Minibase vs Firecrawl.
Both tools turn webpages into Markdown — but they serve different users. The right choice depends on what you're actually doing. Here's an honest comparison.
What Firecrawl is great at
Developer-focused API for turning websites into LLM-ready Markdown at scale.
Firecrawl is the right tool if you're a developer building an application that needs to crawl hundreds or thousands of pages programmatically. It's an API + Python/JS SDK, handles JavaScript-rendered pages, and feeds directly into LLM/RAG pipelines. It's genuinely the best crawler-as-a-service for AI teams.
Where Minibase is the better fit
Minibase is a browser extension for humans — one click, one page, clean Markdown you can drop into notes or an AI prompt. It's not an API or a crawler. The two products serve completely different users: Firecrawl for automation pipelines, Save for daily individual use. For researchers, knowledge workers, and writers who save pages manually, Minibase is faster and cheaper than scripting against Firecrawl.
Feature matrix
| Feature | Minibase | Firecrawl |
|---|---|---|
| Target user | Humans (browser) | Developers (API) |
| One-click per page | ✓ Yes | Requires code |
| Bulk crawling (100s of URLs) | — No | ✓ Yes |
| API access | Not yet | ✓ Yes |
| JavaScript rendering | Browser-native | ✓ Yes |
| Site-specific extraction (YouTube, Twitter, etc.) | 300+ rules | Generic Markdown |
| AI-summarized transcripts | ✓ Yes | — No |
| Free tier | 3 saves/mo | 500 credits/mo |
| Paid starting | $5.99/mo | $16/mo |
| macOS local storage + MCP | ✓ Yes | — No |
FAQ — Minibase vs Firecrawl
Q1 Is Save an alternative to Firecrawl?
They solve different problems. Firecrawl is for developers building crawlers into applications. Minibase is for individual users clipping pages manually in their browser. If you're building a production RAG system, use Firecrawl. If you're saving pages for your own knowledge base, use Save.
Q2 Can I use Save for 100+ URLs a day?
Minibase is built for manual use — one click per page. For 100+ URLs/day, a scripted API like Firecrawl is the right tool. A Minibase API is on the roadmap but not live yet.
Q3 Why does Save have site-specific rules if Firecrawl just returns Markdown?
Generic Markdown conversion works for simple article pages. Once you hit YouTube, Twitter, Reddit, or Amazon, generic extraction produces garbage (ads, nav, comments mixed with content). Site-specific AI prompts fix this — Minibase has 300+ of them.
Try Minibase free — 3 saves a month
Install in one click. No account required. Upgrade to Plus ($5.99/mo) for unlimited saves anytime.
