Explorium vs Crustdata vs Enrich Layer

Objective, side-by-side analysis of Explorium, Crustdata, and Enrich Layer 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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Crustdata

The first B2B data search engine built for AI agents — real-time people and company intelligence via clean, fast APIs

  • API
  • Free Trial
60M+
Companies
1B+
People
250+
Data Points

Selected Customers

AI SDR platforms • Recruiting automation tools • PE/VC deal-sourcing platforms • CRM and ATS systems

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Enrich Layer

4.8

The developer-first B2B enrichment API that replaced ProxyCurl — offering 1.2B+ profiles with real-time crawling, bulk operations, and a drop-in compatibility layer

  • API
  • Free Trial
50M+
Companies
1.2B+
People
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

Crustdata

  • AI Agent Data Infrastructure

    Power AI SDRs, sales copilots, and recruiting agents with structured real-time data — company signals, people profiles, and web intelligence delivered via clean APIs that AI systems can directly query and act on.

  • Growth Signal Monitoring

    Track company growth signals — headcount trends by department, funding rounds, executive moves, and web traffic changes — to identify the right moment to engage accounts based on real behavioral data.

  • Company & People Discovery

    Screen and filter millions of companies using 250+ firmographic criteria, then retrieve detailed people profiles with 90+ datapoints — built for deal sourcing, market mapping, and targeted prospecting at scale.

Signals powering these use cases

  • Headcount growth by department
  • Funding announcements
  • Executive moves
  • Web traffic trends
  • Job opening velocity
  • Product launch news

Enrich Layer

  • People & Company Enrichment

    Enrich CRM records, inbound leads, or prospect lists with structured professional data — job titles, work history, education, company size, revenue, and more — using email or LinkedIn URL as input.

  • Job Posting Intelligence

    Access real-time job posting data to identify hiring signals, understand company growth trajectories, and target accounts actively expanding in relevant functions.

  • Large-Scale Data Pipeline Enrichment

    Power ETL pipelines, AI training datasets, and analytics workflows with bulk API calls that scale to hundreds of millions of requests per month, supported by 99.9%+ uptime and webhook delivery.

Signals powering these use cases

  • Successor to ProxyCurl following LinkedIn lawsuit and shutdown in 2026
  • Provides ProxyCurl API compatibility layer — existing code works unchanged
  • Crawls approximately 1 million pages per day for real-time data freshness
  • Average API response time of ~2 seconds
  • Supports bulk operations, webhooks, and automation platform integrations

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

Crustdata Snapshot

  • Company coverage 3.7
  • Signals depth 3.2
  • Freshness 2.6

Enrich Layer Snapshot

  • Company coverage 3.9
  • Signals depth 1.5
  • Freshness 2.1

Detailed Feature Comparison

Side-by-side analysis of Explorium, Crustdata, and Enrich Layer across data coverage, platform capabilities, and technical specifications.

