Firecrawl vs mail-index
Firecrawl is an MCP server published by firecrawl. Marketplaces we read that list it: 1 (Docker MCP Catalog). mail-index is an MCP server published by alunsoldantarctica. Marketplaces we read that list it: 1 (Official MCP Registry). As of our marketplace pass on 2026-10-29. This pair was picked by a reader, not by our comparison rule, so search engines are asked not to index the page.
Where each is published
| Marketplace |  Firecrawl |  mail-index |
|---|---|---|
| Docker MCP Catalog | Listed Version: sha256:28e677a10704 Forks (GitHub): 919 Pulls (Docker Hub): 144 350 Stars (Docker Hub): 20 Stars (GitHub): 7 706 Not marked · First seen |
Not listed |
| Official MCP Registry | Not listed | Listed Version: 1.0.0 Downloads/month (npm): 331 Downloads/week (npm): 48 Forks (GitHub): 1 Stars (GitHub): 4 Not marked · First seen |
Each figure is the marketplace's own and is never added up across marketplaces. A marketplace that publishes no figure shows none: no number is not zero.
The facts side by side
| Fact | Firecrawl | mail-index |
|---|---|---|
| Marketplaces that list it | 1 | 1 |
| Stars (GitHub) (differs) | 7 706 (better) | 4 (worse) |
| Pulls (Docker Hub) (differs) | 144 350 | No figure on Docker Hub |
| Forks (GitHub) (differs) | 919 (better) | 1 (worse) |
| Last release | Not published | Not published |
| Where it runs (differs) | On your machine (mcp/firecrawl) | On your machine (mail-index) |
| Transport | stdio | stdio |
| Tools it declares (differs) | 26 | Not published |
| Environment variables it asks for (differs) | 8, secrets among them: 1 | Not published |
| Licence (differs) | MIT | Not stated |
| Repository (differs) | github.com/mendableai/firecrawl-mcp-server | github.com/alunsoldantarctica/mail-index |
| Changes in the last 7 days | 0 | 0 |
| First seen | 2026-10-11 | 2026-10-11 |
Lines where the two differ have a tinted background and bold values. Where the data itself says which value is better (more marketplaces, a larger figure of the same marketplace, a fresher release, a verified mark on a marketplace that lists both), the better one is also marked green with ▲ and the worse one red with ▼. Where it runs, the transport, the tools, the settings, hooks, the bundle's parts, the licence and the week's changes are marked only as different: more or fewer is not better in itself.
What each says it does
Firecrawl
Official Firecrawl MCP server, the context API for AI agents: search, scrape, and interact with the web, plus parse, crawl, map, Agent and Monitor, from any MCP client.
mail-index
Local-first, read-only MCP server for recall over your Gmail: search, contacts, threads, digests.
How to run each
Firecrawl As a local MCP server: Docker image
claude mcp add --env "FIRECRAWL_API_KEY=<YOUR_FIRECRAWL_API_KEY>" --transport stdio firecrawl -- docker run -i --rm -e FIRECRAWL_API_KEY mcp/firecrawlRequires: FIRECRAWL_API_KEY (secret)
mail-index As a local MCP server: npm package
claude mcp add --transport stdio mail-index -- npx -y -p mail-index mail-index-mcp mail-indexCommands built only from what the marketplaces declare; the full set for every client is on each card.
Tools each declares
The marketplaces of mail-index publish no list of tools, so we do not compare tools.
Settings each asks for
The marketplaces of mail-index publish no settings it asks for, so we do not compare settings.
What it can do: Firecrawl · What it can do: mail-index · Compare two other plugins
Data comes from the Docker MCP Catalog (desktop.docker.com/mcp/catalog) and Docker Hub. Data comes from the Official MCP Registry (registry.modelcontextprotocol.io), CC0 1.0. Figures come from our own regular passes over the marketplaces, last read on . We publish no contact details for plugin publishers.