head to head · open source
firecrawl vs OpenPencil
firecrawl has 181,627 GitHub stars, 9,834 forks, 621 open issues and last shipped yesterday. OpenPencil has 8,357 stars, 815 forks, 46 open issues and last shipped yesterday. firecrawl leads on adoption by 2,073% (181,627 vs 8,357 stars). firecrawl is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0; OpenPencil is written in TypeScript under MIT. firecrawl has attracted 5% as many forks as stars, OpenPencil 10%. firecrawl was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (ai), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
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 | OpenPencil | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 182K | ★ 8.4K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 9.8K | ⑂ 815 |
| 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 OpenPencil if
- You want the OpenPencil feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and OpenPencil 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 OpenPencil
OpenPencil is an open source, AI native design editor that opens and writes native Figma .fig and Pencil .pen files, runs as a roughly 7 MB desktop app or in the browser, and is aimed at designers and developers who want a local, fully programmable alternative to Figma.
read the full OpenPencil overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is firecrawl or OpenPencil more popular?
firecrawl has 181,627 GitHub stars and OpenPencil has 8,357. firecrawl has the larger community by that measure.
Are firecrawl and OpenPencil free?
Both are open source. firecrawl is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and OpenPencil under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between firecrawl and OpenPencil?
firecrawl is written in TypeScript and OpenPencil 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 OpenPencil?
Choose firecrawl if you want the larger community (181,627 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose OpenPencil if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.