#1 Firecrawl Alternative
Scrape, crawl, map, search, and batch-process the web through one API. Browser actions, JSON extraction against your schema, and search with page content are built in, with more concurrent requests and a lower price per page than Firecrawl on every paid plan.
Powering agents and products with the world's data.
Why switch
Firecrawl and Context.dev both scrape, crawl, map, and search the web. Context.dev gives you more concurrent requests and a lower price per page on every paid plan, and cheaper search when you need page content.
- Key difference
The same scraping toolkit, with more headroom per dollar
Scrape pages to Markdown, HTML, screenshots, images, or JSON against your schema. Crawl, map, and search the web, run async batches of up to 100,000 URLs, and monitor pages for changes. Context.dev Pro is $99/mo for 125,000 credits and 100 concurrent requests. Firecrawl Standard is $99/mo billed monthly for 100,000 credits and 25 concurrent browsers.
- Search
Search that reads the results for 2 credits, not 12
POST /web/search returns ranked results and can include each page as Markdown or just the passages relevant to your query. Ten results with Markdown cost 2 credits. On Firecrawl the same call costs 2 credits for the search plus 1 for every result it scrapes.
- Scrape
Browser actions and schema extraction in one scrape
Click, scroll, or wait for a selector before capture with up to five actions per request, for 2 credits on paid plans. Add formats.json with your JSON Schema and get a typed object back for 5 credits per page, the same price as Firecrawl.
- Billing
Fewer paid add-ons
JavaScript rendering and proxy escalation are in the base price on both APIs. The difference is everywhere else: highlights add 1 credit instead of 4, zero data retention adds nothing instead of 1 credit per page, and a scrape where every output fails is free unless the target returned a 404. Failed batch pages are refunded when the batch settles.
- Reliability
Documented for production
Concurrency limits are published per plan, and a request over the limit gets a 429 with Retry-After. The public OpenAPI document describes every endpoint, deprecated surfaces stay available for at least 90 days, incidents are posted at status.context.dev, and security reports live at trust.context.dev.
- Also included
Brand and company data on the same key
When a pipeline also needs logos, colors, or company profiles, the Brand API resolves them by domain, company name, email, or stock ticker for 10 credits per lookup. It is there if you need it, and your scraping bill does not depend on it.
Full comparison
| Feature | Context.dev | Firecrawl |
|---|---|---|
| Scraping & Crawling | ||
| Scrape to Markdown or HTML | Yes | Yes |
| Screenshots and image extraction | Yes | Yes |
| JSON extraction against your schema | 5 credits | 5 credits |
| Crawl a site | 1 credit/page | 1 credit/page |
| Map site URLs | Yes | Yes |
| Async batch scraping | Up to 100,000 URLs | Yes |
| JSON extraction inside batches | No | Yes |
| Change monitoring with webhooks | Yes | Yes |
| Parse PDFs and documents to Markdown | Yes | Yes |
| Interaction & Search | ||
| Browser actions before capture (click, scroll, wait) | 2 credits | Yes |
| Live multi-step browser sessions | No | Billed per minute |
| Web search endpoint | Yes | Yes |
| Search 10 results with page Markdown | 2 credits | 12 credits |
| Research answers with source URLs | Yes | Yes |
| Pricing & Billing | ||
| JS rendering and proxy escalation in base price | Yes | Yes |
| Highlights (relevant passages) | +1 credit | +4 credits |
| Zero data retention | No extra credits | +1 credit/page |
| Concurrency, Pro vs Standard plan | 100 requests | 25 browsers |
| Deployment | ||
| Managed cloud API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted open source | No | AGPL-3.0 |
| Developer Experience | ||
| REST API with public OpenAPI spec | Yes | Yes |
| TypeScript SDK | Yes | Yes |
| Python SDK | Yes | Yes |
| Go SDK | Yes | Yes |
| PHP SDK | Yes | No |
| Ruby SDK | Yes | Yes |
| CLI | Yes | Yes |
| MCP server | Yes | Yes |
| Also Included: Brand & Company Data | ||
| Brand profile by domain, name, email, or ticker | Yes | No |
| Logo CDN for direct embedding (Logo Link) | Yes | No |
| Transaction / merchant enrichment | Yes | No |
Cost per 1,000 pages
Public list prices on both sites, broken down to the cost of scraping 1,000 pages at each tier, with the concurrency each plan allows.
| Tier | Context.dev | Firecrawl |
|---|---|---|
| Free | Free $0/mo 1,000 credits 1 concurrent request $0 per 1K pages | Free $0/mo 1,000 credits 2 concurrent browsers $0 per 1K pages |
| Entry | Developer $19/mo 7,500 credits 10 concurrent requests $2.11–$2.53 per 1K pages | Hobby $19/mo 5,000 credits 5 concurrent browsers $3.20–$3.80 per 1K pages |
| Mid | Pro $99/mo 125,000 credits 100 concurrent requests $0.66–$0.79 per 1K pages | Standard $99/mo 100,000 credits 25 concurrent browsers $0.83–$0.99 per 1K pages |
| Growth | Growth $299/mo 500,000 credits 250 concurrent requests $0.50–$0.60 per 1K pages | Growth $399/mo 500,000 credits 50 concurrent browsers $0.67–$0.80 per 1K pages |
| High volume | Scale $499/mo 1,000,000 credits 500 concurrent requests $0.42–$0.50 per 1K pages | Scale $749/mo 1,000,000 credits 100 concurrent browsers $0.60–$0.75 per 1K pages |
- Cost per 1,000 pages assumes 1 credit per page, the base scrape price on both APIs. Both include JavaScript rendering and proxy escalation in that price. Each range runs from yearly billing to monthly billing.
