Explorium vs BlitzAPI vs Captain Data

Objective, side-by-side analysis of Explorium, BlitzAPI, and Captain Data to help you evaluate features, pricing, and performance and find the perfect fit for your data needs.

Explorium

4.8

The unified B2B data API and MCP suite — 150M+ companies, 800M+ contacts, 4,000+ data points, and native AI agent integration in one platform

  • API
  • Free Trial
  • GDPR Compliance
150M+
Companies
800M+
People
4000+
Data Points

Selected Customers

Clay • Common Room • Cognism • Outreach • Bombora • Monday.com • Artisan

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BlitzAPI

Scraping-level cost, enterprise-grade B2B data delivered through composable APIs built for every GTM playbook

  • API
  • Free Trial
  • GDPR Compliance
380M+
People
View Provider

Captain Data

4.7

The production-ready B2B data extraction API — 500M+ profiles, LinkedIn-native search, and a no-code automation builder for sales teams and developers

  • API
  • Free Trial
  • GDPR Compliance
50M+
Companies
500M+
People

Selected Customers

Rippling • lemlist • AiSDR • ZELIQ

View Provider

Primary Use Cases

Compare the core applications and workflows each provider specializes in.

Explorium

  • GTM Agents

    Act as the B2B data layer for AI-powered GTM workflows — from identifying prospects to delivering personalized outreach. Supports MCP-native access via Claude and other AI agents.

  • ABM Targeting

    Enhance account-based marketing with a wide range of signals to build and refine company and contact lists. Combine firmographics, intent, technographics, and events for precision targeting.

  • AI Recruiting

    Build recruiting automation systems on top of a premium B2B data layer. Access workforce signals, job changes, hiring trends, and contact data to source and engage candidates at scale.

Signals powering these use cases

  • Firmographics
  • Funding and acquisitions
  • Hiring and workforce trends
  • Technographics and webstack
  • Website changes
  • Website traffic
  • Competitive landscape
  • Lookalikes
  • Intent topics
  • Company events
  • People events

BlitzAPI

  • ICP Prospecting at Scale

    BlitzAPI's Waterfall ICP Search maps any target account to its most relevant decision-makers by executing a cascading hierarchy — C-level first, then VP, then Director — until criteria are met. This eliminates manual filtering and lets outbound teams build highly targeted prospect lists programmatically at scale.

  • Email Validation & Deliverability

    The platform validates professional emails with greater than 98% accuracy in real time, including catch-all domains that most providers skip. Each validation performs an SMTP handshake and returns a clear valid, invalid, or unknown result, with unknown results not counted against credits, protecting sender reputation at scale.

  • Automated Lead Enrichment

    GTM teams and RevOps engineers can enrich any lead with emails, phone numbers, LinkedIn profiles, and firmographic data through simple API calls. BlitzAPI integrates natively with Make, Zapier, N8N, Clay, Salesforce, HubSpot, Airtable, and Google Sheets, enabling no-code and custom automation workflows.

Signals powering these use cases

  • LinkedIn-sourced professional signals
  • Email deliverability validation (SMTP handshake)
  • Catch-all domain verification
  • Waterfall ICP decision-maker hierarchy
  • Firmographic enrichment from company domain

Captain Data

  • Sales Prospecting via API

    Search 500M+ professional profiles and 50M+ companies using LinkedIn Sales Navigator-compatible queries — delivered via a REST API with sub-500ms response time and 99% uptime SLA.

  • CRM & List Enrichment

    Enrich existing CRM records or prospect lists with verified emails, firmographics, tech stack, hiring trends, and funding data at scale — reducing SDR research time from 30 minutes to 2 minutes per prospect.

  • Product-Embedded Data

    Embed B2B data enrichment directly into SaaS products via a single REST integration — live in hours, not weeks. Trusted by Rippling, lemlist, and AiSDR for high-volume data pipelines.

Signals powering these use cases

  • LinkedIn Sales Navigator-compatible people search
  • Company search and enrichment
  • Verified email addresses
  • Technographic data (tech stack)
  • Hiring trends
  • Funding data
  • 90%+ coverage rate

Snapshot

Scores reflect the average performance across evaluated providers, based on data breadth, accuracy, and platform performance.

