# DataForSEO vs Manifold (slim)

> DataForSEO scores 64.9 (B) on agent readiness against Manifold's 56.2 (C), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Manifold leads on security & auth. Both do seo keywords. DataForSEO is cheaper for seo keywords, $0.06 against $0.10 per call. Category scores, facts, verdicts and…

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/dataforseo-vs-manifold-mcp.md (~2,300 tokens) · this version ~830 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/dataforseo-vs-manifold-mcp.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/dataforseo-vs-manifold-mcp
- Index: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt · API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json · Updated: 2026-10-08

DataForSEO scores 64.9 (B) on agent readiness against Manifold's 56.2 (C), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Manifold leads on security & auth. Both do seo keywords. DataForSEO is cheaper for seo keywords, $0.06 against $0.10 per call.

- DataForSEO: B 64.9, rank #244 of 629 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/dataforseo.min.md
- Manifold: C 56.2, rank #438 of 629 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/manifold-mcp.min.md
- DataForSEO, good for Agents and products that need raw SEO data in bulk at a low unit price, across SERPs, keyword volumes, backlinks, ranked keywords and traffic estimates, and that can work with a task queue. Ahead on Reliability, 84 against 45; Schema & documentation, 86 against 66; Agent ergonomics, 84 against 68; Maintenance & community, 82 against 64; Transparency & trust, 74 against 61. Also Cheaper for seo keywords, $0.06 against $0.10 per call; Runs on your own machine.
- Manifold, good for A founder or marketer who wants keyword, ranking, backlink and audit lookups inside an MCP client, with AI answer, social, ad library and lead lookups on the same balance, and who values a stated price per call. Ahead on Security & auth, 54 against 45. Also Free to start without a card; No incidents deducted, where DataForSEO loses 6 points for them.

| Category | DataForSEO | Manifold |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability (16%) | 84 | 45 |
| Performance (10%) | pending | pending |
| Schema & documentation (13%) | 86 | 66 |
| Agent ergonomics (13%) | 84 | 68 |
| Security & auth (14%) | 45 | 54 |
| Payments & pricing (10%) | 40 | 40 |
| Task success (10%) | pending | pending |
| Maintenance & community (7%) | 82 | 64 |
| Transparency & trust (7%) | 74 | 61 |

| Fact (where they differ) | DataForSEO | Manifold |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | MCP server |
| Vendor | DataForSEO OÜ | Manifold (Jesse Sibley, sole trader) |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.dataforseo.com/v3/` | `https://mcp.manifoldmcp.com/mcp` |
| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP, stdio | Streamable HTTP |
| Pricing | Pay per use | Freemium |
| Price for seo keywords | $0.06 per call | $0.10 per call |
| Licence | Proprietary service under DataForSEO's terms of service. The MCP server is Apache-2.0 and the Python client is MIT | Proprietary hosted service under Manifold's terms of service (version 1.0, 30 September 2026). The server's source isn't published. The companion marketing-skills repository on GitHub is MIT |
| Tools exposed | 4 | 81 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | yes |
| MCP registry | not listed | `com.manifoldmcp/manifold` |
| Last release | 2026-10-06 | 2026-10-07 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-06-12 | 2026-09-30 |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-07-24 | 2026-09-30 |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not found in the text | yes |
| Popularity | 251 stars, 32k npm/wk, 50k PyPI/wk | none |