# Docling vs firecrawl

| Attribute | Docling | firecrawl |
|---|---|---|
| **vioscaleAI score** | 58.4 (32% (low)) | 61.3 (62% (medium)) |
| activity.commits_last_30d | 100 | 100 |
| adoption.dependent_repos | 0 | 0 |
| adoption.github_stars | 68,824 | 191,380 |
| content.faq | `[{"answer":"A Python library that converts documents from multiple formats (PDF, Word, Excel, images, audio, video, etc.) into structured data representations. Offers sophisticated PDF analysis capabilities for layout, tables, and content extraction, plus OCR support and AI framework integration. It is indexed under Document AI.","source":"https://docling-project.github.io/docling/","question":"What is Docling?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Docling is open source, so it can be self-hosted and used at no licence cost. It is released under the MIT licence. Pricing changes often, so verify at source before relying on it.","source":"https://docling-project.github.io/docling/","question":"Is Docling free to use?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Docling supports the web, Windows, macOS, Linux and a command-line interface. Platforms we have not confirmed are simply not listed here rather than ruled out.","source":"https://docling-project.github.io/docling/","question":"What platforms does Docling support?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Yes. Docling can be deployed cloud / SaaS, on-premise, air-gapped and self-hosted, so it does not have to run on the vendor's infrastructure.","source":"https://docling-project.github.io/docling/","question":"Can Docling be self-hosted?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have confirmed 6 integrations for Docling, including LangChain, LlamaIndex, Crew AI, Haystack, OpenContracts and Apify. This is what we could verify from public sources, so the vendor may support others we have not indexed.","source":"https://docling-project.github.io/docling/","question":"What does Docling integrate with?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Yes. Docling is published under the MIT licence, a permissive licence that generally allows commercial use and modification. Licence terms can change between releases, so verify against the repository for the version you intend to use.","source":"https://github.com/docling-project/docling","question":"Is Docling open source?","confidence":0.95}]` | `[{"answer":"Firecrawl extracts clean, structured web content in various formats, automatically handles JavaScript rendering and dynamic page structures, and supports use cases from research and data extraction to competitive intelligence and content monitoring. It is indexed under API Development Tools.","source":"https://firecrawl.dev","question":"What is firecrawl?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"firecrawl is open source, so it can be self-hosted and used at no licence cost. It is released under the AGPL-3.0 licence. A commercial or hosted edition starts at £445 per month. Prices are published openly on the vendor's own pricing page. Pricing changes often, so verify at source before relying on it.","source":"https://firecrawl.dev","question":"Is firecrawl free to use?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"firecrawl supports the web and a command-line interface. Platforms we have not confirmed are simply not listed here rather than ruled out.","source":"https://firecrawl.dev","question":"What platforms does firecrawl support?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"Yes. firecrawl can be deployed cloud / SaaS and self-hosted, so it does not have to run on the vendor's infrastructure.","source":"https://firecrawl.dev","question":"Can firecrawl be self-hosted?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have confirmed 6 integrations for firecrawl, including MCP, Claude, Cursor, Windsurf, Codex and OpenCode. This is what we could verify from public sources, so the vendor may support others we have not indexed.","source":"https://firecrawl.dev","question":"What does firecrawl integrate with?","confidence":0.6},{"answer":"We have independently confirmed SOC 2 for firecrawl. Certifications we do not list are ones we have not been able to verify from public sources, which is not the same as firecrawl not holding them. Always confirm compliance directly before you rely on it.","source":"https://firecrawl.dev","question":"What security certifications does firecrawl have?","confidence":0.48},{"answer":"Yes. firecrawl is published under the AGPL-3.0 licence, a copyleft licence, so check its terms before embedding it in a closed-source product. Licence terms can change between releases, so verify against the repository for the version you intend to use.","source":"https://github.com/firecrawl/firecrawl","question":"Is firecrawl open source?","confidence":0.95},{"answer":"firecrawl is available worldwide. Its primary market is the United States.","source":"https://firecrawl.dev","question":"Where is firecrawl available?","confidence":0.5}]` |
| deployment.options | `{"cloud":true,"air_gapped":true,"self_hosted":true}` | `{"cloud":true,"self_hosted":true}` |
| description.long | A document processing platform that transforms diverse document formats into structured representations with detailed understanding of layout, structure, and content. It supports integration with AI systems and provides both cloud-based and local processing options. | An API service that enables AI agents to search, scrape, and interact with web pages, returning clean structured data in multiple formats with automatic JavaScript rendering and complex content handling. |
