n8n Workflow: Fetch Website Content with HTTP & Apify Web Fetch

Fetch website content reliably—using HTTP first, then Apify Web Fetch as a fallback

This n8n workflow fetches web page content from a list of URLs by trying a direct HTTP Request first. If that request fails, it automatically falls back to Apify Web Fetch, then normalizes everything into one consistent dataset containing {url, content}.

What this workflow does

• Runs on a Manual Trigger.
• Uses input parameters for a Url List and an Apify API token.
• Attempts to retrieve each page via n8n’s HTTP Request.
• If the HTTP request fails, calls Apify Web Fetch to retrieve the page content.
• Normalizes both HTTP and Apify responses into the same structure: {url, content}.
• Aggregates all fetched results into a single combined output dataset.

Use cases

• Content extraction for research or monitoring when some sites block simple requests.
• Resilient scraping pipelines where you want HTTP for speed, but Apify as a safety net.
• Building datasets for downstream analysis (e.g., summarization or indexing) with consistent output.
• Automation for SaaS operators who need page content retrieval without manual retries.

Technical details

• Nodes / tools used: set, aggregate, sticky note, HTTP Request, manual trigger.
• Primary logic: HTTP Request → fallback to Apify Web Fetch on failure.
• Normalization: creates a unified {url, content} structure for both sources.

Setup & customization

• Generate an Apify API token in the Apify Console and replace <YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN> in the inputs.
• Update the Url List in input parameters (the workflow currently fetches only the first item in the list).
• To support dynamic inputs, the workflow can accept target URLs via webhook or Google Sheets.