Firecrawl vs Context7: license, pricing and features compared (October 2026)
Firecrawl and Context7 are both listed under MCP servers. License: Firecrawl is AGPL-3.0; Context7 is MIT. Context7 publishes source on GitHub (upstash/context7, 63,676 stars on Oct 25, 2026); we found no public repository for Firecrawl to compare against. Firecrawl is the better fit for: agents that need clean web content. Context7 is the better fit for: agents that hallucinate outdated library APIs. Facts were read from vendor and GitHub pages on Oct 25, 2026 and are Reported; what we ran ourselves is under What we measured.
Our pick: Pick Firecrawl for agents that need clean web content; pick Context7 for agents that hallucinate outdated library APIs. No overall winner: we have not benchmarked them against each other. Updated (America/Chicago).
Evidence: Context7 has a Tested entry; Firecrawl is Reported (scope on each tool page). The facts in the tables were read from each vendor's own pages and the public GitHub API on 2026-10-25 (America/Chicago) and are Reported. The What we measured section lists what we have actually run, with links to the test logs, and what we have not run yet; anything we could not confirm is marked as not captured.
Upstash · @upstash/context7-sdk 0.6.0
Tested (smoke test)
Up-to-date, version-specific library docs served to coding agents.
Side by side, from what we recorded
Each row compares one recorded fact for both tools. Rows are not weighted and nothing is added up into a score; the note under each row says what the marker means.
Evidence
Reported for FirecrawlTested (smoke test) (Context7 is ahead on this row) for Context7Tested = we ran it (smoke test); Reported = we read official sources
Most recent release we saw
Oct 25, 2026 (Firecrawl is ahead on this row) for FirecrawlOct 23, 2026 for Context7More recent = newer release date; says nothing about quality
Pricing we could verify
Partly verified (Firecrawl is ahead on this row) for FirecrawlNot verified for Context7About our evidence only, not about the price
Steps in our setup guide
2 for Firecrawl2 for Context7Counts our guide's steps, not difficulty
Sources we cite
2 for Firecrawl2 for Context7How much we had to read; more is not better
A list of recorded differences, not a quality score or a ranking. We have not benchmarked these tools against each other; the smoke-test row links each tool's own log. How we label evidence.
What we measured
We have run Context7 ourselves but not the other tool, so no head-to-head result exists yet. Everything else on this page is Reported from vendor and GitHub pages.
| Test | Firecrawl | Context7 |
|---|---|---|
| Hands-on test log (install and a real task) | Not tested yet. What we will run: start the server, list its tools and call each five times, with latency and failure counts. | Tested: Context7 MCP Context7 4.4.4, Oct 25, 2026: passed. Context7 MCP 4.4.4 started locally in 462 ms but its tool calls go to a hosted API: resolve-library-id took about 1.2 s per call and returned React documentation matches. Full test log |
How we test and label results: methodology. All test logs: test hub.
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Firecrawl vs Context7 at a glance
Firecrawl and Context7 are both listed under MCP servers. Firecrawl: Web data API: search, scrape and crawl for AI agents. Context7: Up-to-date, version-specific library docs served to coding agents.
| Feature | Firecrawl | Context7 |
|---|---|---|
| Vendor | Firecrawl | Upstash |
| Listed under | MCP servers | MCP servers |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Pricing model | Freemium | Not captured on the pages we read |
| Free tier | Free plan with a monthly credit allowance | Pricing not read |
| Paid plans | Standard listed at $83 per month billed annually; higher tiers and extra credit packs exist | Not read |
| Platforms | API, SDKs, MCP, self-host | MCP server and SDK |
| Public repository | Not captured on the pages we read | upstash/context7: 63,676 stars, last push Oct 23, 2026 UTC (GitHub API, Oct 25, 2026) |
| Latest release we saw | v2.11.608, Oct 25, 2026 | @upstash/context7-sdk 0.6.0, Oct 23, 2026 |
| Evidence | Reported from vendor pages | Tested (scope on its tool page) |
How Firecrawl and Context7 differ
- License: Firecrawl is AGPL-3.0; Context7 is MIT.
- Context7 publishes source on GitHub (upstash/context7, 63,676 stars on Oct 25, 2026); we found no public repository for Firecrawl to compare against.
- Free tier: Firecrawl: Free plan with a monthly credit allowance. Context7: Pricing not read.
- Plans and prices differ and are not like-for-like (credits, seats and usage limits vary), so we do not name a cheaper tool. The Paid plans row above quotes each vendor's plan list as read on Oct 25, 2026.
- Firecrawl is "Freemium"; the entry for Context7 has no pricing model we could confirm (pricing not verified).
Which should you pick?
- Pick Firecrawl if: agents that need clean web content. Skip it if: you need a license that avoids AGPL obligations for self-hosting.
- Pick Context7 if: agents that hallucinate outdated library APIs. Skip it if: your stack is internal-only code.
Strengths and limits
| Feature | Firecrawl | Context7 |
|---|---|---|
| Strengths | Open-source repository; Free plan | MIT license; Large following |
| Limits | AGPL license for self-hosting | Hosted service terms not read; Our test was one small task on a local 3B model; it does not show behaviour with hosted models or larger jobs |
What we did not verify
- Firecrawl: Behavior in practice (we have not run this tool).
- Output quality, speed and reliability beyond the smoke tests listed under What we measured: not compared.
FAQ
Is Firecrawl or Context7 open source?
Firecrawl: AGPL-3.0. Context7: MIT. Licenses come from each project's GitHub repository or the vendor's own pages, read Oct 25, 2026; read the license text itself before redistributing or building a competing service.
Does Firecrawl or Context7 have a free plan?
Firecrawl: Free: plan with a monthly credit allowance. Context7: Pricing not read. Checked Oct 25, 2026; prices and limits change, so confirm on each vendor's page.
Which was updated more recently, Firecrawl or Context7?
Firecrawl's newest release we saw is v2.11.608 (Oct 25, 2026); Context7's is @upstash/context7-sdk 0.6.0 (Oct 23, 2026). Read Oct 25, 2026 from the official release page or repository; a newer date is not a quality ranking.
What is the main difference between Firecrawl and Context7?
License: Firecrawl is AGPL-3.0; Context7 is MIT. Context7 publishes source on GitHub (upstash/context7, 63,676 stars on Oct 25, 2026); we found no public repository for Firecrawl to compare against.
Sources
- Firecrawl repository (GitHub) (fetched 2026-10-25)
- Firecrawl pricing (fetched 2026-10-25)
- Context7 repository (GitHub) (fetched 2026-10-25)
- Context7 (fetched 2026-10-25)
Related
Page history
- : First published. Facts read from vendor pages and the GitHub API on 2026-10-25.
Markdown version for agents: /compare/firecrawl-vs-context7.md
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