Comparison

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

Firecrawl is an MCP server published by firecrawl. Marketplaces we read that list it: 1 (Docker MCP Catalog). io.github.cyanheads/pubmed-mcp-server is an MCP server published by cyanheads. Marketplaces we read that list it: 1 (Official MCP Registry). As of our marketplace pass on 2026-10-18. 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/pubmed-mcp-server
Docker MCP Catalog	Listed Version: sha256:28e677a10704 Forks (GitHub): 919 Pulls (Docker Hub): 139 643 Stars (Docker Hub): 20 Stars (GitHub): 7 621 Not marked · First seen 2026-10-11	Not listed
Official MCP Registry	Not listed	Listed Version: 2.10.22 Downloads/month (npm): 18 837 Downloads/week (npm): 4 069 Forks (GitHub): 24 Stars (GitHub): 163 Not marked · First seen 2026-10-11

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/pubmed-mcp-server
Fact	Firecrawl	io.github.cyanheads/pubmed-mcp-server
Marketplaces that list it	1	1
Stars (GitHub) (differs)	7 621 (better)	163 (worse)
Pulls (Docker Hub) (differs)	139 643	No figure on Docker Hub
Forks (GitHub) (differs)	919 (better)	24 (worse)
Last release (differs)	Not published	2026-10-12
Where it runs (differs)	On your machine (mcp/firecrawl)	Remote server (pubmed.caseyjhand.com/mcp)
Transport (differs)	stdio	Streamable HTTP
Tools it declares (differs)	26	Not published
Environment variables it asks for (differs)	8, secrets among them: 1	10, secrets among them: 0
Licence (differs)	MIT	Not stated
Repository (differs)	github.com/mendableai/firecrawl-mcp-server	github.com/cyanheads/pubmed-mcp-server
Changes in the last 7 days (differs)	0	1
First seen	2026-10-11	2026-10-11
Endpoint at the last check (differs)	no remote endpoint we check	Responded 3 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 - Adds powerful web scraping and search to Cursor, Claude and any other LLM clients.

io.github.cyanheads/pubmed-mcp-server

In its own words, on Official MCP Registry:

Search PubMed/Europe PMC, fetch articles and full text (PMC/EPMC/Unpaywall), citations, MeSH terms.

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/pubmed-mcp-server As a remote MCP server

Claude Code

claude mcp add --transport http pubmed-mcp-server https://pubmed.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/pubmed-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/pubmed-mcp-server has

pubmed_convert_ids
pubmed_europepmc_fetch
pubmed_europepmc_search
pubmed_fetch_articles
pubmed_fetch_fulltext
pubmed_find_related
pubmed_format_citations
pubmed_lookup_citation
pubmed_lookup_mesh
pubmed_search_articles
pubmed_spell_check

Both have

None

Tool names as the marketplaces declare them and as Ext Ops observed them on the endpoints (io.github.cyanheads/pubmed-mcp-server as of 2026-10-14). 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/pubmed-mcp-server asks for

MCP_AUTH_MODE
MCP_HTTP_ENDPOINT_PATH
MCP_HTTP_HOST
MCP_HTTP_PORT
MCP_LOG_LEVEL
MCP_PUBLIC_URL
MCP_TRANSPORT_TYPE
NCBI_ADMIN_EMAIL
NCBI_API_KEY
UNPAYWALL_EMAIL

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/pubmed-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. Figures come from our own regular passes over the marketplaces, last read on 2026-10-18. We publish no contact details for plugin publishers.