Comparison

Firecrawl vs io.github.tavily-ai/tavily-mcp

Firecrawl is an MCP server published by firecrawl. Marketplaces we read that list it: 1 (Docker MCP Catalog). io.github.tavily-ai/tavily-mcp is an MCP server published by tavily-ai. Marketplaces we read that list it: 3 (Official MCP Registry, Docker MCP Catalog, npm registry (MCP servers)). As of our marketplace pass on 2026-10-28. 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.tavily-ai/tavily-mcp
Docker MCP Catalog	Listed Version: sha256:28e677a10704 Forks (GitHub): 919 Pulls (Docker Hub): 144 149 Stars (Docker Hub): 20 Stars (GitHub): 7 706 Not marked · First seen 2026-10-11	Listed Version: sha256:e8bbe2860c85 Forks (GitHub): 306 Pulls (Docker Hub): 56 828 Stars (Docker Hub): 8 Stars (GitHub): 2 463 Not marked · First seen 2026-10-11
Official MCP Registry	Not listed	Listed Version: 0.2.15 Downloads/month (npm): 89 437 Downloads/week (npm): 11 971 Forks (GitHub): 306 Stars (GitHub): 2 463 Not marked · First seen 2026-10-11
npm registry (MCP servers)	Not listed	Listed Version: 0.2.22 Downloads/month (npm): 89 437 Downloads/week (npm): 11 971 Forks (GitHub): 306 Stars (GitHub): 2 463 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.tavily-ai/tavily-mcp
Fact	Firecrawl	io.github.tavily-ai/tavily-mcp
Marketplaces that list it (differs)	1 (worse)	3 (better)
Stars (GitHub) (differs)	7 706 (better)	2 463 (worse)
Pulls (Docker Hub) (differs)	144 149 (better)	56 828 (worse)
Forks (GitHub) (differs)	919 (better)	306 (worse)
Last release	Not published	Not published
Where it runs (differs)	On your machine (mcp/firecrawl)	On your machine (tavily-mcp)
Transport	stdio	stdio
Tools it declares (differs)	26	5
Environment variables it asks for (differs)	8, secrets among them: 1	2, secrets among them: 1
Licence	MIT	MIT
Repository (differs)	github.com/mendableai/firecrawl-mcp-server	github.com/tavily-ai/tavily-mcp
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

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.tavily-ai/tavily-mcp

In its own words, on Official MCP Registry:

MCP server for advanced web search using Tavily

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.tavily-ai/tavily-mcp As a local MCP server: npm package

Claude Code

claude mcp add --env "TAVILY_API_KEY=<YOUR_TAVILY_API_KEY>" --transport stdio tavily-mcp -- npx -y tavily-mcp

Requires: TAVILY_API_KEY (secret)

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

Tools each declares

Only Firecrawl declares

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.tavily-ai/tavily-mcp declares

tavily_crawl
tavily_extract
tavily_map
tavily_research
tavily_search

Both declare

None

Tool names as each marketplace publishes them. 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.tavily-ai/tavily-mcp asks for

DEFAULT_PARAMETERS
TAVILY_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: io.github.tavily-ai/tavily-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. Package data comes from the public npm registry (registry.npmjs.org). Figures come from our own regular passes over the marketplaces, last read on 2026-10-28. We publish no contact details for plugin publishers.