- Add-ons differ. JSON extraction adds 4 credits per page on both. Highlights add 1 credit on Context.dev and 4 on Firecrawl. Search with Markdown for 10 results costs 2 credits on Context.dev and 12 on Firecrawl (2 for the search plus 1 per scraped result). Zero data retention adds no credits on Context.dev (enabled on request) and 1 credit per page on Firecrawl.
- Firecrawl credits and concurrent browsers are from docs.firecrawl.dev/billing. Its Hobby monthly price ($19) is listed on firecrawl.dev/pricing; the Standard, Growth, and Scale monthly prices ($99, $399, $749) are derived from the yearly prices and savings shown there.
- Context.dev brand lookups, if you use them, cost 10 credits each. Logo Link traffic has its own quota and does not consume credits.
Which One Fits
Both are capable web data APIs. These are the cases where the choice is clear. For formats, pricing, and code, see the Context.dev web scraping API.
Choose Context.dev if
- You scrape, crawl, or search at volume and want more concurrent requests and a lower price per page.
- Your agents search the web and read the result pages in the same call.
- You want scrapes where every output fails to cost nothing, and failed batch pages refunded.
- You also need brand or company data and would rather not add a second vendor.
Choose Firecrawl if
- You need to self-host. Firecrawl’s open-source version is licensed AGPL-3.0; Context.dev is a managed, closed-source API.
- You need long, live browser sessions. Firecrawl Interact bills per browser minute; Context.dev runs up to five actions before a capture.
- You want JSON schema extraction inside async batches. Context.dev batches return Markdown or HTML, so JSON runs per URL through Scrape.
- You want to try it with no API key at all. Firecrawl has a keyless free tier capped per IP address.
Teams That Switched From Firecrawl
“Firecrawl was becoming very expensive for our needs. We outgrew their highest self-serve monthly plan. Context.dev was the first alternative that came to mind. Pricing was what triggered it, and excellent, responsive support sealed the deal.”
“Context.dev preserved full page content and JSON-LD on sites where Firecrawl struggled, provided useful metadata that let us remove much of our custom HTML parsing, and automatically refunded failed batch pages.”
A few things to know.
More details in the API documentation.
What is the best Firecrawl alternative?
Context.dev is a Firecrawl alternative for teams that scrape, crawl, and search the web in production. It covers the same jobs (Markdown and HTML scraping, screenshots, JSON extraction against your schema, browser actions, crawl, map, web search, async batches, change monitoring, and document parsing) with more concurrent requests on every paid plan and a lower list price per page. If you need to self-host, Firecrawl’s open-source version is the better fit.
Does Context.dev support browser interaction like clicking and scrolling?
Yes. Scrape accepts up to five browser actions in sharedParams.actions, run in order before the page is captured: a natural-language perform step (for example, “Click the Load more button”), scroll, a fixed wait, and waitFor a CSS selector. A scrape with actions costs 2 credits and requires a paid plan. For long, live, multi-step sessions, Firecrawl’s Interact product (billed per browser minute) goes further.
Does Context.dev have a web search endpoint?
Yes. POST /web/search returns ranked results with titles and descriptions, and can include each result’s page as Markdown or only the passages relevant to your query. It costs 1 credit per 10 results, plus 1 per 10 results for Markdown and 1 per 10 for highlights. Ten results with Markdown cost 2 credits. The same request on Firecrawl costs 12: 2 for the search plus 1 for each scraped result.
How does Context.dev pricing compare to Firecrawl?
Both bill a standard scrape at 1 credit per page with JavaScript rendering and proxy escalation included, and both add 4 credits for JSON extraction. Context.dev plans cost less per page and allow more concurrent requests at each paid tier. Highlights cost 1 extra credit instead of 4, and zero data retention (enabled on request) adds no credits instead of 1 per page. If every output of a scrape fails, Context.dev does not charge; a target that returns 404 still costs the base credit.
Can Context.dev extract structured JSON from a page?
Yes. Enable formats.json on Scrape and pass your JSON Schema in jsonParams.schema; Zod users can pass z.toJSONSchema() output. The object comes back in json.data, and the page costs 5 credits when extraction succeeds. Batches return Markdown or HTML only, so run JSON extraction through Scrape.
Can I self-host Context.dev?
No. Context.dev is a managed, closed-source API. Firecrawl publishes an AGPL-3.0 open-source version you can run with Docker, though its docs note the self-hosted stack does not include every Firecrawl Cloud capability. If running the scraper on your own infrastructure is a requirement, choose Firecrawl.
What rate limits and stability commitments does Context.dev document?
Each plan has a documented concurrency limit, and a request over it returns 429 with a Retry-After header. The API is described by a public OpenAPI document, breaking changes are announced in the changelog, and deprecated surfaces stay available for at least 90 days after announcement. Incidents are posted at status.context.dev, and security reports are in the Trust Center at trust.context.dev.
Can I migrate from Firecrawl to Context.dev easily?
Yes. Scrape (Markdown, HTML, screenshots, images, JSON), crawl, map, search, batch scraping, and change monitoring all have Context.dev equivalents, with SDKs for TypeScript, Python, Ruby, Go, and PHP. SiteGPT migrated off Firecrawl in less than a day.
Does Context.dev also return brand and company data?
Yes, on the same API key. The Brand API returns logos, colors, descriptions, social profiles, addresses, and industry labels by domain, company name, email, or stock ticker for 10 credits per lookup. It is optional; scraping, crawling, and search work without it.
Ready to switch from Firecrawl?
Point your scrape, crawl, map, and search calls at Context.dev. Most workflows map one-to-one, and the free plan includes 1,000 credits a month.