Independent builder · David S

Real search data for people who automate research, build with n8n, run Apify Actors and work with AI agents.

Guides, n8n workflows and free tools built from 26 Apify Actors I run — with the numbers, the costs and the mistakes left in.

data tools & automations by David S
Read the latest guide
Research pipeline · recorded run
You / the question

“Is anyone actually searching for Apify MCP?”

Replay of a real run · 2026-0820 s live · 6.8 s cached
Complete · replay anytime
FIG. 01 · live

What a template does while you sleep

example
Complete · replay anytime
  1. Schedule trigger (weekly).
  2. Google Sheets: read the keyword list.
  3. Apify node: run an Actor, wait for the dataset.
  4. Google Sheets: append one row per keyword.
  5. Slack: post a digest with rising and dropped keywords.

Guides by topic

All guides →

Apify

guide

What is Apify, and when it is the wrong tool

Apify explained through one Actor run, from JSON input to an exported dataset, plus what the public Store API says about how Actors charge (sample, 2026-10-23).

guide

Apify pricing explained, with a calculator for your own runs

How Apify bills Actor runs through compute units, pay-per-event charges and the prepaid usage in each plan, with a calculator on public prices of 2026-10-23.

n8n

guide

n8n pricing calculator, Cloud or self-hosted at your volume

What n8n costs at a given number of workflow executions a month, on n8n Cloud and self-hosted, with public prices read on 2026-10-23 and your own server cost.

What this site is

I build and maintain public data tools on the Apify platform: keyword volumes, competitor research, AI search visibility, YouTube and Amazon research. This site is where I write down how those pipelines actually work — real runs, real costs, real failure modes — and publish the n8n workflows and browser tools I use myself.

Everything here follows three rules:

  • Measured, not copied. Prices, limits and error rates come from my own runs, with the date of the test.
  • Free tools stay free. Tools on this site run in your browser or on static data, so using them costs nobody anything.
  • One page per question. No tag archives, no thin roundups.

Where to start

  • Guides — every published guide, grouped by topic: Apify, n8n and SEO first.
  • About — who writes this and why the domain is called Pavatar.
  • Now — what I am working on this month.
  • Pavatar protocol archive — the history of the 2006 Personal Avatar specification that lived at this address.

Why “Pavatar”?

From 2006 to 2011 pavatar.com hosted the Personal Avatar (Pavatar) specification, a small open protocol for self-hosted avatars. Hundreds of blogs and software projects still link to it. The archive keeps that history accurate and those links working; the rest of the site is new and unrelated to the protocol's original authors.