAVEL, VIDEOS, REAL_ESTATE, INTEGRATIONS, OTHER, OPEN_SOURCE, MCP_TOOLS
maxActorsPerCategory	integer	No	50	Maximum actors to fetch per category. Higher = more accurate but slower.

Output Example

Each category produces one result object:

{
    "type": "category-analysis",
    "category": "LEAD_GENERATION",
    "actorCount": 45,
    "totalUsers30d": 12500,
    "avgSuccessRate": 82,
    "avgPrice": 0.12,
    "priceRange": { "min": 0.01, "max": 1.50 },
    "topActor": { "name": "Google Maps Scraper", "users": 5000 },
    "gapScore": 72,
    "opportunities": [
        "High demand (12.5K users) but low avg success rate (82%) — room for a more reliable actor",
        "Price gap: most actors charge $0.12 but top charges $1.50 — mid-range opportunity"
    ]
}

The final row is a summary with the top 5 opportunities:

{
    "type": "summary",
    "totalCategoriesAnalyzed": 17,
    "totalActorsAnalyzed": 612,
    "top5Opportunities": [
        {
            "rank": 1,
            "category": "LEAD_GENERATION",
            "gapScore": 72,
            "keyOpportunity": "High demand (12.5K users) but low avg success rate (82%)"
        }
    ],
    "analyzedAt": "2026-03-18T12:00:00.000Z"
}

You can download results as JSON, CSV, Excel, or HTML.

How the Gap Score Works

The gap score (0-100) is a composite of four signals:

1. Demand per actor (0-25 points): High user count relative to number of actors indicates unmet demand.
2. Supply scarcity (0-25 points): Fewer actors in a category means more room for new entrants.
3. Quality gap (0-25 points): Low average success rates mean users are underserved by existing options.
4. Price gap (0-15 points): Wide price spreads indicate market segmentation opportunities.
5. Demand bonus (0-10 points): Categories with very high absolute demand get an additional boost.

A score of 70+ indicates a strong opportunity. 50-69 is moderate. Below 50 suggests a mature or low-demand market.

How Much Does It Cost?

This actor uses pay-per-event pricing. You are charged $0.10 per analysis run (one run covers all selected categories).

Plan	Monthly Credits	Approximate Runs
Free	$5	~50 analyses
Starter ($49/mo)	$49	~490 analyses

Platform compute costs are minimal (256 MB, 2-5 minutes per run).

Analyze market gaps using the API

Python

from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient("YOUR_API_TOKEN")

run = client.actor("ryanclinton/market-gap-finder").call(run_input={
    "apiToken": "YOUR_API_TOKEN",
    "categories": ["LEAD_GENERATION", "SEO_TOOLS"],
    "maxActorsPerCategory": 50,
})

for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    if item.get("type") == "summary":
        print(f"Analyzed {item['totalCategoriesAnalyzed']} categories, {item['totalActorsAnalyzed']} actors")
        for opp in item["top5Opportunities"]:
            print(f"  #{opp['rank']} {opp['category']} (gap: {opp['gapScore']}) — {opp['keyOpportunity']}")
    else:
        print(f"{item['category']}: gap score {item['gapScore']}, {item['actorCount']} actors, {item['totalUsers30d']} users")

JavaScript

import { ApifyClient } from "apify-client";

const client = new ApifyClient({ token: "YOUR_API_TOKEN" });

const run = await client.actor("ryanclinton/market-gap-finder").call({
    apiToken: "YOUR_API_TOKEN",
    categories: ["LEAD_GENERATION", "SEO_TOOLS"],
    maxActorsPerCategory: 50,
});

const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
const summary = items.find(i => i.type === "summary");
const categories = items.filter(i => i.type === "category-analysis");

console.log(`Top opportunities:`);
summary.top5Opportunities.forEach(o => {
    console.log(`  #${o.rank} ${o.category} (gap: ${o.gapScore}) — ${o.keyOpportunity}`);
});

cURL

# Start the analysis
curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/ryanclinton~market-gap-finder/runs?token=YOUR_API_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "apiToken": "YOUR_API_TOKEN",
    "categories": ["LEAD_GENERATION", "SEO_TOOLS"],
    "maxActorsPerCategory": 50
  }'

# Fetch results (replace DATASET_ID from the run response)
curl "https://api.apify.com/v2/datasets/DATASET_ID/items?token=YOUR_API_TOKEN&format=json"

How Market Gap Finder works

The actor runs a four-step pipeline for each category:

Step 1: Fetch Store actors

For each category, the actor queries the Apify Store API to retrieve up to maxActorsPerCategory actors. It collects actor names, user counts, pricing information, and metadata.

