Crawl4AI vs Maxun
Short answer
Crawl4AI: Open-source crawler and scraper that turns web pages into LLM-ready Markdown, with a self-hosted API server. Maxun: No-code web data platform that records browser actions or uses AI to turn websites into structured data and APIs. Both are in our Web scraping for AI category.
Choose Crawl4AI if you want: fewer license conditions (Permissive vs Network copyleft (AGPL)), larger community (86.9k vs 18.1k GitHub stars) and simpler deploy (one container vs a multi-container stack).
Maxun 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 Maxun side by side
| Crawl4AI | Maxun | |
|---|---|---|
| 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. | No-code web data platform that records browser actions or uses AI to turn websites into structured data and APIs. |
| License | Apache-2.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| 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 to use internally, including commercially. If you modify it and let users outside your organisation use it over a network, you must publish your changes under AGPL-3.0. |
| Status | Active | Active |
| GitHub stars | 86.9k | 18.1k |
| Last commit | Oct 26, 2026 | Oct 28, 2026 |
| Latest release | v0.9.5 | v0.1.0 |
| 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 |
| Known gotchas | 4 listed | 3 listed |
| Telemetry | Not documented | On by default |
| 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 | No |
| Details | Full Crawl4AI guide → | Full Maxun guide → |
Key differences
- License: Crawl4AI: Apache-2.0 (Permissive). Maxun: AGPL-3.0 (Network copyleft (AGPL)).
- Official hardware: Crawl4AI: minimum 4 GB RAM. Maxun: not published.
- Est. server cost: Crawl4AI: from €19.99/mo. Maxun: not estimated (no official RAM figure).
- Deploy: Crawl4AI: Docker (pre-built image) · single container. Maxun: Docker Compose · multi-container stack.
- GitHub stars: Crawl4AI: 86.9k. Maxun: 18.1k.
- Last commit: Crawl4AI: Oct 26, 2026. Maxun: Oct 28, 2026.
- Latest release: Crawl4AI: v0.9.5 (Oct 14, 2026). Maxun: v0.1.0 (Oct 25, 2026).
Same for both: Category: Web scraping for AI; GPU: not required or not stated; Status: Active.
Crawl4AI vs Maxun: FAQ
Crawl4AI or Maxun: which should a small business choose?
Choose Crawl4AI if you want: fewer license conditions (Permissive vs Network copyleft (AGPL)), larger community (86.9k vs 18.1k GitHub stars) and simpler deploy (one container vs a multi-container stack). Maxun publishes no official RAM figure, so we cannot compare hosting cost directly.
Which is cheaper to self-host, Crawl4AI or Maxun?
Crawl4AI: from €19.99/mo. Maxun: 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 Maxun need?
Crawl4AI: minimum 4 GB RAM. Maxun: not published.
What is the license difference between Crawl4AI and Maxun?
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. Maxun: AGPL-3.0 (Network copyleft (AGPL)). Free to use internally, including commercially. If you modify it and let users outside your organisation use it over a network, you must publish your changes under AGPL-3.0. This is a summary, not legal advice.
Is Crawl4AI or Maxun more actively maintained?
Crawl4AI: Active, last commit Oct 26, 2026. Maxun: Active, last commit Oct 28, 2026. GitHub data refreshed Nov 4, 2026.
Which is easier to deploy, Crawl4AI or Maxun?
Crawl4AI installs via Docker (pre-built image) (single container); Maxun via Docker Compose (multi-container stack). Crawl4AI lists 4 known gotchas and Maxun 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
- Maxun GitHub repository: github.com/getmaxun/maxun
- Maxun documentation: docs.maxun.dev/self-host
- Maxun license: github.com/getmaxun/maxun/blob/develop/LICENSE
- Maxun hardware requirements: github.com/getmaxun/maxun/blob/develop/docker-compose.yml
- Maxun deploy instructions: docs.maxun.dev/installation/docker
- Hetzner Cloud pricing used for cost estimates (read 2026-11-01): 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.