Head to head
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Up to 4 tools, same rows for each: what it is, what it really costs, the trap, and how to wire it up. The URL carries your picks — send it to anyone.
SerperFuse.jsMiniSearch
Quick read
- Free with no card: Fuse.js, MiniSearch.
| Field | Serperserper.dev | Fuse.jsfusejs.io | MiniSearchgithub.com |
|---|---|---|---|
| What it is | A fast, cheap Google Search results API returning structured JSON — organic results, knowledge graph, people-also-ask and related searches, plus dedicated endpoints for images, news, maps, places, videos, shopping, scholar and patents. Responses typically land in one to two seconds. | A zero-dependency fuzzy-search library using the Bitap algorithm — roughly 6.8kB gzipped for the basic build, 8.6kB for the full one. Searches arrays of JS objects in memory with typo tolerance, field weighting, nested keys and extended query operators. Runs in browsers, Node and Deno. | A dependency-free JavaScript full-text search engine that builds a real inverted index in memory, in the browser or in Node. Supports prefix search, fuzzy matching, field boosting, modern relevance ranking, auto-suggestion, and adding or removing documents at any time. The index serializes to JSON so it can be prebuilt. |
| Category | Search, vector & RAG | Search, vector & RAG | Search, vector & RAG |
| Cost tier | mixed | free | free |
| Pricing | 2,500 free queries at signup, no card. From $0.30 per 1,000 queries at volume. Credits are prepaid with no monthly subscription. Covers search, images, news, maps, places, videos, shopping, scholar, patents and autocomplete. | Free, Apache-2.0. No service, no account, no limits, no bill. | Free, MIT-licensed. No service or account. |
| Why builders pick it | By far the cheapest way to give an agent real Google results — at $0.30 per 1,000 it is roughly 15x cheaper per query than Brave or Exa. Prepaid credits, no monthly minimum. | When a few hundred to a few thousand items already sit in your app state — a command palette, a settings list, a filterable table — this is ten lines of code and no infrastructure. | The step up from Fuse.js when you have tens of thousands of records — a proper index instead of rescoring every item per keystroke, still with no backend and no bill. |
| Watch out for | You get links and snippets, not page contents — pair it with a fetcher. It resells scraped Google results, so terms-of-service risk sits with you commercially. | It scores every item on every keystroke, so it degrades noticeably past roughly 10K records. Use MiniSearch or a real index above that. | The whole index ships to the client, so a large corpus means a large download. Prebuild and cache the serialized JSON rather than indexing on every page load. |
| How to wire it up | not logged | npm i fuse.js | npm i minisearch |
| Editor's pick | No | No | No |
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# Tool comparison — Serper vs Fuse.js vs MiniSearch Source: Kbaise, a directory of tools that work with Lovable projects. Pick one and tell me why before writing any integration code. ## Serper (serper) - URL: https://serper.dev - Category: Search, vector & RAG - Cost: mixed — 2,500 free queries at signup, no card. From $0.30 per 1,000 queries at volume. Credits are prepaid with no monthly subscription. Covers search, images, news, maps, places, videos, shopping, scholar, patents and autocomplete. - What it is: A fast, cheap Google Search results API returning structured JSON — organic results, knowledge graph, people-also-ask and related searches, plus dedicated endpoints for images, news, maps, places, videos, shopping, scholar and patents. Responses typically land in one to two seconds. - Why builders pick it: By far the cheapest way to give an agent real Google results — at $0.30 per 1,000 it is roughly 15x cheaper per query than Brave or Exa. Prepaid credits, no monthly minimum. - Trap: You get links and snippets, not page contents — pair it with a fetcher. It resells scraped Google results, so terms-of-service risk sits with you commercially. - Full dossier: /api/public/tools/serper ## Fuse.js (fuse-js) - URL: https://www.fusejs.io - Category: Search, vector & RAG - Cost: free — Free, Apache-2.0. No service, no account, no limits, no bill. - What it is: A zero-dependency fuzzy-search library using the Bitap algorithm — roughly 6.8kB gzipped for the basic build, 8.6kB for the full one. Searches arrays of JS objects in memory with typo tolerance, field weighting, nested keys and extended query operators. Runs in browsers, Node and Deno. - Why builders pick it: When a few hundred to a few thousand items already sit in your app state — a command palette, a settings list, a filterable table — this is ten lines of code and no infrastructure. - Trap: It scores every item on every keystroke, so it degrades noticeably past roughly 10K records. Use MiniSearch or a real index above that. - Wiring: npm i fuse.js - Full dossier: /api/public/tools/fuse-js ## MiniSearch (minisearch) - URL: https://github.com/lucaong/minisearch - Category: Search, vector & RAG - Cost: free — Free, MIT-licensed. No service or account. - What it is: A dependency-free JavaScript full-text search engine that builds a real inverted index in memory, in the browser or in Node. Supports prefix search, fuzzy matching, field boosting, modern relevance ranking, auto-suggestion, and adding or removing documents at any time. The index serializes to JSON so it can be prebuilt. - Why builders pick it: The step up from Fuse.js when you have tens of thousands of records — a proper index instead of rescoring every item per keystroke, still with no backend and no bill. - Trap: The whole index ships to the client, so a large corpus means a large download. Prebuild and cache the serialized JSON rather than indexing on every page load. - Wiring: npm i minisearch - Full dossier: /api/public/tools/minisearch ## Quick read - Free with no card: Fuse.js, MiniSearch. ## Rules 1. Prefer the free tier when no budget was stated, and say what the ceiling is. 2. Read the full dossier before integrating. 3. Fetch /api/public/models before writing any AI model ID.
Agents can fetch the same thing: GET /api/public/compare?slugs=serper,fuse-js,minisearch