Explorium vs Findymail vs The Companies API

Objective, side-by-side analysis of Explorium, Findymail, and The Companies API 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

Findymail

4.9

The highest-accuracy email finder on the market — under 2% bounce rate, pay only for verified results, built for cold email teams that can't afford to burn domains

  • API
  • Free Trial
  • GDPR Compliance

The Companies API

The fastest and most developer-friendly company enrichment API — search, enrich, and discover similar companies across 54 million records with a single API call

  • API
  • Free Trial
  • GDPR Compliance

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

Findymail

  • High-Deliverability Email Finding

    Findymail verifies every email address before charging for it, guaranteeing a bounce rate below 5% — well under the 10% threshold that triggers domain reputation damage. Teams sending at high volume can protect sender reputation while maintaining find rates that competing tools miss.

  • LinkedIn Sales Navigator Export

    The Findymail Chrome extension automates bulk export from LinkedIn Sales Navigator, extracting verified email addresses for entire search result pages in minutes. Exported contacts include a keyword-match flag showing whether the lead matches custom search filters.

  • Waterfall Enrichment Layer

    Findymail is frequently used as a secondary or tertiary enrichment provider in waterfall sequences alongside tools like Prospeo and Datagma. Its high precision at the verification stage catches valid emails that other tools flag as unverifiable, pushing combined find rates to 85–92%.

Signals powering these use cases

  • Sub-2% bounce rate guarantee on delivered emails
  • Catch-all domain recovery using proprietary verification algorithm
  • Real-time SMTP validation on every email before delivery
  • Pay-only-for-verified-results pricing model
  • Automated LinkedIn Sales Navigator export via browser extension

The Companies API

  • Real-Time Company Enrichment

    Pass any domain name or company email to the Enrichment API and receive 300+ data points in a single API call — including revenue, employee count, industry, technologies, social links, and identification codes. The fast, scalable infrastructure handles enterprise workloads, and missing data points can be requested and added by the team within days.

  • Targeted Company Search & Prospecting

    Filter the 54 million company database by industry, location, revenue range, employee count, technology stack, and 300+ other parameters to build targeted prospect lists programmatically. This supports ICP-based account targeting for ABM campaigns, CRM enrichment, and automated lead qualification pipelines without manual research.

  • Similar Company Discovery

    The Similar Companies API identifies businesses that match a given company's profile — by industry, technology stack, size, and location — enabling sales teams to expand their addressable market by discovering lookalike accounts. This is particularly useful for account-based marketing teams looking to grow their ICP universe beyond manual research.

Signals powering these use cases

  • Technology stack adoption
  • Revenue and employee count signals
  • Industry classification
  • Company similarity scoring

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

Findymail Snapshot

  • Signals depth 2.2
  • Freshness 3.7

The Companies API Snapshot

  • Company coverage 1.5
  • Signals depth 1.3
  • Freshness 4.0

Detailed Feature Comparison

Side-by-side analysis of Explorium, Findymail, and The Companies API across data coverage, platform capabilities, and technical specifications.