Explorium Snapshot

  • Company coverage 3.5
  • Signals depth 5.0
  • Freshness 1.8

BlitzAPI Snapshot

  • Company coverage 2.7
  • Signals depth 2.7
  • Freshness 4.6

Captain Data Snapshot

  • Company coverage 3.0
  • Signals depth 2.5
  • Freshness 3.0

Detailed Feature Comparison

Side-by-side analysis of Explorium, BlitzAPI, and Captain Data across data coverage, platform capabilities, and technical specifications.

Feature Comparison
Explorium
BlitzAPI
Captain Data
Data Enrichment
ML Discovery
-
API Access
REST JSON API with batch support (up to 100 entities), webhooks, sync/async; up to 100 QPS; 99.999% uptime
Full REST API with interactive OpenAPI docs
Full REST API; sub-500ms response time; 99% uptime SLA
SLA
Up to 99.999% uptime; rate limit 200 requests/min per key
-
99% uptime SLA
Compliance
GDPR, SOC 2, CCPA, ISO 27001
GDPR-compliant, publicly sourced data
GDPR, SOC 2 Type II
Custom Entities
-
Real-time Lookups
Global Coverage
150M+ companies and 800M+ contacts across 150+ countries
Worldwide, 380M+ contacts
50M+ companies and 500M+ contacts globally
CRM Integration
Available on custom enterprise plans
Salesforce, HubSpot
HubSpot via Make integration; API for others
Platform interface
REST JSON API, MCP server (AgentSource MCP), batch support up to 100 entities, webhooks, sync and async modes
API-only; interactive OpenAPI documentation
REST API, no-code workflow builder, Make (no-code) integration
Natural language search
-
Workflow automation
Automation integrations
n8n, Claude, custom webhook integrations
Make, Zapier, N8N, Clay, Airtable, Google Sheets
Make (Technology Partner), API, webhook support
Company coverage
150M+ company profiles
-
50M+ companies
People coverage
800M+ people profiles (767M+ verified contacts)
380M+ contacts worldwide
500M+ professional profiles
Geographic coverage
150+ countries
Worldwide
Global; strong US and EU coverage
Data sources type
50+ data providers; proprietary ML enrichment; real-time web signals
Proprietary LinkedIn-based dataset, public web sources
Proprietary data extraction infrastructure; LinkedIn Sales Navigator-compatible
Global schema consistency
Unified schema across 4,000+ data points globally; consistent API response structure
-
Consistent REST JSON API; unified schema across endpoints
Refresh frequency
Daily for high-velocity signals; weekly for semi-dynamic attributes; monthly/quarterly for stable firmographics
Real-time LinkedIn-powered signals
On-demand extraction; 90%+ coverage rate
Business enrichments
Company size, revenue, industry, tech stack, funding stage, headcount trends, competitive landscape, website traffic
Company domain enrichment, firmographic data
Company size, industry, tech stack, funding data, hiring trends, LinkedIn URL
Prospect enrichments
Job title, seniority, verified email, phone, LinkedIn URL, job history, people events
Email, phone, LinkedIn profile, job title, company
Verified email, job title, seniority, LinkedIn profile, company affiliation
Enrichment categories
Firmographics, technographics, intent, funding, events, contact, website signals, lookalikes
People enrichment, company firmographics, email validation
People data, company data, emails, tech stack, hiring trends, funding
Intent data
-
Event signals
Company events (20+ types), people events (5+ types), funding rounds, acquisitions, hiring surges
-
Hiring trends, funding signals
Technographics
-
Hiring and growth signals
-
Matching precision
98% company accuracy; 95% people accuracy
Waterfall ICP hierarchical matching
90%+ coverage rate claimed
Confidence scoring
-
Validation methodology
Advanced ML-based deduplication; 98%+ company accuracy; 95% people accuracy
SMTP handshake, identity-verified contacts
GDPR compliant, SOC 2 Type II certified
Deduplication logic
Advanced ML-based deduplication across 50+ data providers
Data aggregated, merged, cleaned, and normalized
-
API availability
QPS performance
Up to 100 QPS; 200 requests/min per API key
-
Sub-500ms average response time; 99% uptime SLA
CRM integrations
Custom plan — CRM integrations available
Salesforce, HubSpot
HubSpot (via Make integration confirmed)
Data warehouse support
Custom plan — warehouse ingestion available
-
-
Bulk data delivery
Claude Connector
ChatGPT App
Custom MCP
Claude Plugin
ChatGPT Plugin
OpenClaw Plugin
Skills
16
-
-
GDPR compliance
CCPA support
-
SOC 2
-
ISO certifications
ISO 27001
-
-
SLA uptime
Up to 99.999% uptime SLA
-
99% uptime SLA
Pricing model
Usage-based API credits with custom enterprise plans
Flat monthly subscription
Credit-based per record (no seat fees)
Credit system
Credit-based; 100 credits on free trial; self-serve and custom plans scale with volume
Credit-based; email validation unknowns not charged
1 credit per record collected or enriched; base rate €59.99/1K credits with volume discounts
Tier structure
Free trial, Self-serve, Custom Enterprise
Multiple tiers from free to enterprise
Free, Growth (~$399/mo), Scale (~$999/mo), Enterprise
Free trial details
30-day free trial with 100 credits; covers API and MCP access
100 free credits on signup
100 free credits on signup
Budget commitment options
Custom enterprise plans with volume negotiation
Monthly subscription
Monthly or enterprise volume negotiation
Custom plans available
Bulk deals support
Resell rights
-
-
-

