Guardian vs Firecrawl: search API pricing and tradeoffs
Guardian and Firecrawl overlap on web search, but they are built around different jobs. Guardian sells search as the core product. Firecrawl sells a broader web-data stack where search sits next to scrape, crawl, map, browser interaction, monitoring, and agent workflows.
Guardian pricing
Guardian charges one credit per started block of 10 requested search results. The effective rates below assume each search requests 10 results or fewer and the included monthly credits are fully used.
| Plan / mode | Price | Included | Effective search price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | 1,000 credits | $0No card required. |
| Developer | $49/mo | 25,000 credits | $1.96 / 1KUp to 10 results uses 1 credit. |
| Growth | $249/mo | 200,000 credits | $1.245 / 1KUp to 10 results uses 1 credit. |
| Scale | $999/mo | 1,000,000 credits | $0.999 / 1KUp to 10 results uses 1 credit. |
Firecrawl search pricing
| Plan / mode | Price | Included | Effective search price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | 500 searches | $01,000 credits; search uses 2 credits per 10 results. |
| Hobby | $16/mo annual | 2,500 searches | $6.40 / 1K5,000 credits. |
| Standard | $83/mo annual | 50,000 searches | $1.66 / 1K100,000 credits. |
| Growth | $333/mo annual | 250,000 searches | $1.332 / 1K500,000 credits. |
| Scale | $599/mo annual | 500,000 searches | $1.198 / 1K1,000,000 credits. |
Firecrawl lists search at 2 credits per 10 results. The paid prices above are shown by Firecrawl as monthly equivalents billed annually. Guardian uses 1 credit per started block of 10 requested results.
Where the pricing crosses
Guardian Developer works out to $1.96 per 1,000 ten-result searches. Firecrawl Standard is $1.66 per 1,000, so Firecrawl wins that particular unit-price comparison, although the monthly commitments differ: $49 for Guardian Developer versus $83 for Firecrawl Standard on Firecrawl's annual billing display.
At higher volume, Guardian moves below Firecrawl. Guardian Growth is about $1.245 per 1,000 ten-result searches versus Firecrawl Growth at about $1.332. Guardian Scale is about $0.999 per 1,000 versus Firecrawl Scale at about $1.198.
The free tiers also count search differently. Guardian includes 1,000 credits, which covers 1,000 searches requesting up to 10 results each. Firecrawl's 1,000 free credits cover 500 searches at 10 results because each search consumes 2 credits.
The bigger difference is product scope
Firecrawl prices search inside a broader web-data stack. Its credit system also covers scraping, crawling, mapping, browser interaction, monitoring, and agent features. That can be a good trade if one vendor needs to fetch search results and then turn destination pages into clean Markdown or crawl an entire site.
Guardian keeps the paid contract centered on search. The business API exposes web search plus verticals such as news, images, videos, shopping, finance, travel, and discussions. The same account can be used through REST, the @wundercorp/guardian TypeScript SDK, and Guardian's MCP endpoint.
That makes the comparison straightforward for a search-heavy product: compare the number of search calls you need, the result count per call, and whether page extraction or site crawling belongs inside the same vendor contract.
A practical migration test
Take a representative batch of production queries rather than a handful of demos. Run the same query set through both providers at the result depth your application uses, then compare result relevance, coverage, latency, error rate, and total credits consumed.
If the next step after search is usually 'crawl this whole domain' or 'return the full page as Markdown,' Firecrawl may remove work from your stack even when its search call costs more. If the next step is ranking, retrieval, RAG, or tool use over search results, Guardian's lower high-volume search rate can matter more.
Which one fits your workload?
Choose Guardian when
- Search is the main paid workload and most calls request 10 results or fewer.
- You want one API key for REST search, the TypeScript SDK, and MCP tools.
- You need multiple search verticals without buying a scraping platform around them.
- You expect roughly 200,000 to 1,000,000 ten-result searches per month and unit cost is a major constraint.
Choose Firecrawl when
- You need scraping, crawling, mapping, monitoring, or browser interaction in the same product.
- You want clean page extraction immediately after search and prefer one shared credit pool.
- Firecrawl's concurrency model and broader web-data tooling remove enough infrastructure to justify the price difference.
Start with 1,000 free search credits.
The business API uses scoped API keys, monthly quotas, usage headers, and the same account across REST, the TypeScript SDK, and MCP.
Frequently asked questions
Is Guardian cheaper than Firecrawl?
At the published prices checked October 7, 2026, Guardian Growth and Scale are cheaper per 1,000 ten-result searches than Firecrawl Growth and Scale. Firecrawl Standard is cheaper per 1,000 than Guardian Developer. The products count credits differently and Firecrawl includes a broader scraping and crawling product surface.
Does Guardian replace Firecrawl crawl and scrape APIs?
No. Guardian's business product is centered on search. Firecrawl is a better match when your workflow depends on site crawling, page scraping, browser interaction, or turning pages into clean Markdown.
How many Firecrawl credits does search use?
Firecrawl's pricing page lists Search at 2 credits per 10 results. Guardian charges 1 credit per started block of 10 requested search results.
Pricing sources
Vendor prices change. These comparisons use public pricing and documentation available on October 7, 2026. Check the linked vendor page before making a purchase decision.