Feature Comparison
Explorium
Findymail
The Companies API
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 access on all paid plans
Full REST API; Startup 50 RPS, Scaleup 250 RPS, Enterprise 1,000 RPS
SLA
Up to 99.999% uptime; rate limit 200 requests/min per key
-
-
Compliance
GDPR, SOC 2, CCPA, ISO 27001
GDPR compliant
GDPR-compliant; all data is publicly visible and verifiable
Custom Entities
Real-time Lookups
Global Coverage
150M+ companies and 800M+ contacts across 150+ countries
Global with strongest coverage in US and Europe
54M+ companies globally, all industries and regions
CRM Integration
Available on custom enterprise plans
HubSpot, Pipedrive, Salesforce; Zapier, Lemlist, Instantly, Outreach
-
Platform interface
REST JSON API, MCP server (AgentSource MCP), batch support up to 100 entities, webhooks, sync and async modes
Web app, Chrome extension (LinkedIn Sales Navigator export), API
REST API with documentation; no native prospecting UI
Natural language search
-
Workflow automation
Automation integrations
n8n, Claude, custom webhook integrations
Zapier, Lemlist, Instantly, Outreach, and 10+ direct integrations
Webhook support for event-driven workflows
Company coverage
150M+ company profiles
-
54M+ companies
People coverage
800M+ people profiles (767M+ verified contacts)
Real-time email discovery from LinkedIn profiles and company websites
-
Geographic coverage
150+ countries
Global, with strong coverage in US and European markets
Global; all industries and regions
Data sources type
50+ data providers; proprietary ML enrichment; real-time web signals
Real-time LinkedIn profile scraping, company website analysis, SMTP verification
Public web data from hundreds of sources; GDPR-compliant
Global schema consistency
Unified schema across 4,000+ data points globally; consistent API response structure
Consistent output: verified email, phone, job title, company name
Consistent 300+ data point schema across all companies
Refresh frequency
Daily for high-velocity signals; weekly for semi-dynamic attributes; monthly/quarterly for stable firmographics
Real-time on each lookup
Real-time data processing and enrichment; webhook notifications for updates
Business enrichments
Company size, revenue, industry, tech stack, funding stage, headcount trends, competitive landscape, website traffic
Company name, domain
Revenue, employee count, industry, location, technologies, social profiles, identification codes
Prospect enrichments
Job title, seniority, verified email, phone, LinkedIn URL, job history, people events
Verified professional email, mobile phone number, job title, LinkedIn profile
-
Enrichment categories
Firmographics, technographics, intent, funding, events, contact, website signals, lookalikes
Email finding, email verification, phone number enrichment, LinkedIn export
Firmographic, technographic, revenue, employee count, social, similar companies
Intent data
-
Event signals
Company events (20+ types), people events (5+ types), funding rounds, acquisitions, hiring surges
-
-
Technographics
Hiring and growth signals
-
Matching precision
98% company accuracy; 95% people accuracy
75.1% find rate in independent benchmarks; under 2% actual bounce rate on delivered emails
Domain-based and name-based matching
Confidence scoring
-
Validation methodology
Advanced ML-based deduplication; 98%+ company accuracy; 95% people accuracy
Syntax check, DNS validation, SMTP handshake, proprietary catch-all recovery; bounce rate guaranteed under 5%
Data sourced from hundreds of public web sources; described as 'most accurate and reliable' by users
Deduplication logic
Advanced ML-based deduplication across 50+ data providers
Deduplication handled at export — duplicate contacts not charged
-
API availability
QPS performance
Up to 100 QPS; 200 requests/min per API key
-
50 RPS (Startup), 250 RPS (Scaleup), 1,000 RPS (Enterprise)
CRM integrations
Custom plan — CRM integrations available
HubSpot, Pipedrive, Salesforce
-
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
-
-
Pricing model
Usage-based API credits with custom enterprise plans
Credit-based subscription
Credit-based monthly subscription
Credit system
Credit-based; 100 credits on free trial; self-serve and custom plans scale with volume
1 credit = 1 verified email; 10 credits = 1 phone number; credits roll over up to 2× monthly plan; only charged for verified results
Credits consumed per API call; search and enrichment each consume credits
Tier structure
Free trial, Self-serve, Custom Enterprise
Basic ($49/mo, 1,000 credits), Starter ($99/mo, 5,000 credits), Business ($249/mo, 15,000 credits), Enterprise (custom)
Free, Startup ($95/mo), Scaleup ($295/mo), Enterprise ($595/mo)
Free trial details
30-day free trial with 100 credits; covers API and MCP access
One-time free trial: 10 email credits + 10 verification credits; no credit card required
500 free credits, no credit card required, no time limit stated
Budget commitment options
Custom enterprise plans with volume negotiation
Monthly or annual billing; annual discount of ~17%; credit rollover up to 2× monthly plan
Monthly subscription only
Custom plans available
Bulk deals support
-
Resell rights
-
-
-

Pricing

Compare pricing models, flexibility, and commitment structure.

