What is the best alternative to Footnote MCP?

The top-rated alternatives to Footnote MCP in the Search & Data Extraction category include Firecrawl MCP Server, IlyaGusev Academia MCP, Open WebSearch. These servers offer complementary or alternative capabilities depending on your deployment stack and authentication requirements.

How do Footnote MCP alternatives differ in installation and runtime?

Footnote MCP and its alternatives vary by runtime requirement (Node.js/npx, Python/uvx, Docker, or remote HTTP/SSE endpoints). Check the specification comparison table above to verify command requirements before installing.

Are alternatives to Footnote MCP free and open source?

Most MCP servers listed on AllMCPs are open source tools under MIT or Apache licenses that you can self-host or run locally with Claude Desktop, Cursor, VS Code, or Windsurf.

How do I side-by-side compare Footnote MCP with a specific alternative?

Click the "Compare side-by-side →" button on any alternative card to see an in-depth comparison matrix covering feature lists, stars, npm downloads, install configurations, and schema specifications.

Search & Data Extraction• MCP Alternatives Guide

Best Alternatives to Footnote MCP

Looking for an alternative to Footnote MCP? Whether you need a different runtime environment, custom authentication support, or alternative API integrations in the Search & Data Extraction ecosystem, we have cataloged and compared the top alternative MCP servers below.

Browse all Search & Data Extraction servers →View Footnote MCP Specs →

Target Reference Server

Footnote MCP Overview

Source-grounded web research: search, extraction, verification, and browser automation.

Specification Matrix: Footnote MCP vs Alternatives

Server Name	Runtime	Auth	Pricing	GitHub Stars	Downloads	Action
Footnote MCP (Target)	uvx	Free/None	Free	2	—	Current
Firecrawl MCP Server	npx	API key	Freemium	7,495	—	Compare →
IlyaGusev Academia MCP	python3	No auth required	Free	91	—	Compare →
Open WebSearch	npx	No auth required	Free	1,819	—	Compare →
Spectrawl	npx	API key	Free	28	—	Compare →
Brightdata MCP	npx	API key	Freemium	2,655	—	Compare →
Wigolo	npx	No auth required	Free	5,362	—	Compare →
Web Researcher MCP	uvx	No auth required	Free	61	—	Compare →
Fetch MCP	npx	No auth required	Free	827	—	Compare →
BulkTranscripts YouTube	Remote (SSE)	API key	Freemium	—	3	Compare →
Markcrawl	npx	No auth required	Free	3	—	Compare →
Serpapi MCP	Remote (SSE)	API key	Bring your own API key (usage-based cost)	173	—	Compare →
Fetcher MCP	npx	No auth required	Free	1,087	—	Compare →

Detailed Evaluation of Footnote MCP Alternatives

Firecrawl MCP Server

Runtime: npx

Verified

Searches, scrapes, crawls, maps, and researches web content through Firecrawl-compatible MCP tools.

Key Features:

Web, news, image, GitHub, and developer search

URL scraping with structured output options

Bounded multi-page crawling and site mapping

5 0 7,495

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IlyaGusev Academia MCP

Runtime: python3

MCP server for searching scientific papers and datasets, retrieving citations, reading PDFs, and supporting research workflows.

Key Features:

Field-specific arXiv search and paper download

ACL Anthology search with optional date filtering

Hugging Face dataset search

2 0 91

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Open WebSearch

Runtime: npx

Searches the web through multiple free engines and fetches content from web pages, GitHub READMEs, and CSDN.

Key Features:

Multi-engine web search without API keys

Structured titles, URLs, and descriptions

Web, Markdown, GitHub README, and CSDN fetching

3 0 1,819

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Spectrawl

Runtime: npx

Searches, browses, crawls, extracts, authenticates, and acts across web platforms through one self-hosted MCP package.

Key Features:

Multi-engine web search

Stealth URL browsing

Block-page detection

3 0 28

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Brightdata MCP

Runtime: npx

Searches, scrapes, and extracts live public web data through MCP, with browser automation and structured results.

Key Features:

Google, Bing, and Yandex web search

Markdown and HTML page scraping

Structured extraction for major web platforms

3 0 2,655

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Wigolo

Runtime: npx

Local-first MCP web research with keyless search, browsing, crawling, extraction, caching, and similarity discovery.

Key Features:

Keyless local web search

Headless browser fetching

Multi-mode website crawling

3 0 5,362

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Web Researcher MCP

Runtime: uvx

Go binary MCP server for multi-source web search, content extraction, and academic/patent research with citation verification.

Key Features:

Supports multiple search engines and APIs

Four-tier content extraction pipeline

Citation verification with live source links

2 0 61

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Fetch MCP

Runtime: npx

Fetches web pages, APIs, articles, and YouTube transcripts as HTML, JSON, text, or Markdown through MCP.

Key Features:

HTML, Markdown, plain-text, and JSON fetching

Mozilla Readability article extraction

YouTube transcript retrieval with language selection

3 0 827

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BulkTranscripts YouTube

Runtime: Remote (SSE)

Verified

Retrieve YouTube transcripts and discover videos, channels, and playlists through a hosted MCP endpoint.

Key Features:

Single-video transcript retrieval

Batch transcripts for up to 20 videos

Multi-type YouTube search

8 3

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Markcrawl

Runtime: npx

Crawls websites into citation-rich Markdown and JSONL for local web research and RAG workflows.

Key Features:

Single-page and whole-site crawling

Clean Markdown and JSONL output

Citation metadata with access dates

5 0 3

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Serpapi MCP

Runtime: Remote (SSE)

MCP server for querying SerpApi across search engines and returning structured results, weather, stock, and interactive result views.

Key Features:

Multi-engine search through SerpApi

Engine parameter schemas exposed as MCP resources

Complete and compact JSON response modes

2 0 173

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Fetcher MCP

Runtime: npx

Fetches JavaScript-rendered web pages with Playwright and returns extracted Markdown or HTML, including parallel multi-URL retrieval.

Key Features:

Playwright-based JavaScript rendering

Readability content extraction

Markdown or HTML output

5 0 1,087

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Best Alternatives to Footnote MCP

Footnote MCP Overview

Specification Matrix: Footnote MCP vs Alternatives

Detailed Evaluation of Footnote MCP Alternatives

Frequently Asked Questions: Footnote MCP Alternatives