Feature Comparison
Explorium
Crustdata
Enrich Layer
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
Core product — REST API and webhooks with comprehensive documentation
Full REST API with 21+ endpoints covering people, companies, jobs, schools, and search
SLA
Up to 99.999% uptime; rate limit 200 requests/min per key
-
99.9%+ uptime
Compliance
GDPR, SOC 2, CCPA, ISO 27001
-
-
Custom Entities
Real-time Lookups
Global Coverage
150M+ companies and 800M+ contacts across 150+ countries
Global — aggregated from international public sources
Global — LinkedIn-sourced data spanning all major markets
CRM Integration
Available on custom enterprise plans
Via API integration; no native one-click CRM connectors
-
Platform interface
REST JSON API, MCP server (AgentSource MCP), batch support up to 100 entities, webhooks, sync and async modes
API-first; no traditional UI prospecting interface
API-first; no native prospecting UI — developer console and documentation portal
Natural language search
Workflow automation
Automation integrations
n8n, Claude, custom webhook integrations
Webhooks for event-driven automation; Composio toolkit integration
Webhooks, bulk operations; compatible with Make, Zapier, and similar automation platforms via REST API
Company coverage
150M+ company profiles
60M+ global companies
50M+ company records
People coverage
800M+ people profiles (767M+ verified contacts)
1B+ people profiles
1.2B+ professional profiles
Geographic coverage
150+ countries
Global coverage aggregated from international sources
Global
Data sources type
50+ data providers; proprietary ML enrichment; real-time web signals
LinkedIn, SEC filings, funding announcements, Glassdoor, G2 reviews, web traffic analytics, news aggregators, government filings
LinkedIn-sourced professional data, publicly available web data, job board aggregation
Global schema consistency
Unified schema across 4,000+ data points globally; consistent API response structure
Consistent API schema; data refreshed monthly with real-time signals via webhooks
Unified JSON schema across all endpoints
Refresh frequency
Daily for high-velocity signals; weekly for semi-dynamic attributes; monthly/quarterly for stable firmographics
Monthly refresh for core data; real-time signals via webhooks and Web Search API
Real-time on-demand crawling; ~1M pages crawled per day
Business enrichments
Company size, revenue, industry, tech stack, funding stage, headcount trends, competitive landscape, website traffic
250+ firmographic datapoints including headcount growth, funding history, technology stack, web traffic trends, Glassdoor ratings
Industry, company size, revenue, funding, founding date, hiring activity, technologies, locations
Prospect enrichments
Job title, seniority, verified email, phone, LinkedIn URL, job history, people events
90+ datapoints per person including work history, skills, education, contact signals
Job title, work history, education, skills, LinkedIn URL, email (where available)
Enrichment categories
Firmographics, technographics, intent, funding, events, contact, website signals, lookalikes
Headcount by department, funding rounds, investors, tech stack, web traffic, employee reviews, job openings, executive moves, product news
People profiles, company firmographics, job postings, school/education data, work history
Intent data
Event signals
Company events (20+ types), people events (5+ types), funding rounds, acquisitions, hiring surges
Funding announcements, headcount changes, executive moves, product launches, news articles
Job posting activity as hiring/growth signal
Technographics
Hiring and growth signals
Matching precision
98% company accuracy; 95% people accuracy
Domain-based and name-based entity matching for companies; profile-based matching for people
Email, LinkedIn URL, domain, or company name as lookup keys
Confidence scoring
-
Validation methodology
Advanced ML-based deduplication; 98%+ company accuracy; 95% people accuracy
Aggregated from authoritative public sources; AI-assisted extraction and normalization
Live crawl on demand; data fetched fresh at time of request
Deduplication logic
Advanced ML-based deduplication across 50+ data providers
Entity resolution across multiple source feeds
-
API availability
QPS performance
Up to 100 QPS; 200 requests/min per API key
High-throughput API with no rate limits mentioned for enterprise tiers
Average ~2 second response time per call
CRM integrations
Custom plan — CRM integrations available
Via API — integrates into any CRM or ATS with developer support
-
Data warehouse support
Custom plan — warehouse ingestion available
Bulk CSV data feed available; REST API and webhooks for real-time delivery
-
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
-
99.9%+ uptime
Pricing model
Usage-based API credits with custom enterprise plans
Credit-based API consumption
Credit-based subscription with PAYG top-up option
Credit system
Credit-based; 100 credits on free trial; self-serve and custom plans scale with volume
Credits consumed per API call; volume tiers with discounts at scale
Credits consumed per API call; credit cost varies by endpoint type (e.g. email lookup vs. profile enrichment)
Tier structure
Free trial, Self-serve, Custom Enterprise
Free, Starter, Growth, Enterprise
Growth (~$49/mo), Scale (mid-tier), Pro (high-volume), Enterprise/Custom
Free trial details
30-day free trial with 100 credits; covers API and MCP access
Free plan with limited API calls; no time restriction mentioned
500 free credits upon signup for live API testing
Budget commitment options
Custom enterprise plans with volume negotiation
Monthly or annual; bulk data delivery available for enterprises
Monthly, annual, or PAYG credits
Custom plans available
Bulk deals support
Resell rights
-
-
-

Pricing

Compare pricing models, flexibility, and commitment structure.