Pricing Dimension
Explorium
Findymail
The Companies API
Pricing Model
Usage-based with custom enterprise plans
Credit-based subscription — credits only consumed for verified, deliverable emails
Credit-based monthly subscription
Commitment Structure
One-time or custom; no mandatory annual lock-in on self-serve
Monthly or annual; annual saves ~17% (2 months free)
Monthly, no annual commitment required
Payment Recurrence
One-time or custom
Monthly or Annual
Monthly
Free Trial
30-day free trial with 100 credits; no credit card required
One-time free trial: 10 email finder credits + 10 verifications; no credit card required
Free plan with 500 credits, no credit card required
Enterprise Customization
Yes — custom plans include CRM integrations, warehouse ingestion, resell rights, and dedicated support
Custom pricing and volume for teams exceeding 15,000 credits/month
Enterprise plan at $595/mo; custom plans available on request
Onboarding Model
Self-serve for API and MCP; dedicated onboarding for enterprise custom plans
Self-serve; Chrome extension, API, and CSV upload workflows
Fully self-serve with documentation and live chat 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

Founder, Cold Email Agency

"Findymail is the best email finder out there. I send 7 million cold emails per month and have tested over a dozen email finders. Findymail consistently delivers the highest accuracy — I have never had high bounce rates since switching to it. The accuracy and coverage of the data available addresses my need for precise and comprehensive information when finding and verifying emails."
Verified User for Findymail
V

Verified GetApp Reviewer

Developer / Small Business

"The data was the most accurate and reliable source for our needs. The API is easy-to-use and well-documented, and customer support is extremely fast and helpful."
Verified User for The Companies API

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Findymail better than The Companies API?

It depends on your use case. Findymail The highest-accuracy email finder on the market — under 2% bounce rate, pay only for verified results, built for cold email teams that can't afford to burn domains The Companies API The fastest and most developer-friendly company enrichment API — search, enrich, and discover similar companies across 54 million records with a single API call

What is the difference between Findymail and The Companies API?

See the feature-by-feature comparison above. In short: Findymail focuses on The highest-accuracy email finder on the market — under 2% bounce rate, pay only for verified results, built for cold email teams that can't afford to burn domains while The Companies API focuses on The fastest and most developer-friendly company enrichment API — search, enrich, and discover similar companies across 54 million records with a single API call.

How much does Findymail cost compared to The Companies API?

Findymail pricing model: Credit-based subscription, pay only for verified results. The Companies API pricing model: Credit-based monthly subscription.

Is Findymail or The Companies API 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 Findymail?

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 Findymail The highest-accuracy email finder on the market — under 2% bounce rate, pay only for verified results, built for cold email teams that can't afford to burn domains

What is the difference between Explorium and Findymail?

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 Findymail focuses on The highest-accuracy email finder on the market — under 2% bounce rate, pay only for verified results, built for cold email teams that can't afford to burn domains.

How much does Explorium cost compared to Findymail?

Explorium pricing model: Usage-based with custom plans. Findymail pricing model: Credit-based subscription, pay only for verified results.

Is Explorium or Findymail 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 The Companies API?

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 The Companies API The fastest and most developer-friendly company enrichment API — search, enrich, and discover similar companies across 54 million records with a single API call

What is the difference between Explorium and The Companies API?

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 The Companies API focuses on The fastest and most developer-friendly company enrichment API — search, enrich, and discover similar companies across 54 million records with a single API call.

How much does Explorium cost compared to The Companies API?

Explorium pricing model: Usage-based with custom plans. The Companies API pricing model: Credit-based monthly subscription.

Is Explorium or The Companies API 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 Findymail handle catch-all email domains?

Catch-all domains are configured to accept all inbound email regardless of whether the specific address exists, which makes standard SMTP verification unreliable. Findymail uses a proprietary catch-all recovery algorithm that goes beyond basic SMTP checks — testing email pattern consistency, cross-referencing public sources, and applying confidence signals — to classify catch-all addresses as deliverable or risky. Addresses classified as risky catch-alls are not returned as verified, protecting your sender reputation.

Does Findymail require a LinkedIn Sales Navigator subscription to work?

Findymail works without Sales Navigator for individual email lookups via the web app, CSV upload, or API. However, the bulk LinkedIn export feature — which lets you export entire search result pages directly from LinkedIn — requires a Sales Navigator subscription to function at meaningful scale. Free LinkedIn accounts have strict rate limits that make bulk export impractical. Teams serious about volume prospecting from LinkedIn typically use Findymail alongside Sales Navigator.

