head to head · open source
firecrawl vs SearXNG
firecrawl has 181,744 GitHub stars, 9,838 forks, 621 open issues and last shipped today. SearXNG has 37,270 stars, 3,395 forks, 215 open issues and last shipped yesterday. firecrawl leads on adoption by 388% (181,744 vs 37,270 stars). firecrawl is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0; SearXNG is written in Python under AGPL-3.0. firecrawl has attracted 5% as many forks as stars, SearXNG 9%. 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 | SearXNG | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 182K | ★ 37K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 9.8K | ⑂ 3.4K |
| 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 SearXNG if
- You want the SearXNG feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and SearXNG 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 SearXNG
SearXNG is a free, self hostable metasearch engine that aggregates results from more than 270 search services and databases, and it is meant for people and organizations that want web search without being tracked or profiled.
read the full SearXNG overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is firecrawl or SearXNG more popular?
firecrawl has 181,744 GitHub stars and SearXNG has 37,270. firecrawl has the larger community by that measure.
Are firecrawl and SearXNG free?
Both are open source. firecrawl is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and SearXNG under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between firecrawl and SearXNG?
firecrawl is written in TypeScript and SearXNG 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 SearXNG?
Choose firecrawl if you want the larger community (181,744 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose SearXNG if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.