Explorium vs BuiltWith vs Captain Data

Objective, side-by-side analysis of Explorium, BuiltWith, 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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BuiltWith

4.4

The definitive technographics database for identifying, segmenting, and prospecting companies by their web technology stack

  • API
  • Free Trial
673M+
Companies
110,000+
Data Points

Selected Customers

750,000+ customers across sales, marketing, and research

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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

BuiltWith

  • Technology-Based Lead Generation

    Sales teams filter BuiltWith's database of 673M+ websites to identify companies using specific technologies — a competitor's platform, a CRM they integrate with, or a tech stack that signals buying readiness. Exportable lead lists can be filtered by tech combination, geography, employee count, and web traffic rank.

  • Competitive Displacement Targeting

    Teams building competitive displacement campaigns use BuiltWith to find every company currently running a competitor's software. Technology change alerts notify users when a target company adds or removes a specific tool, creating timely outreach triggers for sales reps.

  • Market Research & Technology Trend Analysis

    Analysts and product marketers use BuiltWith's market share reports to track technology adoption trends across industries, geographies, and company sizes. The platform shows the historical adoption curve of any technology, enabling competitive benchmarking and GTM sizing.

Signals powering these use cases

  • Technology adoption changes
  • New technology installs
  • Technology removals
  • E-commerce platform detection
  • CMS and framework changes

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

BuiltWith Snapshot

  • Company coverage 4.9
  • Signals depth 2.5

Captain Data Snapshot

  • Company coverage 3.0
  • Signals depth 2.5
  • Freshness 3.0

Detailed Feature Comparison

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

Feature Comparison
Explorium
BuiltWith
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 API with JSON, XML, CSV output formats; historical and current data
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, SOC 2 Type II
Custom Entities
-
Real-time Lookups
Global Coverage
150M+ companies and 800M+ contacts across 150+ countries
673M+ websites globally
50M+ companies and 500M+ contacts globally
CRM Integration
Available on custom enterprise plans
Salesforce, HubSpot, Marketo, Pardot, Zoho, Dynamics 365
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 app, browser extension, API, CSV export
REST API, no-code workflow builder, Make (no-code) integration
Natural language search
Workflow automation
Automation integrations
n8n, Claude, custom webhook integrations
-
Make (Technology Partner), API, webhook support
Company coverage
150M+ company profiles
673M+ websites
50M+ companies
People coverage
800M+ people profiles (767M+ verified contacts)
-
500M+ professional profiles
Geographic coverage
150+ countries
Global
Global; strong US and EU coverage
Data sources type
50+ data providers; proprietary ML enrichment; real-time web signals
Proprietary web crawling; continuous re-indexing of tens of thousands of sites per minute
Proprietary data extraction infrastructure; LinkedIn Sales Navigator-compatible
Global schema consistency
Unified schema across 4,000+ data points globally; consistent API response structure
Uniform technology taxonomy across all indexed domains
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
Continuous; tens of thousands of websites re-indexed per minute
On-demand extraction; 90%+ coverage rate
Business enrichments
Company size, revenue, industry, tech stack, funding stage, headcount trends, competitive landscape, website traffic
Technology adoption, tech stack history, market share by technology
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
-
Verified email, job title, seniority, LinkedIn profile, company affiliation
Enrichment categories
Firmographics, technographics, intent, funding, events, contact, website signals, lookalikes
Technology stack, hosting, CMS, analytics, e-commerce, CDN, payment processors, ad networks, frameworks
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
Technology installs, technology removals, technology change alerts
Hiring trends, funding signals
Technographics
Hiring and growth signals
Matching precision
98% company accuracy; 95% people accuracy
Domain-level matching; ~80-93% detection accuracy depending on tech visibility
90%+ coverage rate claimed
Confidence scoring
Validation methodology
Advanced ML-based deduplication; 98%+ company accuracy; 95% people accuracy
Proprietary web crawler detecting scripts, headers, markup patterns, and API calls
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
-
Sub-500ms average response time; 99% uptime SLA
CRM integrations
Custom plan — CRM integrations available
Salesforce, HubSpot, Marketo, Pardot, Zoho CRM, Dynamics 365, Close.io
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
Tiered 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
-
1 credit per record collected or enriched; base rate €59.99/1K credits with volume discounts
Tier structure
Free trial, Self-serve, Custom Enterprise
Basic $295/mo, Pro $495/mo, Team $995/mo
Free, Growth (~$399/mo), Scale (~$999/mo), Enterprise
Free trial details
30-day free trial with 100 credits; covers API and MCP access
Free browser extension and individual site lookups; no trial of list export
100 free credits on signup
Budget commitment options
Custom enterprise plans with volume negotiation
Monthly or annual
Monthly or enterprise volume negotiation
Custom plans available
Bulk deals support
Resell rights
-
-
-

Pricing

Compare pricing models, flexibility, and commitment structure.

