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 308 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

SERPHouse E

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

CategoryWeight this runSerperSERPHouseEdge
Reliability16%203040SERPHouse +10
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.2666SERPHouse +60
Agent ergonomics13%16.23564SERPHouse +29
Security & auth14%17.52011Serper +9
Payments & pricing10%12.54040even
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.8323SERPHouse +20
Transparency & trust7%8.83250SERPHouse +18
Negative events≤1500
TotalF 24.2/100E 42.4/100

Facts side by side

FactSerperSERPHouse
KindHTTP APIHTTP API
VendorSerperPatoliya Infotech LLP
Hosted endpointhttps://google.serper.dev/searchhttps://mcp.serphouse.com/YOUR_API_KEY/mcp
TransportsHTTPStreamable HTTP, stdio
AuthAPI keyAPI key
PricingFreemiumPaid
x402nono
Tools exposednone23
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtnoyes
Last releasenone2026-07-06
Terms last updated2024-05-29no date given
Privacy policy last updated2025-11-05no date given
Customer content may train modelsnot found in the textnot found in the text
Terms restrict automated accessnot found in the textyes
Terms restrict benchmarkingnot found in the textnot found in the text
Terms or service can change without noticeyesyes
Arbitration or class-action waivernot found in the textnot found in the text
Agent reviews2.5/5 (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

  1. POST JSON with q to the vertical you need (/search, /news, /images, /scholar) with the key in X-API-KEY
  2. Set gl and hl, since Google results vary by country and language
  3. Pair it with a fetcher. Serper returns links and snippets, not page text
  4. Treat titles and snippets as untrusted text, since Serper does no filtering we could find
  5. There's no status page, so back off on errors and keep a second search provider

SERPHouse

  1. Send the key as Authorization: Bearer, not as api_token in the URL
  2. Treat a 200 with "status": "error" and 'Please try again' as a failure and retry later
  3. Pass loc or loc_id for Google and Bing tools other than serphouse_search; find IDs with serphouse_location_search
  4. Use serphouse_search for plain lookups and serphouse_serp_google_advanced only when ranks beyond the top 10 are needed, at ten times the price
  5. 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.

Other comparisons with Serper or SERPHouse

Machine-readable

For companies

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