# SERPHouse vs SerpKite

> SerpKite scores 67.6 (B) to SERPHouse's 42.4 (E) for search serp. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/serphouse-vs-serpkite
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/serphouse-vs-serpkite.md (~5,600 tokens)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (the key docs and every listing in one file, at most 16 MB, about 4 million tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (the whole catalogue as tools, no key)
- DNS: dig +short TXT <slug>.grade.anchorterminal.com (the grade as a DNS TXT record, for a sandbox with no HTTP where names still resolve; also top., best.<category>. and <a>.vs.<b>. under the zone, and the same under grade.letme.dev)
- Licence: CC BY 4.0, credit Anchor Terminal and link this page (https://www.anchorterminal.com/terms/#data)
- Updated: 2026-11-07

SerpKite scores 67.6 (B) on agent readiness against SERPHouse's 42.4 (E), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Both do search serp.

- SERPHouse: grade E, 42.4/100, rank #1265 of 1486. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/serphouse.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/serphouse.json
- SerpKite: grade B, 67.6/100, rank #313 of 1486. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/serpkite.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/serpkite.json
- Best web search APIs for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/search/index.md
- All 308 search comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/search/index.md

## Which one, for what

### SERPHouse (E)

Good for: Low-cost Google, Bing and Yahoo result parsing for SEO and rank tracking, with many Google verticals.

Also in its favour:
- Runs on your own machine
- No incidents deducted, where SerpKite loses 3 points for them

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

### SerpKite (B)

Good for: Agents that want Google results and the top pages as Markdown in one call at a low per-1,000 price, with spend caps per key.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 75 against 40
- Schema & documentation, 90 against 66
- Agent ergonomics, 97 against 64
- Security & auth, 37 against 11
- Maintenance & community, 80 against 23
- Transparency & trust, 77 against 50

Watch for: Launched 29 September 2026 by a sole trader, with status monitoring only since 2 October


## Why the edge

### Maintenance & community: SerpKite +57

- 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.
- SerpKite (80): Closed service read with the API lines. The newest API changelog entries are dated 1 November 2026 (API 1.12.7) (30). 31 dated changelog entries from 9 October to 1 November, among them API 1.6.0 to 1.12.7 and SDKs 0.8.0 and 0.8.1 (20). Public changelog, support@serpkite.com and a Discord link. The SDK repositories are mirrors of a private monorepo and we couldn't see issues or replies (8). In the official MCP registry under the GitHub-verified namespace io.github.SerpKite, per the 5 October check, with current official SDKs in three languages (15). The SDK repositories run typecheck, tests and build in CI, but we couldn't see run results (7). 30+20+8+15+7 = 80.

### Reliability: SerpKite +35

- 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.
- SerpKite (75): Hosted API, read with the hosted lines. Better Stack status page at status.serpkite.com with four monitors (api.serpkite.com/healthz, dashboard API, dashboard, website) and daily bars (20). Monitoring began on 2 October 2026, so the record covers 31 days of the 90 from 4 August. The page's own figures give 99.978 per cent uptime over 30 days for the API health monitor and 99.971 for the dashboard API, the 5 October check saw 29 to 41 minutes of downtime on each monitor on 2 October and 19 seconds on 3 October, and the feed has never carried an incident post. No outage reached an hour. A readable record shorter than 90 days with nothing major scores 15, as this run settled for short records. Rate limits published per key, 5 to 100 requests a second by pack (15). 429 `rate_limited` with Retry-After, backoff guidance for 429 and 503, and `Idempotency-Key` on batch creation (15). The terms say self-serve plans have no uptime guarantee and an enterprise SLA sits in a separate agreement we couldn't read (0). v1 API with no beta or preview label (10). 20+15+15+15+0+10 = 75.

### Agent ergonomics: SerpKite +33

- 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.
- SerpKite (97): `format=markdown` or `compact`, `fields` projection, `num` and an `X-Tokens-Estimate` header size REST responses. The MCP server now has 23 tools with no toolsets or read-only subset we could find (22). `page`, `num` up to 100, country, language, location, time, domain include, exclude and boost, date bounds, `highlights` and `max_tokens` on extract (20). Stable error codes with a retry column, and errors are never billed (20). Searches are read-only, failed and empty calls are refunded, and batch creation takes `Idempotency-Key`. Since 9 October 2026 the changelog says every MCP tool carries `readOnlyHint`, `destructiveHint`, `idempotentHint` and `openWorldHint`, with all read-only except `crawl`, and on 2 November the MCP page says every tool is read-only except `crawl` and `research`, which start paid tasks, and none is destructive (20). Only `q` or `url` is required, and official SDKs exist for TypeScript, Python and Go with retries built in (15). 22+20+20+20+15 = 97.

