head to head · open source
firecrawl-mcp-server vs fess
firecrawl-mcp-server has 7,489 GitHub stars, 891 forks, 136 open issues and last shipped today. fess has 1,137 stars, 175 forks, 15 open issues and last shipped today. firecrawl-mcp-server leads on adoption by 559% (7,489 vs 1,137 stars). firecrawl-mcp-server is written in JavaScript under MIT; fess is written in Java under Apache-2.0. firecrawl-mcp-server has attracted 12% as many forks as stars, fess 15%. firecrawl-mcp-server was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (mcp), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
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
| firecrawl-mcp-server | fess | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 7.5K | ★ 1.1K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | JavaScript | Java |
| Last push | 2026-09-20 | 2026-09-20 |
| Forks | ⑂ 891 | ⑂ 175 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick firecrawl-mcp-server if
- You weight community size — 7.5K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick fess if
- You want the fess feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Java
- You evaluated both and fess fits your workflow better
About firecrawl-mcp-server
Firecrawl MCP Server is the official Model Context Protocol server that gives Cursor, Claude, and other MCP compatible AI clients search, scraping, and page interaction against the live web.
read the full firecrawl-mcp-server overview →
About fess
Fess is an open source, self hosted enterprise and site search server built on OpenSearch, intended for teams and site owners who need to crawl, index, and search their own web, file, database, and cloud content without sending it to a hosted search provider.
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Frequently asked questions
Is firecrawl-mcp-server or fess more popular?
firecrawl-mcp-server has 7,489 GitHub stars and fess has 1,137. firecrawl-mcp-server has the larger community by that measure.
Are firecrawl-mcp-server and fess free?
Both are open source. firecrawl-mcp-server is licensed under MIT and fess under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between firecrawl-mcp-server and fess?
firecrawl-mcp-server is written in JavaScript and fess in Java. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, firecrawl-mcp-server or fess?
Choose firecrawl-mcp-server if you want the larger community (7,489 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose fess if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.