head to head · open source
firecrawl vs cap
firecrawl has 181,627 GitHub stars, 9,834 forks, 621 open issues and last shipped yesterday. cap has 22,381 stars, 1,918 forks, 339 open issues and last shipped yesterday. firecrawl leads on adoption by 712% (181,627 vs 22,381 stars). firecrawl is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0; cap is written in Rust under a custom or non-standard licence. firecrawl has attracted 5% as many forks as stars, cap 9%. firecrawl 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
| firecrawl | cap | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 182K | ★ 22K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | Custom / other |
| Written in | TypeScript | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 9.8K | ⑂ 1.9K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick firecrawl if
- You weight community size — 182K stars and counting
- You want the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick cap if
- You want the cap feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You evaluated both and cap fits your workflow better
About firecrawl
Firecrawl is an open source web context API that enables AI agents to search, scrape, and interact with websites at scale. It lives in the AI and data extraction ecosystem, providing structured, LLM ready outputs from unstructured web content. Built in TypeScript and licensed under AGPL 3.0, it supports both self hosting and a hosted service via firecrawl.dev.
read the full firecrawl overview →
About cap
Cap open source screen recording sharing project for teams. Lives web desktop software ecosystem. Uses Rust TypeScript stack, Next.js web dashboard, desktop apps macOS Windows. Presents alternative Loom. Supports importing existing Loom videos.
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Frequently asked questions
Is firecrawl or cap more popular?
firecrawl has 181,627 GitHub stars and cap has 22,381. firecrawl has the larger community by that measure.
Are firecrawl and cap free?
Both are open source. firecrawl is licensed under AGPL-3.0, and cap has no licence declared in this registry. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between firecrawl and cap?
firecrawl is written in TypeScript and cap 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, firecrawl or cap?
Choose firecrawl if you want the larger community (181,627 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose cap if its feature set, stack or Custom / other licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.