### Transparency & trust: SerpKite +27

- 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.
- SerpKite (77): Closed API under terms that name the operator, an Ontario address and governing law, with the SDKs and the MCP connection repository MIT (18). The privacy policy, DPA page, retention doc and security page agree that query text of successful requests isn't logged, usage metadata lasts 31 days and batch results 24 hours. On 26 October failed and empty requests began keeping their query for 24 hours, and the changelog says the privacy policy, terms and DPA were updated the same day (27). The terms promise 30 days' notice before removing an endpoint, with exceptions for changes forced by a third party. AI Overview, AI Mode and Lens were removed in the first week without notice under that exception, and the reviews limit of 16 October came the same way, while a batch price change for 23 November 2026 was announced ahead (14). Subprocessors named with purpose and location, including Contabo in Germany, Cloudflare, Paddle, Resend, PostHog EU and Better Stack, with 30 days' notice of changes (20).

### Security & auth: SerpKite +26

- 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.
- SerpKite (37): Many keys per account, each revocable and rotatable with an optional monthly credit limit, stored as SHA-256 hashes, with no scopes. Since 9 October the MCP server also takes OAuth (authorisation code with PKCE, dynamic client registration, rotating refresh tokens, one `mcp` scope), each connection running as a named, revocable API key, while REST still needs a key (20). The docs allow the key as `?api_key=` on GET requests (minus 10). Search is read-only, and per-key limits and an account spend cap bound cost, but there's no read-only key, and the MCP server exposes crawl alongside search with no confirmation step we could see (10). Results include third-party snippets and full page Markdown, and we found no prompt-injection guidance (0). The dashboard request log keeps per-call metadata (endpoint, status, credits, key) for 31 days with CSV export, and each key records who created it (12). security.txt returns 404. The security page has a disclosure policy with acknowledgement in 2 business days, no paid bug bounty and SOC 2 marked as not yet started (5).

### Schema & documentation: SerpKite +24

- 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.
- SerpKite (90): Public OpenAPI 3.1 spec (version 1.12.7 on 2 November 2026, 41 paths and 47 operations) at serpkite.com/openapi/serp-api.yaml (25). llms.txt, llms-full.txt and a Markdown twin of every docs page (10). Endpoint descriptions state purpose and when to use them, and the guides cover which tool to pick. The MCP tool definitions aren't public and `tools/list` needs a key, so we read the MCP docs table and the matching descriptions in the MIT AI SDK package, which state purpose and some when-to-use lines but not when not to (12). Typed parameters with 64 enums in the spec, documented ranges and strict validation that rejects unknown parameters with a 400 naming the replacement. We couldn't confirm the MCP JSON Schemas (13). curl, TypeScript, Python and Go examples on each page, and an errors page with 14 codes and what to do about each (15). Versioned `/v1` paths and a dated API changelog (15).

## Score by category

| Category | Weight | SERPHouse | SerpKite | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 40 | 75 | SerpKite +35 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 66 | 90 | SerpKite +24 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 64 | 97 | SerpKite +33 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 11 | 37 | SerpKite +26 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 40 | 40 | even |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 23 | 80 | SerpKite +57 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 50 | 77 | SerpKite +27 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | -3 | |
| **Total** | | **42.4 · E** | **67.6 · B** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | SERPHouse | SerpKite |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Patoliya Infotech LLP | SerpKite (Anastasia Klimova, trading as SerpKite) |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://mcp.serphouse.com/YOUR_API_KEY/mcp` | `https://api.serpkite.com/v1/search` |
| Transports | Streamable HTTP, stdio | HTTP, Streamable HTTP |
| Auth | API key | API key |
| Pricing | Paid | Freemium |
| Price for search serp | $0.62 per 1,000 requests | not published |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | none | Proprietary service under SerpKite's terms of service. The SDKs (TypeScript, Python, Go, LangChain, Vercel AI SDK) and the MCP connection repository on GitHub are MIT |
| Tools exposed | 23 | 23 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| MCP registry | not listed | `io.github.SerpKite/serpkite` |
| Last release | 2026-07-06 | 2026-11-01 |
| Terms last updated | no date given | 2026-10-03 |
| Privacy policy last updated | no date given | 2026-10-03 |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | yes | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice | yes | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Popularity | none | 809 npm/wk, 376 PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | none | 3.5/5 (2) |

## How the scores have moved

### SERPHouse

No score change since it was listed.

### SerpKite

- +2.8 on 2 November 2026: product, time

## Verdicts

**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.

**SerpKite.** Google SERP API with an OpenAPI 3.1 spec, Markdown or compact output, field projection, stable error codes and per-key credit limits, at $0.60 to $1.00 per 1,000 on packs that don't expire. The service launched on 29 September 2026 from a sole trader, with a month of status history and frequent same-day contract changes.

## Before you call either

### 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

### SerpKite

1. Send the key as `Authorization: Bearer`, not `?api_key=`, and give the agent a dedicated key with a monthly credit limit
2. Ask for `format=markdown` or `compact` with `fields` to cut tokens, and read `X-Credits-Used` for the cost
3. Keep `engine=google` for rank work. Check `meta.engine` when a key allows fallback engines
4. On 429 `rate_limited` or 503 upstream codes, wait for Retry-After and retry. `daily_limit_reached`, `account_restricted` (403) and 402 need a purchase
5. Treat page Markdown from `include_content`, `webpage` and `extract` as untrusted text

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, SERPHouse or SerpKite?

