Explorium vs Lusha vs Ocean.io

Objective, side-by-side analysis of Explorium, Lusha, and Ocean.io 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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Lusha

4.3

The most accurate and compliant B2B data platform for GTM teams, with a community-sourced data model that rivals enterprise-grade solutions at accessible price points

  • API
  • Free Trial
  • GDPR Compliance
30M+
Companies
152M+
People

Selected Customers

Snowflake • Google • Microsoft • Salesforce • Spotify • Amazon • Oracle NetSuite • Zendesk • Optimizely • WalkMe

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Ocean.io

3.4

The AI lookalike engine that turns your best customers into your best leads

  • API
  • Free Trial
  • GDPR Compliance
35M+
Companies
250M+
People
330M+
Data Points

Selected Customers

Clay • Leadinfo • Brandwatch • Tele2 IoT • LeadBird • Monta • DigiPly Media • Zen Media • Electric House • Scalestack

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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

Lusha

  • AI-Powered Prospecting

    Lusha's AI Recommendations engine surfaces ideal buyer prospects based on ICP criteria, delivering qualified leads daily via the workspace homepage without manual searching.

  • Real-Time Data Enrichment

    Automatically enrich CRM records and CSV lists with verified emails, direct dials, and firmographic data — keeping pipelines accurate with continuous validation.

  • Global GTM Signal Tracking

    Track live buying signals including funding rounds, hiring surges, job changes, and intent data across North America, EMEA, LATAM, and APAC to trigger timely outreach.

Signals powering these use cases

  • Hiring surges
  • Funding rounds
  • Website visitor intent
  • Job changes and promotions
  • Buying intent indicators

Ocean.io

  • AI Lookalike Prospecting

    Ocean.io's core ML and NLP model analyzes how companies describe themselves on their websites to understand what they actually do — then finds companies with the same characteristics. By connecting your CRM, the algorithm builds a statistical profile of your best customers and returns lookalike prospects ranked by similarity, dramatically improving targeting precision over keyword or SIC-code approaches.

  • Buying Committee Discovery

    Beyond account-level targeting, Ocean.io surfaces the full buying committee within each target company using its 250M+ contact database. Users can filter by seniority, department, and role to identify every relevant decision-maker and influencer, enabling multi-threaded outreach strategies across accounts.

  • ICP List Building & ABM

    Marketing teams use Ocean.io to build highly targeted account lists for ABM campaigns by combining lookalike scoring with 200+ filters — technology stack, company size, geography, and contact seniority. CRM integrations with HubSpot, Salesforce, and Pipedrive sync target accounts directly into existing workflows without manual exports.

Signals powering these use cases

  • Lookalike company match score
  • ICP fit indicators
  • Technology stack filters
  • Contact seniority level
  • Company size and growth

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

Lusha Snapshot

  • Company coverage 2.4
  • Signals depth 1.9
  • Freshness 1.4

Ocean.io Snapshot

  • Company coverage 2.3
  • Signals depth 2.5

Detailed Feature Comparison

Side-by-side analysis of Explorium, Lusha, and Ocean.io across data coverage, platform capabilities, and technical specifications.

