DataForSEO vs. Bright Data: SERP API Providers Сompared
Being a reputable data provider for SEO enjoins us to keep an eye on trends and occasionally check out our competitors. Of course, we do not claim total objectivity; however, we are willing to provide you with a clearer vision and highlight our distinct features. Today we look upon Bright Data – another prominent dataset and web scrapping vendor, offering among other things, the Search Engine Results Page (SERP) API.
Bright Data (formerly Luminati) was founded in 2014, just 2 years before DataForSEO. Bright Data hails from Israel, while we are registered in Estonia, and our team’s home is Ukraine.
Bright Data puts most effort and sources into its proxy infrastructure. In DataForSEO, we are primarily committed to providing API services for digital marketers. If you are one of them, you are likely to come across both of us. Understanding what distinguishes our SERP services will help you choose the one fitting your requirements.
Both products are good choices for web scraping, based on RESTful technology with high rates and success, providing accurate verifiable results. Yet, the differences below may play a big part.
Free trial
Both products are available to try out for free as simple customizable SERP query builders – Bright Data SERP Playground, and DataForSEO API Explorer. Bright Data’s free trial is limited to 7 days, while we provide an account balance enough for 833 high-priority SERPs for an unlimited time. We also have a Sandbox environment to make actual API calls and obtain real JSON data.
Prerequisites
To start using Bright Data SERP API, you must create and configure a special proxy zone. DataForSEO poses no such requirement – we have taken care of everything on our side. This also eliminates the need for downloading and installing SSL certificates for making HTTPS requests.
Methods and data storage
Bright Data’s synchronous and asynchronous requests correspond to our Live and Standard methods requiring one and two requests respectively. The DataForSEO API Standard method is optimal when instant results are not required and is more affordable. Moreover, it comes in two priorities which add pricing flexibility. Bright Data stores the asynchronous response for 24 hours, while our users can retrieve such results within 30 days. Using Bright Data product through the Postman software is possible only in asynchronous mode, while with DataForSEO SERP API, Live, i.e. synchronous method is also available in this case.
Search parameters
Both services support various search parameters, such as language, location, results depth per page, device, etc. Still, there are important differences:
- Search location – both services perform well in terms of preciseness. Bright Data supports cities for an accurate targeted search. DataForSEO allows setting location coordinates – very useful for service-area businesses and brick-and-mortar.
- Pixel ranking – SERP features today come in all shapes and sizes, therefore, the optimum way to track a website’s visibility in results is by measuring its pixel visibility. This novel approach refers to the distance between the result snippet and the page top. Our SERP API provides both the pixel rank and the snippet size for each element.
- Filters – both services support timeframes. Bright Data SERP API supports filtering reviews by keywords, relevance, and rating. DataForSEO Google Local Finder SERP API additionally supports filtering places by open days and hours providing insights into the local market.
- Crawl limit – a helpful DataForSEO parameter complementing the depth to control the expenses for SERP requests. It defines the number of search results pages to analyze. To be fair, Bright Data implements the same, but by setting proxy bandwidth and spending limits.
SERP items and endpoints
Both services display absolute and relative rankings. With Bright Data, the results come unparsed in HTML; you have to manually add a special parameter to a query to get them in a structured format. Meanwhile, in DataForSEO, we parse the SERPs right away into JSON format and also provide the raw HTML option. Our major advantage is certainly the diversity of result types (items) in each SERP:
| Bright Data | DataForSEO |
| Ranking No results / Did you mean Reviews / Rating Site links Breadcrumbs Organic results Ads People also ask Top stories Knowledge Panel Recipes Maps Related Searches Flights Hotels |
Organic Paid Answer Box App Carousel Multi Carousel Featured Snippet Google Flights Google Reviews Google Posts Images Jobs Knowledge Graph Local Pack Hotels Pack Map People also ask Related Searches People Also Search Shopping Top Stories Video Events Mention Carousel Recipes Top Sights Scholarly Articles Popular Products Podcasts Questions and Answers Find Results on Stocks Box Visual Stories Commercial Units Local Services Google Hotels Math Solver Currency Box Product Considerations Found on the Web Short Videos |
Bright Data allows targeting the following Google SERP features by customizing a request:
- Search
- Shopping
- Maps
- Images
- Hotels
- Videos
- Trends
- Reviews
- News
- Jobs
In DataForSEO, along with a bundle of items in the Organic SERP API endpoint, we provide the following range of search engine types:
- Google Organic
- Google Maps
- Google Local Finder
- Google News
- Google Events
- Google Images
- Search by Image
- Google Jobs
- Google Autocomplete
- Dataset Search
- Dataset Info
Those all are the parts of DataForSEO SERP API and come at the same price as our Organic SERP, which depends only on the results count.