Why does Findymail only charge for verified emails rather than all lookups?

Findymail's pricing model is designed to align cost with value: you only pay when a deliverable email address is actually returned. If Findymail cannot find or verify an email for a contact, no credit is deducted. This model means there is no penalty for searching against contacts who have no discoverable email, and it incentivizes Findymail to maximize verification accuracy rather than simply maximizing output volume.

How does Findymail perform in waterfall enrichment setups compared to using it as a primary tool?

In single-provider mode, independent benchmarks place Findymail's email find rate at approximately 75%, which is lower than database-heavy tools like Apollo or Hunter but with substantially better deliverability on the emails it does find. In waterfall setups — where Findymail runs after one or two other providers to catch emails they missed or mis-classified — combined find rates reach 85–92%, while the overall bounce rate of the waterfall stays low because Findymail's verification is the final quality gate.

What happens to unused credits at the end of the month?

Unused credits roll over to the following month on all paid plans. However, your total credit balance is capped at 2× your monthly plan size. For example, on the Starter plan (5,000 credits/month), your maximum accumulated balance is 10,000 credits. If you consistently use fewer credits than your plan provides, you will eventually hit the cap and excess rollover will be forfeited, which is worth factoring into plan selection for teams with irregular outreach volume.

Does Findymail have a Claude Code Skill or Claude Plugin?

Not officially — Findymail 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 The Companies API provide contact data like email addresses or phone numbers for individuals?

No. The Companies API is strictly a company-level data platform. It does not provide individual contact data such as professional email addresses, direct dial phone numbers, or LinkedIn profiles. The enrichment output covers company attributes — revenue, employee count, industry, technologies, social profiles, and similar company identification — but has no people or contact data layer. Teams that need person-level enrichment alongside company data will need to combine The Companies API with a separate contact enrichment provider.

What exactly can be searched and filtered in the company search API?

The Search API lets you filter 54M+ companies using 300+ data points including industry, geographic location, company size (employee count), revenue range, technology stack, and keywords. Results can be used to build targeted account lists for ABM campaigns, ICP prospecting, or market research. The database covers all industries and global regions, with GDPR-compliant public data sourced from hundreds of web sources.

How does the Similar Companies feature work?

The Similar Companies API accepts a company identifier (domain or name) and returns a list of businesses that share similar characteristics — industry, size, location, and technology stack. This enables sales and marketing teams to discover lookalike accounts programmatically, expanding their ICP target list beyond manually curated lists or static segments. It is particularly useful for account-based marketing programs where the goal is to find more companies that match the profile of existing best-fit customers.

What happens if the API is missing a data point I need?

The Companies API has a stated policy of adding missing data points upon customer request within a few days. This is explicitly mentioned in their documentation and has been noted by users as a differentiating service characteristic. This flexibility is unusual among data API providers and makes the platform particularly adaptable for teams building custom data products or enrichment workflows that require niche or specialized company attributes not included in standard schemas.

What are the rate limits, and can they handle enterprise-scale workloads?

Rate limits scale with plan tier: 50 requests per second on the Startup plan ($95/mo), 250 RPS on the Scaleup plan ($295/mo), and 1,000 RPS on the Enterprise plan ($595/mo). The API returns a standard 429 Too Many Requests error when limits are exceeded, and the documentation recommends exponential backoff. For most enrichment use cases — CRM batch jobs, list enrichment, product onboarding flows — the Scaleup tier at 250 RPS handles substantial volumes. High-frequency real-time applications at enterprise scale would require the Enterprise tier or a custom arrangement.

How does The Companies API handle GDPR compliance?

The Companies API states that all data in its database is public, GDPR-compliant, and visible on the internet to anyone. The platform sources exclusively from public web data aggregated from hundreds of sources, which means there is no personal data processed beyond publicly available business information. Its GDPR-compliant infrastructure is also described as enabling developers to build AI-driven workflows safely. Customers operating in EU markets should note that while the data provider is GDPR-compliant, downstream use of the data in marketing or outreach workflows still requires the customer's own legal basis assessment.

Does The Companies API have a Claude Code Skill or Claude Plugin?

The Companies API 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.