Firecrawl vs 
MinerU
Firecrawl vs MinerU compared for 2026 — features, license, ease of use, performance and which one to choose. Turn websites into LLM-ready Markdown vs PDF to Markdown with formulas and tables.
Updated regularly · curated by olud.ai
Firecrawl vs MinerU at a glance
| Spec | Firecrawl | MinerU |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Document AI & OCR | Document AI & OCR |
| Type | Web scraping for LLMs | Document extractor |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Runs locally | Self-hosted | Yes |
| Primary language | TypeScript | Python |
| Ease of use | Beginner | Intermediate |
| Best for | developers feeding web content to models | scientific PDFs with formulas |
| GitHub stars | — | 75.3k |
How Firecrawl and MinerU score
| Criterion | Firecrawl | MinerU |
|---|---|---|
| Popularity | n/a | 4.5 |
| Maintenance | n/a | 5.0 |
| Ease of use | 5.0 | 3.5 |
| Privacy | 4.5 | 5.0 |
| License freedom | 3.5 | 3.5 |
Scores are computed automatically from public signals — GitHub stars (popularity), recent commit activity (maintenance), license type (freedom), local-first design (privacy) and onboarding complexity (ease of use). Indicative, not a verdict.
What each one is
Firecrawl
Firecrawl crawls websites and returns clean Markdown or structured data built for LLM consumption, handling JavaScript rendering and anti-bot pages.
- Clean Markdown output built for LLMs
- Handles JavaScript-heavy sites
- Simple API, self-hostable
MinerU
MinerU extracts text, tables, formulas and images from PDFs into Markdown or JSON, handling scientific documents particularly well.
- Extracts formulas as LaTeX
- Strong table structure recovery
- Handles scanned documents
Key differences
Firecrawl is web scraping for LLMs, while MinerU is document extractor. Firecrawl leans more beginner-friendly, whereas MinerU is more suited to intermediate users. They also differ in how they run (Self-hosted vs Yes). In short, Firecrawl fits developers feeding web content to models, and MinerU fits scientific PDFs with formulas.
Which should you choose?
Choose Firecrawl for developers feeding web content to models. Choose MinerU for scientific PDFs with formulas.
There is rarely one winner — many setups use both. The right pick depends on your hardware, your team's skills, and whether you value simplicity or control.
Frequently asked questions
Is Firecrawl or MinerU easier to use?
Firecrawl is generally the easier of the two to get started with, while MinerU rewards more setup with more control.
Are Firecrawl and MinerU free?
Firecrawl is free and open source (AGPL-3.0), and MinerU is free and open source (AGPL-3.0). Neither charges for the core software.
Can I run Firecrawl and MinerU locally?
Firecrawl: self-hosted · MinerU: yes. Both can be used without sending your data to a third-party cloud where their setup allows.
Firecrawl vs MinerU — which should I pick in 2026?
Choose Firecrawl for developers feeding web content to models. Choose MinerU for scientific PDFs with formulas.
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