Spicrawl vs Firecrawl: which web scraping API fits your project?
Choose Spicrawl to stop paying for cache hits and blocked pages. Choose Firecrawl if you need site crawling, web search or self-hosting.
Spicrawl and Firecrawl both turn web pages into clean Markdown and JSON for apps and AI agents. They differ in what they bill for, how much of a site they discover for you, and how you handle proxies and logins. Here is a fair side-by-side, including where Firecrawl is the better choice.
Cached results
Blocked 403 page
Crawl a whole site
Facts about Firecrawl were checked against its own website and docs on 29 September 2026. See sources.
Which one should you choose?
Choose Spicrawl if you
- want cache hits and blocked pages to cost nothing
- want to use your own proxy, with no surcharge
- scrape logged-in pages with sessions and actions
- want a free beta, no credit card
Choose Firecrawl if you
- need to crawl a whole site or find its URLs
- need built-in web search
- want managed proxies with country targeting
- need many SDK languages or self-hosting
Spicrawl vs Firecrawl at a glance
marks the stronger option for that row. No mark means it is even, or it depends on your needs.
| Feature | Spicrawl | Firecrawl |
|---|---|---|
| Price today | SpicrawlFree during betaFree while in beta, with no credit card. Prices after the beta have not been announced. | FirecrawlFree tier, from $19/moFree plan with 1,000 credits a month. Paid plans from $19 a month (5,000 credits) to $749 a month (1,000,000 credits), about 17–20% less when billed yearly. |
| How requests are billed | Spicrawl1, 3 or 8 creditsBy the engine that ran: 1 credit for a plain request, 3 for browser rendering, 8 for full Chromium. | Firecrawl1 credit per page1 credit per page, with JavaScript rendering included. Options add credits, such as 4 for JSON extraction and 1 per PDF page. |
| Failed and blocked requests | SpicrawlStronger option: Free, incl. 403sErrors, bot challenges and timeouts cost 0. A page that answers with a status other than 200, 404 or 410, such as a 403, also costs 0. | FirecrawlFree; 403/404 billedA scrape that returns no document costs 0. A page that comes back with an error status such as 403 or 404 costs 1 credit. |
| Cached results | SpicrawlStronger option: FreeFree. The cache is on by default and keeps results for up to 48 hours. | Firecrawl1 credit1 credit per page. Caching makes requests faster, not cheaper. |
| Crawl a whole site | SpicrawlNoNo. Spicrawl does not follow links for you: you send the URLs, up to 10,000 per batch call. | FirecrawlStronger option: Yes (crawl + map)Yes, with the crawl and map endpoints. |
| Web search | SpicrawlNoNo. | FirecrawlStronger option: YesYes, with the search endpoint (2 credits per 10 results). |
| JavaScript rendering | SpicrawlYes, autoYes. mode=auto tries a plain request first and uses a browser only when the page needs one. | FirecrawlYesYes. |
| Output formats | SpicrawlMarkdown, HTML, JSON, PDFMarkdown, HTML, text, PDF, JSON and screenshots. | FirecrawlStronger option: Markdown, HTML, JSON +moreMarkdown, HTML, raw HTML, links, screenshots, JSON, summaries, images and more. |
| Structured data | SpicrawlSelectors + schema freePage metadata, CSS selector maps and JSON Schema at no extra cost. Extraction with a model prompt is coming soon. | FirecrawlJSON extraction, +4 creditsJSON extraction with a schema or a prompt, for 4 extra credits per page. |
| Browser actions | SpicrawlUp to 50 stepsClick, type, select, scroll, wait and run JavaScript, up to 50 steps per request. | FirecrawlYesClick, type, press keys, scroll, wait, take screenshots and run JavaScript. |
| Staying logged in | SpicrawlSessionsSessions keep cookies, browser storage and the same exit IP between requests. | FirecrawlBrowser profilesBrowser profiles save and reuse cookies and local storage across scrapes. |
