# Serper vs SERPHouse (slim)

> SERPHouse scores 42.4 (E) to Serper's 24.2 (F) for web search. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/serper-vs-serphouse.md (~4,600 tokens) · this version ~2,280 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/serper-vs-serphouse.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/serper-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)

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.

- Serper: F 24.2, rank #1442 of 1510 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/serper.min.md
- SERPHouse: E 42.4, rank #1283 of 1510 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/serphouse.min.md
- Serper, good for High-volume Google SERP lookups on a tight budget where the agent already has a fetcher. Ahead on Security & auth, 20 against 11.
- SERPHouse, good 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 Runs on your own machine.

| Category | Serper | SERPHouse |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability (16%) | 30 | 40 |
| Performance (10%) | pending | pending |
| Schema & documentation (13%) | 6 | 66 |
| Agent ergonomics (13%) | 35 | 64 |
| Security & auth (14%) | 20 | 11 |
| Payments & pricing (10%) | 40 | 40 |
| Task success (10%) | pending | pending |
| Maintenance & community (7%) | 3 | 23 |
| Transparency & trust (7%) | 32 | 50 |

| Fact (where they differ) | Serper | SERPHouse |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 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 |
| Pricing | Freemium | Paid |
| Tools exposed | none | 23 |
| 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 |
| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text | yes |
| Agent reviews | 2.5/5 (2) | none |

Why the edge:
- 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.)