Step 2: Sample success rates

For up to 10 actors per category, the actor fetches the last 50 runs and calculates the percentage that completed with SUCCEEDED status in the last 30 days. This provides a real success rate metric rather than relying on self-reported quality.

Step 3: Calculate metrics

For each category, the actor computes:

• Total users (30 day) -- sum of all actors' 30-day user counts
• Average PPE price -- mean of all actors with PPE pricing configured
• Price range -- minimum and maximum PPE prices
• Top actor -- the actor with the highest user count and its market share
• Average success rate -- mean success rate from sampled actors

Step 4: Score and rank

The gap score (0-100) combines five signals with specific point allocations:

• Demand per actor (0-25 pts): high users divided by actor count
• Supply scarcity (0-25 pts): fewer actors means more room
• Quality gap (0-25 pts): low success rates signal opportunity for better alternatives
• Price gap (0-15 pts): wide price spreads indicate market segmentation potential
• Demand bonus (0-10 pts): categories with 10K+ users get an additional boost

Categories are ranked by gap score and the top 5 are highlighted in the summary.

Tips

• Start with all categories to get a baseline, then narrow down to specific ones for deeper analysis.
• Increase maxActorsPerCategory to 100+ for categories you are seriously considering -- it gives more accurate pricing and quality data.
• Run monthly to track how gaps evolve as new actors enter the market.
• Categories with gap scores above 70 and demand above 5,000 users are the sweet spot for new actor development.
• Look for categories where the top actor has more than 50% market share -- these are ripe for disruption.

FAQ

Q: How does the actor measure success rate? A: It samples the last 50 runs for up to 10 actors per category, filters to the 30-day window, and calculates the percentage that completed with SUCCEEDED status.

Q: Why does my token need access to run history? A: The actor reads public run metadata (status and timestamp) to compute real success rates. It does not access run inputs, outputs, or logs.

Q: Can I analyze a specific category like ECOMMERCE only? A: Yes. Set the categories input to ["ECOMMERCE"] and only that category will be analyzed.

Q: How accurate are the pricing numbers? A: Pricing data comes from actors that have PPE (pay-per-event) pricing configured. Free actors and those without public pricing are excluded from price calculations.

Q: What if a category shows 0% success rate? A: This means either the sampled actors had no recent runs, or run history is not publicly accessible. The gap score accounts for this by treating it as a quality signal.

Q: Is it legal to use this actor? A: This actor only reads publicly available Apify Store data and your own account's run statistics. No third-party data is scraped.

Limitations

• Public data only -- the actor reads publicly available Store listings and public run metadata. Private actors or run details are not accessible.
• Success rate sampling -- only samples up to 10 actors per category and their last 50 runs. Very new actors or those with few runs may skew category averages.
• PPE pricing focus -- price analysis only includes actors with Pay-Per-Event pricing configured. Free actors and those with custom pricing are excluded from price calculations.
• Snapshot analysis -- market data changes as new actors are published. Run monthly for current data.
• Category-level only -- analyzes at the category level, not niche sub-categories. A category may show low opportunity overall while specific niches within it are underserved.
• 17 predefined categories -- only analyzes the Apify Store's built-in categories. Custom or emerging verticals not represented by these categories cannot be analyzed.

Integrations

• Zapier -- Trigger workflows when new high-score opportunities appear. Send monthly market reports to Slack or email.
• Make -- Build automated pipelines that combine market analysis with development task tracking.
• Google Sheets -- Export category analyses to Google Sheets for trending gap scores over time.
• Apify API -- Call the actor programmatically for scheduled market scans.
• Webhooks -- Receive notifications when analysis completes.

Responsible use

• This actor only reads publicly available Apify Store data and public run statistics.
• It does not access other developers' private data, source code, run inputs, or outputs.
• Market analysis is for informational purposes. Build decisions should consider factors beyond gap scores.
• The API token is used for read-only API calls and is not stored or transmitted outside the Apify platform.

Related actors

Actor	How to combine
Pricing Advisor	Found a gap? Use Pricing Advisor to set the optimal price for your new actor in that category.
Actor SEO Auditor	After building, audit your Store listing to maximize visibility in the category you targeted.
Actor Health Monitor	Monitor your new actor's health after launch to maintain the quality advantage you identified.
Actor A/B Tester	Compare your actor against existing ones in the category to verify you deliver better results.
Cost Watchdog	Track costs as you launch and iterate on actors in new categories.

Support

Found a bug or have a feature request? Open an issue in the Issues tab on this actor's page. For custom solutions or enterprise integrations, reach out through the Apify platform.