Compare · Last benchmarked 2026-09-09
Google Maps Reviews API compared: 5 providers benchmarked
We build Apify Actors and may earn affiliate fees on Store links. Measured numbers on this page come from live API runs on 2026-09-09. Cells marked * are list-price references for vendors we did not benchmark this run.
TL;DR {#tldr}
- Benchmarked this run: Apify, DataForSEO, Bright Data
- Lowest normalized cost (measured): DataForSEO
- Fastest 10-review median: DataForSEO
- Deepest review field coverage: Apify
- Incremental sync / date cutoff: only Apify exposed stop-at-date in this matrix
On this page
- TL;DR
- Cost
- Speed
- Field coverage
- Reviews overlap
- Full comparison matrix
- Head-to-head
- Apify vs Outscraper
- Apify vs DataForSEO
- Apify vs SerpApi
- Apify vs Bright Data
- Outscraper vs DataForSEO
- Outscraper vs SerpApi
- Outscraper vs Bright Data
- DataForSEO vs SerpApi
- DataForSEO vs Bright Data
- SerpApi vs Bright Data
- Methodology
- FAQ
Cost {#cost}
Normalized $/1K reviews uses measured spend when available, otherwise list price as of 2026-09-09. Compare list prices to measured spend before committing — especially for async APIs where queue tier affects wall clock, not just unit cost.
Speed {#speed}
Medians from 1 timed runs on the primary fixture (10- and 100-review caps). Async vendors include queue wait.
Field coverage {#field-coverage}
Field coverage reflects our normalizer on real API responses for the primary fixture — not vendor marketing pages.
| Field | Apify | Outscraper | DataForSEO | SerpApi | Bright Data |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| reviewId | Yes | No | Yes | No | No |
| text | Yes | No | Yes | No | No |
| stars | Yes | No | Yes | No | No |
| publishedAt | Yes | No | Yes | No | No |
| ownerReply | Yes | No | Yes | No | No |
| reviewerName | Yes | No | Yes | No | No |
| reviewerUrl | Yes | No | Yes | No | No |
| likes | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| photos | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| responseDate | Yes | No | Yes | No | No |
Reviews overlap {#item-overlap}
On the primary fixture, Apify returned 77 reviews and DataForSEO returned 100. 77 review IDs appeared in both sets — 100% of Apify's IDs and 77% of DataForSEO's. The count gap usually reflects date-window or pagination defaults, not necessarily missing listings on one side. Every Apify review in our sample was also returned by DataForSEO; DataForSEO additionally surfaced 23 reviews outside Apify's set.
On the primary fixture, Apify returned 77 reviews and Bright Data returned 0. 0 review IDs appeared in both sets. The count gap usually reflects date-window or pagination defaults, not necessarily missing listings on one side.
Full comparison matrix {#full-comparison-matrix}
Full matrix below. Asterisks (*) = list price or not live-measured this run.
| Metric | Apify | Outscraper | DataForSEO | SerpApi | Bright Data |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| List / measured $/1K reviews | $0.290 | $3.000* | $0.075 | $12.000* | n/a |
| Median speed — 10 reviews | 11.3s | not measured* | 5.1s | not measured* | n/a |
| Median speed — 100 reviews | 12.3s | not measured* | 15.2s | not measured* | n/a |
| Reviews returned (primary fixture) | 77 | not measured* | 100 | not measured* | 0 |
| Exact ISO review dates | Yes | No | Yes | No | No |
| Owner reply text | Yes | No | Yes | No | No |
| Date cutoff / incremental sync | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| Async task API | No | No | Yes | No | No |
Head-to-head {#head-to-head}
The pairwise notes below spell out trade-offs vendor by vendor. Rows marked with * in the matrix were not live-measured this run.
Apify vs Outscraper {#rainminer-vs-outscraper}
Cost and speed winners on this pair: Apify on price, see matrix on 10-review latency. Compare field counts (10 vs 0) against your pipeline needs.
Apify vs DataForSEO {#rainminer-vs-dataforseo}
Cost and speed winners on this pair: DataForSEO on price, DataForSEO on 10-review latency. Compare field counts (10 vs 8) against your pipeline needs.
Apify vs SerpApi {#rainminer-vs-serpapi}
Cost and speed winners on this pair: Apify on price, see matrix on 10-review latency. Compare field counts (10 vs 0) against your pipeline needs.
Apify vs Bright Data {#rainminer-vs-brightdata}
Cost and speed winners on this pair: tie on price, see matrix on 10-review latency. Compare field counts (10 vs 0) against your pipeline needs.
Outscraper vs DataForSEO {#outscraper-vs-dataforseo}
Cost and speed winners on this pair: DataForSEO on price, see matrix on 10-review latency. Compare field counts (0 vs 8) against your pipeline needs.
Outscraper vs SerpApi {#outscraper-vs-serpapi}
Cost and speed winners on this pair: Outscraper on price, see matrix on 10-review latency. Compare field counts (0 vs 0) against your pipeline needs.
Outscraper vs Bright Data {#outscraper-vs-brightdata}
Cost and speed winners on this pair: tie on price, see matrix on 10-review latency. Compare field counts (0 vs 0) against your pipeline needs.
DataForSEO vs SerpApi {#dataforseo-vs-serpapi}
Cost and speed winners on this pair: DataForSEO on price, see matrix on 10-review latency. Compare field counts (8 vs 0) against your pipeline needs.
DataForSEO vs Bright Data {#dataforseo-vs-brightdata}
Cost and speed winners on this pair: tie on price, see matrix on 10-review latency. Compare field counts (8 vs 0) against your pipeline needs.
SerpApi vs Bright Data {#serpapi-vs-brightdata}
Cost and speed winners on this pair: tie on price, see matrix on 10-review latency. Compare field counts (0 vs 0) against your pipeline needs.
Methodology {#methodology}
Fixtures live in scripts/scraper-comparison/topics/google-maps-reviews-scraper/fixture.json. Params: 100 reviews on the primary place id.
Reproduce:
bun scripts/scraper-comparison/pipeline.ts google-maps-reviews-scraperRaw artifacts: site/content/compare/google-maps-reviews-scraper/benchmark.json.
FAQ {#faq}
Which Google Maps reviews API is cheapest?
Among live-measured vendors on 2026-09-09, DataForSEO had the lowest normalized $/1K on the primary fixture. List prices for unmeasured vendors are in the matrix — verify before buying.
Which Apify Actor should I use for Google Maps reviews?
Use Google Maps Place Reviews Scraper on Apify when you already have Place IDs and need newest-first reviews with optional date cutoffs. For city/keyword discovery, Compass Google Maps Scraper is the mainstream Apify pick.
How fresh is this comparison?
Last benchmarked 2026-09-09. Re-run the benchmark pipeline to reproduce.
Try Apify
Run Google Maps scraper on Apify — or read the actor overview first.