# SERPHouse vs Valyu

> Valyu scores 69.3 (B) to SERPHouse's 42.4 (E) for web search. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/serphouse-vs-valyu
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/serphouse-vs-valyu.md (~5,500 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

Valyu scores 69.3 (B) on agent readiness against SERPHouse's 42.4 (E), and leads in every scored category. Both do web search.

- SERPHouse: grade E, 42.4/100, rank #1283 of 1510. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/serphouse.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/serphouse.json
- Valyu: grade B, 69.3/100, rank #255 of 1510. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/valyu.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/valyu.json
- Best web search APIs for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/search/index.md
- All 326 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
- Free to start without a card

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

### Valyu (B)

Good for: Research agents that need SEC filings, papers, patents, clinical trials or market data alongside the web, with a per-query price cap.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 70 against 40
- Schema & documentation, 90 against 66
- Agent ergonomics, 83 against 64
- Security & auth, 44 against 11
- Payments & pricing, 45 against 40
- Maintenance & community, 80 against 23
- Transparency & trust, 78 against 50

Watch for: Per-plan rate limits are stated only in example responses, not in a table


## Why the edge

### Maintenance & community: Valyu +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.
- Valyu (80): valyu-py 2.13.5 and valyu-js 2.11.5 on 31 October 2026, named in the platform changelog the same day (30). valyu-py tagged ten releases from 2.12.1 (12 August) to 2.13.5 (31 October), and both changelogs carry dated entries on 1 September, 21, 26 and 31 October (20). Public platform and API changelogs, both current. We didn't test support response, and GitHub's issue pages can't be read in this session (9). Current Python and TypeScript SDKs. The MCP server isn't in the official registry (15). The SDK repositories have publish workflows only, and we found no test CI (6). 30+20+9+15+6 = 80.

### Security & auth: Valyu +33

- 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.
- Valyu (44): The CLI mints API keys with a hard spending cap and can rotate and revoke them, management keys carry explicit scopes, organisations have MFA, and the hosted MCP has OAuth sign-in (28). The MCP docs lead with `?valyuApiKey=` in the URL (minus 10). Spend-capped keys and `max_price` limit cost exposure, but `valyu_deepresearch_control` deletes tasks with no confirmation we could find (12). Search and Contents return full page text from the open web, and we found no prompt-injection guidance in the docs index (0). No per-call log or audit trail found for the operator (0). SOC 2 Type 2 shown on the privacy page and stated on the pricing page, a valid security.txt (security@valyu.ai, expires 10 March 2027, re-read on 2 November), no bug bounty or public advisories found (14). The MCP docs still give `?valyuApiKey=` for every client on 2 November. 28-10+12+0+0+14 = 44.

### Reliability: Valyu +30

- 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.
- Valyu (70): Instatus page at status.valyu.ai with separate Search, Contents, Answer and DeepResearch components and an RSS history (20). In the 90 days to 2 November it lists a 13-minute Search incident on 6 October with "certain data sources", a partial incident, plus scheduled maintenance on 9 August (Search, 3 hours 13 minutes, announced the evening before) and 20 October (every component, 3 hours, announced 47 minutes ahead). Minor only (20). Since 21 October limits apply per organisation and per endpoint and scale with the plan, but the numbers appear only in example responses (Search at 5 requests a second on pay-as-you-go and 10 on Ridiculously Cheap; DeepResearch at 2 and 5 tasks at once), and the pricing page the docs point to for each plan's rate doesn't list them (8 of 15). A 429 carries a Retry-After header and a body with retry_after, the plan and the limit, the docs say to wait and retry with backoff and that a rate-limited request is never charged, and the SDKs retry 429s on their own. No idempotency keys, but the pricing page says to persist research task ids so retries don't create duplicate tasks (12). No SLA found (0). Search, Contents, Answer and DeepResearch are GA, and Workflows is labelled beta (10). 20+20+8+12+0+10 = 70.

### Transparency & trust: Valyu +28

- 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.
- Valyu (78): Closed service with terms that name Valyu.Network Ltd, company 14436543 in England and Wales, per the 30 September check (15). The privacy policy (20 October 2025) says queries are deleted within 24 to 72 hours, security logs kept 90 days, performance logs 30 days and billing records 7 years, and that query data isn't used to train models. No DPA referenced (26). Dated notice for the legacy MCP tools, hidden now and removed on 1 December 2026, but no general deprecation policy (12). Processing in the UK, EU and US is disclosed. Subprocessors are named by category only (12). The privacy policy is unchanged on 2 November (last updated 20 October 2025), and the pricing page now lists zero data retention on request for Enterprise. 15+26+12+12 = 65.