Feature Comparison
Explorium
Lusha
Ocean.io
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 Signals API and MCP support; documentation at docs.lusha.com
Available on Professional and custom plans
SLA
Up to 99.999% uptime; rate limit 200 requests/min per key
Not publicly specified
-
Compliance
GDPR, SOC 2, CCPA, ISO 27001
GDPR, CCPA, SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27701, ISO 27001, ISO 27018, TRUSTe validated
GDPR and CCPA compliant
Custom Entities
-
-
Real-time Lookups
Global Coverage
150M+ companies and 800M+ contacts across 150+ countries
280M+ contacts across North America, EMEA, LATAM, and APAC
35M+ global company profiles
CRM Integration
Available on custom enterprise plans
Salesforce, HubSpot, Pipedrive, Zoho CRM, monday CRM
HubSpot, Salesforce, Pipedrive native integrations
Platform interface
REST JSON API, MCP server (AgentSource MCP), batch support up to 100 entities, webhooks, sync and async modes
Web workspace, Chrome extension (LinkedIn and web), API, CRM native integrations
Web app, API, CRM integrations
Natural language search
-
Workflow automation
Automation integrations
n8n, Claude, custom webhook integrations
Zapier, Make (Integromat), n8n, Pipedream, Workato, Albato
LinkedIn
Company coverage
150M+ company profiles
30M+ company profiles globally
35M+ company profiles
People coverage
800M+ people profiles (767M+ verified contacts)
280M+ verified B2B contacts
250M+ LinkedIn-sourced contact profiles
Geographic coverage
150+ countries
North America, EMEA, LATAM, APAC — strongest in North America; EMEA and APAC noted as thinner
Global; US and EU focus
Data sources type
50+ data providers; proprietary ML enrichment; real-time web signals
First-party community contributions, third-party vendor partnerships, AI-powered verification and deduplication
Proprietary AI model trained on web content; LinkedIn-sourced contact data; 25+ data scientists maintaining dataset
Global schema consistency
Unified schema across 4,000+ data points globally; consistent API response structure
Consistent schema globally; data attribute availability varies by region
Normalized across company and contact records
Refresh frequency
Daily for high-velocity signals; weekly for semi-dynamic attributes; monthly/quarterly for stable firmographics
Continuous — thousands of records verified and updated daily
Continuously updated by 25+ data scientists
Business enrichments
Company size, revenue, industry, tech stack, funding stage, headcount trends, competitive landscape, website traffic
Industry, headcount, revenue, location, technology stack, funding stage
Company size, technology stack (200+ filters), ICP fit scoring
Prospect enrichments
Job title, seniority, verified email, phone, LinkedIn URL, job history, people events
Business email, direct dial, mobile number, LinkedIn URL, job title, seniority, department
Contact emails, job titles, department, seniority; 99% email success rate claimed
Enrichment categories
Firmographics, technographics, intent, funding, events, contact, website signals, lookalikes
Contact-level (email, phone, title, seniority), company-level (industry, size, revenue, tech stack), signal-level (job changes, funding, hiring)
Company lookalike scores, contact information, technology stack, company size, industry niche
Intent data
Event signals
Company events (20+ types), people events (5+ types), funding rounds, acquisitions, hiring surges
Funding rounds, hiring surges, job changes, promotions, website visitor signals, intent indicators
-
Technographics
Hiring and growth signals
Matching precision
98% company accuracy; 95% people accuracy
98% email deliverability; 86–90% phone accuracy
ML + NLP analysis of company website language to determine business category and lookalike fit
Confidence scoring
-
Validation methodology
Advanced ML-based deduplication; 98%+ company accuracy; 95% people accuracy
Multi-source: AI-powered cleaning, community sourcing, vendor data, compliance checks
Multi-source verification; 98% CRM match rate; 99% email success rate claimed
Deduplication logic
Advanced ML-based deduplication across 50+ data providers
AI-powered deduplication across community-sourced and vendor data before database ingestion
CRM sync deduplicates against existing accounts
API availability
QPS performance
Up to 100 QPS; 200 requests/min per API key
Not publicly specified
-
CRM integrations
Custom plan — CRM integrations available
Salesforce, HubSpot, Pipedrive, Zoho CRM, monday CRM, Bullhorn
HubSpot, Salesforce, Pipedrive
Data warehouse support
Custom plan — warehouse ingestion available
Via API and integrations; native warehouse connectors not explicitly listed
-
Bulk data delivery
Claude Connector
ChatGPT App
Custom MCP
Claude Plugin
ChatGPT Plugin
OpenClaw Plugin
Skills
16
17
-
GDPR compliance
CCPA support
SOC 2
-
ISO certifications
ISO 27001
ISO 27701, ISO 27001, ISO 27018
-
SLA uptime
Up to 99.999% uptime SLA
Not publicly specified
-
Pricing model
Usage-based API credits with custom enterprise plans
Credit-based; each contact reveal or enrichment consumes credits
Tiered annual subscription
Credit system
Credit-based; 100 credits on free trial; self-serve and custom plans scale with volume
40 credits/month (Free); 400–4,800/month (Starter); 600–7,200/month (Professional); 3,400–40,800/month (Premium)
-
Tier structure
Free trial, Self-serve, Custom Enterprise
Free → Starter → Professional → Premium → Scale (Enterprise)
Trial (free), Premium ($79/mo), Professional ($129/mo), Custom
Free trial details
30-day free trial with 100 credits; covers API and MCP access
Permanent free plan with 40 monthly credits; no credit card required
14-day free trial with access to core features
Budget commitment options
Custom enterprise plans with volume negotiation
Annual billing for discount; monthly available with no lock-in
Annual or monthly
Custom plans available
Bulk deals support
Resell rights
-
-

