Firecrawl vs Scrapfly (2026): which should you pick?
As of Nov 12, 2026, Firecrawl grades higher than Scrapfly: 2.6 against 2.4 out of 4.0.
Checked Oct 23, 2026 and Nov 12, 2026 · graded Oct 24, 2026 and Nov 12, 2026 by ToolGPA
Firecrawl grades higher on value for money. They get the same grade on the free plan, features, ease of use and platforms.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
Firecrawl
Web search, scrape and crawl API that returns LLM-ready data
Scrapfly
Web scraping API with anti-bot unblocking, browsers and AI extraction
Which one is for you
Pick Firecrawl if
- Fits if you feed web pages into an LLM and want Markdown back
- Works for people happy to self-host the open-source core
Look elsewhere if
- Tight if you stay free: 1,000 credits, 2 concurrent requests and low rate limits
- Watch out: JSON, Question and Highlight formats add 4 credits a page
- Watch out: Agent, Browser and the managed dashboards are Cloud only, not in the open-source version
- Pricey if you scale: $83 for 100,000 credits and $333 for 500,000, and pay-as-you-go is for paid plans only
Pick Scrapfly if
- Fits if you track rankings on Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo, Yandex or Baidu from your own code
- Works for developers who want scraping, a hosted browser and screenshots on one key
Look elsewhere if
- Watch out: a request costs 1 credit plain, 5 with a browser, 25 on residential proxies and 60 for a full-page screenshot
- Tight if your usage spikes on Discovery, which stops at its quota with no pay-as-you-go overflow
- Pricey if you need a team, since Discovery and Pro are single-user and team management starts at $250 a month
- Tight if your usage swings, as credits reset at renewal and don't roll over
How we grade them
| 2.6GPAFirecrawlGood | 2.4GPAScrapflyFair | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | B$16 a month on yearly billing for 5,000 credits, inside the cheapest quarter of this category ($19). Standard jumps to $83 for 100,000. | CDiscovery is $30 a month for 200,000 credits, this category's middle. What that buys swings with the request: 1 credit plain, 5 with a browser or the Unblocker, 25 with residential proxies, so 8,000 to 200,000 pages. Pro is $100 for 1 million. |
| Free plan and trial | CA free plan with 1,000 credits a month and no card, but only 2 concurrent requests and low rate limits. | CNo free plan: 1,000 credits on sign-up with no card and no time limit, across every product. They don't renew, and at 25 credits on residential proxies that's 40 requests. |
| Features | BSearch, scrape, crawl, map and interact, with SDKs and an open-source core. Nothing in the listing shows a gap in the core scraping job. | BSearch results from Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo, Yandex and Baidu with positions and SERP features as JSON or CSV, anti-bot unblocking, proxies in more than 190 countries, a cloud browser, a site crawler, AI extraction and screenshots. Nothing in the listing shows a gap in the core job. |
| Ease of use | CNo store rating on record. It is a developer API, with keys and code to set up. | CJudged on how fast a developer gets a first result: one flag for unblocking, SDKs for Python, TypeScript, Go, Rust and Scrapy, and a CLI. No rating on record, and the credit cost of each request changes with its options. |
| Platforms and integrations | BWeb only, but it plugs into LangChain, Claude, ChatGPT and Ollama and has SDKs. | BWeb, with an API, SDKs, a CLI and a hosted MCP server for Claude, Cursor, Cline and Windsurf, plus Zapier, Make, n8n, LangChain, LlamaIndex and CrewAI. No desktop or phone app, so B is the top. |
| Best for | turning web pages into clean text for AI apps | scraping protected sites and several search engines |
The GPA is the average of the five grades: an A is 4 points, an F is none. The full reasons are on each tool's page: Firecrawl and Scrapfly. How we grade
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. Scrapfly starts at $30 a month and scores 2.7.
They score the same, and Firecrawl starts $14 a month lower. Of the other SERP and SEO data APIs on the chart, none scores higher than Firecrawl for less, and none scores higher than Scrapfly for less.
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
Where they differ
- Firecrawl is open source and self-hostable, according to its own site.
- Firecrawl also covers AI agents.
At a glance
| Firecrawl | Scrapfly | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free plan | Free trial |
| Starts at | $16 per month for 5,000 credits, billed annually ($19 billed monthly) | $30 per month for 200,000 API credits |
| Free plan | 1,000 credits a month, no card needed, 2 concurrent requests and low rate limits. | None |
| Free trial | None listed | 1,000 free API credits on sign-up, no card needed and no time limit |
| Web | ||
| Made by | Firecrawl | Joam Intelligence, LLC |
| Price read from | firecrawl.dev | scrapfly.io |
| Checked | Nov 12, 2026 | Oct 23, 2026 |
Worth knowing
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.
Scrapfly
- A request costs 1 credit as plain HTTP on a datacenter IP, 5 with a browser or the Unblocker, 25 with residential proxies and 60 for a full-page screenshot.
- Discovery stops when its credits run out; only Pro and above continue as pay as you go.
