Pricing Advisor — Optimal PPE Pricing

Analyze the Apify Store to find the optimal price for your actors. Pricing Advisor scans competitor actors in your categories, compares Pay-Per-Event (PPE) rates, and delivers data-backed recommendations on whether to raise, lower, or keep your current pricing. Built for Apify developers and publishers who want to maximize revenue without guessing.

Features

• Fetches all your actors automatically via the Apify API
• Identifies competitors in the same Store category
• Extracts and compares PPE pricing across up to 20 competitors per category
• Calculates market average and median prices
• Generates actionable recommendations: RAISE, LOWER, KEEP, SET_PPE, or INSUFFICIENT_DATA
• Factors in your actor's user count (30-day) to gauge demand elasticity
• Caches category data to minimize API calls when analyzing multiple actors
• Outputs detailed reports with competitor breakdowns

Use Cases

• Apify developers launching a new actor: Determine the right PPE price before publishing by seeing what competitors charge in your category.
• Publishers optimizing existing pricing: Discover if you are leaving money on the table with below-market pricing or losing users with above-market rates.
• Actor portfolio managers: Audit pricing across all your actors in a single run to find underpriced or overpriced listings.
• Market researchers: Understand pricing dynamics and trends within specific Apify Store categories.

How to Use

1. Click Try for free on this actor's Store page.
2. Enter your Apify API Token (find it at console.apify.com/settings/integrations).
3. Optionally enter specific Actor Names to analyze. Leave empty to analyze all your actors.
4. Click Start and wait for the run to finish.
5. View pricing reports in the Dataset tab. Download as JSON, CSV, or Excel.

Input Parameters

Parameter	Type	Required	Description
apiToken	String	Yes	Your Apify API token. Used to fetch your actor list and details. Find it at https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations
actorNames	String[]	No	Specific actor names to analyze (e.g., ["website-contact-scraper", "google-maps-lead-enricher"]). Leave empty to analyze all your actors.

Output Example

The actor returns one report per analyzed actor:

{
  "actorName": "website-contact-scraper",
  "category": "LEAD_GENERATION",
  "currentPricing": {
    "model": "PAY_PER_EVENT",
    "mainEvent": "result",
    "price": 0.05
  },
  "competitors": [
    {
      "name": "competitor/lead-scraper",
      "users30d": 342,
      "pricing": "PPE $0.10/result",
      "ppePrice": 0.10
    },
    {
      "name": "another/contact-finder",
      "users30d": 128,
      "pricing": "PPE $0.08/result",
      "ppePrice": 0.08
    }
  ],
  "competitorCount": 12,
  "avgMarketPrice": 0.09,
  "medianMarketPrice": 0.08,
  "recommendation": "RAISE",
  "reasoning": "Your price ($0.05) is 38% below the market median ($0.08). 215 users suggests strong demand — you likely have room to raise price.",
  "suggestedPrice": 0.07,
  "analyzedAt": "2026-03-18T14:30:00.000Z"
}

Output Fields

Field	Type	Description
actorName	String	Name of the analyzed actor
category	String	Primary Apify Store category used for competitor lookup
currentPricing	Object	Your actor's current pricing model, event name, and price
currentPricing.model	String	Pricing model: PAY_PER_EVENT, FREE_OR_PLATFORM, or NONE
currentPricing.mainEvent	String	PPE event name (e.g., result), or null if not PPE
currentPricing.price	Number	Current PPE price in USD, or null if not set
competitors	Array	Up to 20 competitors from the same Store category
competitors[].name	String	Competitor actor identifier (username/actor-name)
competitors[].users30d	Number	Competitor's user count over the last 30 days
competitors[].pricing	String	Human-readable pricing summary
competitors[].ppePrice	Number	PPE price in USD, or null if not PPE
competitorCount	Number	Total number of competitors analyzed
avgMarketPrice	Number	Average PPE price across competitors (USD), or null
medianMarketPrice	Number	Median PPE price across competitors (USD), or null
recommendation	String	One of: RAISE, LOWER, KEEP, SET_PPE, INSUFFICIENT_DATA
reasoning	String	Plain-English explanation of the recommendation with supporting data
suggestedPrice	Number	Recommended price in USD based on market analysis, or null
analyzedAt	String	ISO 8601 timestamp of when the analysis was performed

How Much Does It Cost?

This actor uses Pay-Per-Event pricing at $0.20 per analysis report. You are charged once per run, regardless of how many actors are analyzed.

The Apify Free plan includes $5 of monthly credits — enough for approximately 25 pricing analyses.

Plan	Monthly Credits	Approximate Analyses
Free	$5	~25
Starter ($49/mo)	$49	~245
Scale ($499/mo)	$499	~2,495

API Examples

Python

from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient("YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN")

run = client.actor("7h12qFpJ5M7CLZ8AW").call(run_input={
    "apiToken": "YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN",
    "actorNames": ["website-contact-scraper"]
})

for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    print(f"{item['actorName']}: {item['recommendation']} — {item['reasoning']}")
    if item['suggestedPrice']:
        print(f"  Suggested price: ${item['suggestedPrice']}")