| Proxies | SpicrawlBYO, no surchargeBring your own proxy with no surcharge. Managed proxies and country targeting are coming soon. | FirecrawlStronger option: Managed, country targetingManaged basic and enhanced proxies at no extra credit cost, with country targeting. Enhanced proxies are in the US and the Netherlands only. |
| AI agents | SpicrawlMCP, 25 tools + skillHosted MCP server with 25 tools, an agent skill, and one-command setup for Claude Code, Cursor and Codex. | FirecrawlMCP serverHosted MCP server that works without a key, with OAuth sign-in or with an API key. |
| SDKs and CLI | SpicrawlJS/TS SDK + CLIJavaScript and TypeScript SDK, a CLI, and HTTP examples in cURL, Python and TypeScript. | FirecrawlStronger option: 9 SDK languages + CLIOfficial SDKs for Python, Node, Go, Java, Ruby, Rust, .NET, PHP and Elixir, plus a CLI. |
| Open source | SpicrawlNoNo. Spicrawl is a hosted service. | FirecrawlStronger option: Yes (AGPL-3.0)Yes, under AGPL-3.0, and it can be self-hosted. Some features, such as enhanced proxies and the hosted browser, are cloud-only. |
Switching from Firecrawl
Both APIs take a URL and an output format in one POST request. The main difference is the response: Firecrawl wraps the Markdown in JSON, while Spicrawl returns the Markdown itself as the response body. Ask for response_format=json when you want a JSON envelope instead.
curl -X POST https://api.firecrawl.dev/v2/scrape \ -H "Authorization: Bearer $FIRECRAWL_API_KEY" \ -H "Content-Type: application/json" \ -d '{ "url": "https://example.com/blog/post", "formats": ["markdown"] }'# Response: JSON, with the page under data.markdowncurl -X POST https://api.spicrawl.com/v1/scrape \ -H "Authorization: Bearer spicrawl_live_…" \ -H "Content-Type: application/json" \ -d '{ "url": "https://example.com/blog/post", "response_format": "markdown" }'# Response: the Markdown itselfSpicrawl vs Firecrawl: common questions
Is Spicrawl a good Firecrawl alternative?
It is if you scrape pages you already know the URLs of, and you care about not paying for failed requests, blocked pages or cache hits. Spicrawl also suits logged-in scraping and AI coding agents. If you need Firecrawl’s site crawling, web search or self-hosting, Firecrawl is the better fit.
Is Spicrawl cheaper than Firecrawl?
Spicrawl is free while it is in beta, and its prices after the beta have not been announced, so a like-for-like price comparison is not possible yet. The billing rules differ today: Spicrawl charges nothing for cache hits or for most blocked pages, such as a 403, while Firecrawl charges 1 credit for each.
Can Spicrawl crawl a whole website like Firecrawl?
No. Spicrawl does not discover URLs by following links. You send the pages you want, one at a time or up to 10,000 per batch call. Firecrawl’s crawl and map endpoints do the discovery for you.
How do I switch from Firecrawl to Spicrawl?
Point your request at https://api.spicrawl.com/v1/scrape with your Spicrawl API key and set response_format instead of formats. Spicrawl returns Markdown, HTML and text as the response body itself, so read the body directly, or ask for response_format=json to get a JSON envelope.
Does Spicrawl have an MCP server like Firecrawl?
Yes. Spicrawl hosts an MCP server with tools to scrape pages, run batches, manage sessions and check usage, and the spicrawl init command connects Claude Code, Cursor or Codex to it in one step.
Is Spicrawl open source?
No. Spicrawl is a hosted service. Firecrawl’s core is open source under AGPL-3.0 and can be self-hosted, although some of its features are only available in its cloud service.
Sources
Firecrawl details come from these pages, checked on 29 September 2026. Products change: if something here is out of date, email support@spicrawl.com and we will correct it.
Try Spicrawl free while it’s in beta
Run the same pages you scrape today and compare the results yourself. No credit card required.
Get free beta access