Exa alternatives
Depot pick for research-style agent search. Pair with Firecrawl when you need full page content.
Overall 8.3 (curated_estimate, high) · score asOf 2026-10-19 · last reviewed 2026-10-19. This is not an Elo and not a live price board. Provider · JSON
Jobs: web-grounded-qa, llm-ready-extract, agent-search, neural-search, search-augmented-llm, privacy-search, deep-research-agents
| Provider | Why listed | Overall | Δ vs subject | asOf |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tavily Depot co-default for agent web search with Exa. Pick Tavily for classic SERP-like agent search. | same_jtbd_runner, same_jtbd_pick · web-grounded-qa, agent-search, neural-search | 8.29high | -0.01 | 2026-09-14 |
| Brave Search API Best privacy-forward search API with an independent index. Strong complement to Tavily/Exa. | same_jtbd_runner, same_jtbd_pick · agent-search, neural-search, privacy-search | 8.33high | +0.03 | 2026-09-14 |
| Parallel Strong Exa peer for agent search; wins when you need Task/deep-research in one bill. Exa remains Depot… | same_jtbd_runner, same_jtbd_pick · agent-search, search-augmented-llm, deep-research-agents | 8.1high | -0.2 | 2026-09-14 |
| Perplexity Use when you want grounded answers without building search+cite yourself. For full agent stacks, prefer… | same_jtbd_pick, same_jtbd_runner · web-grounded-qa, search-augmented-llm, deep-research-agents | 7.67high | -0.63 | 2026-09-14 |
| Firecrawl Depot pick for turning the web into LLM context. Browserbase when you need to *act*, Firecrawl when you need… | same_jtbd_pick, same_jtbd_runner · llm-ready-extract, search-augmented-llm | 8.25high | -0.05 | 2026-10-19 |
| You.com API Agent search peer with Answer/Research SKUs. Exa remains depot agent-search pick; You.com strong when ZDR +… | same_jtbd_runner · web-grounded-qa, agent-search, search-augmented-llm | 8.07high | -0.23 | 2026-09-14 |
| Meilisearch Cloud Typesense/Algolia peer for product + RAG hybrid search. Prefer Typesense when hourly HA clusters are clearer… | same_jtbd_runner · neural-search | 8.36high | +0.06 | 2026-09-14 |
| Typesense Cloud Hybrid search peer when you want Algolia-like DX without per-request fees. Sample $0.03/hr floor pinned… | same_jtbd_runner · neural-search | 8.29high | -0.01 | 2026-09-14 |
| ZenRows Best per-request scrape API with agent MCP. Firecrawl when you want site-wide LLM markdown; Scrapfly when you… | same_jtbd_runner · llm-ready-extract | 8.27high | -0.03 | 2026-09-14 |
| Algolia Enterprise product-search default. Prefer Typesense/OpenSearch when $/QPS dominates; vector DBs when pure… | same_jtbd_runner · neural-search | 8.27high | -0.03 | 2026-09-14 |
| Scrapfly Excellent Firecrawl peer when you need anti-bot + cloud browser with transparent credits. Prefer Firecrawl… | same_jtbd_runner · llm-ready-extract | 8.25high | -0.05 | 2026-09-14 |
| Linkup Agent-search runner when you want transparent per-call EU-leaning search. Depot pick stays Exa; Tavily… | same_jtbd_runner · agent-search | 8.23high | -0.07 | 2026-09-14 |
Prices are not ranked on this page. For a job, use the sourced quote (separate input and output rows, Depot Pick unchanged): web-grounded-qa, llm-ready-extract, agent-search, neural-search.
Alternatives are other catalog providers that share a JTBD as pick or runner-up. If fewer than three exist, same-category active providers fill the list and are labeled same_category. Overall deltas are catalog scores. kind=curated_estimate is not a lab measurement. Pricing rows are sourced or explicitly null. Do not parse pricingNotes. A single normalized USD figure is set only for a provider with exactly one token row.