With the rise of large language models (LLMs), SEO tools, and various applications that require access to this data, there's a growing need for APIs that provide scalability, speed, and developer friendliness.

We've evaluated each API based on five key parameters.

• Scalability means how many pages you can scrape in a day.
• Pricing of the API. What is the cost of one API call?
• Speed means how fast an API can respond with results.
• Developer-friendly refers to the ease with which a software engineer can use the service.
• Stability refers to how much load a service can handle or for how long the service is in the market.

Scrapingdog's Google Search API

Scrapingdog's Google Search API provides raw and parsed data from Google search results.

Now, we might be biased for including our API on top (and yes, it's what I get paid for — JK, I'm the CTO!). But honestly, all the APIs are tested, I have the results in the screenshots all through this article.

Details

• With this API you get more than a billion API requests every month which makes this API a healthy choice.
• Per API call cost for scraping Google starts from $0.003 and goes below $0.00125 for higher volumes.
• For testing the speed of the API we are going to test the API on POSTMAN.

It took around 2.98 seconds to complete the request.

• Has documentation in multiple languages. From curl to Java, you will find a code snippet in almost every language.
• Scrapingdog has been in the market for more than 5 years now and you can see how customers have reviewed so far Scrapingdog on Trustpilot. The API is stable.
• You can even test the API for free, we provide 1000 free credits to spin it.

Here's a quick video tutorial on how you can use Scrapingdog's Google Search Scraper API.

Data For SEO

Data for SEO provides the data required for creating any SEO tool. They have APIs for backlinks, keywords, search results, etc.

Details

• Documentation is too noisy which makes integration of the API time-consuming.
• The pricing is not clear. Their pricing changes based on the speed you want. But the high-speed pack will cost $0.002 per search. The minimum investment is $2k per month.
• They have been into scraping for so long and hence they have optimized it for scalability and stability.
• Cannot comment on the speed as we were unable to test the API because of very confusing documentation.

Bright Data

Bright Data as we all know is a huge company focused on data collection. They provide proxies, data scrapers, etc.

Details

• Their documentation is quite clear and testing is super simple.
• We tested their API and the average response time was close to 1.9 seconds, which is good.
• Per API call cost starts from $0.005. The success rate is pretty great which makes this API scalable and stable. The service is top notch and again any product you use is good.
• The only downside with Brightdata is that it's a bit more expensive compared to other providers.

Scrape-It Cloud

Scrape-it Cloud is another great option if you are looking for search engine API. Their dashboard makes your onboarding training pretty simple.

Details

• Documentation is pretty simple and easy to understand.
• Per API call response time is around 4.7 seconds.
• In my testing, I observed that APIs slow down if you hit If you hit the same API multiple times, for which the API would not perform well when chosen for scalability.
• Per API call price starts from $0.003 and goes around $0.0004 with higher volumes.
• They are pretty new to the market and are not updating the API to that extent.

Scrapingbee's Google Search API

Scrapingbee is also a web scraping API that offers a dedicated scraper for Google.

Details

• The documentation is pretty clear and contains code snippets in almost every language.
• The average time taken by the API to respond was close to 5 seconds. API delays response if multiple requests are made at the same time.

• They have been in the market for more than 5 years now and this makes them reliable and stable.
• The average time might go up if you need high concurrency.
• Pricing starts from $0.0081 per search and goes down to $0.001875 per search for the Business pack.

SerpAPI

SerpAPI is the fastest Google search scraper API with the highest variety of Google-related APIs.

Details

• The documentation is very clear and concise. You can quickly start scraping and Google service within minutes.
• The average response time was around 3.8 seconds. API is fast and reliable. This API can be used for any commercial purpose which requires a high volume of scraping.

• Pricing starts at $0.01 per request and it goes down to $0.0083!
• SerpAPI has been in this industry since 2016 and they have immense experience in this market. If you have a high-volume project then you can consider them.

Zenserp

Zenserp is a search engine API that offers multiple dedicated scrapers for Google, Bing, etc.

• The documentation is not that great clear. You have to spend a little time to get an idea. Only curl code snippets are available.
• The average response time was around 5.2 seconds. Time might go up with high concurrency.

• Pricing starts from $0.058 and goes below $0.03325. Seems very expensive.
• No support and zero updates to the API make it non-reliable.

Apify

Apify is a web scraping and automation platform that provides tools and infrastructure to simplify data extraction, web automation, and data processing tasks. It allows developers to easily build and run web scrapers, crawlers, and other automation workflows without having to worry about infrastructure management.

Details

• The documentation is pretty clear and makes integration simple.
• The average response time was around 8.2 seconds.

• Pricing starts from $0.003 per search and goes below $0.0019 per search in their Business packs.
• They have been in this industry for a very very long time which indicates they are reliable and scalable.

Serpwow

Serpwow is an API service that provides access to search engine result page (SERP) data from various search engines. It allows developers to retrieve organic search results, paid search results, and other relevant data related to search engine rankings.

Details

• Documentation is neat and API integration is simple.
• The average response time for this API was around 10 seconds. Which is quite high.

• Pricing starts from $0.012 per search and goes below $0.0048 per search for bigger packs.
• API seems unreliable as the time taken by the API kept increasing with the load.

ScraperAPI

ScraperAPI was initially launched as a free web scraping API but now it also offers multiple dedicated APIs around Google and its other services like SERP, News, Jobs, Shopping, etc.

Details

• Documentation is very clear and has code snippets for all major languages like Java, NodeJS, etc. This makes testing this API super easy.
• The average response time was around 11.6 seconds, and it might go up for high concurrency.

• Pricing starts from 0.00196$ per search and goes up to $0.0024 for bigger packs.
• They have been in the market for a long time but the SERP API doesn't meet the expectations.

Overall Results

At first glance, many of the APIs we've discussed may appear quite similar. But once you dig deeper and start testing, you'll notice that only a few (specifically two or three) are truly stable and suitable for production use.

The report above is based on a thorough analysis of each API, focusing on factors like speed, scalability, and pricing.

Almost all the APIs mentioned here offer free trials, so you can test them yourself firsthand and see which one fits your needs best.

Disclaimer — This article was orignially posted on our website. I am the CTO of the Scrapingdog, all the testing done are done by us for each API.