| features.capabilities | `{"open_source":true,"pricing_model":"free_open_source","prebuilt_models":true,"table_extraction":true,"architecture_model":"open_source_library","llm_vlm_based_extraction":true,"mit_or_apache_permissive_oss_license":true,"pdf_and_multimodal_image_ocr_parsing":true,"zero_data_retention_privacy_guarantees":true,"native_chunking_and_vectorization_for_rag":true,"fine_tuned_document_layout_analysis_models":true,"tabular_layout_preservation_for_complex_tables":true}` | `{"api_docs":true,"rest_client":true,"collaboration":true,"pricing_model":"pay_per_page_api","ci_integration":true,"automated_testing":true,"architecture_model":"managed_cloud_api","web_scraping_to_markdown_or_json":true,"mit_or_apache_permissive_oss_license":true,"pdf_and_multimodal_image_ocr_parsing":true,"zero_data_retention_privacy_guarantees":true,"javascript_rendering_for_spa_web_scraping":true,"strict_json_schema_forcing_and_validation":true,"tabular_layout_preservation_for_complex_tables":true}` |
| integrations.count | 1 | 4 |
| integrations.list | `[{"name":"LangChain"},{"name":"LlamaIndex"},{"name":"Crew AI"},{"name":"Haystack"},{"name":"OpenContracts"},{"name":"Apify"},{"name":"Label Studio"},{"name":"Semantica","native":true,"category":"knowledge_graph","direction":"outbound"}]` | `[{"name":"MCP"},{"name":"Claude"},{"name":"Cursor"},{"name":"Windsurf"},{"name":"Claude Code"},{"name":"Codex"},{"name":"OpenCode"}]` |
| language.primary | Python | TypeScript |
| license.spdx | MIT | AGPL-3.0 |
| market.availability | `{"primaryMarkets":[],"availabilityScope":"global","availableCountries":[],"notAvailableCountries":[]}` | `{"primaryMarkets":["US"],"availabilityScope":"global","availableCountries":[],"notAvailableCountries":[]}` |
| platform.support | `{"cli":true,"web":true}` | `{"cli":true,"web":true}` |
| pricing | `{"type":"open_source","summary":"Open source project, free to use","freeTier":true,"sourceUrl":"https://docling-project.github.io/docling/","retrievedAt":"2026-08-20T16:31:10.636Z"}` | `{"type":"usage","plans":[{"free":false,"name":"Scale","summary":"1 credit per page","components":[{"per":{"qty":1,"unit":"page"},"kind":"metered","amount":1,"currency":"USD"}],"description":"Enterprise plan supporting millions of pages with batch scraping, crawling, and scheduled syncs"}],"summary":"Usage-based: 1 credit per page for scraping/crawling/mapping/monitoring, 2 credits per 10 search results, 2 credits per browser minute for interact. Agent preview with 5 free daily runs. Advanced features cost additional credits.","currency":"USD","freeTier":true,"sourceUrl":"https://firecrawl.dev","retrievedAt":"2026-10-14T11:28:45.952Z","startingPrice":{"unit":"page","amount":1,"currency":"USD"}}` |
| pricing.free_tier | yes | yes |
| pricing.model | open_source | freemium |
| pricing.price_level | free | low |
| pricing.starting_price | - | `{"amount":1,"currency":"USD"}` |
| pricing.transparent | yes | yes |
| release.cadence_days | 2 | 15 |
| release.history | `[{"url":"https://github.com/docling-project/docling/releases/tag/v2.138.0","date":"2026-10-12T06:14:54Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.138.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/docling-project/docling/releases/tag/v2.137.0","date":"2026-10-09T14:12:20Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.137.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/docling-project/docling/releases/tag/v2.136.0","date":"2026-10-09T12:08:31Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.136.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/docling-project/docling/releases/tag/v2.135.0","date":"2026-10-07T10:42:24Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.135.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/docling-project/docling/releases/tag/v2.134.0","date":"2026-10-06T04:56:24Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.134.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/docling-project/docling/releases/tag/v2.133.0","date":"2026-10-03T11:27:20Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.133.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/docling-project/docling/releases/tag/v2.132.0","date":"2026-10-01T09:44:36Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.132.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/docling-project/docling/releases/tag/v2.131.0","date":"2026-09-29T07:58:11Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.131.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/docling-project/docling/releases/tag/v2.130.0","date":"2026-09-22T15:33:48Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.130.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/docling-project/docling/releases/tag/v2.129.0","date":"2026-09-18T09:18:32Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.129.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/docling-project/docling/releases/tag/v2.128.0","date":"2026-09-16T15:12:42Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.128.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/docling-project/docling/releases/tag/v2.127.0","date":"2026-09-14T08:57:03Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.127.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/docling-project/docling/releases/tag/v2.126.0","date":"2026-09-04T15:47:33Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.126.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/docling-project/docling/releases/tag/v2.125.0","date":"2026-09-03T14:28:00Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.125.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/docling-project/docling/releases/tag/v2.124.0","date":"2026-08-31T13:36:37Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.124.