Compare/Head to head

Clay vs Firecrawl

Same facts, side by side: starting price, free tier, MCP, API and what each one is actually built for.

Starting price

Clay

$185/mo Free tier 14 day free trial

Waterfall enrichment plus Claygent research columns for GTM and recruiting list work. Free plan exists; paid Launch starts at $185/mo, with a 14-day trial.

Where Clay fits

  • Sourcers building enriched spreadsheets
  • Teams chaining many data vendors
  • Desks that want Claygent research columns
  • RevOps pushing clean rows to a sequencer or ATS

Firecrawl

$16/mo Free tier

Web scrape, crawl, search and interact API with a hosted MCP server, and now Directory: more than 240 million professional profiles your AI agent can search for free inside ChatGPT or Claude. Free plan available; Hobby is $19/mo, or $16/mo billed yearly.

Where Firecrawl fits

  • Recruiters sourcing candidates by title, company and location from inside ChatGPT or Claude
  • Builders who need markdown or JSON from URLs
  • Agents that call Firecrawl over MCP
  • Teams that will grow into Standard at $83/mo yearly

At a glance

DetailClayFirecrawl
Starting price$185/mo$16/mo
Free tier✓Yes✓Yes
Free trial14 day free trialNot on record
MCP server✓Yes✓Yes
Public API✓Yes✓Yes
Listed underLead generation, OutreachLead generation, Sourcing

Where they pull apart

Clay

Stands out: 150+ provider waterfall plus Claygent on every row, with MCP and API.

Watch out: Not a sender. Paid plans start at $185/mo on Launch, CRM sync needs Growth from $495/mo, and credit burn adds up.

Not the right fit for

  • Teams that need Clay to send the email
  • Buyers who want a cheap single-finder

Firecrawl

Stands out: Directory searches across 240M+ professional profiles cost no credits, so a recruiter can explore and refine a candidate search in ChatGPT or Claude and spend credits only when pulling full profile and work contact details. Every account gets 1,000 free credits a month with no card, shared with the scrape, crawl and search API.

Watch out: Hobby is 5,000 credits a month. Search costs 2 credits per 10 results, Directory profile and contact lookups also draw on credits, and extra credits come in $5 increments. Directory finds and researches people; it has no outreach sequencing or ATS of its own.

Not the right fit for

  • Non-technical users who will not use an AI assistant or an API
  • Recruiters who want a point and click search screen with sequences built in
  • Crawl jobs that need millions of pages on day one

Pros and cons

Clay

  • Free plan, then Launch from $185/mo
  • 14-day trial documented
  • Waterfall plus Claygent in one table
  • Does not send mail; you still need a sequencer
  • CRM sync needs Growth, from $495/mo
  • Credit burn is easy to underestimate

Firecrawl

  • Free Directory searches across 240M+ profiles
  • Works inside ChatGPT and Claude via the Firecrawl plugin
  • Free 1,000 credits a month, no card
  • Hosted MCP plus REST API
  • Profile and contact lookups spend credits
  • Search uses 2 credits per 10 results
  • Hobby allows 5 concurrent requests
  • Credits roll over only on Scale and up

What each one costs

Clay

$185/mo

Free plan with 100 Data Credits and 500 Actions a month. Launch starts at $185 a month (2,500 Data Credits, 15,000 Actions, job change and signal tracking). Growth starts at $495 a month (6,000 Data Credits, 40,000 Actions) and adds CRM sync, HTTP API and webhooks. Enterprise is custom with an annual commitment. Confirm current terms on the vendor site.

Checked 4 Nov 2026

Firecrawl

$16/mo

Free includes 1,000 credits a month. Hobby is $16/mo billed annually, or $19 monthly, for 5,000 credits. Standard is $83/mo billed annually ($99 monthly), Growth $333/mo ($399 monthly) and Scale $599/mo ($749 monthly). Enterprise is custom. Paid plans can top up credits in $5 increments. Confirm current terms on the vendor site.

Checked 4 Nov 2026

Common questions

Is Clay cheaper than Firecrawl?
Firecrawl starts lower, at $16/mo against $185/mo for Clay. That is the entry plan on each side, so the real number depends on seats and the tier you land on.
Can you try Clay or Firecrawl for free?
Clay and Firecrawl carry a free tier on our listing. Clay offers a 14 day free trial.
Does Clay or Firecrawl have an MCP server?
Clay and Firecrawl ship a first party MCP server, so an AI assistant can work the product directly.

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Editorial listings, never paid rankings. Prices checked 4 Nov 2026. Confirm current terms on the vendor site. Spot an error?