fastCRW, in verified numbers
fastCRW is a Firecrawl-compatible web scraping, crawling, and search API for AI agents. The engine is a single static Rust binary — no Redis, no Node.js, no containers required — released open source under AGPL-3.0. The same API runs self-hosted for free or on the managed cloud, so there is no exit cost.
On Firecrawl's own public 1,000-URL dataset, fastCRW has the highest truth-recall of three tools tested — 63.74% vs Crawl4AI 59.95% and Firecrawl 56.04% — at a median scrape latency of 1914 ms. The numbers below trace to the public OSS README and the reproducible result of record.
Product identity
| Product | fastCRW — web scraping, crawling & search API for AI agents |
| Engine | Single static Rust binary (no Redis, Node.js, or containers required) |
| License | AGPL-3.0 (open source) |
| Public repository | github.com/us/crw |
| MCP package | crw-mcp on npm (dist-tag latest: 0.6.0) |
| API style | Firecrawl-compatible REST — drop-in after a base-URL swap |
| Managed cloud | fastcrw.com |
Accuracy and latency, 3-way
fastCRW returned the most accurate content of the three tools tested. Source: Firecrawl's public scrape-content-dataset-v1 (1,000 URLs, 819 labeled), scored by the open diagnose_3way.py harness — a single run of 3,000 requests dated 2026-05-08.
| Metric | fastCRW | Crawl4AI | Firecrawl |
|---|---|---|---|
| Truth-recall (recall mode, of 819 labeled URLs) | 63.74% | 59.95% | 56.04% |
| Thrown errors (of 3,000 requests) | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| p50 latency | 1914 ms | 1916 ms | 2305 ms |
fastCRW wins the median. Its p50 is 1914 ms, ahead of Crawl4AI (1916 ms) and Firecrawl (2305 ms). See the full methodology on the benchmark page.
Search latency, 3-way
A separate 100-query benchmark run concurrently against all three providers. fastCRW won 73 of 100 latency races and averaged 880 ms across the run.
| Metric | fastCRW | Firecrawl | Tavily |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average latency | 880 ms | 954 ms | 2,000 ms |
| Median latency | 785 ms | 932 ms | 1,724 ms |
| P95 latency | 1,433 ms | 1,343 ms | 3,534 ms |
| Latency wins (of 100 queries) | 73 | 25 | 2 |
Plans and credits
Self-hosting the AGPL-3.0 engine is free — $0 per 1,000 scrapes versus $0.83–5.33 on Firecrawl's hosted tiers. Managed cloud plans are listed below. A page is 1 credit on every renderer: chrome, lightpanda, and plain HTTP all cost the same, and failed requests are not billed.
| Plan | Price | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | 500 one-time lifetime credits |
| Hobby | $13/mo | 5,000 / mo |
| Standard | $69/mo | 100,000 / mo |
| Growth | $279/mo | 500,000 / mo |
| Scale | $549/mo | 1,000,000 / mo |
Credit costs: scrape 1 (any renderer), crawl 1/page, search 1/query, map 1, browse 1/session. Extract is not a flat fee: it bills 1 scrape credit per URL plus the managed-LLM token cost for that request, metered from real usage. See live pricing.
What it costs to run
These are structural facts, not benchmark claims. fastCRW ships as a single ~8 MB binary and needs 1 container (plus an optional sidecar); Firecrawl's stack is ~2–3 GB across 5 containers. The opt-in Chrome Docker Compose variant is ~500 MB image and ~1 GB resident.
| Metric | fastCRW | Firecrawl |
|---|---|---|
| Docker image | single ~8 MB binary | ~2–3 GB total |
| Containers needed | 1 (+ optional sidecar) | 5 |
What fastCRW does not do
An accurate fact sheet states its gaps. fastCRW is a focused scraping API, not a managed-browser platform:
- Persistent session or state — fastCRW is stateless per request.
- Bring-your-own LLM provider or key on the managed cloud.
robots.txt is respected by default and may be overridden only when the caller has the legal right to do so.
Common questions
What is fastCRW?
fastCRW is a Firecrawl-compatible web scraping, crawling, and search API for AI agents. The engine is a single static Rust binary — no Redis, no Node.js, no containers required — released open source under AGPL-3.0. The same API runs self-hosted or on the managed cloud, so there is no exit cost.
How accurate is fastCRW compared to Firecrawl and Crawl4AI?
On Firecrawl's own public 1,000-URL scrape-content dataset, fastCRW recovered the labeled content on 63.74% of 819 matchable URLs — the highest of three tools tested, ahead of Crawl4AI (59.95%) and Firecrawl (56.04%). The run is reproducible with the open diagnose_3way.py harness.
How fast is fastCRW?
On the same 1,000-URL benchmark, fastCRW's median (p50) scrape latency is 1914 ms, against 1916 ms for Crawl4AI and 2305 ms for Firecrawl — the fastest of the three tools tested.
How much does fastCRW cost?
Self-hosting the AGPL-3.0 engine is free — $0 per 1,000 scrapes, versus $0.83–5.33 on Firecrawl's hosted tiers. Managed cloud plans start at a $0 Free tier (500 one-time lifetime credits) and a $13/mo Hobby plan; the Standard plan is $69/mo for 100,000 credits. A page is 1 credit on every renderer: chrome, lightpanda, and plain HTTP all cost the same, and failed requests are not billed.
Is fastCRW a drop-in Firecrawl replacement?
On the overlap surface — /v1/scrape, /v1/crawl, /v1/map, /v1/search — request shapes match closely, so most migrations are a base-URL swap plus minor adjustments. Response field names and error envelopes have small divergences, so it is API-compatible rather than byte-identical.
What does fastCRW not support?
fastCRW parses PDFs to markdown (via /v2/parse) but not DOCX, and has no persistent sessions or state — every request is stateless. There is no batched multi-URL extract, no agent or deep-research endpoint. These gaps are stated plainly rather than hidden.