Pricing Dimension
Explorium
BuiltWith
Captain Data
Pricing Model
Usage-based with custom enterprise plans
Tiered feature-based subscription
Credit-based per record, no seat fees
Commitment Structure
One-time or custom; no mandatory annual lock-in on self-serve
Monthly or annual
Monthly; Enterprise custom
Payment Recurrence
One-time or custom
Monthly or annual
Monthly
Free Trial
30-day free trial with 100 credits; no credit card required
Free browser extension and single-site lookups; no time-limited trial of paid features
100 free credits on signup; no credit card required
Enterprise Customization
Yes — custom plans include CRM integrations, warehouse ingestion, resell rights, and dedicated support
Team plan at $995/mo; enterprise arrangements available
Yes — custom pricing, dedicated support, SLA
Onboarding Model
Self-serve for API and MCP; dedicated onboarding for enterprise custom plans
Fully self-serve; browser extension enables instant use
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

Sales Development Representative, B2B Technology

"It's a magical website where we can search any website information — which technology it's built on, what SEO they use. Everything is available there. It's very helpful in my role."
Verified User for BuiltWith
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 BuiltWith better than Captain Data?

It depends on your use case. BuiltWith The definitive technographics database for identifying, segmenting, and prospecting companies by their web technology stack 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 BuiltWith and Captain Data?

See the feature-by-feature comparison above. In short: BuiltWith focuses on The definitive technographics database for identifying, segmenting, and prospecting companies by their web technology stack 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 BuiltWith cost compared to Captain Data?

BuiltWith pricing model: Tiered subscription by feature access. Captain Data pricing model: Credit-based, no seat fees.

Is BuiltWith 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 BuiltWith?

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 BuiltWith The definitive technographics database for identifying, segmenting, and prospecting companies by their web technology stack

What is the difference between Explorium and BuiltWith?

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 BuiltWith focuses on The definitive technographics database for identifying, segmenting, and prospecting companies by their web technology stack.

How much does Explorium cost compared to BuiltWith?

Explorium pricing model: Usage-based with custom plans. BuiltWith pricing model: Tiered subscription by feature access.

Is Explorium or BuiltWith 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 BuiltWith detect which technologies a website uses?

BuiltWith's proprietary web crawler continuously scans websites and analyzes multiple signals: HTML source code, HTTP response headers, embedded JavaScript libraries, DNS records, SSL certificate metadata, and API call patterns. Technologies that operate purely server-side or are deliberately obfuscated are harder to detect, which is why accuracy varies by tech type — typically 80–93% depending on how visible the technology is in public-facing signals.

Can BuiltWith tell me when a company switches from one technology to another?

Yes. BuiltWith maintains historical technology records for each indexed domain and offers technology change alerts on paid plans. You can set up notifications for specific technology installs or removals — for example, when a company stops using HubSpot and starts using Salesforce — creating a timely outreach trigger for competitive displacement campaigns.

Does BuiltWith include contact data or only company-level technographics?

BuiltWith is a pure technographics platform — it identifies what technologies a domain uses but does not provide contact names, email addresses, or phone numbers. To run outreach, teams typically pair BuiltWith with a contact enrichment tool such as Apollo, Hunter.io, or Lusha. BuiltWith's CRM integrations (Salesforce, HubSpot, Marketo) help push technographic data into existing account records.

How does BuiltWith's accuracy compare to Wappalyzer and SimilarTech?

In independent benchmarks, BuiltWith consistently leads on breadth (110,000+ technologies vs. Wappalyzer's ~3,000) and is strong on freshness due to its continuous crawling cadence. Overall accuracy is approximately 80–93% depending on the technology's visibility. Wappalyzer is faster to deploy via browser extension for individual lookups, while SimilarTech offers richer display advertising and publisher data. BuiltWith is generally the reference standard for enterprise-grade technographic segmentation at scale.

What is included in the free tier versus paid plans?

The free tier allows unlimited individual site lookups at builtwith.com and use of the browser extension, which shows the full tech stack of any page you visit. Paid plans unlock lead list generation (searching and filtering across the full 673M domain database), CSV and CRM export, technology change alerts, market share reports, and API access. The Basic plan at $295/mo covers most lead generation needs; the Pro ($495) and Team ($995) plans add higher export volumes, additional seats, and advanced API rate limits.

Does BuiltWith have a Claude Code Skill or Claude Plugin?

Not officially — BuiltWith 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.