head to head · open source
firecrawl vs Hey
firecrawl has 181,627 GitHub stars, 9,834 forks, 621 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Hey has 29,369 stars, 1,806 forks, 7 open issues and last shipped 12 days ago. firecrawl leads on adoption by 518% (181,627 vs 29,369 stars). firecrawl is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0; Hey is written in TypeScript under GPL-3.0. firecrawl has attracted 5% as many forks as stars, Hey 6%. 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 | Hey | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 182K | ★ 29K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-06 |
| Forks | ⑂ 9.8K | ⑂ 1.8K |
| 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 Hey if
- You want the Hey feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and Hey 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 Hey
Hey (hey.xyz) is a decentralized, permissionless social media application built on the Lens Protocol, aimed at Web3 developers and teams who want to self host or fork a blockchain backed social client.
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Frequently asked questions
Is firecrawl or Hey more popular?
firecrawl has 181,627 GitHub stars and Hey has 29,369. firecrawl has the larger community by that measure.
Are firecrawl and Hey free?
Both are open source. firecrawl is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Hey under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between firecrawl and Hey?
firecrawl is written in TypeScript and Hey in TypeScript. 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 Hey?
Choose firecrawl if you want the larger community (181,627 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose Hey if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.