SerpDog Alternatives — 8 Cheaper Real-Time SERP APIs

SerpDog Alternatives: 8 Cheaper Real-Time SERP APIs for 2026

SerpDog is a solid Google SERP API — it handles proxies, CAPTCHAs, and structured JSON output. But at $50/month for the starter plan and limited flexibility on pricing tiers, developers building SEO tools, AI agents, or rank trackers often find cheaper and more capable alternatives.

Here are the best SerpDog alternatives, compared on pricing, features, and developer experience.

Key Takeaways

• SerpDog starts at $50/month — several alternatives undercut this significantly
• SearchHive's SwiftSearch API offers real-time SERP data from $29/month with a free tier
• Free tiers exist across multiple providers (enough to evaluate before committing)
• Some alternatives cover multiple search engines, not just Google
• Developer experience (SDKs, docs, response format) varies more than pricing

1. SearchHive SwiftSearch

/compare/searchhive-vs-serpdog

SearchHive's SwiftSearch API delivers real-time Google SERP data with a focus on developer experience. Clean JSON responses, Python and Node SDKs, and structured extraction for organic results, knowledge panels, featured snippets, and people-also-ask boxes.

Pricing: Free tier with 100 searches/month. Pro at $29/month. Scale pricing for higher volumes.

Best for: Developers wanting SERP data alongside scraping and AI extraction in a single API.

import requests

resp = requests.get("https://api.searchhive.dev/v1/search",
    headers={"Authorization": "Bearer YOUR_API_KEY"},
    params={
        "q": "best project management tools 2026",
        "engine": "google",
        "num": 10,
        "location": "United States"
    }
)

results = resp.json()
for r in results.get("organic", [])[:5]:
    print(f"{r['position']}. {r['title']}")
    print(f"   {r['url']}")
    print(f"   {r['snippet'][:120]}...\n")

2. SerpAPI

SerpAPI is the most established player in the SERP API space. It supports Google, Bing, YouTube, Google Maps, and 20+ other engines. The documentation is extensive, and client libraries cover Python, Ruby, Node, Java, and more.

Pricing: Free plan with 100 searches/month. Paid plans from $50/month.

Best for: Teams that need multi-engine support and the most comprehensive documentation.

Limitation: Pricing scales steeply at volume — 10,000+ searches/month gets expensive.

3. Serper.dev

Serper.dev is a lightweight Google SERP API known for fast response times (sub-2-second p95). The API is straightforward: one endpoint, clean JSON, results in milliseconds. It supports organic results, knowledge graphs, and answer boxes.

Pricing: Free tier with 2,500 searches. Pro at $50/month.

Best for: Developers who want speed and simplicity without extras they don't need.

4. Valueserp

Valueserp positions itself as the affordable SERP API. It supports Google, Bing, Yahoo, and several other engines. The free tier is generous — 1,000 searches per month — and paid plans start lower than most competitors.

Pricing: Free with 1,000 searches/month. Paid from $9/month.

Best for: Budget-conscious developers and small SEO tools.

Limitation: Fewer advanced features (no visual search, limited local results).

5. ScrapingDog

ScrapingDog offers both a SERP API and a general web scraping API. The SERP endpoint handles Google, Bing, and Yahoo with JSON output. Since it's built on a proxy infrastructure, it handles geo-targeting well.

Pricing: Free with 1,000 requests. Starter at $30/month.

Best for: Teams that need SERP data alongside general web scraping from one provider.

6. API Serpent

/compare/api-serpent-vs-serpdog

API Serpent is a newer entrant focused on being the cheapest SERP API. They published transparent per-1K pricing comparisons showing significant savings over SerpAPI and SerpDog at scale.

Pricing: Starts at $15/month. High-volume pricing undercuts most competitors.

Best for: High-volume users where every cent per request matters.

7. Tavily

Tavily is an AI search API, not a traditional SERP API — but for AI agent builders, it's often the better choice. It returns search results optimized for LLM consumption, with source URLs, relevance scores, and optional answer generation.

Pricing: Free with 1,000 searches/month. Pro at $40/month.

Best for: AI agents and RAG applications that need search results, not raw SERP data.

8. Exa

Exa (formerly Metaphor) uses neural search instead of keyword matching. You describe what you're looking for in natural language and it returns semantically relevant pages. Different from traditional SERP APIs, but useful for research and discovery tasks.

Pricing: Free with 1,000 searches/month. Pro at $25/month.

Best for: Research workflows and AI applications needing semantic search.

Comparison Table

Our Recommendation

• Best overall: SearchHive. Real-time SERP data, web scraping, and AI extraction in one platform. The free tier lets you evaluate before committing, and $29/month is cheaper than SerpDog's equivalent tier.
• Cheapest: Valueserp at $9/month, or API Serpent at $15/month for higher volumes.
• For AI agents: Tavily returns search results pre-formatted for LLM consumption.
• Most comprehensive: SerpAPI covers the most search engines and has the best documentation.

If you're currently on SerpDog and paying $50/month or more, switching to SearchHive saves you money while giving you access to scraping and AI extraction capabilities that SerpDog doesn't offer. The API response format is clean, the SDK is well-maintained, and the free tier means you can test the migration risk-free.

Start with 100 free searches on SearchHive — no credit card required.