Pricing Dimension
Explorium
Crustdata
Enrich Layer
Pricing Model
Usage-based with custom enterprise plans
Credit-based API consumption
Credit-based subscription with PAYG option
Commitment Structure
One-time or custom; no mandatory annual lock-in on self-serve
Monthly or annual; enterprise plans negotiated directly
Monthly subscription or annual plan (discounted); PAYG credits available with no commitment
Payment Recurrence
One-time or custom
Monthly or annual
Monthly or Annual
Free Trial
30-day free trial with 100 credits; no credit card required
Free plan available with limited API calls — no credit card required
500 free credits for real API calls — no time limit stated
Enterprise Customization
Yes — custom plans include CRM integrations, warehouse ingestion, resell rights, and dedicated support
Custom credit volume, SLA, webhook delivery, and bulk data feed options for enterprise
Enterprise and custom plans available for high-volume needs
Onboarding Model
Self-serve for API and MCP; dedicated onboarding for enterprise custom plans
Developer self-serve with documentation; enterprise onboarding supported by team
Self-serve API key signup; extensive documentation and Python/Node SDKs

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 Reviewer

Product Engineer, GTM Platform

"The API is clean, fast, and well-documented, which makes integration with existing workflows almost effortless. Crustdata delivers real-time updates instantly — this has been a game changer for us in lead generation, customer profiling, and market research."
Verified User for Crustdata
V

Verified Reviewer

Data Engineer

"The API is extremely well-documented and easy to integrate. We migrated from ProxyCurl in under a day using the compatibility layer, and the data quality on company enrichment has been solid. The PAYG credits are a nice option for variable workloads."
Verified User for Enrich Layer

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Crustdata better than Enrich Layer?

It depends on your use case. Crustdata The first B2B data search engine built for AI agents — real-time people and company intelligence via clean, fast APIs Enrich Layer The developer-first B2B enrichment API that replaced ProxyCurl — offering 1.2B+ profiles with real-time crawling, bulk operations, and a drop-in compatibility layer

What is the difference between Crustdata and Enrich Layer?

See the feature-by-feature comparison above. In short: Crustdata focuses on The first B2B data search engine built for AI agents — real-time people and company intelligence via clean, fast APIs while Enrich Layer focuses on The developer-first B2B enrichment API that replaced ProxyCurl — offering 1.2B+ profiles with real-time crawling, bulk operations, and a drop-in compatibility layer.

How much does Crustdata cost compared to Enrich Layer?

Crustdata pricing model: Credit-based API subscription. Enrich Layer pricing model: Subscription tiers by credit volume with optional Pay-as-You-Go credits.

Is Crustdata or Enrich Layer 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 Crustdata?

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 Crustdata The first B2B data search engine built for AI agents — real-time people and company intelligence via clean, fast APIs

What is the difference between Explorium and Crustdata?

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 Crustdata focuses on The first B2B data search engine built for AI agents — real-time people and company intelligence via clean, fast APIs.

How much does Explorium cost compared to Crustdata?

Explorium pricing model: Usage-based with custom plans. Crustdata pricing model: Credit-based API subscription.

Is Explorium or Crustdata 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 Enrich Layer?

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 Enrich Layer The developer-first B2B enrichment API that replaced ProxyCurl — offering 1.2B+ profiles with real-time crawling, bulk operations, and a drop-in compatibility layer

What is the difference between Explorium and Enrich Layer?

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 Enrich Layer focuses on The developer-first B2B enrichment API that replaced ProxyCurl — offering 1.2B+ profiles with real-time crawling, bulk operations, and a drop-in compatibility layer.

How much does Explorium cost compared to Enrich Layer?

Explorium pricing model: Usage-based with custom plans. Enrich Layer pricing model: Subscription tiers by credit volume with optional Pay-as-You-Go credits.

Is Explorium or Enrich Layer 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.

Is Crustdata a prospecting tool or a data infrastructure API?

