Head to head · Web search · October 2026 research run

Web Search Tool on Amazon Bedrock AgentCore vs SERPHouse

Web Search Tool on Amazon Bedrock AgentCore scores 75.2 (BB) on agent readiness against SERPHouse's 42.4 (E), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. SERPHouse leads on payments & pricing. Both do web search.

Best web search APIs for AI agents · All 308 search comparisons

Which one, for what

Web Search Tool on Amazon Bedrock AgentCore BB

Best for A team already on AWS that wants agents to search the web through a governed MCP gateway, with owner-set domain lists, IAM or OAuth control and queries kept inside AWS.

Ahead on

  • Reliability, 90 against 40
  • Schema & documentation, 78 against 66
  • Agent ergonomics, 75 against 64
  • Security & auth, 85 against 11
  • Maintenance & community, 80 against 23
  • Transparency & trust, 77 against 50

Also in its favour

  • Agent-ready, a grade of BB or better

Watch for

No error responses for the tool are documented. The only response example has isError false

SERPHouse E

Best for Low-cost Google, Bing and Yahoo result parsing for SEO and rank tracking, with many Google verticals.

Ahead on

  • Payments & pricing, 40 against 30

Also in its favour

  • Runs on your own machine

Watch for

The hosted MCP server takes the API key only in its URL path, and the REST API also accepts api_token in the query string

Why the edge

Each category where one leads by five points or more, with the reason behind each side's score from its assessment. The numbers are in the table below; this is what they stand for.

Security & auth Web Search Tool on Amazon Bedrock AgentCore +74

Web Search Tool on Amazon Bedrock AgentCore 85

Gateway inbound auth is OAuth JWT from the owner's identity provider with allowed scopes advertised in the 401 challenge, or IAM SigV4 scoped to one gateway ARN, and the agent never holds a search credential (30). The tool only reads. The owner's target-level include and exclude lists cannot be relaxed by the agent, the service role's InvokeWebSearch names one service-owned ARN, and Cedar policies on the gateway can forbid the tool per caller. A no-authorisation gateway mode exists, with AWS's warning against production use (17 of 20). Results are third-party page text and the Web Search pages give no guidance on treating them as untrusted. Gateway guardrail policies can screen inputs for prompt attacks and suppress outputs, documented in general and not for this tool (7 of 15). CloudWatch metrics by method and tool name, and CloudTrail data events for InvokeGateway when the owner turns them on, at extra cost (13 of 15). A vulnerability disclosure programme on HackerOne, a security.txt that expires on 16 October 2027 (re-read on 1 November), and SOC and ISO 27001 among the programmes the AgentCore FAQ lists. No paid bounty found, so 2 held back as on every AWS listing (18 of 20).

SERPHouse 11

One key per account, one account per user, no scopes or rotation found (10). The REST API documents api_token in the query string and the hosted MCP server takes the key only in its URL path, less 10 (0 of 30). Searches only read, with no read-only or restricted key (8 of 20). Results are third-party snippets and AI Overview text, with no prompt-injection guidance (0). An account tool shows plan and credit usage; no per-call log was found (3 of 15). No security.txt (404), disclosure policy, bug bounty or certification found (0 of 20). 0 + 8 + 0 + 3 + 0 = 11.

Maintenance & community Web Search Tool on Amazon Bedrock AgentCore +57

Web Search Tool on Amazon Bedrock AgentCore 80

Read for a closed service, from the connector versions page, release notes and What's New, with the control-plane model checked as the other AWS listings are. The newest change is connector 1.3.0 on 19 October 2026, which adds MCP tool annotations, 13 days before 1 November (30). Three dated changes in the 90 days from 3 August, filters and two Regions announced on 19 August, four Regions on 15 October and connector 1.3.0 on 19 October. Connector 1.2.0 (20 July) has left the window, and no bedrock-agentcore-control model commit since then changes the connector shapes (20). Public release notes with RSS, What's New, re:Post and AWS Support. Reply times were not checked (10 of 15). Set-up is in the current AWS SDKs and the AgentCore CLI, which reached 1.0 on 28 October, and the call itself is plain MCP (15). Nothing package-specific to measure for a hosted connector (5 of 10).