Both APIs support image search, as well as reverse image search, but we also allow selecting the image size option.
Network uptime
This is what both of our companies can boast: an outstanding 99.99% for Bright Data and 99.95% for DataForSEO. Bright Data’s current service status is displayed to a registered user upon sending a specific API request. While we have a dedicated public page with the current status, reports for the recent 60 days, and the issue log, much more transparent, isn’t it?
Search engines
| Bright Data | DataForSEO |
| Google Yandex Bing Baidu Yahoo Naver DuckDuckGo |
Google Bing Baidu Yahoo Youtube Naver Seznam |
We ceased access to Yandex SERP API in the first week of the russian invasion in Ukraine, removed russia and Belarus from APIs and databases, and banned users from these countries. We support the Ukrainian economy by donating 50% of the profits and supply protective equipment, drones, medical kits, and other things for our defenders on the frontline.
Hotels
Bright Data provides Hotels Search for an extra cost, while our Hotels Pack feature comes from the box. Just like them, we support hotel prices. Bright Data displays arrival and departure dates, and occupancy rates, while we display four top lodgings on the map, hotel reviews, and their additional services.
Languages and resources
| Bright Data | DataForSEO |
| cURL PHP NodeJs Java c# Python VB Ruby Perl |
cURL PHP NodeJs Java JavaScript c# Python |
Bright Data supports more code languages, however, it doesn’t have any published libraries or clients for them, even for the registered users. Neither it provides structured documentation, nor examples specifically for SERP API. We, in contrast, are proud of our thorough API documentation with clear concise descriptions of each request parameter and response field. We have a comprehensive Knowledge Base, Help Center, and Blog, while our competitor’s information about the services is scattered between FAQs and other Resouces sections.
Pricing
A single SERP API request can contain up to 100 search engine results. Using the depth parameter in DataForSEO API, and the Pagination feature in Bright Data API multiply the cost accordingly.
Both services apply a pay-as-you-go pricing model and charge only successful requests. For Business and Growth plans, Bright Data requires a minimum monthly commitment to keep an account active, while we pose no such requirement.
| Bright Data | DataForSEO |
In the case of annual billing, the price is 10% lower – $0.00203 and $0.0023 per SERP page accordingly. |
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As you see, DataForSEO pricing is more affordable. Certain additional parameters increase the SERP API cost of both vendors.
Customer service and technical support
In general, both services provide fairly responsive 24/7 customer support on various channels. DataForSEO support team is quicker, with 23 second median first response time, while Bright Data typically respond within a few minutes. We consider ourselves more customer-success-focused, providing a human touch rather than referring customers to documentation (as the Bright Data team does).
Core users
Both of us target small to large businesses such as eCommerce, media, and marketing, but our competitor emphasizes its value for educational institutions and non-profits. While we, as our name suggests, are more dedicated to SEO software companies and agencies, web testing, keyword research, and content providers.
Takeaway
As we see, both considered SERP APIs are good for data-driven marketers, with high speed, accuracy, and availability. Bright Data’s key focus, however, is proxy services, not API products. With DataForSEO, you get multifarious API results, affordable pricing, and effective support for various use cases. Create your account to access the updated DataForSEO SERP endpoints and understand your brand’s online position and competitors.
