Product types

Compare Foundry product types and when to choose each one.

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AudienceBuyers and developers

Public safeNo private credentials

Comparison

Choose the product type by workflow, not by buzzword. Actors are good when a run produces fresh records. Datasets are good when you need a feed. APIs and automations are good when a system needs to react.

Product type	Best for	Delivery format	Typical user	Example output
Apify Actor	Repeatable extraction or monitoring runs	Actor run and dataset	Operations or data teams	Permit, tender, recall, or registry records
Dataset Feed	Consuming a maintained public-data package	JSONL, records API, manifest, diffs	Analysts and data engineers	Normalized records with schema evidence
Developer API	Application integration	Cached public API endpoints	Developers	Search, records, samples, manifests, diffs
Automation Connector	Workflow alerts and enrichment	Triggers, actions, webhooks	Automation builders	New tender, recall, or changed dataset event
AI Tool or MCP Tool	Agent-facing public-data context	Tool metadata and structured calls	AI product teams	Tool results with source context
Marketplace Bundle	Combined marketplace-native products	External marketplace listing	Operators	Shared output contract, members, coverage, and source status

Limits

Availability varies by product. Some products are public while others remain submitted or under marketplace review.