flatmark vs Firecrawl
Firecrawl crawls websites and, through its Parse endpoint, also converts uploaded documents. flatmark converts documents only. Compared with sources as of Sep 2026.
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| Firecrawl | Web data API to search, scrape and crawl websites; open-source core under AGPL-3.0 (as of Sep 2026) |
|---|---|
| Firecrawl Parse | File uploads (PDF, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, HTML and more) up to 50 MB. Costs 1 credit per PDF page (as of Sep 2026) |
| Firecrawl free plan | 1,000 credits a month, no card; prices effective Sep 4, 2026 (as of Sep 2026) |
| flatmark | Converts PDF, Word, PowerPoint, Excel, HTML and plain text files. No crawling. |
| flatmark credits | 1 per direct call, 10 per queued job of up to 200 pages, 0 for status polls and result downloads |
Firecrawl is a web data API. It searches, scrapes and crawls websites and returns Markdown or structured data (GitHub, as of Sep 2026). Its Parse endpoint also converts uploaded files: PDF, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, HTML and more, up to 50 MB (docs, as of Sep 2026).
flatmark converts files only. You send a document to POST /v1/convert or
POST /v1/convert/jobs and get Markdown back. The queue adds a JSON structure
file. flatmark never fetches or crawls.
When Firecrawl fits
Part of your job is acquisition: whole-site crawls, JavaScript rendering, search results. One vendor then covers the crawl and the attachments. Scrapes cost 1 credit per page, and the free plan has 1,000 credits a month (pricing, as of Sep 2026). The open-source core is AGPL-3.0 (GitHub, as of Sep 2026).
When flatmark fits
Your documents already arrive as files: user uploads, a storage bucket, email attachments. flatmark bills per file, not per page. A 100-page PDF is 10 credits in the queue; Firecrawl Parse bills 1 credit per PDF page (docs, as of Sep 2026). Status polls and result downloads cost nothing, and a signed webhook can replace polling.
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FAQ
- Is flatmark a Firecrawl alternative?
- For document conversion, yes. Firecrawl Parse also converts uploaded PDF, Word, Excel and PowerPoint files (source: docs.firecrawl.dev/features/parse, as of Sep 2026). For crawling websites, no. flatmark does not crawl.
- Can flatmark crawl a website?
- No. It converts files you send. Crawling is out of scope.
- How do the two bill a long PDF?
- Firecrawl Parse bills 1 credit per PDF page (source: docs.firecrawl.dev/features/parse, as of Sep 2026). flatmark bills 10 credits per queued job of up to 200 pages. Credit prices differ between the two.