Firecrawl vs Valyu

Valyu is great for AI knowledge work that starts with search, proprietary documents, specialist datasets and needs external evidence in a cited report. DeepResearch combines the files, selected research sources and report instructions in one task. Firecrawl is best known for web scraping and crawling, turning website content into clean data for AI applications.

TL;DR

Choose Valyu for research that combines live web search, internal documents, specialist datasets and covered licensed publications, then produces a cited report or structured result. Firecrawl focuses on collecting and extracting web data. Valyu also provides versioned research templates for teams that repeat the same review.

Firecrawl vs Valyu at a glance

Turn internal documents & knowledge base into a research report

A credit analyst reviewing a listed borrower has management accounts, a cash forecast and public filings. The documents may cover different periods or use different earnings adjustments. The analyst needs those differences reconciled before assessing the forecast.

Attach the documents to Valyu DeepResearch, select the relevant filing and financial datasets, and ask:

Use the attached management accounts and forecast with this borrower's latest filings to prepare a credit memo. Reconcile reporting periods and earnings adjustments, examine cash generation and debt maturities, and cite the evidence behind each finding; list the missing information we need from the borrower.

Request a table showing the figure, period, definition, adjustment and source, followed by the open questions. The analyst can take those questions to the borrower and check the revised forecast before the credit meeting.

Bring specialist sources into the investigation

Valyu's data catalogue includes filings, financial statements, scientific papers, trials and patents alongside the web. Teams can select the records their report needs and compare them with the attached documents.

Covered Wiley finance papers and book chapters add the methods behind valuation and risk models. Confirm publication coverage and account access before building the brief around a licensed source.

Keep current web information in the research

Valyu combines live web search with page extraction through the Contents API. An agent can read the borrower's latest announcement alongside its filings and the internal forecast. Freshness varies by source, so the report should preserve the dates needed for the comparison.

Make the research brief reusable

Valyu DeepResearch lets teams define the question, select search sources and specify the report structure. It conducts the investigation and returns a cited report or structured data. PDF output is supported; generating Word documents or Excel workbooks requires code execution.

Save a useful brief through the Workflows API and reuse it with new inputs. Workflows is in Beta. A pinned version preserves the instructions, while live sources and findings can still change.

Bring the firm's own knowledge into the research

Attach supported PDFs, Word documents or Excel workbooks to an individual DeepResearch task. Tell the agent which assumptions to check and how the documents relate to the external evidence.

For continuing archives, Valyu offers enterprise private indexes and Forward Deployed Engineers who configure retrieval around the team's work. Past memos, lab reports and portfolio reporting can contribute to the same investigation.

Which should you choose?

Firecrawl is a fit for scraping websites, crawling pages and extracting web content. Choose Valyu when the task needs to investigate thoroughly using search, specialist datasets across several industries and covered licensed sources, then return a cited report.

Try it on a borrower forecast or research protocol already on the team's desk. Attach the file, select the sources and inspect the returned evidence and open questions.

Try Valyu or talk to the team about Wiley access and a private index. For an existing agent, use the MCP setup guide.