JavaScript

import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

const client = new ApifyClient({ token: 'YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN' });

const run = await client.actor('7h12qFpJ5M7CLZ8AW').call({
    apiToken: 'YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN',
    actorNames: ['website-contact-scraper'],
});

const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach(item => {
    console.log(`${item.actorName}: ${item.recommendation}`);
    console.log(`  Current: $${item.currentPricing.price} | Suggested: $${item.suggestedPrice}`);
    console.log(`  Market avg: $${item.avgMarketPrice} | Median: $${item.medianMarketPrice}`);
});

cURL

# Start the actor run
curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/7h12qFpJ5M7CLZ8AW/runs?token=YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "apiToken": "YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN",
    "actorNames": ["website-contact-scraper"]
  }'

# Fetch results from the dataset (use defaultDatasetId from the run response)
curl "https://api.apify.com/v2/datasets/DATASET_ID/items?token=YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN"

How It Works

1. Actor discovery: Fetches all your actors using the Apify API (/v2/acts?my=true). If you specified actor names, filters to just those.
2. Detail retrieval: For each actor, fetches full details including categories, pricing configuration, and 30-day usage stats.
3. Competitor scan: For the actor's primary category, fetches up to 50 actors from the Apify Store. Results are cached per category to avoid redundant API calls.
4. Price extraction: Extracts PPE pricing from each competitor's pricingInfos array, filtering out your own actors.
5. Market analysis: Calculates the average and median PPE prices across all competitors with PPE pricing enabled.
6. Recommendation engine: Compares your current price to the market median:
   • Below 70% of median: Recommends RAISE (suggested price = 90% of median)
   • Above 140% of median: Recommends LOWER, unless you have 100+ monthly users (strong product-market fit)
   • 70-140% of median: Recommends KEEP (price is in the market sweet spot)
   • No PPE set: Recommends SET_PPE with the market median as the suggested price
   • Fewer than 2 competitors with PPE: Returns INSUFFICIENT_DATA
7. Output: Pushes detailed reports to the dataset with competitor breakdowns, market stats, and actionable recommendations.

FAQ

Q: What Apify API token do I need? A: You need your personal Apify API token, which you can find at console.apify.com/settings/integrations. The token is used to fetch your actor list and their pricing details.

Q: Does this actor modify my pricing? A: No. This actor is read-only. It analyzes pricing data and provides recommendations, but it never changes any settings on your actors. You implement changes manually.

Q: How many competitors does it analyze? A: It fetches up to 50 actors from the Apify Store in your actor's primary category, then analyzes the top 20 competitors (excluding your own actors) for pricing comparison.

Q: What if my actor has no category assigned? A: Actors without categories are skipped because the competitor lookup requires a Store category. Assign at least one category to your actor before running the analysis.

Q: What does INSUFFICIENT_DATA mean? A: The recommendation is INSUFFICIENT_DATA when fewer than 2 competitors in your category have PPE pricing set. There is not enough market data to make a confident pricing recommendation.

Q: Can I analyze a specific actor instead of all of them? A: Yes. Use the actorNames input parameter to specify one or more actor names. Only those actors will be analyzed.

Q: How accurate are the price suggestions? A: Suggestions are based on real competitor pricing data from the Apify Store. The algorithm uses median pricing (more robust than average against outliers) and adjusts recommendations based on your actor's user demand. However, pricing is also affected by feature quality, support, and brand — factors this tool cannot measure.

Q: How often should I run this? A: Monthly is a good cadence. Competitor pricing shifts as new actors enter the Store and existing ones adjust their rates.

Limitations

• PPE pricing only -- the recommendation engine compares Pay-Per-Event prices. Actors using flat-rate or free pricing models are noted but not included in market average calculations.
• Primary category only -- competitor lookup uses the first category assigned to your actor. If your actor spans multiple categories, the analysis reflects only the primary one.
• Up to 20 competitors -- the analysis caps at 20 competitors per actor to avoid excessive API calls. In very crowded categories, some competitors may be excluded.
• Read-only -- this actor never modifies your pricing. All changes must be applied manually.
• No quality comparison -- pricing recommendations are based on market rates and user demand. They do not account for feature quality, data freshness, or support quality, which also influence optimal pricing.
• Snapshot in time -- competitor pricing changes frequently. Run monthly for current data.

Integrations

• Zapier -- Trigger workflows when pricing recommendations change. Send alerts to Slack or email when a RAISE or LOWER recommendation appears.
• Make -- Build automated pricing review workflows that combine pricing analysis with other business data.
• Google Sheets -- Export pricing reports to Google Sheets for collaborative review and historical tracking.
• Apify API -- Call the actor programmatically. Integrate into monthly reporting scripts.
• Webhooks -- Receive notifications when a pricing analysis completes.

Responsible use

• This actor only reads publicly available Apify Store data and your own actor metadata.
• It does not access other developers' private data, run logs, or source code.
• Pricing recommendations are advisory only. Implement changes based on your own business judgment.
• Competitor data is sourced from the public Store API and reflects publicly visible pricing.

Related actors

Actor	How to combine
Actor SEO Auditor	Optimize both pricing and Store listing quality for maximum visibility and revenue
Market Gap Finder	Discover underserved categories before building, then use Pricing Advisor to set the right price
Actor Health Monitor	Monitor actor reliability alongside pricing. High failure rates may justify price adjustments.
Actor A/B Tester	Compare your actor against competitors to understand whether pricing differences are justified by quality differences
Cost Watchdog	Track your own spending to understand cost basis before setting PPE prices

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.