Crawl4AI vs Firecrawl
Short answer
Crawl4AI: Open-source crawler and scraper that turns web pages into LLM-ready Markdown, with a self-hosted API server. Firecrawl: API that turns websites into clean Markdown or structured data for LLMs. Both are in our Web scraping for AI category.
Choose Crawl4AI if you want: fewer license conditions (Permissive vs Network copyleft (AGPL)) and simpler deploy (one container vs a multi-container stack).
Choose Firecrawl if you want: larger community (197k vs 86.5k GitHub stars).
Firecrawl publishes no official RAM figure, so we cannot compare hosting cost directly.
Last updated · computed from each project's official docs and live GitHub data · sources
Crawl4AI vs Firecrawl side by side
| Crawl4AI | Firecrawl | |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Web scraping for AI | Web scraping for AI |
| What it is | Open-source crawler and scraper that turns web pages into LLM-ready Markdown, with a self-hosted API server. | API that turns websites into clean Markdown or structured data for LLMs. |
| License | Apache-2.0 | AGPL-3.0 (SDKs and some UI components MIT) |
| License type | Permissive | Network copyleft (AGPL) |
| License conditions | Free for internal and commercial use, modification and redistribution. Keep the license and NOTICE text and state significant changes when you redistribute. | Free for internal and commercial use. If you modify Firecrawl and let users interact with it over a network, you must offer them the modified source under AGPL-3.0. The SDKs are MIT. |
| Status | Active | Active |
| GitHub stars | 86.5k | 197k |
| Last commit | Oct 26, 2026 | Oct 28, 2026 |
| Latest release | v0.9.5 | v2.11.0 |
| Minimum hardware | 4 GB RAM | Not published |
| Recommended hardware | Not published | Not published |
| RAM measured by us | Not tested yet | Not tested yet |
| GPU | Not required / not stated | Not required / not stated |
| Est. server cost | from €19.99/mo | Not estimated |
| Deploy method | Docker (pre-built image) | Docker Compose (build from source) |
| Known gotchas | 4 listed | 3 listed |
| Telemetry | Not documented | Off by default (opt-in) |
| Calls home by default | Not documented | Not documented |
| SSO (OIDC / SAML / LDAP) | Not documented | Not documented |
| Audit log | Not documented | Not documented |
| RBAC | Not documented | Not documented |
| Details | Full Crawl4AI guide → | Full Firecrawl guide → |
Key differences
- License: Crawl4AI: Apache-2.0 (Permissive). Firecrawl: AGPL-3.0 (SDKs and some UI components MIT) (Network copyleft (AGPL)).
- Official hardware: Crawl4AI: minimum 4 GB RAM. Firecrawl: not published.
- Est. server cost: Crawl4AI: from €19.99/mo. Firecrawl: not estimated (no official RAM figure).
- Deploy: Crawl4AI: Docker (pre-built image) · single container. Firecrawl: Docker Compose (build from source) · multi-container stack.
- GitHub stars: Crawl4AI: 86.5k. Firecrawl: 197k.
- Last commit: Crawl4AI: Oct 26, 2026. Firecrawl: Oct 28, 2026.
- Latest release: Crawl4AI: v0.9.5 (Oct 14, 2026). Firecrawl: v2.11.0 (Jun 19, 2026).
Same for both: Category: Web scraping for AI; GPU: not required or not stated; Status: Active.
Crawl4AI vs Firecrawl: FAQ
Crawl4AI or Firecrawl: which should a small business choose?
Choose Crawl4AI if you want: fewer license conditions (Permissive vs Network copyleft (AGPL)) and simpler deploy (one container vs a multi-container stack). Choose Firecrawl if you want: larger community (197k vs 86.5k GitHub stars). Firecrawl publishes no official RAM figure, so we cannot compare hosting cost directly.
Which is cheaper to self-host, Crawl4AI or Firecrawl?
Crawl4AI: from €19.99/mo. Firecrawl: not estimated (no official RAM figure). Our estimate is the cheapest Hetzner Cloud plan that meets each project's official RAM and vCPU figure; it covers the server only.
How much hardware do Crawl4AI and Firecrawl need?
Crawl4AI: minimum 4 GB RAM. Firecrawl: not published.
What is the license difference between Crawl4AI and Firecrawl?
Crawl4AI: Apache-2.0 (Permissive). Free for internal and commercial use, modification and redistribution. Keep the license and NOTICE text and state significant changes when you redistribute. Firecrawl: AGPL-3.0 (SDKs and some UI components MIT) (Network copyleft (AGPL)). Free for internal and commercial use. If you modify Firecrawl and let users interact with it over a network, you must offer them the modified source under AGPL-3.0. The SDKs are MIT. This is a summary, not legal advice.
Is Crawl4AI or Firecrawl more actively maintained?
Crawl4AI: Active, last commit Oct 26, 2026. Firecrawl: Active, last commit Oct 28, 2026. GitHub data refreshed Oct 29, 2026.
Which is easier to deploy, Crawl4AI or Firecrawl?
Crawl4AI installs via Docker (pre-built image) (single container); Firecrawl via Docker Compose (build from source) (multi-container stack). Crawl4AI lists 4 known gotchas and Firecrawl lists 3; see each app page.
Related
Sources
- Crawl4AI GitHub repository: github.com/unclecode/crawl4ai
- Crawl4AI documentation, Crawl4AI hardware requirements, Crawl4AI deploy instructions: docs.crawl4ai.com/core/self-hosting/
- Crawl4AI license: github.com/unclecode/crawl4ai/blob/main/LICENSE
- Firecrawl GitHub repository: github.com/firecrawl/firecrawl
- Firecrawl documentation, Firecrawl hardware requirements, Firecrawl deploy instructions: docs.firecrawl.dev/contributing/self-host
- Firecrawl license: github.com/firecrawl/firecrawl/blob/main/LICENSE
- Hetzner Cloud pricing used for cost estimates (read 2026-10-25): www.hetzner.com/cloud/regular-performance
- GitHub REST API (stars, commits, releases): docs.github.com/en/rest
Every value is generated from the same verified data as the app pages. Spotted something wrong? Tell us.