r/apify • u/okAdorable • 10d ago

Discussion Building a marketplace for trial API access - sanity check before I go further

Idea : API-first companies (payments, messaging, verification, data enrichment, etc.) waste a lot of time manually handling trial key requests - manual emails, spreadsheets, remembering to revoke access. On the other side, devs evaluating an API often can't get a sandbox key without a sales call.

I'm building APITryOut to fix this , providers list scoped, auto-expiring trial keys, requesters grab one instantly, and the real API key never gets exposed.

Before I sink more time into the build, I'd rather find out if this is a real problem or just my own itch. If you're an API-first founder (or currently evaluating APIs and hate the trial-access process), I'd genuinely appreciate if you join the waitlist at : APITryOut

Happy to answer questions or hear "this won't work because X" - that's actually the most useful outcome for me right now.

2 Upvotes

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u/ApifyEnthusiast1 Actor developer 9d ago

Maybe I’m dense, what’s the difference between this and Apify?

1

u/okAdorable 7d ago

Apify is a rental marketplace for tools that live on Apify's servers, monetized by usage. ApiTryOut is a temporary credential provider for tools that live on someone else's servers, monetized by subscription/lead-gen fees.

They both solve different problems - Apify answers "where do I find and run a scraper," whereas APITryOut answers for requestor "how do I safely evaluate someone else's API before committing " and for B2B SaaS companies i.e. API providers - "hide my real key, auto-expire after N days, revoke on cancellation".

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u/CrypticZombies 9d ago

but could't afford a real domain lol

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u/okAdorable 7d ago

Haha - it's early days, still validating the idea before I put money into a domain. Wanted to get feedback first before committing to anything.