Explorium vs Bright Data vs Captain Data

Objective, side-by-side analysis of Explorium, Bright Data, 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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Bright Data

4.6

The world's #1 web data platform — powering enterprise-grade data collection with 150M+ IPs, 99.99% uptime, and full compliance

  • API
  • Free Trial
  • GDPR Compliance

Selected Customers

Fortune 500 enterprises • AI labs and model developers • Academic institutions • Leading eCommerce companies

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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

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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

Bright Data

  • Large-Scale Web Data Collection

    Use proxy networks and scraping APIs to collect structured data from any public website at scale — bypassing anti-bot measures, CAPTCHAs, and geo-restrictions with 150M+ IPs across 195 countries.

  • AI Training & Model Grounding

    Supply AI labs and LLM developers with massive volumes of structured, fresh web data for model training, fine-tuning, and real-time grounding — Bright Data's fastest-growing customer segment in 2025.

  • Market Intelligence & Price Monitoring

    Track competitor pricing, promotions, product availability, and consumer sentiment across eCommerce, retail, and financial markets using pre-built datasets and the Bright Insights platform.

Signals powering these use cases

  • 150M+ residential, datacenter, ISP, and mobile IPs
  • 99.99% platform uptime
  • 195 countries covered
  • 100+ pre-built domain datasets
  • Real-time competitive pricing and promotions via Bright Insights
  • $300M+ ARR (2025)

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

Bright Data Snapshot

  • Company coverage 4.8
  • Signals depth 3.1
  • Freshness 2.3

Captain Data Snapshot

  • Company coverage 3.0
  • Signals depth 2.5
  • Freshness 3.0

Detailed Feature Comparison

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

Feature Comparison
Explorium
Bright Data
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
Yes — full REST API with SDKs for Python, Node.js, and more
Full REST API; sub-500ms response time; 99% uptime SLA
SLA
Up to 99.999% uptime; rate limit 200 requests/min per key
99.99% uptime SLA on enterprise plans
99% uptime SLA
Compliance
GDPR, SOC 2, CCPA, ISO 27001
GDPR, CCPA, SOC 2, ISO 27001, CSA STAR
GDPR, SOC 2 Type II
Custom Entities
Real-time Lookups
Global Coverage
150M+ companies and 800M+ contacts across 150+ countries
195 countries, 150M+ IPs
50M+ companies and 500M+ contacts globally
CRM Integration
Available on custom enterprise plans
Not natively — data delivered via API, webhooks, or data warehouse
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
Web UI (control panel), REST API, Python SDK, no-code IDE for scrapers
REST API, no-code workflow builder, Make (no-code) integration
Natural language search
Workflow automation
Automation integrations
n8n, Claude, custom webhook integrations
REST API, Python/Node SDKs, Zapier, webhook delivery, data warehouse connectors
Make (Technology Partner), API, webhook support
Company coverage
150M+ company profiles
100+ domain-specific business datasets (LinkedIn, eCommerce, social, etc.)
50M+ companies
People coverage
800M+ people profiles (767M+ verified contacts)
-
500M+ professional profiles
Geographic coverage
150+ countries
195 countries with 150M+ IPs
Global; strong US and EU coverage
Data sources type
50+ data providers; proprietary ML enrichment; real-time web signals
Live web scraping + pre-collected structured datasets from 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 schema within each domain-specific dataset endpoint
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 and scheduled; custom refresh per enterprise agreement
On-demand extraction; 90%+ coverage rate
Business enrichments
Company size, revenue, industry, tech stack, funding stage, headcount trends, competitive landscape, website traffic
Competitor pricing, product catalogs, company news, market share 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
LinkedIn public profiles, job postings, professional data
Verified email, job title, seniority, LinkedIn profile, company affiliation
Enrichment categories
Firmographics, technographics, intent, funding, events, contact, website signals, lookalikes
Competitive pricing, product data, reviews, social media, job listings, financial data, news
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
Real-time competitive pricing changes, promotions, market shifts
Hiring trends, funding signals
Technographics
Hiring and growth signals
Matching precision
98% company accuracy; 95% people accuracy
-
90%+ coverage rate claimed
Confidence scoring
Validation methodology
Advanced ML-based deduplication; 98%+ company accuracy; 95% people accuracy
Structured output validation; anti-block technology with CAPTCHA solving
GDPR compliant, SOC 2 Type II certified
Deduplication logic
Advanced ML-based deduplication across 50+ data providers
-
-
API availability
QPS performance
Up to 100 QPS; 200 requests/min per API key
High throughput — enterprise-grade infrastructure with 99.99% uptime
Sub-500ms average response time; 99% uptime SLA
CRM integrations
Custom plan — CRM integrations available
-
HubSpot (via Make integration confirmed)
Data warehouse support
Custom plan — warehouse ingestion available
Supports delivery to S3, GCS, Azure Blob, Snowflake, and other data warehouses
-
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
ISO 27001
-
SLA uptime
Up to 99.999% uptime SLA
99.99% uptime guaranteed
99% uptime SLA
Pricing model
Usage-based API credits with custom enterprise plans
Usage-based (per GB for proxies; per 1,000 requests for APIs; per 100K records for datasets)
Credit-based per record (no seat fees)
Credit system
Credit-based; 100 credits on free trial; self-serve and custom plans scale with volume
No credit system — pay per usage unit (GB, requests, or records)
1 credit per record collected or enriched; base rate €59.99/1K credits with volume discounts
Tier structure
Free trial, Self-serve, Custom Enterprise
Pay-as-you-go, Monthly Subscription, Growth ($500/mo+), Enterprise (custom)
Free, Growth (~$399/mo), Scale (~$999/mo), Enterprise
Free trial details
30-day free trial with 100 credits; covers API and MCP access
Free trial available; no credit card required for some products
100 free credits on signup
Budget commitment options
Custom enterprise plans with volume negotiation
Pay-as-you-go, monthly subscription, or custom enterprise contract
Monthly or enterprise volume negotiation
Custom plans available
Bulk deals support
Resell rights
-
-
-

