Alternative to Firecrawl
Firecrawl-quality extraction for $9/month flat
Firecrawl starts at $99/mo for crawling + $89/mo for Extract = $188/mo minimum. Web2MD is $9 flat, runs in your real browser, and handles Cloudflare, paywalls, X, Reddit, and Chinese social platforms that pure scrapers can't touch.
Cut your scraping bill 95% →Why people are leaving Firecrawl
Drawn from GitHub issues, Reddit threads, and Chrome Web Store reviews.
“Firecrawl is egregiously expensive. $99/mo Crawl + $89/mo Extract = $188/mo minimum.”
— r/LocalLLaMA, r/RAG
“Pure server-side scraping can't reach pages behind login or Cloudflare — and that's most of the useful web.”
“Anti-bot signing on sites like Xiaohongshu changes monthly — pure scrapers break constantly.”
“You hit credit limits during overnight RAG ingest jobs and pay overage fees.”
Firecrawl vs Web2MD
| Feature | Firecrawl | Web2MD |
|---|---|---|
| Price (entry tier) | $83/mo (16k credits) | $9/mo flat |
| Price (Extract addon) | +$89/mo Extract Standard | Included |
| Real-credit minimum for daily RAG | ~$188/mo | $9/mo |
| Login-walled pages (Substack, X, LinkedIn) | ❌ Cookie injection only | ✅ Uses your real browser session |
| Cloudflare-protected sites | ⚠️ Often blocked | ✅ Sees what you see |
| JS-rendered SPAs | ✅ Headless Chromium | ✅ Real Chromium |
| Chinese platforms (Xiaohongshu / WeChat / Zhihu / Bilibili) | ❌ Anti-bot blocks | ✅ Dedicated extractors |
| Browser extension UI | ❌ API only | ✅ Native |
| AI agent integration (MCP) | Custom | ✅ Built-in MCP server |
| Batch convert | ✅ via API | ✅ via API + extension UI |
Why switch to Web2MD
Logged-in sees more than logged-out
Firecrawl runs on someone else's server. It can't see the LinkedIn post your network shared, the Substack you subscribe to, or the internal Notion doc. Web2MD runs inside your Chrome — your auth, your cookies, your access.
20× cheaper without losing capability
For a hobbyist or solo dev building a RAG system, $188/mo is impossible. $9/mo with unlimited conversions through your own browser is the difference between shipping and not.
Anti-bot is solved by the user, not the scraper
Cloudflare challenges, captchas, anti-bot signing — these target servers. Web2MD operates after the user solves them, so we never hit them.
Common questions
I'm building a RAG pipeline. How does Web2MD fit?▼
The hosted MCP server lets your AI agent call agent_convert and agent_batch_convert. The extension keeps a persistent connection so your agent gets browser-rendered Markdown (with cookies) instead of bot-blocked HTML.
What are the rate limits?▼
Pro has no daily cap. Heavy users typically run 200–500 conversions/day. The native messaging host caps at 50 URLs per agent_batch_convert call.
Do you have a free tier for evaluation?▼
Yes — 3 conversions/day on free, no signup. The MCP server requires Pro for production use.
Ready to switch?
Install Web2MD from the Chrome Web Store. Free tier — no signup needed.
Add to Chrome — Free →