Crustdata is fundamentally an API-first data infrastructure platform — not a traditional prospecting tool with a search UI. It is designed for developers and data engineers building products or workflows that need programmatic access to real-time company and people data. There is no built-in list-builder or export workflow for non-technical users. If your team needs a no-code prospecting interface, Crustdata should be integrated as the backend data layer of another tool.

What makes Crustdata's data different from static B2B databases?

Crustdata aggregates data continuously from live sources — LinkedIn, SEC filings, funding databases, Glassdoor, G2, web traffic services, and news aggregators — rather than relying on periodic database refreshes. This means company signals like headcount changes, executive moves, and funding announcements are available in near real-time via webhooks, rather than weeks or months later. The platform also offers a Web Search API that surfaces fresh, structured web documents on companies and people for LLM-ready intelligence.

What kinds of signals can I monitor with Crustdata webhooks?

Crustdata webhooks can notify your system in real time when tracked companies experience key events: funding announcements, headcount growth or decline (by department), executive hiring or departures, new job openings, product launches, significant news mentions, and web traffic changes. This enables trigger-based outreach — for example, automatically queuing an account for outreach the moment they raise a Series B or hire a new VP of Sales.

How does Crustdata compare to People Data Labs or Clearbit for API use cases?

Crustdata differentiates from People Data Labs (PDL) and Clearbit primarily through its depth of company growth signals and its explicit focus on AI-agent use cases. While PDL and Clearbit are strong for bulk contact enrichment and firmographic append, Crustdata layers on time-series headcount data, funding signals, web traffic trends, and a Web Search API — making it more suitable for dynamic, signal-driven workflows than static enrichment pipelines. Crustdata is also a newer, smaller company with less established enterprise support infrastructure.

Can Crustdata be used to find email addresses and phone numbers for outreach?

Crustdata's primary focus is company intelligence and people profile data — not deliverable email and phone lookups for cold outreach. While people profiles contain contact signals and professional information, Crustdata is not optimized for direct-dial or verified email delivery at the level of tools like UpLead or Apollo. Teams building AI outreach tools on Crustdata typically combine it with a contact data provider for verified emails and phone numbers.

What is Crustdata's Y Combinator backing and what does it mean for the product?

Crustdata is part of Y Combinator's Fall 2024 (F24) batch, having been founded in 2023 by Chris Pisarski, Abhilash, and Manmohit Grewal. The YC backing validates the team and mission but also reflects the company's early stage — it is still building out enterprise-grade support, compliance documentation, and product maturity. The YC network provides access to a relevant customer base of AI-native startups, which aligns well with Crustdata's positioning as infrastructure for AI agents.

Does Crustdata have a Claude Code Skill or Claude Plugin?

Not officially — Crustdata 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.

Is Enrich Layer a replacement for ProxyCurl?

Yes. Enrich Layer is the designated successor to ProxyCurl, which was shut down in July 2026 following a federal lawsuit by LinkedIn. Existing ProxyCurl users can migrate using the enrichlayer-api compatibility layer, which allows their existing code to run unchanged against the Enrich Layer backend.

How fresh is the data returned by Enrich Layer?

Enrich Layer performs on-demand crawling rather than serving pre-cached data, meaning each API call triggers a real-time fetch from live sources. The platform crawls approximately 1 million pages per day, and average response times are around 2 seconds per call.

What lookup keys does Enrich Layer support?

You can query the API using an email address, LinkedIn profile URL, company domain, company name, or school name — depending on the endpoint. The platform returns structured data regardless of which identifier is used.

Are there free credits available to test the API?

Yes. New users receive 500 free credits upon signup with no stated time limit, allowing teams to make real API calls and evaluate data quality before committing to a paid plan.

Does Enrich Layer support bulk operations?

Yes. The platform supports bulk API requests, webhooks for async job delivery, and scales to hundreds of millions of requests per month with 99.9%+ uptime.

Does Enrich Layer have a Claude Code Skill or Claude Plugin?

Not officially — Enrich Layer 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.