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/docling-project/docling/releases/tag/v2.123.1","date":"2026-08-28T15:12:34Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.123.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/docling-project/docling/releases/tag/v2.123.0","date":"2026-08-26T16:15:07Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.123.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/docling-project/docling/releases/tag/v2.122.0","date":"2026-08-25T09:28:52Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.122.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/docling-project/docling/releases/tag/v2.121.0","date":"2026-08-20T09:05:04Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.121.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/docling-project/docling/releases/tag/v2.120.3","date":"2026-08-18T07:50:48Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.120.3"}]` | `[{"url":"https://github.com/firecrawl/firecrawl/releases/tag/v2.11.0","date":"2026-06-19T15:09:30Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.11.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/firecrawl/firecrawl/releases/tag/v2.10","date":"2026-05-15T17:34:45Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.10"},{"url":"https://github.com/firecrawl/firecrawl/releases/tag/v2.9.0","date":"2026-04-10T16:36:16Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.9.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/firecrawl/firecrawl/releases/tag/v2.8.0","date":"2026-02-03T17:12:04Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.8.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/firecrawl/firecrawl/releases/tag/v2.7.0","date":"2025-12-05T17:40:32Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.7.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/firecrawl/firecrawl/releases/tag/v2.6.0","date":"2025-11-14T16:13:52Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.6.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/firecrawl/firecrawl/releases/tag/v2.5.0","date":"2025-10-30T04:02:37Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.5.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/firecrawl/firecrawl/releases/tag/v2.4.0","date":"2025-10-13T15:09:11Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.4.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/firecrawl/firecrawl/releases/tag/v2.3.0","date":"2025-09-19T19:01:01Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.3.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/firecrawl/firecrawl/releases/tag/v2.2.0","date":"2025-09-12T14:59:28Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.2.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/firecrawl/firecrawl/releases/tag/v2.1.0","date":"2025-08-29T17:22:37Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.1.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/firecrawl/firecrawl/releases/tag/v2.0.1","date":"2025-08-26T17:18:17Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.0.1"},{"url":"https://github.com/firecrawl/firecrawl/releases/tag/v2.0.0","date":"2025-08-19T15:27:57Z","type":"stable","version":"v2.0.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/firecrawl/firecrawl/releases/tag/v1.15.0","date":"2025-07-18T14:34:04Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.15.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/firecrawl/firecrawl/releases/tag/v1.14.0","date":"2025-07-04T16:37:59Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.14.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/firecrawl/firecrawl/releases/tag/v1.13.0","date":"2025-06-27T15:19:08Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.13.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/firecrawl/firecrawl/releases/tag/v1.12.0","date":"2025-06-20T15:49:49Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.12.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/firecrawl/firecrawl/releases/tag/v1.11.0","date":"2025-06-13T15:03:33Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.11.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/firecrawl/firecrawl/releases/tag/v1.10.0","date":"2025-06-03T19:37:13Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.10.0"},{"url":"https://github.com/firecrawl/firecrawl/releases/tag/v1.9.0","date":"2025-05-16T18:04:45Z","type":"stable","version":"v1.9.0"}]` |
| security.soc2 | - | yes |
| security.vulnerabilities | `{"count":8,"source":"https://advisories.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/advisories?ecosystem=pypi&package_name=docling-slim&per_page=100","last_12m":8,"max_severity":"HIGH"}` | `{"count":0,"source":"https://advisories.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/advisories?ecosystem=go&package_name=github.com%2Ffirecrawl%2Ffirecrawl%2Fapps%2Fgo-sdk&per_page=100","last_12m":0,"max_severity":null}` |

## Capabilities (AI Data Extraction Agents)

| Capability | Docling | firecrawl |
|---|:--:|:--:|
| **Capabilities** |  |  |
| Architecture model | Open source library | Managed cloud API |
| PDF and multimodal image OCR parsing | ✓ | ✓ |
| Web scraping to markdown or json | - | ✓ |
| Tabular layout preservation for complex tables | ✓ | ✓ |
| Strict json schema forcing and validation | - | ✓ |
| Fine tuned document layout analysis models | ✓ | - |
| Native chunking and vectorization for rag | ✓ | - |
| Javascript rendering for spa web scraping | - | ✓ |
| Human in the loop hitl confidence review queue | - | - |
| Zero data retention privacy guarantees | ✓ | ✓ |
| SOC2 type ii | - | - |
| Mit or apache permissive oss license | ✓ | ✓ |
| Pricing model | Free open source | Pay per page API |

*Source: vioscaleAI. Generated 2026-10-16T17:44:45.747Z. "-" = undocumented, not absent.*