SerpKite scores 67.6 (B) on agent readiness against SERPHouse's 42.4 (E), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories.

### Do SERPHouse and SerpKite need an API key?

Both need an API key.

### Can an agent call SERPHouse and SerpKite without installing anything?

Yes. SERPHouse has a hosted endpoint at https://mcp.serphouse.com/YOUR_API_KEY/mcp and SerpKite at https://api.serpkite.com/v1/search.


## For agents

- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/serphouse-vs-serpkite.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/serphouse-vs-serpkite.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "serphouse", "b": "serpkite"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare serphouse serpkite`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/serphouse.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/serpkite.json

## Other comparisons with SERPHouse or SerpKite

- [Web Search Tool on Amazon Bedrock AgentCore vs SERPHouse](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agentcore-web-search-vs-serphouse.md)
- [Web Search Tool on Amazon Bedrock AgentCore vs SerpKite](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agentcore-web-search-vs-serpkite.md)
- [Arcmira vs SerpKite](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/arcmira-vs-serpkite.md)
- [Grounding with Bing Search vs SERPHouse](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bing-grounding-vs-serphouse.md)
- [Grounding with Bing Search vs SerpKite](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bing-grounding-vs-serpkite.md)
- [Brave Search API + MCP vs SERPHouse](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brave-search-mcp-vs-serphouse.md)
- [Brave Search API + MCP vs SerpKite](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/brave-search-mcp-vs-serpkite.md)
- [Cloudflare Web Search API vs SERPHouse](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-web-search-vs-serphouse.md)
- [Cloudflare Web Search API vs SerpKite](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/cloudflare-web-search-vs-serpkite.md)
- [DeepSeek Search and Fetch API vs SERPHouse](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deepseek-search-api-vs-serphouse.md)
- [DeepSeek Search and Fetch API vs SerpKite](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/deepseek-search-api-vs-serpkite.md)
- [Exa API + MCP vs SERPHouse](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/exa-mcp-vs-serphouse.md)
- [Exa API + MCP vs SerpKite](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/exa-mcp-vs-serpkite.md)
- [Firecrawl MCP vs SerpKite](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/firecrawl-mcp-vs-serpkite.md)
- [Grep AI vs SerpKite](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/grep-ai-vs-serpkite.md)
- [Kagi Search API vs SERPHouse](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/kagi-search-vs-serphouse.md)
- [Kagi Search API vs SerpKite](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/kagi-search-vs-serpkite.md)
- [Linkup vs SERPHouse](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/linkup-vs-serphouse.md)
- [Linkup vs SerpKite](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/linkup-vs-serpkite.md)
- [Mojeek Web Search API vs SERPHouse](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mojeek-vs-serphouse.md)
- [Mojeek Web Search API vs SerpKite](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/mojeek-vs-serpkite.md)
- [Parallel Search and Task APIs vs SERPHouse](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/parallel-search-api-vs-serphouse.md)
- [Parallel Search and Task APIs vs SerpKite](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/parallel-search-api-vs-serpkite.md)
- [Perplexity Search API vs SERPHouse](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/perplexity-search-api-vs-serphouse.md)
- [Perplexity Search API vs SerpKite](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/perplexity-search-api-vs-serpkite.md)
- [SearchAPI.io vs SERPHouse](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/searchapi-io-vs-serphouse.md)
- [SearchAPI.io vs SerpKite](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/searchapi-io-vs-serpkite.md)
- [SerpApi vs SERPHouse](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/serpapi-vs-serphouse.md)
- [SerpApi vs SerpKite](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/serpapi-vs-serpkite.md)
- [Serper vs SERPHouse](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/serper-vs-serphouse.md)
- [Serper vs SerpKite](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/serper-vs-serpkite.md)
- [SERPHouse vs SpecStream](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/serphouse-vs-specstream.md)
- [SERPHouse vs Tavily API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/serphouse-vs-tavily-mcp.md)
- [SERPHouse vs TinyFish Search](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/serphouse-vs-tinyfish-search.md)
- [SERPHouse vs Valyu](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/serphouse-vs-valyu.md)
- [SERPHouse vs You.com APIs](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/serphouse-vs-you-com-api.md)
- [SerpKite vs SpecStream](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/serpkite-vs-specstream.md)
- [SerpKite vs Tavily API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/serpkite-vs-tavily-mcp.md)
- [SerpKite vs TinyFish Search](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/serpkite-vs-tinyfish-search.md)
- [SerpKite vs Valyu](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/serpkite-vs-valyu.md)
- [SerpKite vs You.com APIs](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/serpkite-vs-you-com-api.md)
- [Fetch (MCP reference server) vs SERPHouse](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/fetch-reference-server-vs-serphouse.md)
- [Fetch (MCP reference server) vs SerpKite](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/fetch-reference-server-vs-serpkite.md)
- [NewsCatcher vs SERPHouse](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/newscatcher-vs-serphouse.md)
- [NewsCatcher vs SerpKite](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/newscatcher-vs-serpkite.md)

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Query this catalogue directly over MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (Streamable HTTP, no key). How: https://www.anchorterminal.com/agents/#mcp