Search engine result page (SERP) APIs allow you to gather data from search engines like Google at scale, without needing to build and maintain your own scraping infrastructure. But with many options out there, how do you choose the right one?
In this guide, we‘ll compare the top SERP APIs available today across key factors like features, performance, pricing, and more. I‘ll share our recommendations to help you find the best fit for your needs.
Introduction: What are SERP APIs and How Do They Work?
SERP APIs function as a middleware between you and the search engine. Instead of sending requests directly to Google, you send them to the API service.
The provider then handles scraping the data through a network of residential proxies to avoid blocks. It returns the search results to you, often even parsed and structured.
This saves you the heavy lifting of building a scalable scraper and dealing with technical challenges like proxies, CAPTCHAs and handling Google‘s anti-bot measures.
6 Key Factors to Consider in a SERP API
When researching options, keep these aspects in mind:
1. Speed and reliability – Faster response times and higher uptime allow more requests within rate limits. Look for 99%+ success rates.
2. Location targeting – Local and geo-targeted searches may need city or neighborhood-level options.
3. Device emulation – For mobile vs desktop results.
4. Supported search engines – Beyond Google, options like Bing, YouTube and Amazon.
5. Parser quality and coverage – Structuring raw HTML data into digestible formats. More properties parsed means less work on your end.
6. Pricing and scalability – Cost per thousand requests and ability to grow with your needs.
Now let‘s see how five of the top providers measure up across these metrics.
The 5 Best SERP APIs of 2024
1. Oxylabs
Oxylabs dominates as the most full-featured and reliable SERP API today. It‘s built on top of their worldwide proxy network spanning 195 locations.
Key features:
- Speed: 6 sec average response time with 100% success rate in our tests.
- Locations: Country, city and postal code targeting available.
- Devices: Desktop, tablet, mobile and custom manual selection.
- Search engines: Google, Bing, Yandex, Yahoo and more. Supports images, news, shopping and other verticals.
- Parsers: Extracts 20+ data types from search results, saving you parsing time.
- Pricing: Starts from $49/mo for 17.5K requests. Scalable pricing model.
Oxylabs has extremely polished documentation and customer support. Overall, the most robust package – highly recommended even for large-scale production needs.
2. BrightData
Owned by the proxy provider BrightData, this API focuses on speed and Google vertical coverage.
Key features:
- Speed: Fastest tested at 4.6 s average response.
- Locations: 195 countries and major cities available.
- Devices: Desktop and mobile.
- Search engines: Google, Bing, Yahoo, Yandex, DuckDuckGo. With images, news and shopping.
- Parsers: Parses organic results, images, news and some shopping data.
- Pricing: Expensive at $500+ mo minimum. Scales well for big needs.
This enterprise-geared API has very competent documentation and support. Overall, BrightData offers a fast Google-centric scraper perfect for news, image search and shopping engines. The premium pricing is its main downside.
3. Smartproxy
Offering a balanced mix of features, Smartproxy hits the sweet spot between lower-end and premium APIs.
Key features:
- Speed: Quick at 6 sec ave response time. Nearly 100% success rate.
- Locations: 195 countries and major cities available.
- Devices: Desktop, tablet and mobile. Limited customization.
- Search engines: Google, Bing, Yandex, Yahoo, Baidu and more. With news, images and shopping.
- Parsers: Decent coverage of ~15 data types. Saves some parsing work.
- Pricing: Starts from ~$50/mo. Lower mid-tier pricing, good value.
Smartproxy lacks some bells and whistles of premium APIs but makes it up with great value pricing. It‘s a cost-efficient pick for many small to mid-size needs.
4. ScrapeDo
Cost-focused offering for basic Google scraping needs on a budget.
Key features:
- Speed: Average at 8 s+ response times in testing.
- Locations: USA and international proxies available. City-level targeting missing.
- Devices: Desktop and mobile. Lacks granular customization.
- Search engines: Only Google web search and images. No shopping/News etc.
- Parsers: Light parsing of organic results and Adwords ads only.
- Pricing: Starts at $30/mo. Cheapest full-featured API option.
If Google web and image search is all you need, ScrapeDo hits an affordable price point other providers can‘t match. But you trade off limited location options, multiple engines and parser coverage.
5. ProxyCrawl
A unique API that focuses solely on high-quality proxy delivery instead of scraping features.
Key features:
- Speed: Quick response but searches execute through your code.
- Locations: USA and EU proxies. City targeting not available.
- Devices: Rotates mobile and desktop IPs.
- Search engines: None. This provides proxy access to search yourself.
- Parsers: None. You build scrapers and handle parsing.
- Pricing: From $75/mo for 5M searches on their proxies.
ProxyCrawl is right for skilled developers needing reliable residential IPs. If you want an out-of-the-box solution, the other APIs are better options requiring less coding and proxy management.
SERP API vs Web Scraping: Which Should You Choose?
Besides SERP APIs, web scraping tools are another option to gather Google search data. They function similarly with a few key differences:
Web Scrapers
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Coding required – These tend to be software you install with a coding language like Python or JavaScript.
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DIY proxies – You source and integrate proxy rotation yourself.
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More customization – But more effort to tailor and maintain over time.
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Lower reliability – Google blocks lead to inconsistent results.
SERP APIs
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No coding skills needed – Simple API calls with response delivery.
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Integrated proxies – Provider handles proxy management under the hood.
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Pre-built for Google – Just configure and go. Require less custom logic.
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More reliable – Purpose-built to avoid blocks for consistent results.
So while web scrapers provide more customization freedom, that comes with greater time investment and technical skill needed compared to SERP APIs. Choose what aligns best to your priorities.
Once you‘ve picked your SERP API, implement these best practices for avoiding disruptions:
1. Rotate proxies and IPs – Use providers offering large, diverse IP pools that rotate automatically behind the scenes.
2. Limit request frequency – Spread out requests over time and avoid spikes that may trigger Google bot detection.
3. Mimic organic behavior – Vary search queries instead of repeating the exact same terms and filter criteria.
4. Solve CAPTCHAs manually – Some tools provide human teams to manually complete CAPTCHA tests prompted by Google.
Stick within reasonable limits and Google shouldn‘t flag your activities if the tool handles proxies properly. Reach out for support if facing repeated blocks.
I hope this guide has helped shed light on the breadth of SERP APIs available today and how to pick the right solution for your needs.
Oxylabs leads as the most robust enterprise-scale offering, while Smartproxy hits the best balance for small to mid-size scraping. Budget buyers can look to ScrapeDo or ProxyCrawl.
Remember to implement safe scraping practices for smooth access to Google search results at scale.
Let me know if you have any other questions!