### Schema & documentation: Valyu +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.
- Valyu (90): Valid OpenAPI 3.0.3 (info version 2.3.0) with 24 paths and 29 operations across Search, Contents, Answer, DeepResearch, Batches, Workflows and Datasources on 2 November, matching the endpoint pages in llms.txt (25). llms.txt with a 'Guidance for agents' section (10). The MCP tools carry one-line purposes such as 'Read one or more URLs as clean markdown', and the docs explain source presets, but say little about when not to use a tool (13). `search_type` is an enum, `max_num_results` runs 1 to 20, `relevance_threshold` 0 to 1, `source_biases` -5 to 5 and `instructions` caps at 500 characters, with only `query` required (14). 200, 206 partial success and 400 to 503 documented, with examples across the docs (13). Versioned paths (/v1) and two dated changelogs, the platform changelog to 31 October 2026 and the SDK and API changelog to 26 October (15). 25+10+13+14+13+15 = 90.

### Agent ergonomics: Valyu +19

- 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.
- Valyu (83): `max_num_results`, `response_length`, `fast_mode` and `max_price` size each response, and the MCP has six tools after folding eleven into one `valyu_search`. We couldn't read the hosted tool definitions, since the server isn't open source (22). Source include and exclude lists, per-source biases, dates, country and a relevance threshold. No pagination found (18). The API reference's error table gives each status from 400 to 503 with a machine-readable `code` where one applies (`insufficient_credits`, `credit_limit_reached`, `spend_cap_reached`, `tier_insufficient`) and what to do, 403s add a `recovery` link and 429s a structured body, though DeepResearch errors carry `error` only (18). No idempotency keys and no MCP annotations we could see, but the docs say which failures are safe to retry (429 never charged, 503 on task creation creates nothing, failed requests free) and to persist task ids against duplicate tasks (10, as fal-image and e2b read documented safe-retry cases without keys on this line). Only `query` is required, with Python and TypeScript SDKs plus a Rust SDK in alpha (15). 22+18+18+10+15 = 83.

## Score by category

| Category | Weight | SERPHouse | Valyu | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 40 | 70 | Valyu +30 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 66 | 90 | Valyu +24 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 64 | 83 | Valyu +19 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 11 | 44 | Valyu +33 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 40 | 45 | Valyu +5 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 23 | 80 | Valyu +57 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 50 | 78 | Valyu +28 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **42.4 · E** | **69.3 · B** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | SERPHouse | Valyu |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Patoliya Infotech LLP | Valyu |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://mcp.serphouse.com/YOUR_API_KEY/mcp` | `https://api.valyu.ai/v1/search` |
| Transports | Streamable HTTP, stdio | HTTP, Streamable HTTP |
| Auth | API key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Paid | Freemium |
| Price for web search | not published | $0.625 per 1,000 pages |
| x402 | no | no |
| Tools exposed | 23 | 6 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-07-06 | 2026-10-31 |
| Terms last updated | no date given | 2025-10-20 |
| Privacy policy last updated | no date given | 2025-10-20 |
| 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 | 19 stars, 6.7k npm/wk, 7.1k PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | none | 4.5/5 (2) |

## How the scores have moved

### SERPHouse

No score change since it was listed.

### Valyu

- +4.7 on 2 November 2026: product, new evidence
- no change on 8 October 2026: checklist

## 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.

**Valyu.** Web plus academic, financial, patent and life-science sources behind one search call, billed per result with a per-query price cap. Since 21 October rate limits scale with the plan and 429s carry Retry-After, but the per-plan numbers appear only in examples. The MCP docs still put the API key in the URL.

## 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

### Valyu

1. Set `max_price` and `max_num_results` on every search to bound cost
2. Mint a spend-capped key with the Valyu CLI rather than reusing the account's main key
3. On a 429, wait the `retry_after` seconds and retry; it's never charged. The SDKs retry twice by default
4. Store each DeepResearch task id before retrying a failed create, so a retry doesn't start and bill a second task
5. Call `valyu_search`. The legacy per-vertical MCP tools stop working on 2026-12-01
6. A 206 means some sources failed. Check which before treating results as complete

## Questions

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

Valyu scores 69.3 (B) on agent readiness against SERPHouse's 42.4 (E), and leads in every scored category.

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

SERPHouse needs an API key. Valyu takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in.

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

Yes. SERPHouse has a hosted endpoint at https://mcp.serphouse.com/YOUR_API_KEY/mcp and Valyu at https://api.valyu.ai/v1/search.


## For agents

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

## Other comparisons with SERPHouse or Valyu

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