Pricing

Compare pricing models, flexibility, and commitment structure.

Pricing Dimension
Explorium
Lusha
Ocean.io
Pricing Model
Usage-based with custom enterprise plans
Credit-based tiered subscriptions; credits consumed per contact reveal or enrichment
Tiered annual subscription
Commitment Structure
One-time or custom; no mandatory annual lock-in on self-serve
Monthly or annual; annual saves 20–30%
Annual commitment typical; trial available
Payment Recurrence
One-time or custom
Monthly or annual
Annual (monthly available)
Free Trial
30-day free trial with 100 credits; no credit card required
Free plan with 40 credits/month; no credit card required; no time limit
14-day free trial
Enterprise Customization
Yes — custom plans include CRM integrations, warehouse ingestion, resell rights, and dedicated support
Scale plan with custom pricing, seats, and credit volumes
Custom pricing for larger teams and API access
Onboarding Model
Self-serve for API and MCP; dedicated onboarding for enterprise custom plans
Self-serve for Free/Starter/Professional; guided onboarding for Premium and Scale
Self-serve trial; sales-assisted for enterprise; reported low ease-of-setup score on G2 (5.8)

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, Mid-Market SaaS

"Lusha has been a game-changer for our outbound team. The Chrome extension is seamless on LinkedIn and data accuracy — especially emails — is noticeably better than tools we used before."
Verified User for Lusha
V

Verified G2 Reviewer

Account Executive, B2B SaaS

"The best thing I like about Ocean.io is that it generates leads which are similar to our current customers. So we can find customers which we know they need us and can directly target them."
Verified User for Ocean.io

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Lusha better than Ocean.io?

It depends on your use case. Lusha The most accurate and compliant B2B data platform for GTM teams, with a community-sourced data model that rivals enterprise-grade solutions at accessible price points Ocean.io The AI lookalike engine that turns your best customers into your best leads

What is the difference between Lusha and Ocean.io?

See the feature-by-feature comparison above. In short: Lusha focuses on The most accurate and compliant B2B data platform for GTM teams, with a community-sourced data model that rivals enterprise-grade solutions at accessible price points while Ocean.io focuses on The AI lookalike engine that turns your best customers into your best leads.

How much does Lusha cost compared to Ocean.io?

Lusha pricing model: Credit-based tiered subscription. Ocean.io pricing model: Tiered annual subscription.

Is Lusha or Ocean.io 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 Lusha?

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 Lusha The most accurate and compliant B2B data platform for GTM teams, with a community-sourced data model that rivals enterprise-grade solutions at accessible price points

What is the difference between Explorium and Lusha?

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 Lusha focuses on The most accurate and compliant B2B data platform for GTM teams, with a community-sourced data model that rivals enterprise-grade solutions at accessible price points.

How much does Explorium cost compared to Lusha?

Explorium pricing model: Usage-based with custom plans. Lusha pricing model: Credit-based tiered subscription.

Is Explorium or Lusha 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 Ocean.io?

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 Ocean.io The AI lookalike engine that turns your best customers into your best leads

What is the difference between Explorium and Ocean.io?