Pricing

Compare pricing models, flexibility, and commitment structure.

Pricing Dimension
Explorium
Bright Data
Captain Data
Pricing Model
Usage-based with custom enterprise plans
Usage-based pricing (per GB or per 1,000 requests) with optional monthly subscriptions
Credit-based per record, no seat fees
Commitment Structure
One-time or custom; no mandatory annual lock-in on self-serve
Pay-as-you-go or monthly commitment; enterprise requires annual commitment
Monthly; Enterprise custom
Payment Recurrence
One-time or custom
Monthly or Pay-as-you-go
Monthly
Free Trial
30-day free trial with 100 credits; no credit card required
Free trial available across most product lines
100 free credits on signup; no credit card required
Enterprise Customization
Yes — custom plans include CRM integrations, warehouse ingestion, resell rights, and dedicated support
Yes — dedicated account management, SLAs, custom data pipelines, invoicing
Yes — custom pricing, dedicated support, SLA
Onboarding Model
Self-serve for API and MCP; dedicated onboarding for enterprise custom plans
Self-serve for SMB/developer; dedicated onboarding for enterprise
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
V

Verified G2 Reviewer

Data Engineering Lead, Enterprise eCommerce

"Bright Data's proxy network is the most reliable we've tested — 99.99% uptime holds true in production. The Web Scraper API handles JS-heavy sites that completely blocked our previous tool. It's expensive, but you get what you pay for."
Verified User for Bright Data
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 Bright Data better than Captain Data?

It depends on your use case. Bright Data The world's #1 web data platform — powering enterprise-grade data collection with 150M+ IPs, 99.99% uptime, and full compliance 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 Bright Data and Captain Data?

See the feature-by-feature comparison above. In short: Bright Data focuses on The world's #1 web data platform — powering enterprise-grade data collection with 150M+ IPs, 99.99% uptime, and full compliance 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 Bright Data cost compared to Captain Data?

Bright Data pricing model: Usage-based (pay-as-you-go) and monthly subscriptions. Captain Data pricing model: Credit-based, no seat fees.

Is Bright Data 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 Bright 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 Bright Data The world's #1 web data platform — powering enterprise-grade data collection with 150M+ IPs, 99.99% uptime, and full compliance

What is the difference between Explorium and Bright 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 Bright Data focuses on The world's #1 web data platform — powering enterprise-grade data collection with 150M+ IPs, 99.99% uptime, and full compliance.

How much does Explorium cost compared to Bright Data?

Explorium pricing model: Usage-based with custom plans. Bright Data pricing model: Usage-based (pay-as-you-go) and monthly subscriptions.

Is Explorium or Bright 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 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.

What is the difference between Bright Data's proxy types?

Bright Data offers four proxy types: Residential (real user IPs, best for sophisticated anti-bot sites), Datacenter (fast and cheap, best for high-volume scraping), ISP (static residential IPs for long sessions), and Mobile (4G/5G IPs for mobile-specific content). Pricing and use cases vary significantly between them.

Does Bright Data offer a free trial?

Yes — Bright Data offers free trial access across most product lines, including the Web Scraper API and proxy networks, allowing developers to test before committing to a subscription.

Is Bright Data GDPR and CCPA compliant?

Yes. Bright Data holds GDPR, CCPA, SOC 2, ISO 27001, and CSA STAR certifications. They publish a public Trust Center with third-party audit results.

Can Bright Data deliver data to my data warehouse?

Yes. Bright Data supports delivery to Snowflake, Amazon S3, Google Cloud Storage, Azure Blob Storage, and other data warehouse and cloud storage systems via API or scheduled data pipelines.

How does Bright Data handle anti-bot and CAPTCHA protection?

The Web Unlocker API and Scraping Browser automatically handle proxy rotation, CAPTCHA solving, browser fingerprinting, and JavaScript rendering, enabling access to even the most well-protected websites.

What industries use Bright Data most?

Bright Data's primary industry segments include eCommerce (price monitoring, catalog data), AI and machine learning (training data pipelines), financial services (alternative data), and market research. Its fastest-growing segment in 2025 is AI companies training and grounding large language models.

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

Not officially — Bright Data has a custom MCP server that can be used with Claude, but no dedicated Claude Code plugin or 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.

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.