head to head · open source
Crawl4AI vs crw
Crawl4AI has 83,747 GitHub stars, 8,660 forks, 188 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. crw has 1,045 stars, 80 forks, 10 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Crawl4AI leads on adoption by 7,914% (83,747 vs 1,045 stars). Crawl4AI is written in Python under Apache-2.0; crw is written in Rust under AGPL-3.0. Crawl4AI has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, crw 8%. crw was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| Crawl4AI | crw | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 84K | ★ 1.0K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Python | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-09-16 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 8.7K | ⑂ 80 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Crawl4AI if
- You weight community size — 84K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick crw if
- You want the crw feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You evaluated both and crw fits your workflow better
About Crawl4AI
Crawl4AI is an open source web crawler and scraper designed to prepare website content for large language model (LLM) workflows. It lives in the Python ecosystem and targets data extraction for RAG, agents, and AI pipelines. Unlike many tools that require API keys or paid subscriptions, Crawl4AI provides direct, self hosted access to web content with output structured specifically for LLM consumption.
read the full Crawl4AI overview →
About crw
crw (fastCRW) is a Rust based web scraping, crawling, and search engine with an MCP server that turns URLs into clean markdown or structured JSON, aimed at AI agents and the developers who wire them into coding tools.
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Frequently asked questions
Is Crawl4AI or crw more popular?
Crawl4AI has 83,747 GitHub stars and crw has 1,045. Crawl4AI has the larger community by that measure.
Are Crawl4AI and crw free?
Both are open source. Crawl4AI is licensed under Apache-2.0 and crw under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Crawl4AI and crw?
Crawl4AI is written in Python and crw in Rust. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Crawl4AI or crw?
Choose Crawl4AI if you want the larger community (83,747 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose crw if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.