# SerpApi vs SERPHouse (slim)

> SerpApi scores 63.5 (B) to SERPHouse's 42.4 (E) for web search. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/serpapi-vs-serphouse.md (~5,000 tokens) · this version ~2,730 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/serpapi-vs-serphouse.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/serpapi-vs-serphouse
- 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)

SerpApi scores 63.5 (B) 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.

- SerpApi: B 63.5, rank #510 of 1486 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/serpapi.min.md
- SERPHouse: E 42.4, rank #1265 of 1486 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/serphouse.min.md
- SerpApi, good for An agent that needs what a specific engine shows (Google verticals, Maps, Shopping, Flights, Scholar, YouTube, Amazon) parsed to JSON. Ahead on Reliability, 65 against 40; Agent ergonomics, 88 against 64; Security & auth, 40 against 11; Maintenance & community, 82 against 23; Transparency & trust, 84 against 50.
- SERPHouse, good 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 Free to start without a card.

| Category | SerpApi | SERPHouse |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability (16%) | 65 | 40 |
| Performance (10%) | pending | pending |
| Schema & documentation (13%) | 67 | 66 |
| Agent ergonomics (13%) | 88 | 64 |
| Security & auth (14%) | 40 | 11 |
| Payments & pricing (10%) | 30 | 40 |
| Task success (10%) | pending | pending |
| Maintenance & community (7%) | 82 | 23 |
| Transparency & trust (7%) | 84 | 50 |

| Fact (where they differ) | SerpApi | SERPHouse |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Vendor | SerpApi | Patoliya Infotech LLP |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://serpapi.com/search` | `https://mcp.serphouse.com/YOUR_API_KEY/mcp` |
| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP, stdio | Streamable HTTP, stdio |
| Pricing | Freemium | Paid |
| Price for web search | $25 per 1,000 requests | not published |
| Tools exposed | 3 | 23 |
| Read-only variant documented | yes | no |
| MCP registry | `io.github.serpapi/serpapi-mcp` | not listed |
| Last release | 2026-10-30 | 2026-07-06 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-08-27 | no date given |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-08-27 | no date given |
| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text | yes |
| Popularity | 175 stars, 169k npm/wk, 104k PyPI/wk | none |
| Agent reviews | 3.5/5 (2) | none |

Why the edge:
- Maintenance & community, SerpApi +59: SerpApi 82 (Release notes carry dated entries almost daily, the latest on 2 November 2026, and serpapi-python 1.2.0 shipped on 30 October (30). Since 4 August, serpapi-python 1.1.0, 1.1.1, 1.1.2 and 1.2.0, MCP server 1.0.3 and 2.0.0, and serpapi-cli 0.3.0, 0.4.0 and 0.5.0, besides the release notes (20). Release notes run several entries a week and the MCP repo merged a fix on 27 October. Open issues weren't read, since GitHub's pages refuse our reader (12). The MCP server is in the official registry as io.github.serpapi/serpapi-mcp and the Python SDK and CLI are current, but the JavaScript SDK's last release is still 2.2.1 of 26 July 2025 (12). The MCP, Python and CLI repositories run tests in CI; pass state not read (8).); 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.)
- Transparency & trust, SerpApi +34: SerpApi 84 (The API is closed under one terms-and-privacy page, and the MCP server is MIT (18). The legal page and the security page agree that search data is deleted after 31 days, ZeroTrace mode (an enterprise parameter) stores nothing, and a DPA is available on request (26). Deprecations show up as dated release notes, such as eBay's Sold and Completed filters on 28 September 2026, but there's no notice policy, and the terms allow termination without notice (8). Named subprocessors (AWS, Cloudflare, Wasabi, Stripe, Intercom and others) and US hosting with Standard Contractual Clauses (18).); 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.)
- Security & auth, SerpApi +29: SerpApi 40 (One account key with no scopes found (10), documented as the `api_key` query parameter on every REST call, and the MCP README leads with the key in the URL path. The hosted MCP also accepts `Authorization: Bearer` (minus 10). Search is read-only and the MCP tool carries read-only annotations, but there's no least-privilege key (15). SERP titles and snippets are untrusted text, and we found no prompt-injection guidance (0). The Search Archive API returns any search from the last 31 days, and the security page says audit logs cover all critical parts of the service (10). The security page lists SOC 2 Type II, SOC 3, ISO 27001 and ISO 27701 as acquired and GDPR and ISO 42001 as in progress, and security@serpapi.com takes reports. serpapi.com/security.txt is valid (expires 1 January 2027), though the /.well-known/ path answers with the HTML security page. No bug bounty or public advisories found (15).); 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.)
- Reliability, SerpApi +25: SerpApi 65 (Atlassian Statuspage at status.serpapi.com, with per-API components and incident history on its history pages and Atom feed (20). Between 4 August and 2 November the history lists 35 incidents active in the window. Two were wide failures that also list the general API component, each over an hour. From 7 to 9 August an outage across 37 Google and Google Light APIs, including Search, left 'a large number of requests' failing or timing out. On 10 September the vendor posted a 'service outage across all of our APIs', with degradation until 17 September. From 6 October a degradation of 15 Google and Google Light APIs, including Search, which the vendor called a 'partial service outage affecting multiple APIs', was still open on 2 November. Like the single-engine incidents, it hit part of the product and counts as minor. Two majors (5). Hourly throughput published per plan, 50 an hour free to 640,000 on Cloud 54M (15). 429 is documented as either the hourly limit or an empty search balance, with no Retry-After or backoff guidance found (5). The terms (updated 27 August 2026) promise a 99.95% SLA on all plans with credits up to 100% (10). GA (10). 20 + 5 + 15 + 5 + 10 + 10 = 65.); 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.)
- Agent ergonomics, SerpApi +24: SerpApi 88 (`json_restrictor` selects fields, `output=md` returns Markdown (the MCP README claims 50 per cent fewer tokens on average) and the MCP `compact` mode drops metadata. One core MCP tool plus two opt-in UI tools (22). `start`, `num`, location, language and engine-specific filters, plus `async` with the Search Archive API (20). Documented status codes and `search_metadata.status` values, though one 429 covers both the hourly limit and an empty balance (14). Searches are read-only, failed and cached searches aren't billed, and the MCP tool sets readOnlyHint true and destructiveHint false (18). Only `q` is required for most engines. llms.txt lists libraries in 11 languages, though the JavaScript one hasn't had a release since July 2025 (14).); 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.)
- Payments & pricing, SERPHouse +10: SerpApi 30 (No x402, MPP or L402 on the pricing page or llms.txt (0). Monthly plans are public with search counts, but there's no pay-per-search option (10). Free plan of 250 searches a month, no card (20). An account needs a browser signup (0).); 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.)