Ref MCP vs Firecrawl

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

	Ref MCP Token-efficient documentation search and reading for coding agents across public and private docs. Unverified 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	1.1k	6.6k
Last commit	1 day ago	18 days ago
Verified
Actively maintained
Install	`npx ref-tools-mcp@latest`	`npx -y firecrawl-mcp`
Repo	Open	Open

Verdict

Pick Ref MCP if you prefer its approach (token-efficient documentation search and reading for coding agents across public and private docs).

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

Add Ref MCP

Install / run

npx ref-tools-mcp@latest

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

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "ref-mcp": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "ref-tools-mcp@latest"
      ],
      "env": {
        "REF_API_KEY": "<sign up to get an 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

Ref MCP or Firecrawl — which is better?

Pick Ref MCP if you prefer its approach (token-efficient documentation search and reading for coding agents across public and private docs). Pick Firecrawl if you want the official, vendor-maintained server, and you prefer the more popular, battle-tested option.

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

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

View Ref MCP →View Firecrawl →More comparisons →