Firecrawl vs Spider Cloud (2026): which should you pick?
As of Nov 13, 2026, Firecrawl grades higher than Spider Cloud: 2.6 against 2.0 out of 4.0.
Checked Nov 12, 2026 and Nov 13, 2026 · graded Nov 12, 2026 and Nov 13, 2026 by ToolGPA
Firecrawl grades higher on value for money, features and ease of use. They get the same grade on the free plan 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
Spider Cloud
Crawl, scrape and search API with usage or concurrency pricing
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 Spider Cloud if
- Fits if you feed web pages to an AI agent or RAG pipeline as markdown
- Works for people who want a balance that never expires instead of a subscription
Look elsewhere if
- Skip it if you want a real free plan: the signup credit is worth $0.25
- Not for you if you cannot code, as it is an API, a CLI and agent integrations
- Watch out: failed or blocked pages are still billed, with a 0.01 credit minimum per page
- Watch out: Unlimited returns a 429 error above your concurrency and does not queue requests
- Watch out: zero data retention bills requests at 2.5 times the credits
How we grade them
| 2.6GPAFirecrawlGood | 2.0GPASpider CloudFair | |
|---|---|---|
| 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. | CPay as you go from a $5 top-up at $1 per GB, or Unlimited from $40 a month for 2 concurrent requests. That is inside the usual $19 to $49 range for data APIs, and cost climbs with concurrency. |
| 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. | CNew accounts get 2,500 free credits, worth $0.25, if signup passes the vendor's checks. It is a small taste with no free plan behind it. |
| 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. | CScrape, crawl, search, browser rendering, proxies and AI extraction. But Unlimited does not cover Google search or social automation, and failed pages are still billed. |
| Ease of use | CNo store rating on record. It is a developer API, with keys and code to set up. | DNo store rating on record. It is an API with a CLI, so you code against it. |
| Platforms and integrations | BWeb only, but it plugs into LangChain, Claude, ChatGPT and Ollama and has SDKs. | BWeb API with an MCP server, a CLI and integrations with CrewAI, LangChain, LlamaIndex, Dify and Flowise. The crawler core is MIT-licensed on GitHub. |
| Best for | turning web pages into clean text for AI apps | crawling pages into markdown for AI |
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 Spider Cloud. 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. Spider Cloud starts at $40 a month and scores 2.0.
Firecrawl scores higher and starts $24 a month lower. Of the other SERP and SEO data APIs on the chart, none scores higher than Firecrawl for less, and 16 score higher than Spider Cloud 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 self-hostable, according to its own site.
At a glance
| Firecrawl | Spider Cloud | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free plan | Free trial |
| Starts at | $16 per month for 5,000 credits, billed annually ($19 billed monthly) | $40 per month for 2 concurrent requests, or pay as you go from $5 |
| Free plan | 1,000 credits a month, no card needed, 2 concurrent requests and low rate limits. | None |
| Free trial | None listed | New accounts get 2,500 free credits (worth $0.25) if signup passes the vendor's checks |
| Web | ||
| Made by | Firecrawl | BAGELMEN LLC |
| Price read from | firecrawl.dev | spider.cloud |
| Checked | Nov 12, 2026 | Nov 13, 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.
Spider Cloud
- Failed or blocked pages are still billed, with a 0.01 credit minimum per page.
- The Unlimited plan does not support Google search, social media automation or multi-account use; those run on pay as you go.
- Requests above your concurrency on Unlimited get a 429 error and are not queued.
- A zero data retention setting bills requests at 2.5 times the credits.
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.
Spider Cloud
- Scrape, crawl and search
- One API covers all three; whole-site crawls stream back page by page as JSONL, with markdown, HTML, text or JSON output.
- Browser rendering and proxies
- JavaScript rendering and proxy rotation are not billed as multipliers; proxies in 199 countries are listed on the site.
- AI extraction
- Sends a prompt and a URL and gets structured JSON back; AI extraction has its own price listed in the pricing details.
- Agent integrations
- The site lists an MCP server, a CLI and integrations with CrewAI, LangChain, LlamaIndex, Dify and Flowise.
- Open source core
- The crawler is published under an MIT license on GitHub, and the cloud service is the hosted version.
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.
Spider Cloud
Pay as you go$5
one-time top-up, used as you go
No subscription and the balance does not expire. Billed at $1 per GB of content plus $0.0001 per CPU minute; larger top-ups of $500 or more earn a bonus.
Unlimited$40
per month for 2 concurrent requests
Unlimited requests for a flat price based on concurrency, from $20 per concurrent request falling to $13 at higher volumes, up to 1,538 concurrent.
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.
Spider Cloud
No public discounts listed.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, Firecrawl or Spider Cloud?
As of Nov 13, 2026, Firecrawl is cheaper to start with: $16 a month, against $40 a month for Spider Cloud. Firecrawl starts at $16 per month for 5,000 credits, billed annually ($19 billed monthly), and Spider Cloud starts at $40 per month for 2 concurrent requests, or pay as you go from $5.
Which has a free plan, Firecrawl or Spider Cloud?
As of Nov 13, 2026, only Firecrawl has a free plan. Spider Cloud 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.