In this post, we'll see the differences between SerpApi and its alternatives. If you're looking for a Google Search API for your project, you're in the right place!

We've performed a benchmark with other providers in 2020. Feel free to read the post here: https://medium.com/@hartator/serpapi-vs-zenserp-vs-serpstack-vs-serpwow-vs-scaleserp-benchmarks-6ef5fd467f7d

SerpApi has been in business since 2017, so we've provided more search engine APIs than our competitors.

Provider Total Search Engines
SerpApi 50+
Serper 8
SearchApi 25+
ValueSERP 8

To make the benchmark fair, we'll be focusing only on the Google Search API.

Alternative to SerpApi for Google Search API

Compare Google Search API results

I performed a basic search for different keywords on each of the providers. Here are the results.

Disclaimer: Google search results can vary from time to time. There are many factors that can affect the search results. These results are based on a one-time test on each SERP provider.


Test 1): Keyword best video editing software 2001

SerpApi Serper SearchApi ValueSERP
Organic Results ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅
Inline Videos ✅ ❌ ✅ ✅
Inline Images ✅ ❌ ✅ ✅
Related Searches ✅ only text only text only text
Related questions ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅
Displayed Link ✅ ❌ ✅ ✅
Favicon Simple URL ❌ Base64 ❌

Test 2) Keyword: apple

SerpApi Serper SearchApi ValueSERP
Organic Results ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅
Ads ✅ ❌ ✅ ✅
Knowledge Graph ✅ Partially ✅ ✅
Perspectives ✅ ❌ Parsed as stories ❌
local results (location) ✅ ❌ ✅ ✅
Inline Shopping (Immersive products) ✅ ❌ ✅ ✅
Related Searches ✅ only text only text only text

*Perspective shown when it's available on Google results. Complete related searches are shown by SerpApi when there is a block other than text, e.g., videos.

Test 3) Keyword: star wars watch online

SerpApi Serper SearchApi ValueSERP
Organic Results ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅
Available On ✅ ❌ ❌ ❌
Knowledge Graph ✅ ❌ ✅ Partially
Related Searches ✅ only text only text only text

*Related searches are shown by SerpApi when there is a block other than text, e.g., videos.

Test 4) Keyword: events in Austin

SerpApi Serper SearchApi ValueSERP
Organic Results ✅ ✅ ✅ ✅
Event Results ✅ ❌ ❌ ❌
Sponsored (Ads) ✅ ❌ ❌ ❌
Related Searches ✅ only text only text only text

*Related searches are shown by SerpApi when there is a block other than text, e.g., videos.

SerpApi can parse any information available on the Google search results page, not just the organic results. Based on this test, Serper is only able to scrape some text information from organic results, related searches (partially), and related questions.

Here are some data points that are only available on SerpApi:

The events ads and information in Google Search API
related search block variation
available on information only available at SerpApi
SerpApi is your best choice if you care about the quality of your data.

General SerpApi vs the Alternatives comparison

There are other benefits when you're choosing SerpApi, such as:
- Wide range of parameters
- Ludicrous speed
- Scalability
- Wide range of search engines
- Public documentation
- Public Status page (detailed to each search engine)
- Public roadmap (issues, bugs, and feature requests)
- Cached results
- Enterprise support
- Legal US Shield

Complete Parameters
Search results from Google are always different from search to search. It's caused by many parameters that Google has, including from which device you're searching from, which location, filtering safe search, tbs options, and many more.

SerpApi supports many parameters for Google Search API and other searches as well.

SearchApi supported parameters for Google Search

Ludicrous Speed
If you care about your performance, we also have an additional feature called Ludicrous Speed. With it, you can get your response two times faster.

Scalability
You can subscribe to more than 100 million searches per month. In fact, many customers switch to SerpApi because of our reliability when performing searches at scale.

A wide range of search engines
We have the most search engine APIs compared to other competitors. You can find search engine APIs for Google Maps, YouTube, Baidu, Bing, Naver, and many more.

Public Status Page
While SearchApi and Serper provide a general status page for the landing page and API status, we take it a step further by providing everyone (not just our customers) a public status page to view our average response for the last 30 days. Visitors can also filter this status based on the search engine: https://serpapi.com/status

Public status page by SerpApi

Public Roadmap
Web scraping comes with many challenges. Search engines can update their layout and HTML structure anytime they want. Apart from providing a test and notification to let us know when something has failed, we also have a public roadmap where anyone can see bugs and issues and submit a feature request for SerpApi.

GitHub - serpapi/public-roadmap: Public roadmap for SerpApi, LLC (https://serpapi.com)
Public roadmap for SerpApi, LLC (https://serpapi.com) - serpapi/public-roadmap
GitHubserpapi
Transparency is one of our core values. We try to be very transparent with our customers. You can find lots of public information about us including issues, status page, and so on.

Public Documentation
Documentation is a very important part of developer tools. SerpApi, SearchApi, and ValueSERP provide public documentation for developers.

Cached Results
You also have an option to use a cached result (valid for 1 hour), so you don't have to pay if you perform an exact search under one hour.

*The cache is unique to each user and only valid for one hour. It's optional as well.

Enterprise Support
Many companies require a custom contract and flexible payment options, that's why we also provide enterprise support for our customers who need:

  • Custom contracts
  • Priority support and tickets
  • On-demand or reserved search pricing
  • Flexible payment options
  • 100% uptime

Read more about the enterprise plan here.

Legal US Shield
For all recurring plans except the developer plan, we guarantee that we will assume the liabilities of scraping and parsing search engine results for domestic and foreign companies - "Legal US Shield" - unless your usage is otherwise illegal. Illegal usages include but are not limited to acts of cyber criminality, terrorism, pedopornography, denial of service attacks, war crimes, and/or anything that would have been illegal under Texas state laws and/or under U.S. federal laws.

I hope this post can help you decide on what search API provider to choose, either:
- SerpAPI vs SerperDev
- SerpAPI vs SearchAPI
- SerpAPI vs ValueSERP

FAQ

Why are some providers cheaper?
We understand that we may not be the cheapest option. However, we provide the most reliable and high-performing option available. If you care about performance, I believe SerpApi is the best choice for your business. We have been in business since 2017 and have tackled many issues that our competitors probably haven't faced before. Many enterprise customers choose us because of SerpApi's reliability when performing a very high number of searches.

Why is there a competitor that offers faster response time?
As you can see from our benchmark and test in this post, unfortunately, with faster results, you have to sacrifice the quality of your data. Some data can be missing from the search response, which is very important.

I want to try SerpApi!
I'm glad to hear that! Feel free to try our API at our playground; you don't have to write any code: https://serpapi.com/playground

Do you offer a free plan?
Yes, by signing up at serpapi.com you'll get 100 free searches per month.