Firecrawl vs GPT Researcher
An independent, evidence-based trust comparison of Firecrawl and GPT Researcher, two Research & Data projects in the HVTracker registry. Scores come from public, checkable signals — supply-chain provenance, OSSF Scorecard, maintenance, and adoption — not popularity.
Firecrawl leads on trust — 74.7/100 (Grade B) vs 70.4/100 (Grade B), a 4.3-point gap. Note: Firecrawl's evidence coverage is thinner (coverage B vs A) — its score rests on fewer independent signal types. Full breakdown below.
| Signal | Firecrawlfirecrawl/firecrawl | GPT Researcherassafelovic/gpt-researcher |
|---|---|---|
| HVTrust score | 74.7 | 70.4 |
| Evidence grade | B | B |
| Coverage grade | B | A |
| Overall rank | #78 | #103 |
| Rank in Research & Data | #4 | #5 |
| GitHub stars | 161.0k | 28.8k |
| Last updated | today | 17d ago |
| Build provenance | No | No |
| OSSF Scorecard | 5.9 / 10 | 6.2 / 10 |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Downloads | 2.2M/wk | 18k/wk |
| Trust dimensions (points earned) | ||
| Safety / integrity / 25 | 10.6 | 9.2 |
| Identity & provenance / 18 | 10.8 | 10.8 |
| Transparency / 17 | 13.5 | 13.8 |
| Maintenance / 20 | 20.0 | 18.1 |
| Adoption / 20 | 20.0 | 16.4 |
| Runtime capability surface (full matrix) | ||
| MCP server | — | Implemented |
| External providers | 5 — Anthropic, Firecrawl, OpenAI, … | 5 — Firecrawl, Google Gemini, Multi-provider (LiteLLM), … |
| Requires API keys | Yes | Yes |
| Plugin surface | plugins | plugins |
| Provenance drift | Match | Match |
How to read this: HVTrust (0–100) weighs supply-chain signals (provenance, OSSF Scorecard, signed commits, open license) alongside real-world adoption, scaled by an evidence-confidence factor. Grade bands: A ≥ 80, B ≥ 65, C ≥ 50, D < 50. Signals refresh daily. Full methodology v4.2 →