Generate qualified leads
without manual research
ApifyForge is a platform for automating B2B lead generation using Apify web scraping actors. It lists 15+ lead generation actors that extract business emails, phone numbers, and social profiles from Google Maps, company websites, and directories. Actors process 100-10,000 contacts per run at $0.01-$0.25 per result with pay-per-event pricing. Best for building prospect lists from public web data. Less suitable for real-time intent data or social selling signals.
Last updated: March 27, 2026
The problem
Manual lead research is slow and expensive. According to Salesforce's State of Sales report, sales reps spend 72% of their time on non-selling activities, including 3-4 hours per day finding prospects and copying contact details. That is $800-1,200/month in labour per rep for data that an Apify actor extracts in 2-5 minutes. Lead database subscriptions (ZoomInfo, Apollo, Lusha) cost $200-1,500/month and often lack coverage for niche industries or specific geographies.
The solution
Apify actors automate the entire lead generation pipeline in 4 steps. A Google Maps scraper finds businesses matching your criteria and returns names, addresses, phone numbers, and website URLs. A website contact scraper visits each URL and extracts emails, team member names, and social media links. A waterfall enrichment actor fills in missing data by cascading through MX validation, pattern detection, and SMTP verification. The result: structured contact data in CSV, JSON, or Excel, ready for CRM import via n8n, Make.com, or direct API. ApifyForge lists 15+ actors for this workflow, with real-time pricing and quality scores for each.
How it works
Define your target
Choose a location, industry, and business type. For example: "coffee shops in Manchester" or "software companies in Berlin with 50+ employees". ApifyForge's Actor Recommender suggests the best actor for your query.
Run a discovery actor
Use the Google Maps Email Extractor ($0.15/business) or an industry directory scraper to find matching businesses. Most actors return 100-500 results in 2-5 minutes.
Enrich contacts
Feed business URLs into the Website Contact Scraper ($0.15/site, 11,000+ runs) to extract emails, phone numbers, and social profiles. Fill gaps with Waterfall Contact Enrichment ($0.20/contact), which runs a 10-step cascade including MX validation and SMTP verification.
Export to your CRM
Download results as CSV, JSON, or Excel. Or use n8n/Make.com integration templates to push data directly into HubSpot, Salesforce, or Google Sheets. The Webhook Lead Pusher ($0.01/push) automates delivery to any endpoint.
How Apify actors compare to lead generation alternatives
| Feature | Apify Actors (via ApifyForge) | ZoomInfo | Apollo.io | Manual Research |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cost per 500 leads | $75 discovery / $175-$250 enriched (pay-per-event) | $1,250+/mo (annual contract) | $49-$99/mo | $800-$1,200/mo (labor) |
| Data sources | Google Maps, websites, directories, SMTP verification | Proprietary database | Proprietary database + LinkedIn | Manual web browsing |
| Coverage | Any public website or directory worldwide | 150M+ business profiles (US/EU focus) | 275M contacts (US/EU focus) | Unlimited but slow |
| Customization | Full control: choose actors, chain pipelines, custom output | Fixed filters and exports | Sequences + limited filters | Fully manual |
| Speed | 100-500 leads in 2-5 minutes | Instant search (database lookup) | Instant search (database lookup) | 3-4 hours per day |
| Best for | Niche industries, local businesses, custom pipelines | Enterprise sales teams with budget | Mid-market outbound teams | Very small lists (<20 leads) |
Actors we recommend
These Apify actors are listed on ApifyForge with real-time pricing, usage stats, and quality scores.
Website Lead Intelligence — Find the Right Person, Verified
Turn company websites into ready-to-email decision-makers. Verified emails, named contacts ranked by seniority, buying-committee classification, A/B/C decision tiers, and optional scheduled monitoring + CRM auto-push to HubSpot/Salesforce. $0.15/site.
Google Maps Lead Extractor with Website Email Enrichment
Extract emails from Google Maps businesses. Searches by keyword + location, scrapes each business website for emails, phones, and social links. Classifies personal vs generic emails. Batch queries, deduplication, sorted by data richness. $0.15/business, no subscription.
Waterfall Contact Enrichment — Email & Phone Lookup
Find business emails, phones, and social profiles from a name + company domain. Cascades through MX validation, website scraping, pattern detection, and SMTP verification with confidence scoring.
Email Pattern Finder - Discover Company Email Formats
Detect the email naming convention any company uses (first.last, flast, first-last, etc.) from 5 public sources. Generate verified email addresses with MX checks. Catch-all domain detection. 18 format templates. $0.10/domain.
Business Name & Phrase to URL Resolver - Google Search
Resolve business names or distinctive footer phrases into deduped website URLs via Google. Used as a sub-actor by Website Contact Scraper and B2B Lead Gen Suite, or standalone for URL discovery. Country-aware TLD filtering, drops social and directory hosts. Pay-per-query, no subscription.
Podcast Directory Scraper — Host Contacts & Emails
Search Apple Podcasts and Spotify by keyword. Extract host emails, owner contacts, website URLs, publishing frequency, and episode data from RSS feeds. Dual-platform deduplication, active status filtering, and 7-tier frequency analysis included. $0.05/podcast.
What does it cost?
