Firecrawl vs Scrapfly
Comparing architecture, runtime limits, open-source licenses, and monthly costs for autonomous agent pipelines.
Detailed Specifications & Compatibility Matrix
Extracted directly from GitHub REST API & official developer documentation
| Technical Feature / Metric | Firecrawl | Scrapfly |
|---|---|---|
| Developer / Organization | Mendable AI | Scrapfly SAS |
| Open-Source Engine | ✓ Open Source (AGPL-3.0) | ✕ Proprietary Cloud |
| GitHub Stars (Repo/SDK) | ★ 195,258 GitHub Stars | Proprietary / Closed Core |
| Core Repository Language | TypeScript | Cloud API |
| Supported SDK Clients | ||
| Self-Hosted Deployment | ✓ Supported | Hosted Only |
| Docker / Container Ready | ✓ Official Image | Managed |
| Model Context Protocol (MCP) | ✓ Native MCP | ✓ Native MCP |
| Billing Architecture | usage based | usage based |
| Developer Free Tier | ✓ Yes 500 scrape credits / mo | ✓ Yes 1,000 free API credits |
| Entry Paid Tier (Monthly) | $16 USD / mo | $30 USD / mo |
| Pricing & Cost Architecture | Monthly credit quota: Free tier provides 500 scrape credits/mo (1 page = 1 credit; 1 crawl = 1 credit per discovered page). Starter plan is $16/mo for 3,000 credits ($0.0053/page). Growth is $99/mo for 100,000 credits. | Free trial provides 1,000 initial API credits. Discovery plan starts at $30/mo for 200,000 API credits (basic request = 1 credit; JS rendering + residential proxy = 5-25 credits). |
| Key Engineering Insight | Created after developers struggled with fragile Puppeteer scripts for RAG; its scraping cluster processes millions of web pages weekly with automated proxy rotation and stealth headers. | Uses custom-patched Chromium instances to mimic real residential JA3/TLS browser fingerprints, bypassing Cloudflare Turnstile and DataDome automatically. |
Strengths & Trade-Offs
Objective engineering evaluation of both platforms
Firecrawl Evaluation
Key Advantages
- ✓ Converts complex JavaScript-rendered SPAs and shadow DOM into clean, structured markdown optimized for LLM tokenization
- ✓ Includes built-in automated anti-bot bypass, residential IP rotation, and captcha handling with no external proxy configuration
- ✓ Official Model Context Protocol (MCP) server support and official SDKs for Python and TypeScript
Limitations & Trade-Offs
- ✕ AGPL-3.0 copyleft license requires open-sourcing modifications when self-hosting in proprietary environments
- ✕ Credit consumption scales rapidly on deep recursive crawls across multi-page domains
Scrapfly Evaluation
Key Advantages
- ✓ Advanced Anti-Scraping Protection (ASP) with automated residential proxy rotation and CAPTCHA solving
- ✓ Direct markdown format extraction parameter (&format=markdown) built specifically for LLM ingestion
- ✓ Full JavaScript rendering engine supporting custom pre-scrape evaluate scripts and scroll triggers
Limitations & Trade-Offs
- ✕ Advanced proxy and headless browser features consume between 5 and 25 API credits per request
- ✕ Strictly cloud-hosted API; no on-premise Docker deployment option
Source Quotes
Direct excerpts from official documentation backing our extracted specifications
Firecrawl Documentation Proof
"Starter plan starts at $16/mo for 3,000 credits with automatic anti-bot bypass."
"Free tier provides 500 scraping credits per month."
"Self-hosting instructions and Docker compose provided in the open source repo."
Scrapfly Documentation Proof
"Discovery plan starts at $30/mo with 200,000 API credits and unlimited concurrency."
"Free trial includes 1,000 credits to test all features and proxy networks."
"Fully managed cloud infrastructure; integrations available via SDKs and REST."
Frequently Asked Questions: Firecrawl vs Scrapfly
Architectural trade-offs and decision criteria
Is Firecrawl or Scrapfly cheaper for developers?
Firecrawl has a starting price of $16/mo (usage based), while Scrapfly starts at $30/mo (usage based). Firecrawl includes a free tier (500 scrape credits / mo). Scrapfly offers a free tier (1,000 free API credits).
Can I self-host Firecrawl and Scrapfly in my own infrastructure?
Firecrawl is self-hostable under the AGPL-3.0 license. In comparison, Scrapfly is proprietary cloud infrastructure.
Do Firecrawl and Scrapfly support the Model Context Protocol (MCP)?
Firecrawl has native support for MCP servers. Scrapfly fully supports Model Context Protocol integrations.
Which programming languages have official SDKs for Firecrawl vs Scrapfly?
Firecrawl provides official SDKs in: python, typescript, curl. Meanwhile, Scrapfly supports: python, typescript, go, curl.