Firecrawl API

Firecrawl API is an open-source web crawling and scraping API that converts websites into clean, Large Language Model (LLM)-ready data.

  • AI
  • Development
  • Network Services
  • Tools & Utilities
  • Web & Publishing
Firecrawl API is an open-source web crawling and scraping API that converts websites into clean, Large Language Model (LLM)-ready data. It renders JavaScript-heavy pages, discovers relevant subpages, and extracts structured content including images and PDFs. Designed for homelab builders and AI developers seeking a self-hosted scraping backend. This container exposes the API endpoint and expects companion services (Playwright, Redis, RabbitMQ, PostgreSQL) on the firecrawl Docker network.

Platform availability

Available on 2 of 9 platforms

  • Unraid
  • TrueNAS (not listed)
  • Umbrel (not listed)
  • ZimaOS (not listed)
  • Proxmox
  • Helm (not listed)
  • Mac (not listed)
  • Windows (not listed)
  • Linux (not listed)

Health score?A 0-100 score computed nightly from four factors: maintained (40%: recent commits and steady activity), popular (25%: GitHub stars, log scale), easy to install (20%: platforms, install notes, setup guides, Docker image) and light to run (15%: minimum RAM, ARM support). When the source code has been checked, a fifth factor, security check (20%: automated scan for committed secrets, unsafe desktop-app settings, known-vulnerable dependencies and project hygiene; any serious finding caps it at 20), is added. Factors without data are left out and the rest are rescaled.

84/100 Excellent

Maintained
100last commit 15 days ago
Popular
100189,447 GitHub stars
Easy to install
452 install platforms, install notes, Docker image
Light to run
701 GB minimum RAM

Availability: platform listings confirmed today, links checked 24 days ago

GitHub stars
189,447
Open issues
533
Last commit
2026-10-07
Latest release
v2.11.0
License
AGPL-3.0
Activity
rising

Checked 15 days ago - source: GitHub (firecrawl/firecrawl)

Resources & Compatibility

Minimum requirements: 1 GB RAM.

Checked 23 days ago - source: Docker Hub image tags and published docs

First-install notes

  • Add your Firecrawl API key first Create your Firecrawl client with your API key, often shown as apiKey or api_key in the examples. Without it, Firecrawl will not know who is making the request, so your scrape or crawl calls will fail. source
  • Port and service configuration Port 3002 is the Firecrawl API HTTP port and should be exposed on the host. Ports 3004 (extract worker) and 3005 (queue worker) are internal to the container and do not need to be exposed. The container expects firecrawl-redis, firecrawl-rabbitmq, firecrawl-postgres, and firecrawl-playwright to be available on the firecrawl Docker network. source

Fetched 19 days ago - each note links to its source

Alternatives

No alternatives collected yet.

Common questions

Which ports should I expose for the Firecrawl container?

Expose port 3002 for the API HTTP endpoint. Ports 3004 and 3005 are internal to the container and do not need to be published to the host.

Which companion services must the Firecrawl container find on the Docker network?

The container expects firecrawl-redis, firecrawl-rabbitmq, firecrawl-postgres, and firecrawl-playwright to be available on the firecrawl Docker network.

Does the Python SDK require an API key?

Yes, create the Firecrawl client with your API key. Without it, scrape or crawl calls will fail.

What should I check after self-hosting Firecrawl with Docker Compose?

Verify a local scrape, understand the open-source limits, and prepare the stack for production.

Answers sourced from docs.firecrawl.dev, github.com, github.com

Community

Collected yesterday - public community threads