CongressMCP vs Firecrawl

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

	CongressMCP 91+ congressional data tools — bills, votes, members, committees, hearings — via the Congress.gov API. Unverified stdio (local) API key Python	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	Python	TypeScript
Transport	stdio (local)	stdio (local)
Auth	API key	API key
GitHub stars	32	6.6k
Last commit	3 days ago	18 days ago
Verified
Actively maintained
Install	`uvx congressmcp`	`npx -y firecrawl-mcp`
Repo	Open	Open

Verdict

Pick CongressMCP if you prefer its approach (91+ congressional data tools — bills, votes, members, committees, hearings — via the congress.gov api).

Pick Firecrawl if you want the official, vendor-maintained server, and you prefer the more popular, battle-tested option.

Add CongressMCP

Install / run

uvx congressmcp

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

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "congressmcp": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": [
        "congressmcp"
      ],
      "env": {
        "CONGRESS_API_KEY": "your-api-key-here"
      }
    }
  }
}

Requires `uv` (the Python package runner). Install it from https://docs.astral.sh/uv/ if `uvx` is not found.

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

CongressMCP or Firecrawl — which is better?

Pick CongressMCP if you prefer its approach (91+ congressional data tools — bills, votes, members, committees, hearings — via the congress.gov api). Pick Firecrawl if you want the official, vendor-maintained server, and you prefer the more popular, battle-tested option.

Can I use both CongressMCP 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 CongressMCP and Firecrawl work with Claude, Cursor and Windsurf?

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

View CongressMCP →View Firecrawl →More comparisons →