Brave Search vs Firecrawl

A side-by-side comparison of two Search & Web servers — tools, transport, auth, maintenance, and copy-paste config for each.

	Brave Search Official Brave Search MCP server: web, local, image, video, news search and AI summarization. Verified stdio (local) API key TypeScript	Firecrawl Official Firecrawl MCP server — scrape, crawl, map, search, and structured extraction for any LLM client. Verified stdio (local) API key TypeScript
Category	Search & Web	Search & Web
Language	TypeScript	TypeScript
Transport	stdio (local)	stdio (local)
Auth	API key	API key
GitHub stars	1.2k	6.6k
Last commit	5 days ago	8 days ago
Verified
Actively maintained
Install	`npx -y @brave/brave-search-mcp-server`	`npx -y firecrawl-mcp`
Repo	Open	Open

Verdict

Pick Brave Search if you prefer its approach (official brave search mcp server: web, local, image, video, news search and ai summarization).

Pick Firecrawl if you prefer the more popular, battle-tested option.

Add Brave Search

Install / run

npx -y @brave/brave-search-mcp-server

Paste into ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "brave-search": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "@brave/brave-search-mcp-server",
        "--transport",
        "stdio"
      ],
      "env": {
        "BRAVE_API_KEY": "<your-brave-api-key>"
      }
    }
  }
}

Add Firecrawl

Install / run

npx -y firecrawl-mcp

Paste into ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "firecrawl": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "firecrawl-mcp"
      ],
      "env": {
        "FIRECRAWL_API_KEY": "<your-firecrawl-api-key>"
      }
    }
  }
}

FAQ

Brave Search or Firecrawl — which is better?

Pick Brave Search if you prefer its approach (official brave search mcp server: web, local, image, video, news search and ai summarization). Pick Firecrawl if you prefer the more popular, battle-tested option.

Can I use both Brave Search and Firecrawl?

Yes — MCP clients let you enable multiple servers at once. Add both configs to your client's mcpServers and use whichever tool fits the task.

Do Brave Search and Firecrawl work with Claude, Cursor and Windsurf?

Both do. Copy the per-client config below into Claude Desktop, Cursor, or Windsurf.

View Brave Search →View Firecrawl →More comparisons →