Which covers more search engines?

SerpApi. Its single search tool returns structured results from Google, Bing, and dozens of other engines. Serper is Google-focused but exposes many Google verticals — web, news, images, scholar, patents, maps, and more — as dedicated tools, so its breadth is in verticals rather than engines.

Is either server official?

SerpApi's is official, published by SerpApi, and hosted remotely over a bearer token. The Serper server is a community project (vendor garylab) run locally over stdio, so weigh that provenance difference when judging support and maintenance.

Serper vs SerpApi

Serper MCP and SerpApi MCP both give an agent structured search-engine results, but they differ in breadth of verticals, engine coverage, hosting, and provenance. The Serper server (a community project, vendor garylab) wraps Serper, a fast Google Search API, and exposes many Google verticals as distinct tools: web search, news, images, videos, places, maps, reviews, shopping, lens, scholar, patents, and more — a rich set of Google-focused endpoints run locally over stdio via uvx. SerpApi's server is official and hosted (remote over a bearer token): it exposes a single search tool that returns structured results from Google, Bing, and dozens of other engines, so the breadth comes from engine coverage rather than many tools. So Serper offers many Google verticals from a community server you run yourself, while SerpApi offers one unified tool spanning many search engines from an official hosted endpoint. Here is a balanced look at how they differ.

How they compare

Dimension	Serper	SerpApi
Engine coverage	Google-focused: many Google verticals (web, news, images, videos, places, maps, scholar, patents, and more).	Many engines: Google, Bing, and dozens of others, all behind one unified search tool.
Tool surface	Many distinct tools, one per Google vertical, so the agent calls a specific endpoint for each result type.	A single search tool; the breadth is in which engine and parameters you pass rather than many tools.
Official status	Community server (vendor garylab), not published by Serper — weigh that provenance for support.	Official SerpApi server, published by SerpApi.
Hosting and auth	Runs locally over stdio via uvx (serper-mcp-server) against the Serper API.	Hosted remote server authenticated with a bearer token — no local install.
Best-fit task	Tapping many Google verticals (scholar, patents, maps, shopping, lens) through dedicated tools on a self-run server.	Getting structured results across many search engines through one official, hosted, unified tool.

Verdict

Both deliver structured SERP data, so choose by vertical depth versus engine breadth, and by provenance. Pick the Serper server when you want fine-grained access to many Google verticals — scholar, patents, maps, places, shopping, lens, and more — as dedicated tools on a server you run yourself, accepting that it is a community project. Pick the SerpApi server when you want official, hosted access across many search engines (Google, Bing, and dozens more) through a single unified search tool. In short: Serper for many Google-vertical tools from a self-run community server; SerpApi for one official hosted tool spanning many engines.

FAQ

Which covers more search engines?: SerpApi. Its single search tool returns structured results from Google, Bing, and dozens of other engines. Serper is Google-focused but exposes many Google verticals — web, news, images, scholar, patents, maps, and more — as dedicated tools, so its breadth is in verticals rather than engines.
Is either server official?: SerpApi's is official, published by SerpApi, and hosted remotely over a bearer token. The Serper server is a community project (vendor garylab) run locally over stdio, so weigh that provenance difference when judging support and maintenance.