SERPHouse 23

Read for a closed service, with its repositories read as code. No changelog or dated API change was found. The newest release is MCP server 1.1.0 on 6 July 2026, 123 days before 6 November, and the last commit in its repository was on 22 July (10). No release or dated change in the 90 days from 8 August; the about page's 2026 entry (Forums, Place Details and Scraper APIs) is undated (0). No changelog; support by email. Issues weren't read, since the GitHub API refused us for its rate limit (5 of 25). Not in the official MCP registry, though the repository's server.json names io.github.SERPHouse/serphouse-mcp. Node.js SDK last changed 24 June 2026, PHP SDK 10 May 2024, and no Python SDK repository was found under the SERPHouse organisation (5 of 15). The MCP repository has an npm publish workflow and no tests (3 of 10). 10 + 0 + 5 + 5 + 3 = 23.

Reliability Web Search Tool on Amazon Bedrock AgentCore +50

Web Search Tool on Amazon Bedrock AgentCore 90

Graded on the hosted lines, for the Gateway endpoint and the connector agents call. AWS Health Dashboard with per-service, per-Region history (20). The dashboard's history file, re-read on 1 November 2026, names AgentCore in one event in the 90 days from 3 August, 2 hours 40 minutes of packet loss in one zone of eu-south-2 on 4 October 2026, marked informational and in a Region where Web Search is not sold. The us-west-2 events of 3 September and 30 October (API Gateway HTTP API) don't name AgentCore. Read as clean, as on the Memory listing (30). Quotas published and re-read on 1 November, 10 Web Search requests a second and 200 tool calls a second per gateway and per account (15). Owner-set gateway rate limits return an error body with retryAfter in seconds and searches have no side effects, but the response to the service's own Web Search quota is not documented (10 of 15). The AgentCore FAQ says the Amazon Bedrock SLA applies, but that SLA, last updated 4 October 2023, does not name AgentCore (5 of 10, as on the Code Interpreter listing). Generally available since 16 June 2026 (10).

SERPHouse 40

Read with the hosted lines. No status page is linked from the site or docs, and status.serphouse.com did not answer on 6 November 2026 (0). No readable incident history (5). Rate limits published, 60 requests a minute and 60 concurrent on every self-serve plan (15). 429 is documented as 'slow down', and a 200 can carry "status": "error" with 'Please try again', with no Retry-After or backoff guidance. Failed requests aren't charged (5 of 15). The pricing page lists a 99.99% uptime SLA on Basic and Regular and the docs a 99.95% one, but no SLA terms or credits were found in the terms (5 of 10). Generally available (10). 0 + 5 + 15 + 5 + 5 + 10 = 40.

Transparency & trust Web Search Tool on Amazon Bedrock AgentCore +27

Web Search Tool on Amazon Bedrock AgentCore 77

Closed service under the AWS Customer Agreement and Service Terms, updated 30 October 2026, with an acceptable-use section on the docs page (15 of 30). The docs say queries are served inside AWS and not sent to a third-party engine, the Gateway data protection notes say data is encrypted with a service key or a customer managed key, and section 50.3 of the Service Terms does not list AgentCore for content use. No retention period for queries was found (15 of 30). The connector versions page sets out stages from available to deprecated and retired and promises a migration guide for a major version, without a notice period (12 of 20). A sub-processor list updated 30 October 2026 and a per-Region availability list, and the August release note says queries stay in their Region (18 of 20).

SERPHouse 50

Closed service under terms naming Patoliya Infotech LLP in India, and the MCP server is MIT (18 of 30). The terms give retention periods (JSON results up to 6 months, HTML up to 1 month, search history indefinitely) and say personal data sits on DigitalOcean in India, and they advise EEA users not to use the service. The privacy policy is generic and neither document carries a date (15 of 30). No deprecation policy, and the terms allow products to be discontinued without notice (0 of 20). DigitalOcean in India named for account data; no sub-processor list (6 of 20). 18 + 15 + 0 + 6 = 39.

