head to head · open source
firecrawl vs novu
firecrawl has 181,627 GitHub stars, 9,834 forks, 621 open issues and last shipped yesterday. novu has 40,002 stars, 4,494 forks, 105 open issues and last shipped yesterday. firecrawl leads on adoption by 354% (181,627 vs 40,002 stars). firecrawl is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0; novu is written in TypeScript under a custom or non-standard licence. firecrawl has attracted 5% as many forks as stars, novu 11%. novu 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 | novu | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 182K | ★ 40K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | Custom / other |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 9.8K | ⑂ 4.5K |
| 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 novu if
- You want the novu feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and novu 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 novu
Novu is an open source communication infrastructure platform for building and managing multi channel notifications in products and connecting them to AI agents. It lives in the Node.js/TypeScript ecosystem and targets developers who need to send and receive messages across email, SMS, push, in app inbox, chat, and collaboration tools like Slack and Microsoft Teams.
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Frequently asked questions
Is firecrawl or novu more popular?
firecrawl has 181,627 GitHub stars and novu has 40,002. firecrawl has the larger community by that measure.
Are firecrawl and novu free?
Both are open source. firecrawl is licensed under AGPL-3.0, and novu has no licence declared in this registry. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between firecrawl and novu?
firecrawl is written in TypeScript and novu 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 novu?
Choose firecrawl if you want the larger community (181,627 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose novu if its feature set, stack or Custom / other licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.