Cost scales with pipeline depth. Discovery only: Google Maps Email Extractor scrapes 500 businesses at $0.15 each = $75. Full enrichment: add Website Contact Scraper at $0.15/site ($75) and Waterfall Contact Enrichment at $0.20/contact ($100) for a total of $175-$250 for 500 fully enriched leads. Simple scrapes without enrichment cost as little as $2-5. By comparison, ZoomInfo starts at $14,995/year, Apollo.io at $49/month for 900 credits, and Lusha at $29/month for 480 credits.
Estimate your cost →Useful tools
Frequently asked questions
How much does lead generation with Apify actors cost?
Apify actors use pay-per-event pricing. The Google Maps Email Extractor charges $0.15 per business ($75 for 500). Adding the Website Contact Scraper at $0.15 per site and Waterfall Contact Enrichment at $0.20 per contact brings a fully enriched pipeline of 500 leads to $175-$250. Discovery-only scrapes without enrichment cost as little as $2-$5 for basic data. There are no monthly subscriptions or minimum commitments.
What data can Apify lead generation actors extract?
Lead generation actors on ApifyForge extract business emails, phone numbers, team member names and titles, social media links (LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook), physical addresses, and website metadata. The Waterfall Contact Enrichment actor adds SMTP-verified email addresses and generates email pattern predictions (e.g., [email protected]) with confidence scores.
Is web scraping for lead generation legal?
Web scraping of publicly available business contact information is legal in most jurisdictions. The US Ninth Circuit ruled in hiQ Labs v. LinkedIn (2022) that scraping public data does not violate the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. However, scraping behind login walls, ignoring robots.txt directives, or collecting personal data protected by GDPR/CCPA without a lawful basis may create legal risk. ApifyForge actors only scrape publicly accessible pages.
How do Apify lead generation actors compare to ZoomInfo or Apollo?
Apify actors scrape data directly from public sources (Google Maps, company websites, directories) with pay-per-event pricing starting at $0.01/result. ZoomInfo and Apollo.io maintain proprietary databases with monthly subscriptions ($49-$14,995/month). Apify actors offer better coverage for niche industries, local businesses, and non-US markets. ZoomInfo and Apollo offer faster lookups and intent data that actors cannot replicate.
Can I push scraped leads directly into my CRM?
Yes. ApifyForge lists integration actors that push leads to HubSpot, Salesforce, and Google Sheets. The Webhook Lead Pusher ($0.01/push) sends structured data to any webhook endpoint, including Zapier, Make.com, and n8n. You can also export results as CSV, JSON, or Excel and import them manually.
How long does it take to generate 500 leads with Apify?
Most lead generation actors on ApifyForge process 100-500 results in 2-5 minutes. The Website Contact Scraper processes approximately 1,000 sites in 3-4 minutes using HTTP-only requests (no browser overhead). Enrichment adds 1-2 minutes for SMTP verification. A full pipeline from Google Maps search to enriched, CRM-ready contacts typically completes in under 10 minutes for 500 leads.
Deep dives
How to find work emails with name and company
Email enrichment from minimal data using waterfall verification
B2B Lead Gen Suite: automated prospecting pipeline
Chain website scraping, pattern detection, and lead scoring in one run
Apollo vs website-based lead scoring
When to use database tools vs. domain scoring for qualification
Score B2B leads from domains
Qualify company domains with weighted website signal analysis
Website Contact Scraper: 11,000+ runs
How the most-used contact scraper works under the hood
Lead generation tools compared
Side-by-side comparison of all lead generation actors
Contact scrapers compared
Compare website scraping tools for contact extraction
Email verification tools compared
Compare email finding and verification approaches
Ready to get started?
Sign in in under 2 minutes. Your Apify token is encrypted at rest (AES-256-GCM) and revocable any time — or stay 100% local with the CLI.
Related workflows
- Price Monitoring with Apify— Track competitor prices daily across e-commerce sites and marketplaces.
- SEO Data Collection with Apify— Scrape SERPs, meta tags, and backlinks without enterprise SEO subscriptions.
- Competitor Research with Apify— Monitor competitor websites, pricing, reviews, and social presence.
- Recruitment Data with Apify— Pull job listings and candidate data from boards and career pages.
- Managing an Apify Actor Portfolio— Fleet dashboard for health, revenue, and quality across all your actors.
- Web Scraping Compliance with Apify— Assess GDPR, CCPA, and ToS risk before scraping any site.
- Data Enrichment with Apify— Enrich partial CRM data with emails, phones, and social profiles.
- Workflow Automation with Apify— Connect actor output to CRMs, Slack, and n8n with pre-built templates.
- Real Estate Data Collection with Apify— Scrape property listings, pricing history, and agent contacts.
- Brand Reputation Monitoring with Apify— Track reviews, ratings, and mentions across Trustpilot, Google, and BBB.
- Financial Market Research with Apify— Pull SEC filings, insider trades, and economic indicators from public databases.
- Academic Research Data with Apify— Search PubMed, OpenAlex, and Semantic Scholar for literature reviews.
- Compliance & Due Diligence Screening with Apify— Screen entities against OFAC, Interpol, and 40+ global watchlists.
- Security Reconnaissance with Apify— Discover subdomains, DNS records, and CVEs for attack surface mapping.
- Government Contract Intelligence with Apify— Monitor SAM.gov opportunities, grants.gov funding, and Federal Register changes.
- Ecommerce Intelligence for Online Sellers— Analyse competitor Shopify stores, marketplace prices, and tech stacks.
- Building AI Agents with Apify MCP Servers— Connect Claude, Cursor, and Windsurf to 80+ data tools via MCP.