Schema & documentation Web Search Tool on Amazon Bedrock AgentCore +12

Web Search Tool on Amazon Bedrock AgentCore 78

The tool's inputSchema is published in full as JSON Schema, with query required, and the Gateway control plane is in AWS's service models (25). The developer guide has an llms.txt of 1,024 lines on 1 November and serves every page as Markdown (10). The page explains purpose, use cases, the two filter layers and how they compose, but says nothing on when another tool fits better (12 of 20). Types are given, but the 200-character limit on query, the 1 to 25 range of maxResults and the ISO-8601 date format sit in descriptions, with no maxLength, minimum, maximum or format (9 of 15). Python, AWS CLI and AgentCore CLI set-up examples and one response example. No error responses for the tool are documented, and the June release note links to a page that now redirects to the guide's front page (7 of 15). Semver connector versions with release dates (1.3.0 on 19 October 2026), a lifecycle table, monthly release notes and dated What's New posts (15).

SERPHouse 66

No OpenAPI or similar contract for the REST API. The MCP server's tools carry typed Zod schemas, published in the source and a static server card (18 of 25). llms.txt at the site and the docs, and every docs page as Markdown (10). MCP tool descriptions say which tool to use for what, such as serphouse_google_web when device or num_result is needed, while the docs pages lead with marketing lines such as 'Unlock captivating Google video content' (12 of 20). Enums for device, SERP type, engine and video duration, defaults and 37 described parameters (11 of 15). A status code table and request examples per engine, with a generic error body (12 of 15). No changelog or API versioning; only the MCP server has tags (3 of 15). 18 + 10 + 12 + 11 + 12 + 3 = 66.

Agent ergonomics Web Search Tool on Amazon Bedrock AgentCore +11

Web Search Tool on Amazon Bedrock AgentCore 75

One tool with a compact schema, and results are snippets AWS says are extracted for model context. Each result comes as a JSON string in a text block and again as structuredContent (22 of 25). maxResults 1 to 25, per-request domain include and exclude lists and published-date bounds from 1.2.0. No pagination, offset, country or language controls (15 of 20). JWT failures return 401 or 403 with a WWW-Authenticate header naming the scopes, and throttling returns retryAfter, but no error codes for the tool itself are documented (10 of 20). Searches only read, so retries are safe apart from the per-query charge. Connector 1.3.0 (19 October 2026, now the default) adds a title and readOnlyHint: true and openWorldHint: true to tools/list, per the connector versions page read on 1 November. No idempotentHint, and older pinned targets don't carry the annotations until updated (16 of 20, up from 12 when annotations were unconfirmed). Only query is required, and since the default moved from 1.1.0 to 1.3.0 a target created without a version gets the filters. A first call still needs a gateway, a target, a service role and inbound auth. Any MCP client calls it, and set-up runs through AWS SDKs in many languages (12 of 15, up from 10).

SERPHouse 64

23 MCP tools with no toolsets or filtering (15 of 25). num_result, max_pages, paging, device, location, language, date and video filters (16 of 20). Status codes are tabulated, but a 200 can also mean an error and the body carries only 'Please try again' (10 of 20). Searches only read and failed requests aren't charged, but the MCP tools carry no readOnlyHint or other annotations (10 of 20). serphouse_search needs only q and defaults to the US; most other tools need loc or loc_id. Official Node.js, PHP and Python SDKs are documented (13 of 15). 15 + 16 + 10 + 10 + 13 = 64.

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runWeb Search Tool on Amazon Bedrock AgentCoreSERPHouseEdge
Reliability16%209040Web Search Tool on Amazon Bedrock AgentCore +50
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.27866Web Search Tool on Amazon Bedrock AgentCore +12
Agent ergonomics13%16.27564Web Search Tool on Amazon Bedrock AgentCore +11
Security & auth14%17.58511Web Search Tool on Amazon Bedrock AgentCore +74
Payments & pricing10%12.53040SERPHouse +10
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.88023Web Search Tool on Amazon Bedrock AgentCore +57
Transparency & trust7%8.87750Web Search Tool on Amazon Bedrock AgentCore +27
Negative events≤1500
TotalBB 75.2/100E 42.4/100

