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CrawlForge MCP

Alternatives

One prefix that turns a URL into markdown, or 31 MCP tools that also crawl, extract, click and monitor. An honest comparison.

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01Quick answer

Jina Reader converts a URL into LLM-friendly markdown when you put r.jina.ai in front of it, works without an API key at 20 requests per minute, and is open source. CrawlForge is an MCP server with 31 tools that also crawl sites, extract structured fields, run browser actions and track changes, priced per call in credits. Pick Jina Reader for simple URL-to-markdown; pick CrawlForge when your agent needs more than reading.

02Context

Overview

CrawlForge and Jina Reader both turn web pages into text an LLM can use, but they differ a lot in scope. Jina Reader is one very simple endpoint: put r.jina.ai in front of a URL and you get clean, LLM-friendly markdown back. It also offers s.jina.ai for web search, reads PDFs, captions images, and works without an API key at 20 requests per minute. Reader is open source under Apache-2.0, and Jina runs a remote MCP server for its Reader, Search, Embeddings and Reranker APIs.

CrawlForge is a broader toolkit: 31 MCP tools that read and clean a page, but also map and crawl sites, extract fields against a schema, run browser actions, render with a stealth browser, track changes, and research across sources with deep_research. Every tool has a published credit price; a plain scrape is 2 credits.

If all you need is URL in, markdown out, Jina Reader is hard to beat on simplicity. If your agent has to do more with the page than read it, such as crawl a site, fill in a form, pull fields into JSON, or watch a page for changes, CrawlForge puts those steps behind one API key and one credit balance.

03Scoreboard

Feature Comparison

04

CrawlForge wins

03

Tie

03

Competitor wins

  1. Core ProductTie
    CrawlForge
    31 MCP tools: fetch, extract, crawl, research, monitor
    Jina Reader
    URL-to-markdown Reader (r.jina.ai) plus search (s.jina.ai)
  2. Getting StartedCompetitor wins
    CrawlForge
    API key with 1,000 free credits
    Jina Reader
    Works with no API key at 20 requests per minute
  3. MCP SupportTie
    CrawlForge
    Native MCP server with 31 tools
    Jina Reader
    Remote MCP server (mcp.jina.ai)
  4. Billing UnitTie
    CrawlForge
    Credits per tool call (scrape = 2)
    Jina Reader
    Tokens in the response
  5. Site CrawlingCrawlForge wins
    CrawlForge
    map_site and crawl_deep
    Jina Reader
    You supply each URL
  6. Structured ExtractionCrawlForge wins
    CrawlForge
    scrape_structured, extract_structured, extract_with_llm
    Jina Reader
    CSS selectors to target or remove content
  7. Browser InteractionCrawlForge wins
    CrawlForge
    scrape_with_actions and browser_session (click, type, wait)
    Jina Reader
    Run custom JavaScript before extraction
  8. PDFs and ImagesCompetitor wins
    CrawlForge
    process_document for PDF and DOCX
    Jina Reader
    Native PDF reading, image captions, jina-ocr-v1
  9. Change MonitoringCrawlForge wins
    CrawlForge
    track_changes
    Jina Reader
    Not part of Reader
  10. Self-HostingCompetitor wins
    CrawlForge
    Hosted API only
    Jina Reader
    Open source (Apache-2.0)

04The numbers

Pricing Comparison

Free

CrawlForge1,000 credits (one-time)

Jina ReaderNo key: 20 RPM; new key: 10M free tokens

Hobby

CrawlForge$19/mo — 5,000 credits (roll over)

Jina ReaderToken top-ups — check vendor for latest

Professional

CrawlForge$99/mo — 100,000 credits (roll over)

Jina ReaderToken top-ups — check vendor for latest

Business

CrawlForge$399/mo — 500,000 credits (roll over)

Jina ReaderPremium key: 5,000 RPM — check vendor for latest

05Trade-offs

Why Choose CrawlForge

  • 31 tools behind one API key: crawl, map, extract, research and monitor, not only read
  • Schema-based structured extraction instead of markdown you parse yourself
  • Browser actions and persistent browser sessions for pages that need a click or a login
  • deep_research for multi-source research with conflict detection
  • track_changes to watch a page and report what changed
  • Credits roll over on every paid plan

Where Jina Reader Shines

  • The simplest interface there is: put r.jina.ai in front of any URL
  • Usable with no API key at all, and every new key gets 10M free tokens
  • Open source under Apache-2.0
  • Strong document handling: PDFs, image captions and the jina-ocr-v1 model
  • One key also covers Jina's Embeddings and Reranker APIs for RAG pipelines

06Verdict

The Verdict

Pick Jina Reader when the job is reading pages you already have URLs for and you want the least possible code: one prefix, markdown back, a free keyless tier, and strong PDF handling. For RAG pipelines that also need embeddings and reranking, one Jina key covers all of it.