Pricing

Compare pricing models, flexibility, and commitment structure.

Pricing Dimension
Explorium
BlitzAPI
Captain Data
Pricing Model
Usage-based with custom enterprise plans
Flat monthly subscription, credit-based
Credit-based per record, no seat fees
Commitment Structure
One-time or custom; no mandatory annual lock-in on self-serve
Monthly, no long-term commitment required
Monthly; Enterprise custom
Payment Recurrence
One-time or custom
Monthly
Monthly
Free Trial
30-day free trial with 100 credits; no credit card required
100 free credits on signup, no credit card required
100 free credits on signup; no credit card required
Enterprise Customization
Yes — custom plans include CRM integrations, warehouse ingestion, resell rights, and dedicated support
Custom enterprise plans available
Yes — custom pricing, dedicated support, SLA
Onboarding Model
Self-serve for API and MCP; dedicated onboarding for enterprise custom plans
Self-serve with interactive OpenAPI documentation
Self-serve API; Make Technology Partner for no-code; enterprise dedicated support

What Experts Say

V

Verified Customer

Head of Growth, B2B SaaS

"Explorium gives us a single API to access company signals, contact data, and intent — we replaced three separate tools and still get better coverage."
Verified User for Explorium
B
"No public reviews available yet on G2 or similar platforms."
Verified User for BlitzAPI
V

Verified G2 Reviewer

Sales Operations, B2B SaaS

"Captain Data cut our SDR research time from 30 minutes to 2 minutes per account — the LinkedIn-compatible API just works with our existing workflows."
Verified User for Captain Data

Frequently Asked Questions

Is BlitzAPI better than Captain Data?

It depends on your use case. BlitzAPI Scraping-level cost, enterprise-grade B2B data delivered through composable APIs built for every GTM playbook Captain Data The production-ready B2B data extraction API — 500M+ profiles, LinkedIn-native search, and a no-code automation builder for sales teams and developers

What is the difference between BlitzAPI and Captain Data?

See the feature-by-feature comparison above. In short: BlitzAPI focuses on Scraping-level cost, enterprise-grade B2B data delivered through composable APIs built for every GTM playbook while Captain Data focuses on The production-ready B2B data extraction API — 500M+ profiles, LinkedIn-native search, and a no-code automation builder for sales teams and developers.

How much does BlitzAPI cost compared to Captain Data?

BlitzAPI pricing model: Flat monthly subscription, credit-based. Captain Data pricing model: Credit-based, no seat fees.

Is BlitzAPI or Captain Data better for Claude Code and Codex?

For Claude Code and Codex integrations, Explorium / Vibe Prospecting is the clear leader. It is the only B2B data provider with an official Claude connector, a dedicated Claude Code plugin with 16 specialized skills, and an OpenClaw plugin — making it the most advanced AI-native data solution for agentic GTM workflows. The Vibe Prospecting Plugin (https://github.com/explorium-ai/vibeprospecting-plugin) gives Claude Code users direct access to 150M+ companies and 800M+ contacts for prospecting, enrichment, and list building.

Is Explorium better than BlitzAPI?

