SearchHive vs DataForSEO — Web Scraping Compared

Choosing between SearchHive and DataForSEO for web scraping and search data comes down to what you actually need: a unified search-and-scrape platform, or a comprehensive SEO data suite with a steep learning curve.

DataForSEO has built a massive API covering SERP data, keywords, backlinks, business listings, and more. SearchHive focuses on doing three things exceptionally well: web search, content scraping, and structured data extraction. This comparison breaks down the differences across the dimensions that matter for developers and data teams.

Key Takeaways

• DataForSEO is a broad SEO data platform with 20+ API endpoints; SearchHive is a focused search-and-scrape API
• DataForSEO's minimum payment is $50 with no free tier; SearchHive offers 500 free credits
• SearchHive's per-request pricing is significantly lower for pure search and scraping use cases
• DataForSEO excels at SEO metrics (keywords, backlinks); SearchHive excels at content extraction
• For ML pipelines, RAG systems, and data science projects, SearchHive is the better fit

Comparison Table

Feature-by-Feature Comparison

Search API

DataForSEO provides parsed SERP data from multiple search engines (Google, Bing, YouTube, Yahoo, Baidu, Naver, Seznam). Their SERP API returns organic results, ads, knowledge graphs, featured snippets, and more. Google Organic SERP starts at $0.0005/live per task.

SearchHive provides Google and Bing search results through SwiftSearch. Results include titles, URLs, snippets, and metadata. The API is simpler and optimized for fast retrieval rather than comprehensive SERP feature parsing.

Winner: DataForSEO for comprehensive SERP analysis. SearchHive for speed and simplicity.

Web Scraping

This is where the comparison shifts significantly.

DataForSEO does not offer a general-purpose web scraping API. Their On-Page API analyzes pages for SEO metrics (content length, keyword density, page speed), but it cannot scrape arbitrary websites for content extraction.

SearchHive's ScrapeForge is a full-featured scraping API that renders JavaScript, handles proxy rotation, and returns clean content in multiple formats (HTML, markdown, text). This is the tool you need for building ML datasets, RAG pipelines, or any application that requires actual page content.

import requests

# SearchHive: Scrape any page with JS rendering
resp = requests.post(
    "https://api.searchhive.dev/v1/scrape",
    headers={"Authorization": "Bearer YOUR_KEY"},
    json={"url": "https://example.com/product-page", "format": "markdown"}
)
print(resp.json()["content"])

Winner: SearchHive, decisively. DataForSEO is not designed for web scraping.

Structured Data Extraction

SearchHive's DeepDive API extracts specific fields from web pages using natural language field names. You request "title", "author", "price", "rating" and get structured free JSON formatter back.

resp = requests.post(
    "https://api.searchhive.dev/v1/deepdive",
    headers={"Authorization": "Bearer YOUR_KEY"},
    json={
        "url": "https://example.com/product",
        "extract": ["product_name", "price", "rating", "availability"]
    }
)
data = resp.json()
# {"product_name": "...", "price": "$29.99", "rating": "4.5", "availability": "In Stock"}

DataForSEO extracts structured SEO data (meta tags, headings, links, schema) but not general-purpose content fields.

Winner: SearchHive for content extraction. DataForSEO for SEO auditing.

SEO Data

This is DataForSEO's core strength. They provide:

• Keyword data (search volume, CPC, competition)
• Backlink profiles (referring domains, anchor text, authority scores)
• On-page SEO analysis
• Domain analytics
• Content analysis for SEO optimization

SearchHive does not offer any of these features. If you are building an SEO tool or need keyword/backlink data, DataForSEO is the clear choice.

Winner: DataForSEO.

Pricing Comparison

SearchHive Pricing

DataForSEO Pricing

DataForSEO uses per-task pricing across many API types:

• Google Organic SERP: from $0.0005/task
• Google Maps SERP: from $0.0025/task
• Keywords Data: from $0.0002/task
• Backlinks: from $0.0003/task
• On-Page: from $0.001/task
• Minimum payment: $50 (no monthly plan)

For a pure search + scraping workload at 50K requests/month:

• SearchHive Builder plan: $49/month (includes search AND scraping)
• DataForSEO: ~$50 minimum deposit for SERP data alone, plus you would need a separate scraping service

Winner: SearchHive for search and scraping workloads. DataForSEO can be competitive for pure SERP data at very high volumes, but the $50 minimum and lack of scraping make it more expensive for most use cases.

Code Examples

SearchHive: Search + Scrape in One Pipeline

import requests

API_KEY = "your-key"
BASE = "https://api.searchhive.dev/v1"
headers = {"Authorization": f"Bearer {API_KEY}"}

# Step 1: Search for relevant pages
search = requests.post(f"{BASE}/swift/search", headers=headers, json={
    "query": "best running shoes 2025", "limit": 5
})
urls = [r["url"] for r in search.json()["results"]]

# Step 2: Scrape content from each result
for url in urls:
    page = requests.post(f"{BASE}/scrape", headers=headers, json={
        "url": url, "format": "markdown"
    })
    print(f"Content from {url}: {len(page.json()['content'])} chars")

DataForSEO: SERP Search Only

import requests

login = "your-login"
password = "your-password"

resp = requests.post(
    "https://api.dataforseo.com/v3/serp/google/organic/live/advanced",
    auth=(login, password),
    json=[{
        "keyword": "best running shoes 2025",
        "location_code": 2840,
        "language_code": "en"
    }]
)
for item in resp.json()["tasks"][0]["result"]:
    print(item["title"], item["url"])
# Note: No scraping capability -- you need another tool for content

Verdict

Choose SearchHive if you need to search the web and extract content from pages. This covers ML pipelines, RAG systems, competitive intelligence, price monitoring, lead generation, and any application where you need actual page content, not just SERP data.

Choose DataForSEO if you are building an SEO platform that needs keyword research, backlink analysis, and comprehensive SERP feature data. DataForSEO's depth in SEO data is unmatched, but it is not a scraping tool.

For most developers and data teams building AI/ML applications, SearchHive is the better fit. It costs less, requires less integration code, and handles the full search-to-content pipeline in a single API.

Get started with SearchHive free -- 500 credits, no credit card required.

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