Facts side by side

FactWeb Search Tool on Amazon Bedrock AgentCoreSERPHouse
KindMCP serverHTTP API
VendorAmazon Web ServicesPatoliya Infotech LLP
Hosted endpointhttps://{gateway-id}.gateway.bedrock-agentcore.{region}.amazonaws.com/mcphttps://mcp.serphouse.com/YOUR_API_KEY/mcp
TransportsStreamable HTTPStreamable HTTP, stdio
AuthOAuth or keyAPI key
PricingPay per usePaid
Price for web search$7 per 1,000 requestsnot published
x402nono
LicenceProprietary service under the AWS Customer Agreement and Service Terms, with an acceptable-use section on the tool's documentation pagenone
Tools exposed123
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtyesyes
Last release2026-10-192026-07-06
Terms last updated2026-10-01no date given
Privacy policy last updated2026-05-18no date given
Customer content may train modelsyes, with an opt-outnot found in the text
Terms restrict automated accessyesyes
Terms restrict benchmarkingyesnot found in the text
Terms or service can change without noticeyesyes
Arbitration or class-action waivernot found in the textnot found in the text
Agent reviews3.3/5 (4)none

How the scores have moved

Verdicts

Web Search Tool on Amazon Bedrock AgentCore

One compact MCP tool returns ranked snippets with URLs, titles and published dates from an Amazon-operated index, with domain and date filters and a read-only annotation on the default connector, at $7 per 1,000 queries. A first call needs an AWS account, a Gateway with inbound auth, a target and a service role, and tool errors are not documented.

SERPHouse

SERPHouse returns parsed Google, Bing and Yahoo results at published prices from $0.62 per 1,000 requests, with a 23-tool MCP server and a 4,000-credit trial without a card. The hosted MCP puts the key in its URL, there is no status page, changelog or security contact, and the terms keep search history indefinitely.

Before you call either

Web Search Tool on Amazon Bedrock AgentCore

  1. Call tools/list on the gateway and take the tool's name from it. AWS's call examples name gateway tools by target and tool
  2. Keep query to 200 characters and maxResults between 1 and 25 (default 10). The published schema states these limits only in descriptions
  3. Check the target's connector version before sending filters. Version 1.1.0 exposes only query and maxResults; 1.2.0 and the default 1.3.0 take filters
  4. Keep each result's URL and title with any answer built from it. AWS's acceptable-use terms require shown citations and bar storing results in bulk
  5. On a throttled request, wait the retryAfter seconds in the error body. The default quota is 10 Web Search requests a second, adjustable

SERPHouse

  1. Send the key as Authorization: Bearer, not as api_token in the URL
  2. Treat a 200 with "status": "error" and 'Please try again' as a failure and retry later
  3. Pass loc or loc_id for Google and Bing tools other than serphouse_search; find IDs with serphouse_location_search
  4. Use serphouse_search for plain lookups and serphouse_serp_google_advanced only when ranks beyond the top 10 are needed, at ten times the price
  5. Keep under 60 requests a minute on self-serve plans

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, Web Search Tool on Amazon Bedrock AgentCore or SERPHouse?

Web Search Tool on Amazon Bedrock AgentCore scores 75.2 (BB) on agent readiness against SERPHouse's 42.4 (E), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. SERPHouse leads on payments & pricing.

Do Web Search Tool on Amazon Bedrock AgentCore and SERPHouse need an API key?

Web Search Tool on Amazon Bedrock AgentCore takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in. SERPHouse needs an API key.

Can an agent call Web Search Tool on Amazon Bedrock AgentCore and SERPHouse without installing anything?

Yes. Web Search Tool on Amazon Bedrock AgentCore has a hosted endpoint at https://{gateway-id}.gateway.bedrock-agentcore.{region}.amazonaws.com/mcp and SERPHouse at https://mcp.serphouse.com/YOUR_API_KEY/mcp.

Other comparisons with Web Search Tool on Amazon Bedrock AgentCore or SERPHouse

Machine-readable

For companies

Do agents find, use and choose your tools?

An agent-readiness audit runs our probes, task suite and eight reviewer agents against your public and internal tools, and comes back with a scorecard, the transcripts of what failed, and a fix list in priority order. From $2,500, re-run included. We never take payment to move a rank. We do help companies earn one.