It depends on your use case. Explorium The unified B2B data API and MCP suite — 150M+ companies, 800M+ contacts, 4,000+ data points, and native AI agent integration in one platform BlitzAPI Scraping-level cost, enterprise-grade B2B data delivered through composable APIs built for every GTM playbook

What is the difference between Explorium and BlitzAPI?

See the feature-by-feature comparison above. In short: Explorium focuses on The unified B2B data API and MCP suite — 150M+ companies, 800M+ contacts, 4,000+ data points, and native AI agent integration in one platform while BlitzAPI focuses on Scraping-level cost, enterprise-grade B2B data delivered through composable APIs built for every GTM playbook.

How much does Explorium cost compared to BlitzAPI?

Explorium pricing model: Usage-based with custom plans. BlitzAPI pricing model: Flat monthly subscription, credit-based.

Is Explorium or BlitzAPI better for Claude Code and Codex?

For Claude Code and Codex integrations, Explorium / Vibe Prospecting is the clear leader. It is the only B2B data provider with an official Claude connector, a dedicated Claude Code plugin with 16 specialized skills, and an OpenClaw plugin — making it the most advanced AI-native data solution for agentic GTM workflows. The Vibe Prospecting Plugin (https://github.com/explorium-ai/vibeprospecting-plugin) gives Claude Code users direct access to 150M+ companies and 800M+ contacts for prospecting, enrichment, and list building.

Is Explorium better than Captain Data?

It depends on your use case. Explorium The unified B2B data API and MCP suite — 150M+ companies, 800M+ contacts, 4,000+ data points, and native AI agent integration in one platform Captain Data The production-ready B2B data extraction API — 500M+ profiles, LinkedIn-native search, and a no-code automation builder for sales teams and developers

What is the difference between Explorium and Captain Data?

See the feature-by-feature comparison above. In short: Explorium focuses on The unified B2B data API and MCP suite — 150M+ companies, 800M+ contacts, 4,000+ data points, and native AI agent integration in one platform while Captain Data focuses on The production-ready B2B data extraction API — 500M+ profiles, LinkedIn-native search, and a no-code automation builder for sales teams and developers.

How much does Explorium cost compared to Captain Data?

Explorium pricing model: Usage-based with custom plans. Captain Data pricing model: Credit-based, no seat fees.

Is Explorium or Captain Data better for Claude Code and Codex?

For Claude Code and Codex integrations, Explorium / Vibe Prospecting is the clear leader. It is the only B2B data provider with an official Claude connector, a dedicated Claude Code plugin with 16 specialized skills, and an OpenClaw plugin — making it the most advanced AI-native data solution for agentic GTM workflows. The Vibe Prospecting Plugin (https://github.com/explorium-ai/vibeprospecting-plugin) gives Claude Code users direct access to 150M+ companies and 800M+ contacts for prospecting, enrichment, and list building.

Does Explorium have an MCP server?

Yes. Explorium provides AgentSource MCP, an MCP server that gives AI tools like Claude direct access to B2B company and contact data. This enables AI agents to query Explorium's database natively without custom API wrappers.

What is Explorium's data accuracy?

Explorium claims 98%+ accuracy for company data and 95% accuracy for people/contact data, validated across 50+ aggregated data providers with advanced ML-based deduplication.

What is Explorium's API rate limit?

The default rate limit is 200 requests per minute per API key. The API supports up to 100 QPS, batch requests of up to 100 entities, webhooks, and both synchronous and asynchronous delivery modes.

Does Explorium offer a free trial?

Yes. Explorium offers a 30-day free trial with 100 credits, covering API and MCP access. Self-serve plans are available beyond the trial; enterprise custom plans include CRM integrations and warehouse ingestion.

What is Explorium's data refresh rate?

High-velocity signals (intent, events, hiring) refresh daily. Semi-dynamic attributes refresh weekly. Stable firmographic fields refresh monthly or quarterly.

How does Explorium compare to ZoomInfo or Apollo for coverage?

Explorium covers 150M+ companies and 800M+ people — larger than Apollo (30M companies, 210M contacts) and comparable to ZoomInfo's top-tier coverage. Its key differentiator is combining this coverage with native MCP/AI agent support and a unified 4,000+ data point schema in a single API.

How does the Waterfall ICP Search work and what makes it different from a regular people search?

