head to head · open source
firecrawl vs Crawl4AI
firecrawl has 181,744 GitHub stars, 9,838 forks, 621 open issues and last shipped today. Crawl4AI has 83,782 stars, 8,664 forks, 188 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. firecrawl leads on adoption by 117% (181,744 vs 83,782 stars). firecrawl is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0; Crawl4AI is written in Python under Apache-2.0. firecrawl has attracted 5% as many forks as stars, Crawl4AI 10%. 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 | Crawl4AI | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 182K | ★ 84K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-16 |
| Forks | ⑂ 9.8K | ⑂ 8.7K |
| 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 Crawl4AI if
- You want the Crawl4AI feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and Crawl4AI 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 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 →
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Frequently asked questions
Is firecrawl or Crawl4AI more popular?
firecrawl has 181,744 GitHub stars and Crawl4AI has 83,782. firecrawl has the larger community by that measure.
Are firecrawl and Crawl4AI free?
Both are open source. firecrawl is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Crawl4AI under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between firecrawl and Crawl4AI?
firecrawl is written in TypeScript and Crawl4AI in Python. 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 Crawl4AI?
Choose firecrawl if you want the larger community (181,744 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose Crawl4AI if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.