{"id":"deep-research-agents","slug":"deep-research-agents","name":"Deep research & multi-hop web agents","shortName":"Deep research","problemStatement":"Multi-step web research with citations, extractions sources, and agent-friendly APIs — beyond single-shot search.","whenNotTopPick":"Perplexity Sonar/Agent API already adopted, or Tavily/Exa fit simpler RAG search.","categoryIds":["cat-search-scrape"],"depotPickProviderId":"parallel","depotPickRationale":"Watch Perplexity Sonar deprecation timing. Confidence: medium-high on Parallel positioning.","runnersUpIds":["perplexity","exa","tavily","you-com"],"weights":{"capabilityFit":0.32,"pricePerformance":0.12,"latencyReliability":0.14,"developerDx":0.12,"privacyPosture":0.12,"lockInRisk":0.08,"maturity":0.1},"methodologyNotes":"Watch Perplexity Sonar deprecation timing. Confidence: medium-high on Parallel positioning.","tags":["research","search","citations","agents"],"depth":{"whenNotToUse":{"text":"Perplexity Sonar/Agent API already adopted, or Tavily/Exa fit simpler RAG search.","source":"editorial `whenNotTopPick` (data/jtbds.json)"},"whenNotToUseReason":null,"runnerUp":{"providerId":"perplexity","name":"Perplexity","overallForJob":7.65,"pickOverallForJob":8.07,"beatsPickOn":["maturity"],"source":"first resolvable entry of the job's editorially ranked `runnersUpIds`; scores are stored job-weighted scores"},"runnerUpReason":null,"lockIn":{"pickLockInRisk":4.2,"runnerUpLockInRisk":5.5,"scale":"0–10 stored curated estimate; higher = more lock-in (worse)","pickExitSignals":[],"runnerUpExitSignals":[],"pickNotes":[],"selfHostFallback":[{"id":"crawl4ai","name":"Crawl4AI","license":"Apache-2.0 plus attribution requirement","sourceUrl":"https://raw.githubusercontent.com/unclecode/crawl4ai/main/LICENSE"}],"migration":"The pick has lower stored lock-in risk than runner-up Perplexity (4.2 vs 5.5). Self-host fallback listed for this job: Crawl4AI.","migrationReason":null,"derivedFrom":"stored lockInRisk scores, provider tags (oss, self-host, openai-compat, open-models), free rows that list this job, and verbatim provider notes. No migration guide was invented."}},"freshness":{"pick":{"score":{"asOf":"2026-09-14","ageDays":44,"stale":true,"staleAfterDays":30,"reason":null},"lastReviewed":{"asOf":"2026-09-14","ageDays":44,"stale":true,"staleAfterDays":30,"reason":null},"sourceCheck":{"checkedAt":"2026-10-27","sourceUrls":2,"sourcesReachable":2,"pricingRows":0,"pricingRowsReconfirmed":0,"note":"A source re-check confirms the page is reachable and, for pricing rows, that the stored amount and SKU name appear on it. It does not re-derive or change the score.","reason":null}}},"depotPick":{"id":"parallel","slug":"parallel","name":"Parallel","tagline":"Strong Exa peer for agent search; wins when you need Task/deep-research in one bill. Exa remains Depot…","overall":8.07},"runnersUp":[{"id":"perplexity","slug":"perplexity","name":"Perplexity","tagline":"Use when you want grounded answers without building search+cite yourself. For full agent stacks, prefer…","overall":7.65},{"id":"exa","slug":"exa","name":"Exa","tagline":"Depot pick for research-style agent search. Pair with Firecrawl when you need full page content.","overall":8.28},{"id":"tavily","slug":"tavily","name":"Tavily","tagline":"Depot co-default for agent web search with Exa. Pick Tavily for classic SERP-like agent search.","overall":8.24},{"id":"you-com","slug":"you-com","name":"You.com API","tagline":"Agent search peer with Answer/Research SKUs. Exa remains depot agent-search pick; You.com strong when ZDR +…","overall":8.07}]}