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 Ocean.io focuses on The AI lookalike engine that turns your best customers into your best leads.

How much does Explorium cost compared to Ocean.io?

Explorium pricing model: Usage-based with custom plans. Ocean.io pricing model: Tiered annual subscription.

Is Explorium or Ocean.io 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 accurate is Lusha's contact data?

Lusha reports 98% email deliverability and 86–90% phone accuracy across its 280M+ contact database. Data is validated through multi-source verification — community contributions, third-party vendors, and AI-powered cleaning — with thousands of records refreshed daily.

Is Lusha compliant with GDPR and other privacy regulations?

Yes. Lusha is GDPR and CCPA compliant, SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001, ISO 27018, and ISO 27701 certified — the only sales intelligence platform with ISO 27701 accreditation (the world's highest international privacy standard). Data subjects can exercise rights via Lusha's self-serve Privacy Centre.

What CRM and automation tools does Lusha integrate with?

Lusha integrates natively with Salesforce, HubSpot, Pipedrive, Zoho CRM, monday CRM, Outreach, Salesloft, Gmail, and Outlook. For automation: Zapier, Make, n8n, Pipedream, Workato, and Albato. Also offers Remote MCP support for AI workflow integration.

Can I try Lusha for free?

Yes. Lusha offers a permanent free plan with 40 credits per month — no credit card required. This lets users test the Chrome extension, workspace search, and data quality before upgrading.

What buying signals does Lusha track?

Lusha tracks real-time signals including funding rounds, hiring surges, website visitor intent, job changes, and promotions — surfaced in the workspace and via the Signals API to trigger timely, context-relevant outreach.

Does Lusha have a Claude Code Skill or Claude Plugin?

Yes — Lusha offers an official MCP connector for Claude, but does not currently have a 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.

How does Ocean.io's lookalike search differ from filtering by industry or SIC code?

Traditional filters like SIC codes and NAICS classifications are broad, standardized buckets that often group very different businesses together. Ocean.io's NLP model reads each company's own website language to understand what it actually does — its niche, market, and offering — and groups companies based on semantic similarity. This means two companies in the same SIC code might score very differently if one targets SMBs and the other targets enterprise, and a niche software company in a generic 'IT Services' bucket will be matched accurately to true peers.

What does Ocean.io's '98% CRM match rate' actually mean?

Ocean.io claims that 98% of the company profiles it returns can be matched to existing CRM records when syncing, indicating high data quality and clean company identification. This is relevant for deduplication — when you push a list of lookalike companies into HubSpot or Salesforce, 98% will correctly map to an existing or new account without manual intervention. It also reflects the consistency of company naming and domain standardization across the platform.

Can Ocean.io surface contacts beyond LinkedIn profiles?

Ocean.io's contact database is primarily sourced from LinkedIn with 250M+ profiles. The platform provides email addresses with a claimed 99% success rate and allows filtering by seniority, department, and job function to build a full buying committee view. Ocean.io does not aggregate contacts from as many data sources as dedicated enrichment tools like Apollo or ZoomInfo, but the quality is maintained by 25+ in-house data scientists.

Is Ocean.io suitable for companies with no existing customer data to train the lookalike model?

The lookalike model works best when seeded with real customer data from a CRM, but Ocean.io also allows users to manually input seed companies or define ICP criteria without a CRM connection. If you have fewer than 10 customers, the model's accuracy will be lower because it has less signal to work from. In those cases, using a manually curated seed list of known-good ICP companies (even from public sources) is a reasonable alternative to get started.

How does Ocean.io handle GDPR compliance for European contact data?

Ocean.io is both US and EU-GDPR compliant. The platform sources contact data through legitimate interest and public professional profiles, and applies data minimization principles to limit what is stored. The team includes compliance processes for data subject requests and does not store or expose personal data that was not provided through a compliant source. For teams in regulated European industries, Ocean.io's compliance posture is a meaningful differentiator over US-only tools.

Does Ocean.io have a Claude Code Skill or Claude Plugin?

Ocean.io 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.