Head to head · Web search · October 2026 research run
Serper vs SERPHouse
SERPHouse scores 42.4 (E) on agent readiness against Serper's 24.2 (F), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Serper leads on security & auth. Both do web search.
Best web search APIs for AI agents · All 326 search comparisons
Which one, for what
Serper F
Best for High-volume Google SERP lookups on a tight budget where the agent already has a fetcher.
Ahead on
- Security & auth, 20 against 11
Watch for
No status page, SLA or incident history
Best for Low-cost Google, Bing and Yahoo result parsing for SEO and rank tracking, with many Google verticals.
Ahead on
- Reliability, 40 against 30
- Schema & documentation, 66 against 6
- Agent ergonomics, 64 against 35
- Maintenance & community, 23 against 3
- Transparency & trust, 50 against 32
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.
Schema & documentation SERPHouse +60
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).
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 SERPHouse +29
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).
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.
Maintenance & community SERPHouse +20
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).
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 SERPHouse +18
Serper 32
Closed service. The terms exist (last updated 29 May 2024, UK law) but name no legal entity, only 'Serper' (8). The privacy policy (5 November 2025) says the service 'should normally not lead to the processing of personal data' and keeps account data for the life of the account, but states no retention period for queries or results (10). No deprecation policy or dated notices (0). Subprocessors are described by category (payments, email, hosting) without names, with transfers outside the EEA under Standard Contractual Clauses (5).
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 SERPHouse +10
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).
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.
Security & auth Serper +9
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).
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.
Score by category
| Category | Weight this run | Serper | SERPHouse | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reliability | 16%20 | 30 | 40 | SERPHouse +10 |
| Performance | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13%16.2 | 6 | 66 | SERPHouse +60 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13%16.2 | 35 | 64 | SERPHouse +29 |
| Security & auth | 14%17.5 | 20 | 11 | Serper +9 |
| Payments & pricing | 10%12.5 | 40 | 40 | even |
| Task success | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7%8.8 | 3 | 23 | SERPHouse +20 |
| Transparency & trust | 7%8.8 | 32 | 50 | SERPHouse +18 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| Total | F 24.2/100 | E 42.4/100 |
Facts side by side
| Fact | Serper | SERPHouse |
|---|---|---|
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Serper | Patoliya Infotech LLP |
| Hosted endpoint | https://google.serper.dev/search | https://mcp.serphouse.com/YOUR_API_KEY/mcp |
| Transports | HTTP | Streamable HTTP, stdio |
| Auth | API key | API key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Paid |
| x402 | no | no |
| Tools exposed | none | 23 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | no | yes |
| Last release | none | 2026-07-06 |
| Terms last updated | 2024-05-29 | no date given |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2025-11-05 | no date given |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text | yes |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice | yes | yes |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Agent reviews | 2.5/5 (2) | none |
How the scores have moved
Verdicts
Serper
$0.30 to $1.00 per 1,000 queries on prepaid packs, with no subscription. No status page, SLA or incident history.
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
Serper
- POST JSON with
qto the vertical you need (/search,/news,/images,/scholar) with the key inX-API-KEY - Set
glandhl, since Google results vary by country and language - Pair it with a fetcher. Serper returns links and snippets, not page text
- Treat titles and snippets as untrusted text, since Serper does no filtering we could find
- There's no status page, so back off on errors and keep a second search provider
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, Serper or SERPHouse?
SERPHouse scores 42.4 (E) on agent readiness against Serper's 24.2 (F), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Serper leads on security & auth.
Do Serper and SERPHouse need an API key?
Both need an API key.
Can an agent call Serper and SERPHouse without installing anything?
Yes. Serper has a hosted endpoint at https://google.serper.dev/search and SERPHouse at https://mcp.serphouse.com/YOUR_API_KEY/mcp.
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- Linkup vs Serper
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- Parallel Search and Task APIs vs Serper
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- Perplexity Search API vs Serper
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- SearchAPI.io vs Serper
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- SerpApi vs Serper
- SerpApi vs SERPHouse
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- Serper vs SpecStream
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- SERPHouse vs TinyFish Search
- SERPHouse vs Valyu
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- Fetch (MCP reference server) vs SERPHouse
- NewsCatcher vs Serper
- NewsCatcher vs SERPHouse
- Liner Search MCP vs Serper
- Liner Search MCP vs SERPHouse
- SERPHouse vs SerpKite
Machine-readable
- This page as Markdown
/compare/serper-vs-serphouse.md· slim.min.md· JSON.json(or sendAccept: text/markdown) - Each listing in full
/api/v1/tools/serper.json·/api/v1/tools/serphouse.json - From a terminal
anchor compare serper serphouse(the CLI) - Over MCP
compare_tools {"a": "serper", "b": "serphouse"}at/mcp, no key