head to head · open source
firecrawl vs CrateDB
firecrawl has 181,627 GitHub stars, 9,834 forks, 621 open issues and last shipped yesterday. CrateDB has 4,436 stars, 617 forks, 332 open issues and last shipped yesterday. firecrawl leads on adoption by 3,994% (181,627 vs 4,436 stars). firecrawl is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0; CrateDB is written in Java under Apache-2.0. firecrawl has attracted 5% as many forks as stars, CrateDB 14%. CrateDB 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 | CrateDB | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 182K | ★ 4.4K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Java |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 9.8K | ⑂ 617 |
| 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 CrateDB if
- You want the CrateDB 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 CrateDB 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 CrateDB
CrateDB is a distributed, scalable SQL database built for storing and analyzing massive amounts of data in near real time, including complex queries. It is written in Java, licensed under Apache 2.0, and based on Lucene. The project combines the benefits of an SQL database with the scalability and flexibility typically associated with NoSQL databases, and it is PostgreSQL compatible, speaking the PostgreSQL wire protocol as well as offering an HTTP API. It lives in the analytics, big data, and IoT ecosystem, and the topic list places it alongside distributed SQL databases, Elasticsearch, industrial IoT, and IoT a…
read the full CrateDB overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is firecrawl or CrateDB more popular?
firecrawl has 181,627 GitHub stars and CrateDB has 4,436. firecrawl has the larger community by that measure.
Are firecrawl and CrateDB free?
Both are open source. firecrawl is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and CrateDB under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between firecrawl and CrateDB?
firecrawl is written in TypeScript and CrateDB 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 or CrateDB?
Choose firecrawl if you want the larger community (181,627 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose CrateDB if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.