# Liner Search MCP vs Serper (slim)

> Liner Search MCP scores 43.4 (E) to Serper's 24.2 (F) for search serp. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/liner-mcp-vs-serper.md (~3,850 tokens) · this version ~1,830 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/liner-mcp-vs-serper.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/liner-mcp-vs-serper
- Index: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt · API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json · MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp · Updated: 2026-11-07
- Licence: CC BY 4.0, credit Anchor Terminal and link this page (https://www.anchorterminal.com/terms/#data)

Liner Search MCP scores 43.4 (E) on agent readiness against Serper's 24.2 (F), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Serper leads on payments & pricing. Both do search serp.

- Liner Search MCP: E 43.4, rank #1252 of 1510 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/liner-mcp.min.md
- Serper: F 24.2, rank #1442 of 1510 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/serper.min.md
- Liner Search MCP, good for Agents that need cheap cited search across the web and scholarly sources, with optional deep research reports. Ahead on Reliability, 50 against 30; Schema & documentation, 45 against 6; Agent ergonomics, 65 against 35; Security & auth, 35 against 20; Maintenance & community, 45 against 3.
- Serper, good for High-volume Google SERP lookups on a tight budget where the agent already has a fetcher. Ahead on Payments & pricing, 40 against 20. Also Free to start without a card.

| Category | Liner Search MCP | Serper |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability (16%) | 50 | 30 |
| Performance (10%) | pending | pending |
| Schema & documentation (13%) | 45 | 6 |
| Agent ergonomics (13%) | 65 | 35 |
| Security & auth (14%) | 35 | 20 |
| Payments & pricing (10%) | 20 | 40 |
| Task success (10%) | pending | pending |
| Maintenance & community (7%) | 45 | 3 |
| Transparency & trust (7%) | 34 | 32 |

| Fact (where they differ) | Liner Search MCP | Serper |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | MCP server | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Liner | Serper |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://platform.liner.com/api/v1/mcp` | `https://google.serper.dev/search` |
| Transports | Streamable HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth | API key |
| Pricing | Paid | Freemium |
| Tools exposed | 9 | none |
| llms.txt | yes | no |
| MCP registry | `com.liner/search` | not listed |
| Terms last updated | no document linked | 2024-05-29 |
| Privacy policy last updated | no document linked | 2025-11-05 |
| Customer content may train models | not read yet | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | not read yet | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not read yet | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not read yet | yes |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not read yet | not found in the text |
| Agent reviews | none | 2.5/5 (2) |

Why the edge:
- Maintenance & community, Liner Search MCP +42: Liner Search MCP 45 (Registry entry com.liner/search last updated 11 September 2026 (20). No dated changelog found (0). Support page linked from the docs (10 of 15). Official registry entry under its own namespace (15). No package to read (0). 20 + 0 + 10 + 15 + 0 = 45. Registry presence read from Anchor Terminal's own daily import of the official MCP registry (/api/v1/registry.json, 6 November 2026), not the registry's API.); Serper 3 (No changelog, release notes, SDK or package found, so no dated release or API change to count (0, 0). No public changelog. Support is by email per the privacy policy (3). No official SDKs (0). No packages or CI to assess (0).)
- Schema & documentation, Liner Search MCP +39: Liner Search MCP 45 (Tool schemas not read without sign-in (15 of 25). llms.txt (10). A table says which tool fits which need, and that the domain tools return the same shape as search_web (12 of 20). Inputs not verifiable (3 of 15). Setup examples, no error responses (5 of 15). Registry version 1.0.0 since 11 September; no changelog found (0). 15 + 10 + 12 + 3 + 5 + 0 = 45.); Serper 6 (No OpenAPI or other spec (0). serper.dev/llms.txt returns 404 and there are no Markdown docs (0). The documentation is the playground, a JavaScript page that showed us no text. Per the 30 September check it lists the verticals and parameters such as `gl` and `hl`, so a few points for descriptions (3) and typed inputs (3). No examples or error responses we could read (0). No changelog or API versioning (0).)
- Agent ergonomics, Liner Search MCP +30: Liner Search MCP 65 (Nine tools (25). No paging or size controls documented (5 of 20). 429 codes documented for the API (8 of 20). All tools read; annotations not read (12 of 20). One URL with OAuth, few required inputs and an OpenAI-compatible API (15). 25 + 5 + 8 + 12 + 15 = 65.); Serper 35 (Responses are compact SERP JSON with no field selection or Markdown option found (10). Country and language parameters per the 30 September check, and ten separate verticals. We couldn't confirm pagination or result-count parameters from the docs (8). No documented error responses (0). Searches are read-only and only successful queries use credits, per the 30 September check of the home page (10). One required field (`q`) and no official SDK (7).)
- Reliability, Liner Search MCP +20: Liner Search MCP 50 (incident.io status page at status.liner.com with components for liner.com and app.liner.com only, none for the API or MCP (15). 100% uptime shown since August (20, no incidents shown). Rate limits published per API with numbers (Scholar Search 2 requests a second, agents 2 a second) (15). 429 with a code for concurrency limits, no Retry-After or backoff guidance found (0 of 15). No SLA found (0). Not labelled beta (0 of 10; 'limits may be adjusted over time', GA not stated). 15 + 20 + 15 + 0 + 0 + 0 = 50.); Serper 30 (No status page. status.serper.dev answers with a 302 to Atlassian's Statuspage marketing site (0). No readable incident history (5). Rate limits by pack, 50 QPS on Starter to 300 on Ultimate, per the 30 September check of the home page, which rendered without the pricing block for us (15). No 429 or retry guidance found (0). No SLA in the terms (0). GA (10).)
- Payments & pricing, Serper +20: Liner Search MCP 20 (No machine payment protocol (0). Per-call prices public (20). No free tier found (0). A person signs up in a browser for OAuth or an API key (0). 0 + 20 + 0 + 0 = 20.); Serper 40 (No x402, MPP or L402. Card or PayPal only, per the 30 September check (0). Per-1,000 prices published without a login, from $1.00 on the $50 pack to $0.30 on the $3,750 pack (20). 2,500 free queries on sign-up with no card, confirmed on the home page (20). A person signs up in a browser (0).)
- Security & auth, Liner Search MCP +15: Liner Search MCP 35 (OAuth 2.1 or an API key; scopes not published (20 of 30). All tools are reads (10 of 20). Results carry web pages and documents with no injection guidance (0). No audit log found (0). No security.txt (404) or security programme found (5 of 20). 20 + 10 + 0 + 0 + 5 = 35.); Serper 20 (API key in the `X-API-KEY` header, never in the URL. No scopes, multiple keys or rotation found (10). Read-only search with no write surface, but no MCP annotations or least-privilege mode (10). Returns third-party titles and snippets with no prompt-injection guidance (0). No per-call log or audit trail found outside the logged-in dashboard, which we couldn't see (0). serper.dev/.well-known/security.txt returns 404, and we found no disclosure policy, bug bounty or certification (0).)