SearXNG vs Firecrawl

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

	SearXNG Private metasearch via your own SearXNG instance — popular community MCP server for self-hosted search. Verified stdio (local) No auth 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	None	API key
GitHub stars	896	6.6k
Last commit	4 days ago	8 days ago
Verified
Actively maintained
Install	`npx -y mcp-searxng`	`npx -y firecrawl-mcp`
Repo	Open	Open

Verdict

Pick SearXNG if you want zero-setup with no API key.

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

Add SearXNG

Install / run

npx -y mcp-searxng

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

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "searxng": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "mcp-searxng"
      ],
      "env": {
        "SEARXNG_URL": "https://your-searxng-instance.example.com"
      }
    }
  }
}

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

SearXNG or Firecrawl — which is better?

Pick SearXNG if you want zero-setup with no API key. Pick Firecrawl if you want the official, vendor-maintained server, and you prefer the more popular, battle-tested option.

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

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

View SearXNG →View Firecrawl →More comparisons →