A real-time SERP and Maps results API versus an enriched business-data API.
What SerpApi is
SerpApi is a real-time search-results API. You send a query and it returns structured JSON for many Google surfaces - organic results, the Local Pack, and Google Maps - while handling proxies, CAPTCHAs, and frequent layout changes for you. Its Maps and Local endpoints return place results with titles, ratings, review counts, GPS coordinates, addresses, phones, and hours, in JSON, without you having to operate a scraper.
SerpApi's center of gravity is the SERP itself: it is the cleanest way to read what Google shows for a query, across many result types, in real time. For local business data that means you get the Maps or Local listing as JSON, then own the next steps - paginating, deduping across queries, and visiting each business website if you need emails or socials. It is a precise building block for developers and SEO teams who want raw, current search results to assemble into their own pipeline.
Head to head
| Dimension | SerpApi | biz collect |
|---|---|---|
| Primary model | Real-time SERP/Maps results API; raw JSON per query | API-first product: POST search, poll job, get enriched JSON |
| Data freshness | Real-time per query, straight from the live SERP | Per-request: Google Places search plus live website enrichment per job |
| Email/website enrichment | Not included; returns listing fields you enrich yourself | Built in: emails and socials scraped from each business website, deduped |
| Output format | Raw SERP/Maps JSON; you dedupe and normalize | One stable, storable JSON schema (plus CSV export), OpenAPI 3.1 |
| Setup effort | Query, paginate, dedupe, then enrich websites yourself | One job covers city + keywords + radius; two endpoints |
| Best for | SEO/SERP monitoring and raw search results across surfaces | Contact-ready local business records for outreach and automation |
| Pricing model | Usage-based search plans; check current pricing | Free tier, then credit-based plans from $19/mo (annual) |
Which fits the job
These tools often coexist. The best stack is usually the simplest reliable tool at each layer - not one tool forced to do every job.
biz collect vs SerpApi
For the specific job of getting contact-ready local business records, yes. SerpApi returns real-time SERP and Maps JSON that you then dedupe and enrich. biz collect runs the search, extracts website emails and socials, and dedupes the records for you. For raw SERP data across many Google surfaces, SerpApi is the broader tool.
SerpApi's Maps and Local endpoints return listing fields such as title, rating, address, phone, and hours, not emails scraped from each business website. biz collect adds that website email and social enrichment as part of every job and dedupes the results.
No. biz collect dedupes the businesses it finds before returning them, so a city-plus-keyword search comes back as one clean list. With a raw SERP API you typically dedupe across queries and pages yourself.
biz collect, when the task is local business contacts: a small, stable surface (POST /v1/search, GET /v1/jobs/:id) and an OpenAPI 3.1 spec let an agent fill location, keywords, and radius and parse predictable JSON. SerpApi is excellent when an agent needs raw search results to reason over.
Yes. Teams often use SerpApi for raw SERP and ranking data and biz collect for the local-business-contacts layer with website emails included. The best stack is usually the simplest reliable tool at each layer.
Yes. It includes 200 signup credits plus 20 daily login credits with no credit card, and polling job status is free, so you can test real searches before upgrading.
Still have questions? Talk to us.
Sign up free with 200 signup credits, no credit card. POST a city and keywords, poll the job, and see the structured JSON for yourself.
