Apify vs. Square 9 Softworks

Apify is great when I need to collect data from public websites and get the export in a structured format, such as product catalogs, contacts, and location details, and if that data must be exported on a regular basis, the same actor can be reused again and again. However, when I need just a one-off task or information, Apify is less useful, as writing a script directly is much faster and cheaper. The platform is also less useful, when the website or provider where I need data in a structure format, has already some sort of an API or MCP connection available, then it makes sense just using the API I need, rather then a web scraper.

Square 9 Softworks is really good for internal and external filing services. Square 9 Softworks is also an application that can be utilized for databases to store and extract data. If the volume of your filing isn’t heavy or on a day-to-day basis then I wouldn’t recommend Square 9 Softworks.

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• They feature a massive actor library, so you don't have to build everything from scratch or maintain it.
• Scheduling + web hooks makes automating data collection super easy.
• Easy to scale from small tests to much bigger scraping jobs and fairly cheap to scale.

• The software is very flexible, and the technicians were great at implementing our customizations for the PO project.
• While indexing fields in Global Search, the Key Free tool works great.
• Global Search is well-organized. It's easy to navigate and find your documents.
• The process for completing your project was well done. Communicating with individuals at Square 9 who were responsible for different aspects of the project was easy.

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• I think monetization part needs some improvement. Sometimes it stops working.
• Second issue is that when you run actor locally on your device using Apify run command, it runs fine and does not show errors. However, when you run on Apify platform, it starts showing error that this python based library is not supported etc. I think, error logging needs to be improved.
• Issue support is very slow. If you create an issue it takes a lot of time that somebody reply.
• Automated testing also needs to be improved. Testers run simple tests and if extra keys are used or something else, test is failed.

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• GlobalSearch could use some enhancements in layout - THIS IS FIXED WITH THE NEWEST VERSION OF GLOBALSEARCH 6.3 and their Sleek GUI GlobalSearch GO! - WELL DONE!
• GlobalSearch could use external sharing of documents THIS IS FIXED WITH THE NEWEST VERSION OF GLOBALSEARCH 6.3 and their Sleek GUI GlobalSearch GO! - WELL DONE!
• GlobalForms could have better formatting tools to enhance the fields and text formatting

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It's the best because you can just load in a limited amount of money and limit your financial exposure to using a tool like this. so renewing isn't a big consideration... i know that i'm going to need the tool in the future and i'll load it with money accordingly when im ready.

We absolutely can't imagine not continuing software maintenance as there are always new additions that improve the system not to mention the excellent tech support when issues are encountered. Response times for troubleshooting are very quick and usually, my issue is resolved in less than an hour after connecting with support.

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Extremely easy when connected via MCP with Claude Co-Work. I do not really understand the Apify website itself. It's a bit confusing, but when I use Claude as an operator and translator, it is absolutely a game-changer. Whenever I have an issue, I ask Claude to connect to Apify and ask what the best way for me to do things is. Should I use the Google Maps scraper in this area or this area? Which one has the highest chance of giving me the best results that I need? Claude's code can completely simplify the whole process, which makes the whole thing a lot easier for me to make faster and better decisions. I do not know what I would do now without Apify. My business cannot even be a business without it.

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The items I am searching for are easily found. They are found in at least 95% of the searches. The failure rate generally is related to another employees user error or a template error set up by our Square 9 team in house.

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Square-9 can get this product out to you in almost the same hour your order it. We got ours very fast.

With the PDF projected viewer, the document retrieval-to-display can drag for a second more than some systems, and the capture workflow if you overload a server array can also drag, but those are the only two issues we've ever seen with this product, and they are not serious issues at all.

We never needed to contact support directly because the platform was always clear and easy to use. The documentation is thorough, there are plenty of how-to guides, and YouTube.

We had one "production down" incident that took about a day to get help on. I think that's a bit too long. The support people seem confident but not that friendly. I feel like I'm bothering them when I get help, but they get the job done.

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It would have been higher, but the training is a bit muted for the lesser qualified office equipment vendors who signed up as partners to sell and support it. The more experienced ECM vendors and customer end-users will find the training very good, but a bit slow.

1. Strategy for Anti-Blocking & Proxies 2. Cost Optimization (Compute Units) 3. Data Management & Storage

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I think the implementation could have gone a little smoother than it did. Now that I know how to use the software, I could do it myself. I feel that as an organization, we could have been a little better prepared. If the consultant was more aware of what we were looking for, they could have assisted in setting up some workflows for us as per the contract. But because we were not prepared, the initial implementation process was a little painful. That said, adding a document management system to ANY business kinda means everyone has to re-think the way they do their work which can be difficult for some staff.

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I use Oxylabs and ScraperAPI as paid backup tools; I also have backup parsers on my own VPS, set up to run on a timer. They solve the problem of retrieving data but do not help to present it as a product or find a buyer. I chose Apify because it turns a parser into something you can sell, and the proxies come as part of the infrastructure. Running your own infrastructure is cheaper—until you factor in the hours spent maintaining it.

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We tried Etrieve before Square 9 and it never got off the ground. Our requirements were too complex and the platform could not accommodate them. Square 9 offered the flexibility and customization we needed from the start. Support worked with us to build workflows that actually fit our processes instead of forcing us into a rigid structure.

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The scale-ability is quite good actually, but you need competent sales/support folks providing it to you, so the scale is set right for the demands of your system use. Some resellers are not good at doing this, some are fantastic. If you are scaled correctly at first implementation, you'll be very happy with this system.

• Apify has delivered great ROI from the sheer time saved by not having to do even short-ish tasks manually.
• By saving us from repetitive data entry, we can focus on much bigger things while Apify runs in the background.
• The risk-free actor pricing structure lets us test and deploy new automated pipelines with zero upfront commitment.

• Reduction in human error through manual data entry process now being automated
• Reduction in cost due to automation allowing the function to not require a full time employee
• Reduction in time spent performing the previous manual tasks. Example: on our consolidated shipment days, it could take doc clerk 2-3 hours to prepare master document package. This has been reduced to 30 minutes or less (depending on size of shipment and time needed for OCR to complete)

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