01 Tavily
Search, extract, and crawl API purpose-built for AI agents and LLM applications
AI Search & Research from $30/mo free tier: yes Verified JUL 30, 2026
Firecrawl alternatives
5 alternatives compared · prices last verified Jul 30, 2026 · how we verify
Tavily is the top Firecrawl alternative in our directory: it covers the same category (AI Agents & Automation), starts at $30/mo, and has a free tier. The lowest-priced option with a free tier is Browser Use, starting at $0. All 5 alternatives below are compared on pricing verified against the official pricing pages, on the dates shown.
Ranked by category overlap with Firecrawl, free-tier availability, then lowest verified starting price — computed from our verified data, never sponsorships.
Firecrawl alternatives compared
| Alternative | Category | Starting price | Free tier | Price verified |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tavily | AI Search & Research | $30/mo | yes | Jul 30, 2026 |
| Browser Use | AI Agents & Automation | $0 | yes | Jul 1, 2026 |
| Exa | AI Search & Research | $0 | yes | Jun 22, 2026 |
| Browserbase | AI Agents & Automation | $20/mo | yes | Jul 10, 2026 |
| Apify | AI Agents & Automation | $29/mo | yes | Jul 30, 2026 |
Each alternative, in brief
02 Browser Use
Open-source library that lets AI agents control a real browser to automate and extract from any site
AI Agents & Automation from $0 free tier: yes Verified JUL 1, 2026
03 Exa
AI-native web search engine and API built for agents, with semantic search and content extraction
AI Search & Research from $0 free tier: yes Verified JUN 22, 2026
04 Browserbase
Cloud browser infrastructure for AI agents — run and scale headless browser sessions via API; maker of the open-source Stagehand framework
AI Agents & Automation from $20/mo free tier: yes Verified JUL 10, 2026
05 Apify
Cloud platform for web scraping and automation with a marketplace of 54,000+ ready-to-run Actors
AI Agents & Automation from $29/mo free tier: yes Verified JUL 30, 2026
When to stay with Firecrawl
Documented strengths from our Firecrawl review — switching isn't always the right call:
- Free tier is a permanent 1,000 credits per month and needs no credit card
- AGPL-3.0 core can be self-hosted, so the hosted plans are a convenience rather than a lock-in
- Credit costs are published per endpoint — scraping, crawling, and mapping are all 1 credit per page