Head to head · Search serp · October 2026 research run
Liner Search MCP vs SERPHouse
Liner Search MCP scores 43.4 (E) on agent readiness against SERPHouse's 42.4 (E), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. SERPHouse leads on schema & documentation, payments & pricing and transparency & trust. Both do search serp.
Best web search APIs for AI agents · All 326 search comparisons
Which one, for what
Best for Agents that need cheap cited search across the web and scholarly sources, with optional deep research reports.
Ahead on
- Reliability, 50 against 40
- Security & auth, 35 against 11
- Maintenance & community, 45 against 23
Watch for
No free tier found
Best for Low-cost Google, Bing and Yahoo result parsing for SEO and rank tracking, with many Google verticals.
Ahead on
- Schema & documentation, 66 against 45
- Payments & pricing, 40 against 20
- Transparency & trust, 50 against 34
Also in its favour
- Runs on your own machine
- Free to start without a card
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 Liner Search MCP +24
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.
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 Liner Search MCP +22
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.
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.
Schema & documentation SERPHouse +21
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.
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.
Payments & pricing SERPHouse +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.
SERPHouse 40
No x402, MPP or L402 (0). Per-1,000 prices for SERP, autocomplete and top-100 requests published without login (20). Free trial of 4,000 credits for 7 days, 'No Credit Card Required' (20). A person signs up in a browser and confirms an email (0). 0 + 20 + 20 + 0 = 40.
Transparency & trust SERPHouse +16
Liner Search MCP 34
Terms and privacy linked from the docs but not read in this batch (5 of 30). Data handling not read (5 of 30). No deprecation policy found for the MCP server; the docs note older endpoints priced per version (5 of 20). Subprocessors not read (5 of 20). 5 + 5 + 5 + 5 = 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.
Reliability Liner Search MCP +10
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.
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.
Score by category
| Category | Weight this run | Liner Search MCP | SERPHouse | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reliability | 16%20 | 50 | 40 | Liner Search MCP +10 |
| Performance | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13%16.2 | 45 | 66 | SERPHouse +21 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13%16.2 | 65 | 64 | Liner Search MCP +1 |
| Security & auth | 14%17.5 | 35 | 11 | Liner Search MCP +24 |
| Payments & pricing | 10%12.5 | 20 | 40 | SERPHouse +20 |
| Task success | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7%8.8 | 45 | 23 | Liner Search MCP +22 |
| Transparency & trust | 7%8.8 | 34 | 50 | SERPHouse +16 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| Total | E 43.4/100 | E 42.4/100 |
Facts side by side
| Fact | Liner Search MCP | SERPHouse |
|---|---|---|
| Kind | MCP server | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Liner | Patoliya Infotech LLP |
| Hosted endpoint | https://platform.liner.com/api/v1/mcp | https://mcp.serphouse.com/YOUR_API_KEY/mcp |
| Transports | Streamable HTTP | Streamable HTTP, stdio |
| Auth | OAuth | API key |
| Pricing | Paid | Paid |
| Price for search serp | not published | $0.62 per 1,000 requests |
| x402 | no | no |
| Tools exposed | 9 | 23 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| MCP registry | com.liner/search | not listed |
| Last release | none | 2026-07-06 |
| Terms last updated | no document linked | no date given |
| Privacy policy last updated | no document linked | no date given |
| Customer content may train models | not read yet | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | not read yet | yes |
| 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 |
Verdicts
Liner Search MCP
Liner's MCP server puts cheap per-call web, scholarly and vertical search and cited research agents behind one OAuth URL, at $1 per 1,000 searches. The docs say which tool fits which question, but there's no free tier, no changelog, no injection guidance and no status component for the API.
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
Liner Search MCP
- Use search_scholar for papers and the domain tools for legal, finance, medical or business questions
- Deep research is slower and costs more; use quick_answer_agent for short lookups
- Treat search results and research reports as untrusted content
- Keep under 2 requests a second for scholar search and the agents
SERPHouse
- Send the key as
Authorization: Bearer, not asapi_tokenin the URL - Treat a 200 with
"status": "error"and 'Please try again' as a failure and retry later - Pass
locorloc_idfor Google and Bing tools other thanserphouse_search; find IDs withserphouse_location_search - Use
serphouse_searchfor plain lookups andserphouse_serp_google_advancedonly when ranks beyond the top 10 are needed, at ten times the price - Keep under 60 requests a minute on self-serve plans
Questions
Which is better for AI agents, Liner Search MCP or SERPHouse?
Liner Search MCP scores 43.4 (E) on agent readiness against SERPHouse's 42.4 (E), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. SERPHouse leads on schema & documentation, payments & pricing and transparency & trust.
Do Liner Search MCP and SERPHouse need an API key?
Liner Search MCP uses an OAuth sign-in. SERPHouse needs an API key.
Can an agent call Liner Search MCP and SERPHouse without installing anything?
Yes. Liner Search MCP has a hosted endpoint at https://platform.liner.com/api/v1/mcp and SERPHouse at https://mcp.serphouse.com/YOUR_API_KEY/mcp.
Other comparisons with Liner Search MCP or SERPHouse
- Web Search Tool on Amazon Bedrock AgentCore vs SERPHouse
- Grounding with Bing Search vs SERPHouse
- Brave Search API + MCP vs SERPHouse
- Cloudflare Web Search API vs SERPHouse
- DeepSeek Search and Fetch API vs SERPHouse
- Exa API + MCP vs SERPHouse
- Kagi Search API vs SERPHouse
- Linkup vs SERPHouse
- Mojeek Web Search API vs SERPHouse
- Parallel Search and Task APIs vs SERPHouse
- Perplexity Search API vs SERPHouse
- SearchAPI.io vs SERPHouse
- SerpApi vs SERPHouse
- Serper vs SERPHouse
- SERPHouse vs SpecStream
- SERPHouse vs Tavily API + MCP
- SERPHouse vs TinyFish Search
- SERPHouse vs Valyu
- SERPHouse vs You.com APIs
- Arcmira vs Liner Search MCP
- Exa API + MCP vs Liner Search MCP
- Grep AI vs Liner Search MCP
- Liner Search MCP vs Linkup
- Liner Search MCP vs NewsCatcher
- Liner Search MCP vs Parallel Search and Task APIs
- Liner Search MCP vs Perplexity Search API
- Liner Search MCP vs SpecStream
- Liner Search MCP vs Tavily API + MCP
- Liner Search MCP vs TinyFish Search
- Liner Search MCP vs Valyu
- Liner Search MCP vs You.com APIs
- Fetch (MCP reference server) vs SERPHouse
- NewsCatcher vs SERPHouse
- Liner Search MCP vs SearchAPI.io
- Liner Search MCP vs SerpApi
- Liner Search MCP vs Serper
- Liner Search MCP vs SerpKite
- SERPHouse vs SerpKite
- Grounding with Bing Search vs Liner Search MCP
Machine-readable
- This page as Markdown
/compare/liner-mcp-vs-serphouse.md· slim.min.md· JSON.json(or sendAccept: text/markdown) - Each listing in full
/api/v1/tools/liner-mcp.json·/api/v1/tools/serphouse.json - From a terminal
anchor compare liner-mcp serphouse(the CLI) - Over MCP
compare_tools {"a": "liner-mcp", "b": "serphouse"}at/mcp, no key