Comparison

Firecrawl vs io.github.cyanheads/paleobiology-mcp-server

Firecrawl is an MCP server published by firecrawl. Marketplaces we read that list it: 1 (Docker MCP Catalog). io.github.cyanheads/paleobiology-mcp-server is an MCP server published by cyanheads. Marketplaces we read that list it: 2 (Official MCP Registry, npm registry (MCP servers)). As of our marketplace pass on 2026-10-25. 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

Where each is published
Marketplace	Firecrawl	io.github.cyanheads/paleobiology-mcp-server
Docker MCP Catalog	Listed Version: sha256:28e677a10704 Forks (GitHub): 919 Pulls (Docker Hub): 142 888 Stars (Docker Hub): 20 Stars (GitHub): 7 685 Not marked · First seen 2026-10-11	Not listed
Official MCP Registry	Not listed	Listed Version: 0.4.0 Downloads/month (npm): 628 Downloads/week (npm): 132 Forks (GitHub): 0 Stars (GitHub): 2 Not marked · First seen 2026-10-11
npm registry (MCP servers)	Not listed	Listed Version: 0.4.0 Downloads/month (npm): 628 Downloads/week (npm): 132 Forks (GitHub): 0 Stars (GitHub): 2 Not marked · First seen 2026-10-12

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

Firecrawl vs io.github.cyanheads/paleobiology-mcp-server
Fact	Firecrawl	io.github.cyanheads/paleobiology-mcp-server
Marketplaces that list it (differs)	1 (worse)	2 (better)
Stars (GitHub) (differs)	7 685 (better)	2 (worse)
Pulls (Docker Hub) (differs)	142 888	No figure on Docker Hub
Forks (GitHub) (differs)	919 (better)	0 (worse)
Last release (differs)	Not published	2026-10-16
Where it runs (differs)	On your machine (mcp/firecrawl)	Remote server or your machine
Transport (differs)	stdio	Streamable HTTP
Tools it declares (differs)	26	Not published
Environment variables it asks for (differs)	8, secrets among them: 1	6, secrets among them: 0
Licence (differs)	MIT	Apache-2.0
Repository (differs)	github.com/mendableai/firecrawl-mcp-server	github.com/cyanheads/paleobiology-mcp-server
Changes in the last 7 days (differs)	1	0
First seen	2026-10-11	2026-10-11
Endpoint at the last check (differs)	no remote endpoint we check	Responded 5 days ago

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

In its own words, on Docker MCP Catalog:

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.

io.github.cyanheads/paleobiology-mcp-server

In its own words, on Official MCP Registry:

Search fossil occurrences, taxon ranges, diversity through deep time, and the geologic time scale.

How to run each

Firecrawl As a local MCP server: Docker image

Claude Code

claude mcp add --env "FIRECRAWL_API_KEY=<YOUR_FIRECRAWL_API_KEY>" --transport stdio firecrawl -- docker run -i --rm -e FIRECRAWL_API_KEY mcp/firecrawl

Requires: FIRECRAWL_API_KEY (secret)

io.github.cyanheads/paleobiology-mcp-server As a remote MCP server

Claude Code

claude mcp add --transport http paleobiology-mcp-server https://paleobiology.caseyjhand.com/mcp

Commands built only from what the marketplaces declare; the full set for every client is on each card.

Only io.github.cyanheads/paleobiology-mcp-server has a remote endpoint we check. How we check endpoints

Tools each declares

Only Firecrawl has

firecrawl_agent
firecrawl_agent_status
firecrawl_check_crawl_status
firecrawl_crawl
firecrawl_extract
firecrawl_feedback
firecrawl_interact
firecrawl_interact_stop
firecrawl_map
firecrawl_monitor_check
firecrawl_monitor_checks
firecrawl_monitor_create

Show the remaining 14

firecrawl_monitor_delete
firecrawl_monitor_get
firecrawl_monitor_list
firecrawl_monitor_run
firecrawl_monitor_update
firecrawl_parse
firecrawl_research_inspect_paper
firecrawl_research_read_paper
firecrawl_research_related_papers
firecrawl_research_search_github
firecrawl_research_search_papers
firecrawl_scrape
firecrawl_search
firecrawl_search_feedback

Only io.github.cyanheads/paleobiology-mcp-server has

paleobiology_dataframe_describe
paleobiology_dataframe_query
paleobiology_get_diversity
paleobiology_get_references
paleobiology_get_taxon
paleobiology_list_intervals
paleobiology_search_collections
paleobiology_search_occurrences

Both have

None

Tool names as the marketplaces declare them and as Ext Ops observed them on the endpoints (io.github.cyanheads/paleobiology-mcp-server as of 2026-10-17). More tools is not better in itself: compare what each needs for the job.

Settings each asks for

Only Firecrawl asks for

FIRECRAWL_API_KEY (secret)
FIRECRAWL_API_URL
FIRECRAWL_CREDIT_CRITICAL_THRESHOLD
FIRECRAWL_CREDIT_WARNING_THRESHOLD
FIRECRAWL_RETRY_BACKOFF_FACTOR
FIRECRAWL_RETRY_INITIAL_DELAY
FIRECRAWL_RETRY_MAX_ATTEMPTS
FIRECRAWL_RETRY_MAX_DELAY

Only io.github.cyanheads/paleobiology-mcp-server asks for

MCP_AUTH_MODE
MCP_HTTP_ENDPOINT_PATH
MCP_HTTP_HOST
MCP_HTTP_PORT
MCP_LOG_LEVEL
MCP_TRANSPORT_TYPE

Settings as each marketplace publishes them. Asking for fewer is not better in itself.

What it can do: Firecrawl · What it can do: io.github.cyanheads/paleobiology-mcp-server · 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. Package data comes from the public npm registry (registry.npmjs.org). Figures come from our own regular passes over the marketplaces, last read on 2026-10-25. We publish no contact details for plugin publishers.