Pick CrawlForge when reading the page is only the first step. Crawling a site, filling in a form before extracting, returning fields that match a schema, researching across sources, and watching pages for changes are all separate tools on CrawlForge, called the same way over MCP or REST and billed from one credit balance.

07Decision

Which one should you pick?

Pick CrawlForge when

  • Your agent has to crawl or map a site, not only read single URLs.
  • You need fields as JSON against a schema rather than markdown to parse.
  • Pages need a click, a form fill or a login before the content appears.
  • You want research across sources (deep_research) or page monitoring (track_changes) from the same API.
  • You prefer a monthly plan whose unused credits roll over.

Pick Jina Reader when

  • All you need is URL in, markdown out, with as little code as possible.
  • You want to start with no API key, or stay inside a free token allowance.
  • Your sources are mostly PDFs and image-heavy documents.
  • You want to self-host the reader from open source code.
  • You already use Jina Embeddings or Reranker and want one key for everything.

08Migration

Migration example

Swap a Jina Reader call for a CrawlForge scrape call. Both take a URL and return markdown. (Check Jina docs for the latest request headers.)

Before — Jina Reader
// Before: Jina Readerconst res = await fetch('https://r.jina.ai/https://example.com', {  headers: { Authorization: `Bearer ${process.env.JINA_API_KEY}` },});const markdown = await res.text();
After — CrawlForge
// After: CrawlForgeconst res = await fetch('https://www.crawlforge.dev/api/v1/tools/scrape', {  method: 'POST',  headers: { Authorization: `Bearer ${process.env.CRAWLFORGE_API_KEY}`, 'Content-Type': 'application/json' },  body: JSON.stringify({ url: 'https://example.com', formats: ['markdown'] }),});const { data } = await res.json();const markdown = data.formats.markdown;

09Questions

Frequently Asked Questions

01Is Jina Reader free?

Reader can be called without an API key at 20 requests per minute, and every new Jina API key comes with 10M free tokens. Beyond that, usage is counted in tokens of the response and paid for with top-ups on Jina's site (check vendor for latest prices). CrawlForge gives 1,000 one-time free credits, then monthly plans from $19.

02Which CrawlForge tool replaces r.jina.ai?

scrape (2 credits) with formats: ["markdown"] returns clean markdown, and the same call can also return links, metadata and HTML. fetch_url (1 credit) returns the raw response body. For several known URLs at once, batch_scrape (5 credits) reads up to 50 in one call.

03Can Jina Reader crawl a whole site?

Reader converts the URLs you give it; Jina describes it as developer infrastructure where you control which URLs are processed. On CrawlForge, map_site (2 credits) lists a site's URLs and crawl_deep (4 credits) walks it page by page.

04Do both work in Claude, Cursor and other MCP clients?

Yes. Jina runs a remote MCP server at mcp.jina.ai for Reader, Search, Embeddings and Reranker. CrawlForge's MCP server exposes all 31 of its tools, so an agent can discover crawling, extraction and monitoring tools alongside reading.

05Can I use Jina Reader and CrawlForge together?

Yes. A common split is Jina Reader for cheap bulk reading of known URLs and PDFs, and CrawlForge for the steps Reader does not cover: crawling, browser actions, schema extraction and change tracking. The two are billed separately.

10Resources

Related resources

01

Getting started

Install CrawlForge MCP and run your first scrape in under a minute.

02

Browse all 31 tools

See every scraping, extraction, and research tool with credit costs.

03

Use cases

Lead enrichment, price monitoring, RAG pipelines, and more.

04

Pricing

Free 1,000 credits, then $19/mo Starter. Compare every plan.

05

All comparisons

See how CrawlForge stacks up against every major scraping API.

06

MCP web scraping guide

Why MCP-native scraping outperforms REST for AI agents.

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