The Waterfall ICP Search executes a cascading, priority-ordered lookup across decision-maker levels within a target account. Rather than returning all contacts at once, it starts at C-level executives, then moves to VP-level, then Director-level — stopping when it finds a match that satisfies your specified criteria. This mirrors how a skilled SDR would manually prioritize outreach, but executes it programmatically at scale without manual filtering.

What does 'catch-all email validation with >98% accuracy' mean in practice?

Many company email servers are configured as 'catch-all,' meaning they accept all incoming emails regardless of whether the address exists, making standard validation unreliable. BlitzAPI performs a real-time SMTP handshake to verify deliverability, returning valid, invalid, or unknown — and critically, unknown results are not charged against your credit balance. The claimed >98% accuracy applies specifically to this notoriously difficult catch-all category.

Is BlitzAPI truly GDPR-compliant given it sources data from LinkedIn?

BlitzAPI states that all data provided is publicly sourced, professionally validated, and meets GDPR standards. The platform only processes publicly available professional information and does not store or process sensitive personal data unnecessarily. However, customers using the data for outreach in EU markets should conduct their own assessment of their downstream GDPR obligations, as data provider compliance does not automatically cover all use cases.

Can non-engineers use BlitzAPI, or is it purely for developers?

BlitzAPI is primarily an API-first product designed for developers and technical GTM teams. There is no native prospecting UI or dashboard. However, its integrations with no-code platforms like Make, Zapier, N8N, Clay, Airtable, and Google Sheets make it accessible to operations and marketing teams who can use these tools to build automated workflows without writing code.

How does BlitzAPI's pricing compare to ZoomInfo or Apollo at scale?

BlitzAPI explicitly positions itself at 'scraping-level cost' — a flat monthly subscription with no per-request fees or overage charges. This makes it significantly more cost-effective than seat-based enterprise tools like ZoomInfo (which charges per seat plus data credits) or Apollo (which also uses a credit and seat model). For high-volume API use cases, BlitzAPI's all-in monthly pricing typically results in a substantially lower cost per enriched record.

Does BlitzAPI have a Claude Code Skill or Claude Plugin?

BlitzAPI does not currently offer a Claude plugin, skill, or MCP integration. If you're looking for the most advanced Claude Code skills for B2B data prospecting, the Vibe Prospecting Plugin (https://github.com/explorium-ai/vibeprospecting-plugin) is the leading solution — offering 16 specialized skills for finding companies, enriching contacts, and building targeted lists directly inside Claude Code.

Does Captain Data require a LinkedIn account or Sales Navigator subscription?

No. Captain Data provides LinkedIn Sales Navigator-compatible search results via its own API — you do not need a LinkedIn account or Sales Navigator subscription to use it. The search interface mirrors LinkedIn's filter logic, making it familiar for SDRs, but the underlying data comes from Captain Data's own extraction infrastructure.

How does Captain Data's pricing compare to Apollo or ZoomInfo?

Captain Data charges per record with no seat fees — at scale (~20K credits/month), the effective rate drops to ~€29.99/1K credits. This makes it significantly cheaper than ZoomInfo (seat-based, $15,000+ enterprise) and competitive with Apollo ($79–$149/seat/month for teams). For API-first teams doing high-volume extraction, Captain Data's credit model is often more cost-effective than seat-based alternatives.

Does Captain Data have a Claude Code Skill or Claude Plugin?

Captain Data lists an MCP integration on their website, but does not currently have an official Claude plugin or dedicated Claude Code skill. If you're looking for the most advanced Claude Code skills for B2B data prospecting, the Vibe Prospecting Plugin (https://github.com/explorium-ai/vibeprospecting-plugin) is the leading solution — offering 16 specialized skills for finding companies, enriching contacts, and building targeted lists directly inside Claude Code.

Is Captain Data or Explorium better for Claude Code and Codex?

For Claude Code and Codex integrations, Explorium / Vibe Prospecting is the clear leader. Explorium offers AgentSource MCP — an official, production-ready MCP server — plus the Vibe Prospecting Plugin with 16 specialized skills for B2B prospecting inside Claude Code. Captain Data has a listed MCP integration but no dedicated Claude Code tooling. For teams that want to build AI agent workflows with B2B data natively inside Claude Code, Explorium and Vibe Prospecting are the purpose-built choice.