# Firecrawl review

> Firecrawl is an API and open source project to search, scrape, crawl, and interact with web pages, returning LLM-ready markdown or JSON for AI agents.

Devtoolwatch Board, the week of Oct 25–31, 2026. Canonical page: https://index.devtoolwatch.com/tools/firecrawl/

## TL;DR

Firecrawl is a web data API for AI agents that turns URLs, search results, and documents into clean markdown, structured JSON, or screenshots. Firecrawl is for developers building AI apps and agents that need live web content. Firecrawl is open source, available as a hosted service, and connects to agents through SDKs, a CLI, skills, and an MCP server.

## Firecrawl at a glance

- **Category:** [RAG, data and memory](https://index.devtoolwatch.com/categories/rag-data-and-memory/)
- **Maintained by:** Firecrawl (organization, [@firecrawl](https://github.com/firecrawl) on GitHub)
- **License:** AGPL 3.0
- **Language:** TypeScript, Python, Rust
- **Repository:** [github.com/firecrawl/firecrawl](https://github.com/firecrawl/firecrawl)
- **Website:** [firecrawl.dev](https://firecrawl.dev)
- **npm package:** [@mendable/firecrawl-js](https://www.npmjs.com/package/@mendable/firecrawl-js) 4.50.1
- **PyPI package:** [firecrawl-py](https://pypi.org/project/firecrawl-py/) 4.53.2
- **Latest release:** [@mendable/firecrawl-js 4.50.1](https://www.npmjs.com/package/@mendable/firecrawl-js) on npm, Oct 21, 2026
- **First published:** Apr 15, 2024

## What Firecrawl does

- Firecrawl converts any URL to markdown, HTML, screenshots, or structured JSON through its Scrape endpoint.
- Firecrawl searches the web and returns full page content from the results.
- Firecrawl crawls all URLs of a website in one request, and its Map endpoint discovers a site's URLs.
- Firecrawl's Interact endpoint lets you click, fill forms, and navigate a scraped page using natural-language prompts or Playwright code.
- Firecrawl's Agent endpoint gathers data from a plain description, without needing URLs upfront, and can return output matching a schema.
- Firecrawl parses uploaded files such as PDF, DOCX, XLSX, and HTML up to 50 MB into Markdown, JSON, or a summary.
- Firecrawl can notify you when content on a website changes through its Monitor feature.

### How it works

Firecrawl runs as a hosted API at api.firecrawl.dev, called with an API key over REST, the CLI, or SDKs for Python, Node.js, Go, and other languages. The SDKs handle polling for async jobs like crawls. AI agents connect through the firecrawl-mcp server or an installed skill that works with Claude Code, OpenCode, and others. The project is also open source.

## How to install Firecrawl

**With pip**

```
pip install firecrawl
```

**With npm**

```
npm install firecrawl
```

**As an agent skill**

```
npx -y firecrawl-cli@latest init --all --browser
```

### Requirements

- A Firecrawl API key from firecrawl.dev for most API use.
- Node.js 18 or later for the JavaScript SDK.
- Python 3.8 or later for the Python SDK.

### First steps

1. Sign up at firecrawl.dev to get an API key, or test requests in the playground first.
2. Install the Python or Node.js SDK and create a Firecrawl client with your API key.
3. Call scrape on a URL with formats set to markdown to get LLM-ready page content.
4. To use Firecrawl from an agent, add the firecrawl-mcp server to your MCP client config with FIRECRAWL_API_KEY set.

## Who Firecrawl is for

- Developers building AI agents that need current web content as markdown or structured JSON.
- Teams connecting coding agents like Claude Code or OpenCode to web search and scraping through MCP or skills.
- Pipelines that turn PDFs, DOCX, and other documents into clean Markdown for LLMs.
- Automating multi-step page interactions, such as searching a site and clicking results, before extracting data.

### Limitations

- Firecrawl's quick start and hosted endpoints require an API key; keyless access covers only some core endpoints from official clients.
- Firecrawl usage is metered in credits, which crawl jobs report as consumed.
- Firecrawl's Zero Data Retention support for parsing and search is limited to enterprise plans or customers.
- Firecrawl's /parse endpoint accepts files up to 50 MB.

## Usage data (the week of Oct 25–31, 2026)

- Board rank: #91 overall, #6 in RAG, data and memory, momentum score 65
- Downloads that week: 2.9M (+3% vs 4-week average)
- New GitHub stars per week (last 12 weeks): Aug 9: 4.4k; Aug 16: 3.3k; Aug 23: 3.2k; Aug 30: 2.9k; Sep 6: 2.8k; Sep 13: 2.8k; Sep 20: 3k; Sep 27: 3.3k; Oct 4: 2.3k; Oct 11: 2.5k; Oct 18: 2.7k; Oct 25: 2.6k

## Firecrawl alternatives

| Rank | Tool | Stars | Downloads/wk |
|---|---|---|---|
| #1 | [XERJ](https://index.devtoolwatch.com/tools/xerj-org-xerj/) | 17.9k | – |
| #2 | [Memvid](https://index.devtoolwatch.com/tools/memvid-memvid/) | 17.3k | – |
| #3 | [LEANN](https://index.devtoolwatch.com/tools/startrail-org-leann/) | 13.7k | – |
| #4 | [Graphify](https://index.devtoolwatch.com/tools/graphify-labs-graphify/) | 140k | 480.7k |
| #5 | [MarkItDown](https://index.devtoolwatch.com/tools/markitdown/) | 193.2k | 4.7M |
| #7 | [Mem0](https://index.devtoolwatch.com/tools/mem0/) | 68.2k | 884.1k |

## Firecrawl FAQ

### Is Firecrawl free and open source?

Yes. Firecrawl's source code is on GitHub (firecrawl/firecrawl) under the AGPL 3.0 license, so you can use it for free. Its website also links to a pricing page (https://firecrawl.dev/pricing) for any paid plans.

