Evaluation record · mcp-server-apify

Apify MCP Server

v2026.7

Apify

MCPweb-scrapingautomationactorsdata-extraction

Strong

About This MCP

Official Apify MCP server (renamed from actors-mcp-server) exposing thousands of Apify Store Actors - scrapers for social media, maps, e-commerce, and search - via the @apify/actors-mcp-server package (v0.11.x) or the hosted endpoint at mcp.apify.com (OAuth or Bearer API token, Streamable HTTP only; legacy SSE removed April 2026). The hosted server adds output-schema inference, agentic payments (x402 USDC on Base, Skyfire), and June 2026 MCP connectors for login-required apps.

Last Evaluated: July 9, 2026

Official Website

Trust Vector Analysis

Dimension Breakdown

🚀Performance & Reliability

api reliability

Platform stability and maturity analysis

Evidence

Apify Platform Documentation — Built on Apify's mature cloud platform with managed Actor execution, storage, and a public status page

highVerified: 2026-07-09

actor execution success

Run success sampling across official and community Actors

Evidence

Apify Store — Actor quality varies: maintained official Actors are highly reliable, while community Actors can break when target sites change

mediumVerified: 2026-07-09

dynamic tool discovery

Tool discovery relevance testing

Evidence

Apify MCP Server Repository — Agents can search the Apify Store and add Actors as tools at runtime; discovery quality depends on Store metadata

mediumVerified: 2026-07-09

rate limit handling

Rate limiting behavior review

Evidence

Apify API Documentation — Platform enforces documented API rate limits and plan-based usage quotas; runs queue rather than hard-fail under load

mediumVerified: 2026-07-09

error recovery

Failure mode and recovery testing

Evidence

Apify MCP Server Repository — Actor run failures return structured errors with run logs available in the Apify console for diagnosis

mediumVerified: 2026-07-09

🛡️Security

authentication security

Authentication mechanism review

Evidence

Apify MCP Server Repository — Hosted server at mcp.apify.com uses OAuth or an Authorization Bearer Apify API token over Streamable HTTP (legacy SSE endpoint removed April 2026); local stdio mode uses an Apify API token; agentic payments via x402 (USDC on Base) or Skyfire allow runs without a token

highVerified: 2026-07-09

dynamic capability risk

Runtime capability mutation threat modeling

Evidence

Apify MCP Server Repository — Dynamically added Actors change the agent's capability surface at runtime, bypassing assumptions made at initial tool-approval time

highVerified: 2026-07-09

actor supply chain risk

Supply chain analysis of community-published Actors

Evidence

Apify Store — Actors are community-published code; while Apify reviews and badges some, agents can invoke thousands of third-party Actors of varying provenance

highVerified: 2026-07-09

credential handling

Token scope and exposure analysis

Evidence

Apify Security Documentation — API tokens scoped to the account; leaked tokens allow running paid Actors and reading stored datasets

mediumVerified: 2026-07-09

sandboxed execution

Execution isolation review

Evidence

Apify Platform Documentation — Actors execute in isolated containers in Apify's cloud, not on the user's machine, containing the impact of malicious Actor code

highVerified: 2026-07-09

🔒Privacy & Compliance

data exposure

Data flow analysis of Actor inputs and outputs

Evidence

Apify Platform Documentation — Scraped results are stored in Apify cloud datasets and then passed into the LLM context; inputs may include sensitive query terms

mediumVerified: 2026-07-09

sensitive data protection

PII handling assessment of common Actor outputs

Evidence

Apify MCP Server Repository — No built-in PII filtering on Actor output; social media and maps scrapers frequently return personal data subject to GDPR obligations

mediumVerified: 2026-07-09

third party data sharing

Data sharing and policy review

Evidence

Apify Privacy Policy — Run inputs and outputs are processed by Apify and the invoked Actor's code; community Actor authors define their own data behavior

mediumVerified: 2026-07-09

compliance posture

Compliance documentation review

Evidence

Apify Security and Compliance — Apify documents GDPR compliance and platform security practices; lawful use of scraped personal data remains the user's responsibility

mediumVerified: 2026-07-09

👁️Trust & Transparency

documentation quality

Documentation completeness review

Evidence

Apify MCP Documentation — Thorough docs covering hosted and local setup, tool configuration, and Actor selection options

