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Development: quick start

Create your first Actor using the Apify Console IDE or locally.


Before you start building your own Actor, try out a couple of existing Actors from Apify Store. See the Running Actors section for more information on running existing Actors.

Language

Any code that can run inside of a Docker container can be turned into Apify Actor. This gives you freedom in choosing your technical stack, including programming language and technologies.

But to fully benefit from running on top of the Apify platform, we recommend you choose either JavaScript/Node.js or Python, where Apify provides first-level support regarding its SDK, API clients, and learning materials.

For these languages, you can also choose from many code templates that help you to kickstart your project quickly:

Local development

There are two ways to create an Actor:

  • Using the Web IDE in Apify Console. This is the fastest way to kick-start your Actor development and try out the Apify platform.
  • Develop your Actor locally and only deploy to the Apify platform when it is production ready. This way, you benefit from your local setup for a better development and debugging experience. After you are done with the development, you can easily deploy your Actor to Apify platform.

Now, let's start with: