Get Your Own Firecrawl Alternative Without Limits in 30 Minutes
Build unlimited web scraping power for just $4.59 per month. Because paying $200/month for 10,000 requests is apparently “reasonable”
⭐When Web Scraping Services Think You’re Made of Money
Your usage: 50,000 requests needed
Additional charges: $800/month
Total monthly cost: $1,000
# Meanwhile, a $4.59 server laughs in unlimited
Are you tired of hitting usage limits on web scraping services? Maybe you’ve been using Firecrawl and found yourself constantly bumping against request caps. Or perhaps you enjoy paying premium prices for the privilege of being told “sorry, you’ve exceeded your quota” just when your project gets interesting.
SpiderForce4ai: Because Math Still Works
This guide shows you how to set up SpiderForce4ai on a Hetzner Cloud server. You get unlimited requests for just $4.59 per month. Yes, you read that right. The same price as a fancy coffee gets you more web scraping power than most SaaS companies charge hundreds for.
What You Actually Get
- Unlimited web crawler service with no artificial request limits
- Your own dedicated server with custom domain (fancy!)
- Automatic HTTPS encryption for secure communications
- Complete development environment ready for customisation
- No monthly subscription fees beyond basic server cost (what a concept)
Step 1: Create a Hetzner Cloud Account
First, you need a Hetzner account. This takes about 2 minutes and won’t require selling a kidney.
Quick Setup Process
- Visit the Hetzner Cloud website
- Click “Sign Up”
- Enter your email and create a password
- Agree to terms and click “Continue”
Already have an account? Just log in with your details. Look at you, being prepared!
Step 2: Create a New Project
Projects help you organise your resources. Think of it like a folder, but for servers that actually do useful work.
Project Setup
- Click “New project” button
- Enter a name like “myapiservice” (or whatever makes you happy)
- Click “Add project” to create it
Your project appears in the dashboard, ready for actual servers that don’t cost your first-born child.
Step 3: Create a Cloud Server
Now you create the server that hosts your web crawler service. The one that’ll do more work than expensive alternatives.
Server Creation Steps
- Click “Create Resource” and select “Servers”
Choose Location
- Choose Helsinki location (or wherever you fancy)
Operating System
- Select “Ubuntu 22.04” (don’t use Ubuntu 24, trust us on this one)
Networking & Naming
- Keep networking defaults (IPv4 and IPv6 enabled)
- Name your server “myapiservices” or something equally creative
- Review price ($4.59/month) and click “Create & Buy now”
After a minute, your server is ready. You’ll get an email with login details. Yes, it’s really that simple.
Step 4: Connect to Your Server
You need SSH to connect to your server. This is like remote control, but for computers that actually listen.
# Replace YOUR_SERVER_IP with your actual server IP address (the one in your email)
- Windows users: Use PuTTY or another SSH client
- Mac/Linux users: Open Terminal and use the ssh command above
- When asked about unknown host key, type “yes” and press Enter (it’s fine, we promise)
Step 5: Install the Development Environment
We use a script that installs everything you need. Because manually installing 47 different tools is nobody’s idea of fun.
# This installs everything so you don’t have to
What Gets Installed
- Docker & Docker Compose for containers
- Caddy Server with automatic HTTPS (because manual SSL is so 2010)
- Node.js & npm for JavaScript apps
- PM2 process manager to keep apps running
- Essential development tools you didn’t know you needed
During setup, choose “y” when asked about creating a sudo user. This gives you admin access without constantly being root like some kind of digital barbarian.
Once installation completes, you’ll see the success message.
Step 6: Deploy the Web Crawler Service
Now you deploy SpiderForce4ai, which does the actual web crawling work. Unlike some services, it won’t judge your usage patterns.
# Check if it’s running: docker ps
What This Command Does
- Downloads SpiderForce4ai from Docker Hub
- Sets auto-restart if server reboots (because downtime is for quitters)
- Maps port 3004 for web access
- Names container “spiderforce4ai” for easy management
Step 7: Set Up Your Domain
You need a domain name so people can access your service. Because IP addresses are about as memorable as phone numbers from the 90s.
DNS Configuration
- Go to your DNS provider (Cloudflare works great)
- Add new A record
- Point subdomain like web2mark.yourdomain.com to your server IP
- Set to “DNS only” (disable proxy for now)
- Use short TTL (1 minute) for quick updates
Step 8: Configure Caddy Server
Caddy gives you HTTPS and routes traffic to your crawler service. It handles SSL certificates automatically because manual certificate management is a special kind of torture.
# Enter your domain: web2mark.yourdomain.com # Enter port: 3004
What Caddy Does Automatically
- Gets SSL certificate from Let’s Encrypt (for free, obviously)
- Sets up proxy settings to route traffic properly
- Restarts to apply changes
- Handles HTTPS redirects automatically
How to Use Your Web Crawler (The Simple Version)
Your service is now live at https://your-subdomain.yourdomain.com. Here’s how to use it without reading 47 pages of documentation.
# Just paste this in your browser and watch the magic happen
What You Can Actually Do
- Content extraction from any website
- Web scraping for research (without breaking the bank)
- Data collection for analysis
- Article conversion to markdown
- API integration with your apps
No authentication needed. No request limits. No extra costs. No “premium enterprise features” that should have been included anyway. The API returns complete markdown of any webpage you request.
Freedom from Usage Limits (Finally)
For just $4.59 per month, you’ve escaped from usage restrictions and ridiculous pricing. Your data stays under your control, and you’re not dependent on services that think bandwidth costs more than gold.
Why Continue Paying 50x More for Less?
Start Your Server Today →With your own Hetzner server running SpiderForce4ai, you have unlimited web crawling at a fraction of what those “enterprise solutions” charge. Now go forth and scrape responsibly!