Firecrawl vs YouTube Research MCP
Firecrawl is an MCP server published by firecrawl. Marketplaces we read that list it: 1 (Docker MCP Catalog). YouTube Research MCP is an MCP server published by coyaSONG. Marketplaces we read that list it: 1 (Official MCP Registry). As of our marketplace pass on 2026-10-17. 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 |  YouTube Research MCP |
|---|---|---|
| Docker MCP Catalog | Listed Version: sha256:28e677a10704 Forks (GitHub): 919 Pulls (Docker Hub): 139 458 Stars (Docker Hub): 20 Stars (GitHub): 7 621 Not marked · First seen |
Not listed |
| Official MCP Registry | Not listed | Listed Version: 2.0.0 Downloads/month (npm): 832 Downloads/week (npm): 420 Forks (GitHub): 11 Stars (GitHub): 26 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 | YouTube Research MCP |
|---|---|---|
| Marketplaces that list it | 1 | 1 |
| Stars (GitHub) (differs) | 7 621 (better) | 26 (worse) |
| Pulls (Docker Hub) (differs) | 139 458 | No figure on Docker Hub |
| Forks (GitHub) (differs) | 919 (better) | 11 (worse) |
| Last release | Not published | Not published |
| Where it runs (differs) | On your machine (mcp/firecrawl) | On your machine (@coyasong/youtube-mcp-server) |
| Transport | stdio | stdio |
| Tools it declares (differs) | 26 | Not published |
| Environment variables it asks for (differs) | 8, secrets among them: 1 | 1, secrets among them: 1 |
| Licence (differs) | MIT | Not stated |
| Repository (differs) | github.com/mendableai/firecrawl-mcp-server | github.com/coyasong/youtube-mcp-server |
| 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 - Adds powerful web scraping and search to Cursor, Claude and any other LLM clients.
YouTube Research MCP
Citation-ready YouTube transcript research and optional channel intelligence for AI agents.
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)
YouTube Research MCP As a local MCP server: npm package
claude mcp add --env "YOUTUBE_API_KEY=<YOUR_YOUTUBE_API_KEY>" --transport stdio youtube-research -- npx -y @coyasong/youtube-mcp-serverRequires: YOUTUBE_API_KEY (secret)
Commands built only from what the marketplaces declare; the full set for every client is on each card.
Tools each declares
The marketplaces of YouTube Research MCP publish no list of tools, so we do not compare tools.
Settings each asks for
Only Firecrawl asks for
FIRECRAWL_API_KEY (secret)FIRECRAWL_API_URLFIRECRAWL_CREDIT_CRITICAL_THRESHOLDFIRECRAWL_CREDIT_WARNING_THRESHOLDFIRECRAWL_RETRY_BACKOFF_FACTORFIRECRAWL_RETRY_INITIAL_DELAYFIRECRAWL_RETRY_MAX_ATTEMPTSFIRECRAWL_RETRY_MAX_DELAY
Only YouTube Research MCP asks for
YOUTUBE_API_KEY (secret)
Settings as each marketplace publishes them. Asking for fewer is not better in itself.
What it can do: Firecrawl · What it can do: YouTube Research MCP · 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.