### How do I install Firecrawl?

Run `pip install firecrawl`. It needs Node.js >=18.0.0. The install section above has the other options from the project's README.

### Is Firecrawl still maintained?

Yes. The firecrawl/firecrawl repository was last updated on Oct 22, 2026, and the latest release, @mendable/firecrawl-js 4.50.1 on npm, came out on Oct 21, 2026.

### How popular is Firecrawl?

Firecrawl has 197.4k GitHub stars as of Nov 1, 2026. It gained 2.6k new stars in the week of Oct 25–31, 2026, against a 12-week average of 3k a week. Its main package had about 2.9M downloads that week, +3% against its own 4-week average. That made it #6 among RAG, data and memory tools on the Devtoolwatch Board.

### Firecrawl vs Exa: how do they compare?

Firecrawl and Exa are both tracked by Devtoolwatch as RAG, data and memory tools. Firecrawl has 197.4k GitHub stars and Exa has 237. In the week of Oct 25–31, 2026, Firecrawl's main package had 2.9M downloads and Exa's had 1.2M. Exa Python SDK is the official Python package for Exa, the web search API for AI, covering search, page contents, answers and agents. [Exa review](https://index.devtoolwatch.com/tools/exa/)

### Firecrawl vs Crawl4AI: how do they compare?

Firecrawl and Crawl4AI are both tracked by Devtoolwatch as RAG, data and memory tools. Firecrawl has 197.4k GitHub stars and Crawl4AI has 86.7k. In the week of Oct 25–31, 2026, Firecrawl's main package had 2.9M downloads and Crawl4AI's had 358.1k. Crawl4AI is an open-source Python web crawler and scraper that turns websites into clean, LLM-ready Markdown or structured JSON for RAG and agents. [Crawl4AI review](https://index.devtoolwatch.com/tools/crawl4ai/)

### What are the best alternatives to Firecrawl?

Other RAG, data and memory tools on the Devtoolwatch Board in the week of Oct 25–31, 2026, by momentum: XERJ (#1), Memvid (#2), LEANN (#3), Graphify (#4), MarkItDown (#5). The alternatives table above has their numbers.

### How do I use Firecrawl with Claude Code?

Firecrawl connects to Claude Code by installing its skill with npx -y firecrawl-cli@latest init --all --browser, then restarting the agent. You can also add the firecrawl-mcp server to your MCP configuration with your API key.

### How do I use the Firecrawl MCP server?

Firecrawl's MCP server is added to an MCP client's config under mcpServers, running npx with args -y and firecrawl-mcp, and setting FIRECRAWL_API_KEY in env. Any MCP-compatible client can use it.

### Can I use Firecrawl without an API key?

Firecrawl offers keyless access to /scrape, /search, /interact, and /parse from official clients such as MCP and the CLI, starting in v2.11.0. Other endpoints and the quick start use an API key from firecrawl.dev.

### How do I use the Firecrawl API?

Firecrawl's API takes POST requests to endpoints like https://api.firecrawl.dev/v2/scrape with a Bearer API key and a JSON body. Crawl requests return a job ID you poll for status. The SDKs handle polling automatically.

### Can Firecrawl handle JavaScript-heavy pages?

Firecrawl handles JS-heavy pages, rotating proxies, rate limits, and JS-blocked content without configuration. It can also run actions like click, scroll, write, wait, and press before extracting content.

## Sources

1. [firecrawl/firecrawl on GitHub](https://github.com/firecrawl/firecrawl)
2. [Firecrawl README](https://github.com/firecrawl/firecrawl/blob/main/README.md)
3. [@mendable/firecrawl-js on npm](https://www.npmjs.com/package/@mendable/firecrawl-js)
4. [firecrawl-py on PyPI](https://pypi.org/project/firecrawl-py/)
5. [Firecrawl website](https://firecrawl.dev)
6. [Release v2.11.0 (Jun 19, 2026)](https://github.com/firecrawl/firecrawl/releases/tag/v2.11.0)
7. [Release v2.10 (May 15, 2026)](https://github.com/firecrawl/firecrawl/releases/tag/v2.10)
8. [Release v2.9.0 (Apr 10, 2026)](https://github.com/firecrawl/firecrawl/releases/tag/v2.9.0)
9. [Hacker News: How to Build an AI Software Factory: Agents That Open, Review, and Merge PRs](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49666960)
10. [Hacker News: Show HN: Llms.txt Generator – Turn websites into a text file to feed to any LLM](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42207756)
11. [Hacker News: Show HN: API to turn entire websites into Markdown](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40055103)
12. [Devtoolwatch Board, the week of Oct 25–31, 2026](https://index.devtoolwatch.com/)