Alternatives · SEO APIs
Firecrawl alternatives
As of Nov 13, 2026, the best Firecrawl alternative for most people is Apify (2.8 GPA), third in our ranking of SERP and SEO data APIs. It's also the best free one.
Firecrawl compared with 10 alternatives: Tavily, Apify, ScrapingBee, ZenRows, Scrapfly and 5 more.
Firecrawl has a free plan. Paid plans start at $16 per month for 5,000 credits, billed annually ($19 billed monthly). 6 of the 10 alternatives are free or have a free plan. 3 more offer a free trial.
Listings checked up to Nov 12, 2026 · Where the facts come from
Black Friday: is there a Firecrawl sale?
At a glance
| Tool | Price | Free plan | Runs on |
|---|---|---|---|
| FirecrawlThis tool | Free plan · from $16/mo | Yes | Web |
| Tavily | Free plan · from $30/mo | Yes | Web |
| Apify | Free plan · from $19/mo | Yes | Web |
| ScrapingBee | Free trial · from $19/mo | Trial only | Web |
| ZenRows | Free plan · from $16/mo | Yes | Web |
| Scrapfly | Free trial · from $30/mo | Trial only | Web |
| Dumpling AI | From $40/mo | No | Web |
| Jina AI | Free plan · from $50 one-time | Yes | Web |
| Linkup | Free plan | Yes | Web |
| Olostep | Free trial · from $9/mo | Trial only | Web |
| Parallel | Free plan · from $1,000/mo | Yes | Web |
Price against what you get
Firecrawl starts at $16 a month and scores 2.7 out of 4 on features, ease of use and platforms. None of the 8 alternatives on this chart both scores higher and starts lower.
Olostep starts lower without scoring higher.
Features, ease of use and platforms, averaged
What paid plans start at, a month (each step along is roughly double) →
- The best score at each price
- Has a free plan
- No free plan
How each one differs from Firecrawl
Tavily
Web search, extract and crawl API built for AI agents
- Tavily starts at $30 per month for 4,000 API credits.
- Tavily also covers AI search and research.
Suits: Developers adding live web search to an AI agent or RAG app
Apify
Scraping platform with a store of ready-made Actors, Google included
- Apify starts at $19 per month, billed monthly, with $19 of usage included.
- Apify does not cover AI agents, which Firecrawl does.
Suits: Teams that want a ready-made scraper instead of writing one
ScrapingBee
Web scraping API with a Google search endpoint, priced by credits
- ScrapingBee starts at $19 per month for 75,000 API credits.
- ScrapingBee has no free plan, only a free trial, unlike Firecrawl.
- ScrapingBee does not cover AI agents, which Firecrawl does.
Suits: Developers who want proxies and headless browsers handled for them
ZenRows
Web scraping API for protected sites, priced by monthly credits
- ZenRows starts at $16 per month for 45,000 credits, billed annually ($19 billed monthly).
- ZenRows does not cover AI agents, which Firecrawl does.
Suits: Developers scraping protected sites without managing proxies
Scrapfly
Web scraping API with anti-bot unblocking, browsers and AI extraction
- Scrapfly starts at $30 per month for 200,000 API credits.
- Scrapfly has no free plan, only a free trial, unlike Firecrawl.
- Scrapfly does not cover AI agents, which Firecrawl does.
Suits: Developers scraping sites protected by anti-bot systems
Dumpling AI
One API for web search, scraping, documents and social data
- Dumpling AI starts at $40 per month, billed annually.
- Dumpling AI has no free plan, unlike Firecrawl.
- Dumpling AI also covers research.
Suits: Teams that want several data providers behind one key and one balance
Jina AI
Reader, search, embeddings and reranker APIs for AI search
- Jina AI starts at $50 for 1 billion tokens, one-time top-up.
- Jina AI also covers AI search and research.
- Jina AI does not cover AI agents, which Firecrawl does.
Suits: Developers grounding an LLM with page text and web search
Linkup
Pay-per-request web search and fetch API for AI agents
- Linkup also covers AI search and research.
Suits: Developers who want to pay per request with no subscription
Olostep
Scrape, crawl and search API that returns clean web data
- Olostep starts at $9 per month for 5,000 requests.
- Olostep has no free plan, only a free trial, unlike Firecrawl.
- Olostep also covers AI search.
Suits: Developers who want a flat monthly request allowance for scraping
Parallel
Web search, extract and research APIs for AI agents
- Parallel starts at $1,000 per month in credits, or $10,000 per year.
- Parallel also covers AI search and research.
Suits: Developers who want agent web search billed per request
Limits worth knowing in Firecrawl
- Per-page cost rises with format: JSON, Question and Highlight formats add 4 credits per page on Scrape and Crawl.
- The docs say Agent, Browser, managed dashboards, enhanced proxy paths and enterprise controls are Cloud-only.
- Pay-as-you-go (credits added in $5 steps up to a monthly limit you set) is for paid plans only.
- A page that returns an error status such as 403 or 404 still costs 1 credit.
Common questions
What are the alternatives to Firecrawl?
The alternatives to Firecrawl in this directory are Tavily, Apify, ScrapingBee, ZenRows, Scrapfly, Dumpling AI, Jina AI, Linkup, Olostep and Parallel. Each one has a side-by-side comparison with Firecrawl.
Is there a free alternative to Firecrawl?
Yes. Tavily, Apify, ZenRows, Jina AI, Linkup and Parallel have a free plan alongside paid ones.
When were these prices checked?
Each listing shows its own date. On this page they run from Oct 23, 2026 to Nov 12, 2026. Vendors change prices without notice, so confirm on their site before you buy.