- Credits reset at renewal and do not roll over. Failed requests are not charged.
- Discovery and Pro are single-user accounts; team management starts at Startup for $250 a month.
Key features
Firecrawl
- Search with page content
- Searches the web and returns full page content from the results, not only links. Costs 2 credits per 10 results.
- Scrape to Markdown or JSON
- Turns a URL into Markdown, structured JSON, screenshots or other formats. A basic scrape costs 1 credit per page.
- Crawl and map
- Crawl follows a site page by page at 1 credit per page. Map lists a site's URLs for 1 credit per call.
- Interact
- Scrapes a page, then clicks, fills forms or navigates it from AI prompts or code, at 2 credits per browser minute.
- Open-source core
- The core scrape, crawl, map and search APIs can be self-hosted with Docker Compose, per the docs.
- SDKs and shared credits
- Python, Node.js, cURL and CLI examples are shown. One credit balance is shared across all endpoints.
Scrapfly
- Web Scraping API with Unblocker
- One flag handles anti-bot systems, browser rendering, proxy rotation and retries, with residential and datacenter proxies in more than 190 countries.
- Search result scraping
- Send a query with a location and get positions, titles, URLs, snippets and SERP features back as JSON or CSV from Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo, Yandex or Baidu.
- Cloud Browser and Crawler APIs
- Drive a hosted Chromium with Playwright or Puppeteer and keep sessions between calls, or crawl a whole site in one job with path filters and webhooks.
- Data Extraction API
- Turn pages into JSON with ready-made models for products, articles, reviews and jobs, with CSS or XPath templates, or with plain-language AI prompts.
- Screenshot API
- Full-page or viewport captures in PNG, JPEG or WebP, with auto-scroll and scheduled captures sent to a webhook.
- MCP server, CLI and SDKs
- A hosted MCP server for Claude, Cursor, Cline and Windsurf, a command-line tool, and SDKs for Python, TypeScript, Go, Rust and Scrapy.
Plans
Firecrawl
Free$0
1,000 credits a month (500 searches or 1,000 pages scraped), 2 concurrent requests.
Hobby$16
per month for 5,000 credits, billed annually ($19 billed monthly)
5 concurrent requests, basic support, and extra credits at 1,000 per $5.
Standard$83
per month for 100,000 credits, billed annually ($99 billed monthly)
25 concurrent requests, standard support, extra credits at 2,000 per $5.
Growth$333
per month for 500,000 credits, billed annually ($399 billed monthly)
50 concurrent requests, priority support, extra credits at 2,500 per $5.
Scale$599
per month for 1,000,000 credits, billed annually ($749 billed monthly)
100 concurrent requests, priority support, extra credits at 5,000 per $5.
EnterpriseCustom
Custom credits and concurrency, dedicated support and SLA, SSO, zero-data retention.
Scrapfly
Discovery$30
per month for 200,000 API credits
5 concurrent requests, 1 week of logs and one user. Stops at the quota, with no pay-as-you-go overflow.
Pro$100
per month for 1,000,000 API credits
20 concurrent requests, 2 weeks of logs and one user. Extra credits at $3.50 per 10,000.
Startup$250
per month for 2,500,000 API credits
50 concurrent requests, 3 weeks of logs and team management. Extra credits at $2.00 per 10,000.
Enterprise$500
per month for 5,500,000 API credits
100 concurrent requests, 4 weeks of logs, team management and premium support. Extra credits at $1.20 per 10,000.
CustomCustom
Negotiated volume above 5.5 million credits, with committed concurrency, dedicated residential IPs, a BAA and 24/7 support.
Ways to pay less
Firecrawl
- Annual discount
Annual billing saves about 2 months
Annual prices are lower than monthly (Standard $83 against $99 a month); the homepage banner says 2 months free when billed annually.
Scrapfly
No public discounts listed.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, Firecrawl or Scrapfly?
As of Nov 12, 2026, Firecrawl is cheaper to start with: $16 a month, against $30 a month for Scrapfly. Firecrawl starts at $16 per month for 5,000 credits, billed annually ($19 billed monthly), and Scrapfly starts at $30 per month for 200,000 API credits.
Which has a free plan, Firecrawl or Scrapfly?
As of Nov 12, 2026, only Firecrawl has a free plan. Scrapfly does not, though it has a free trial.
More comparisons
How this page was made
- The verdict at the top follows a fixed rule. When both tools are in the same category and either is in our top three for it, the verdict follows that ranking: the higher-placed tool is our pick. The top three weigh who each tool suits as well as its grades, so a pick can go against the GPA. Otherwise the page does not pick one and says which grades higher: the higher GPA first; on a tie, the one with a free plan, then the one that starts cheaper in dollars a month, counted the same way for both; if they are still level, what the choice depends on.
- The grades are our own, from each tool’s review or report card. The GPA is their average.
- Prices, plans and platforms come from each tool’s listing. The table above says where each price was read and when.
- The differences and the answers to the questions are worked out from those listings.