Exa Search vs Firecrawl

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

	Exa Search Exa's neural web search and crawling MCP server — runs locally via npx or as a hosted remote endpoint. 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	4.6k	6.6k
Last commit	9 days ago	8 days ago
Verified
Actively maintained
Install	`npx -y exa-mcp-server`	`npx -y firecrawl-mcp`
Repo	Open	Open

Verdict

Pick Exa Search if you prefer its approach (exa's neural web search and crawling mcp server — runs locally via npx or as a hosted remote endpoint).

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

Add Exa Search

Install / run

npx -y exa-mcp-server

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

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "exa-search": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "exa-mcp-server"
      ],
      "env": {
        "EXA_API_KEY": "<your-exa-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

Exa Search or Firecrawl — which is better?

Pick Exa Search if you prefer its approach (exa's neural web search and crawling mcp server — runs locally via npx or as a hosted remote endpoint). Pick Firecrawl if you prefer the more popular, battle-tested option.

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

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

View Exa Search →View Firecrawl →More comparisons →