ScrapeField vs Firecrawl
Firecrawl turns any web page into Markdown or JSON for AI agents, and since September 2026 it also sells map listings and reviews, and Instagram and TikTok data, from a catalogue of providers. We do five platforms, each with a documented schema and a price per call. Here is what each costs, and where Firecrawl wins.
| ScrapeField | Firecrawl | |
|---|---|---|
| How it bills | Credits per call, in packs from $39; they never expire | A monthly plan, from $19 for 5,000 credits; unused credits reset each month, except on Scale |
| Free to try | 2,000 credits once, and a demo with no account at all | 1,000 credits every month, no card |
| 1,000 Google Maps places | About $0.12 → $0.07, at 20 a call | $0.95 on Hobby, $0.25 on Standard, $0.15 on Scale billed yearly: 5 credits for up to 20 |
| 1,000 Google Maps reviews | About $0.24 → $0.13, at up to 20 a call | $0.32 on Hobby, $0.08 on Standard, $0.05 on Scale billed yearly: 5 credits for up to 60 |
| 1,000 Instagram or TikTok profiles | $2.34 → $1.32, read live or from a cache at most 12 hours old | $114 on Hobby, $29.70 on Standard, $17.97 on Scale billed yearly: 30 credits each, from a partner’s index; a profile it does not hold is not read |
| Profiles, companies, posts, jobs and search, each documented | Not read. A profile or company URL gets a data vendor’s record (Apollo, Data Legion or FullEnrich), 5 to 40 credits, once an admin turns it on; posts and jobs are refused | |
| X | Accounts, posts, replies, followers and search, named after X’s API | A profile or post URL is answered by xAI’s Grok, 30 credits a request, and may come back as a summary |
| Any other website | No | Yes, as Markdown or JSON |
| Schema | One per platform, every field documented | Markdown, or JSON in the schema you write; each catalogue provider has its own shape |
| Open source | No | Yes, and you can run it yourself |
| Failed calls | Refunded automatically, into your ledger | Free when nothing comes back; a page that answers 403 or 404 costs 1 credit |
Checked 9 October 2026 against each vendor’s own pricing page. Rechecked quarterly — tell us if something here is out of date and we will fix it.
Your month, on both
Firecrawl’s side uses its Standard plan, $99 a month for 100,000 credits, read on its pricing and billing pages on 9 October 2026: 5 credits for a Maps search of up to 20 places or for up to 60 reviews, 30 for an Instagram or TikTok profile from its partner’s index, and 30 for an X post through Grok. Its credits reset each month. Ours assume about 20 places and 20 reviews a call. Credits come in packs, from $39, and never expire.
Migrating a Google Maps search
// Firecrawl: "Maps by Firecrawl", a tool in its Alexandria catalogue
const result = await firecrawl.scrape({
alexandria: {
provider: "firecrawl-maps",
capability: "businesses/search",
options: { query: "coffee shops Brooklyn NY" },
},
});
const { results } = result.alexandria[0].data;
results[0].name
results[0].rating
results[0].review_count
results[0].address
results[0].place_id// ScrapeField
const q = new URLSearchParams({ query: "coffee shops in Brooklyn, NY" });
const res = await fetch(`https://api.scrapefield.com/v1/google-maps/places?${q}`, {
headers: { Authorization: `Bearer ${key}` },
});
const { data, meta } = await res.json();
data[0].name
data[0].rating
data[0].user_ratings_total
data[0].formatted_address
data[0].place_idThree differences worth knowing before you start:
- The fields are named after Google’s own Places API:
review_countisuser_ratings_total,addressisformatted_address,latitudeandlongitudearelocation.latandlocation.lng, andphoneisformatted_phone_number.name,rating,categories,website,price_levelandplace_idkeep their names, and each place also has itsopening_hoursandbusiness_status. Every field is in the reference. - Its places carry Google’s own
place_id(we opened one on Google Maps), so ids you have stored carry over, and one place and its reviews take it as it is. A call returns up to 20 places; passmeta.next_cursorback ascursorfor the next 20. - The price is per call, known before you make it: 3 credits for up to 20 places here, 5 Firecrawl credits there. Our credits do not reset at the end of a month.
Questions
Is Firecrawl cheaper?
For Google Maps reviews at volume, yes: up to 60 reviews for 5 credits is about $0.08 per 1,000 on its Standard plan. For a list of places we cost less. For Instagram, TikTok and X we cost far less, because each profile or post there is a 30-credit call. And its credits come with a monthly plan, where ours never expire. If you already pay Firecrawl and have credits left at the end of the month, its Maps search costs you nothing more.
Can Firecrawl scrape LinkedIn?
No. Its documentation says so: a LinkedIn profile or company URL is answered from a data vendor’s database — Apollo, Data Legion or FullEnrich — for 5 to 40 credits, once an admin turns that on and accepts each vendor’s terms. Only the profile or company page itself works; posts, jobs and the pages under a profile are refused. Here, LinkedIn is one of our five platforms, with posts, jobs, comments and people search.
What about Instagram and TikTok?
Firecrawl’s catalogue searches an index of profiles and posts kept by a partner, Oriane: 20, 30 or 40 credits a call by the detail you ask for, and nothing when it finds nothing. Its page says an empty result does not start a live read, so a profile the index does not hold stays empty. Ours reads the profile when you call, or answers from a cache at most 12 hours old, and the answer says when it was read.
Should I use both?
Many teams should: Firecrawl for the open web — documentation, company sites, articles — and us for the five platforms, with a schema that does not change. Both have an MCP server, so one agent can use the two side by side.
Try it before you decide
Every endpoint has a playground that runs against the live API with no key and no account — real routing, real validation, real errors. If the response shape does not fit your code, you will know in about a minute.