head to head · open source
firecrawl vs waterfox
firecrawl has 181,627 GitHub stars, 9,834 forks, 621 open issues and last shipped yesterday. waterfox has 6,291 stars, 431 forks, 332 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. firecrawl leads on adoption by 2,787% (181,627 vs 6,291 stars). firecrawl is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0; waterfox is written in JavaScript under a custom or non-standard licence. firecrawl has attracted 5% as many forks as stars, waterfox 7%. 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.
← all 8884 open source comparisons
Side by side
| firecrawl | waterfox | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 182K | ★ 6.3K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | Custom / other |
| Written in | TypeScript | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-15 |
| Forks | ⑂ 9.8K | ⑂ 431 |
| 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 waterfox if
- You want the waterfox feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and waterfox 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 waterfox
Waterfox is an open source web browser built on Mozilla Firefox, with source code maintained in this repository. The project describes itself as a customisable browser based on the Mozilla Firefox codebase, and the tree contains both the upstream Mozilla platform code and the Waterfox specific product layer that sits on top of it. It lives in the JavaScript and Gecko browser ecosystem, sharing the rendering engine, build system and testing tooling that Mozilla maintains for Firefox. The browser is distributed to end users through the project's own website, while the source distribution here targets people who wan…
read the full waterfox overview →
More in Miscellaneous
Related comparisons
Frequently asked questions
Is firecrawl or waterfox more popular?
firecrawl has 181,627 GitHub stars and waterfox has 6,291. firecrawl has the larger community by that measure.
Are firecrawl and waterfox free?
Both are open source. firecrawl is licensed under AGPL-3.0, and waterfox has no licence declared in this registry. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between firecrawl and waterfox?
firecrawl is written in TypeScript and waterfox in JavaScript. 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 waterfox?
Choose firecrawl if you want the larger community (181,627 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose waterfox if its feature set, stack or Custom / other licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.