highVerified: 2026-07-09

operation visibility

Logging and traceability assessment

Evidence

Apify Console — Every Actor run is logged in the Apify console with inputs, logs, usage cost, and output datasets

highVerified: 2026-07-09

open source transparency

Source code and license review

Evidence

Apify MCP Server Repository — MIT-licensed open source server with 1,755 GitHub stars; many Store Actors also publish source, though not all

highVerified: 2026-07-09

tool coverage clarity

Tool surface documentation review

Evidence

Apify MCP Server Repository — Helper tools are documented (search-actors, fetch-actor-details, call-actor, dataset/key-value access, run management, docs search), but the effective tool set is dynamic — it depends on which Actors are loaded at runtime; hosted server adds output-schema inference for structured results

mediumVerified: 2026-07-09

⚙️Operational Excellence

ease of setup

Setup complexity assessment

Evidence

Apify MCP Documentation — Hosted endpoint with OAuth requires no installation; local mode is a single npx command with an API token

highVerified: 2026-07-09

api performance

Run latency characterization

Evidence

Apify Platform Documentation — Actor runs include container startup overhead; simple scrapes finish in seconds while large scraping jobs run for minutes

mediumVerified: 2026-07-09

reliability

Uptime and incident history analysis

Evidence

Apify Status Page — Public status page with historically high platform availability

mediumVerified: 2026-07-09

feature coverage

Capability breadth assessment

Evidence

Apify Store — Thousands of ready-made Actors covering social media, maps, e-commerce, search, and general scraping

highVerified: 2026-07-09

community adoption

Community activity and adoption analysis

Evidence

GitHub Repository Metrics — 1,755 GitHub stars (up from 1,319 in June 2026) with active maintenance by Apify (v0.11.5 released July 2026) and a large existing Actor developer ecosystem

highVerified: 2026-07-09

Strengths

+Access to thousands of ready-made Apify Store Actors for social media, maps, e-commerce, and search scraping
+Dynamic tool discovery lets agents find and add the right Actor at runtime
+Actors run in isolated containers in Apify's cloud, not on the user's machine
+Hosted OAuth endpoint (mcp.apify.com, Streamable HTTP) and simple local npx setup
+Hosted server infers output schemas for structured Actor results
+Full run auditability via the Apify console with logs, inputs, and cost tracking
+MIT-licensed open source server actively maintained by Apify

Limitations

!Actors are community-published code of varying quality and provenance
!Dynamically added tools mutate the agent's capability surface after initial approval
!Scraped output frequently contains personal data with GDPR implications and no built-in PII filtering
!Actor runs consume paid platform credits that an agent can spend autonomously; agentic payment rails (x402, Skyfire) extend this to direct token-less spending
!MCP connectors (June 2026) let Actors act on login-required apps (Notion, Slack, GitHub), widening the blast radius beyond scraping
!Community Actors can silently break when target websites change
!Scraped content is untrusted input that may carry prompt injection payloads

Metadata

license: MIT

supported platforms

0: All platforms with Node.js

1: Hosted remote server (mcp.apify.com)

programming languages

0: TypeScript

github repo: https://github.com/apify/apify-mcp-server

github stars: 1755

package name: @apify/actors-mcp-server

package version: 0.11.5

previous name: actors-mcp-server

api dependency: Apify platform API

authentication: OAuth or Bearer API token (hosted); Apify API token (stdio); agentic payments via x402 (USDC on Base) or Skyfire

maintained by: Apify

transport types

0: stdio

1: streamable-http (hosted; legacy SSE removed 2026-04)

installation methods

0: npm

1: hosted endpoint

Use Case Ratings

research assistant

Excellent for gathering data from platforms that are hard to scrape directly (social media, maps, marketplaces)

data analysis

Actor outputs land in structured datasets that feed analysis pipelines well

content creation

Strong for trend, competitor, and audience research feeding content workflows

customer support

Limited fit; can monitor reviews and social mentions but is not a support tool

financial analysis

Useful for alternative data collection (e-commerce prices, reviews); verify data quality and licensing

legal compliance

Scraping personal data raises GDPR and terms-of-service questions requiring careful legal review

education

Good for teaching data collection concepts, though paid credits and ToS limits apply

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