7 Best Company Search Engines in 2026

A company search engine is a database you filter by industry, headcount, location and technology to get a list of matching companies. Developers call it over an API. Agents call it over MCP. Revenue teams use it to build account lists before they look for people.

Most buyers leave their first tool for one of four reasons. The credit meter runs out mid-month (Apollo). The rate limit is a few requests a minute (Crustdata). The price is hidden behind sales (Ocean.io). The bill climbs per record (Coresignal, People Data Labs).

This page ranks seven tools on the same checklist. For a build walkthrough, see the company search API guide. For lookalike seeds, see best lookalike company search tools.

TL;DR

Prices are monthly list prices first, billed-yearly figures after them where the vendor publishes one. Sources are in each section.

What we evaluated

We scored each tool on the same five questions, from its public docs and pricing pages (checked September 2026). We did not run live queries for this edition, so no hit-rate claims appear below.

• Filters. How many company filters can you combine, and can you size a list before you pay for it?
• API shape. Is there a search endpoint with cursor paging, a deep page limit and a bulk export?
• MCP. Is there an official hosted server an agent can use, and on which plans?
• Rate limit. What pace does a normal key get per second or minute?
• Cost at volume. What does 1M company records a month cost at published prices? If nothing is published, we say so.

1. LeadOcean: best for API and agent buyers

LeadOcean is a people and company database you call over REST or MCP. It holds 67M companies and 693M people. Company search takes 34 filters, and GET /v1/companies/count returns a free exact total with breakdowns by industry, headcount band, HQ country, HQ state and NAICS.

One search pages to 10,000 rows, and a capped page sets meta.depthCapped. For bigger pulls, narrow the filters or use POST /v1/exports, which writes up to 50,000 rows a request. Enrich one company with POST /v1/companies/enrich, then list its people with GET /v1/companies/{domain}/people.

The MCP server is hosted at https://api.leadocean.io/mcp with OAuth sign-in and 13 tools, including leadocean_count_companies and leadocean_search_companies. Paid plans have a fair-use pace, not credits. Nothing expires and there is no overage invoice.

Pros

• Flat price: Agency is $497 a month for 25M search records, with 200 requests a second per account.
• Free exact company counts before you spend a record.
• Official MCP server on every plan, including Free.
• Company and people data in one database, one key.

Cons

• No lookalike search. Filter search only.
• No job postings, news or change watchers.
• Fewer company records than PDL, which lists 76.6 million. LeadOcean has 67M.
• Monthly refresh, so it is not a live signal source.

Best for: engineers, RevOps teams and agents that pull company lists in volume.

Pricing: Free $0 (1,000 records for life, no card, 5 requests a second), Solo $97 a month, Agency $497 a month, Platform $1,997 a month (LeadOcean pricing, October 2026). Billed-yearly figures: not published.

2. Crustdata: best for live web data

Crustdata is a data API with its own index of people, companies, jobs and posts. Company search costs 0.03 credits per result. Company enrich costs 2 to 4 credits, and company identify and autocomplete are free (Crustdata pricing docs, September 2026).

It also fetches live pages, searches jobs and social posts, and watches a company for changes. A company watcher is 5 credits per changed company at the 30-day SLA. No other tool here has that.

The catch is the meter and the pace. The pricing page lists no plan names or dollar prices. Default limits are 30 requests a minute on search and 15 on company enrich (Crustdata rate limits, September 2026).

Pros

• Live fetch, job and post search, and change watchers.
• Official hosted MCP server with OAuth (Crustdata MCP docs, September 2026).
• Cheap search at 0.03 credits a result.
• Free company identify and autocomplete.

Cons

• No public dollar price, so you cannot budget from the site.
• 30 search requests a minute by default.
• Homepage states both 60M and 200M+ companies, so the real company count is unclear.
• Purchased credits expire. Docs say 12 months; one Crustdata blog post says 6.

Best for: teams that need a signal the day it happens, such as a headcount change or a new job post.

Pricing: No public plan prices; credits only (Crustdata pricing, September 2026). 1M search results is 30,000 credits. No public 1M price.

3. CompanyEnrich: best for lookalikes on a small budget

CompanyEnrich is a B2B data API for company enrichment, company search, people search and AI lookalike discovery. It lists 33M+ companies and 193M+ professional profiles (CompanyEnrich llms.txt, September 2026).

Company search is 1 credit per company. Semantic search is 2. Similar companies, its lookalike feature, is 5 per company. Autocomplete, preview and logo calls are free, but preview needs the Scale plan.

An MCP server exposes all of its APIs as tools, including search and lookalikes (CompanyEnrich docs, September 2026). Rate limits rise with the plan: 60 requests a minute on Starter, 120 on Pro and 600 on Scale.

Pros

• Lookalike and semantic search built in.
• Public prices from $49 a month.
• Credits roll over on Pro and Scale.
• Async bulk enrich up to 10,000 domains, and search exports up to 50,000 rows.

Cons

• The smallest company set here, at 33M+.
• Top public plan is 500,000 credits, so 1M records needs a quote.
• Price of extra credits is not published.
• Annual pricing exists but no figure is published.

Best for: small teams that want lookalike discovery and a public price.

Pricing: Starter $49 a month for 5,000 credits, Pro $149 for 50,000, Scale $549 for 500,000 (CompanyEnrich pricing, September 2026). No public 1M price.

4. Ocean.io: best for lookalike search from seed customers

Ocean.io finds companies that look like your best customers. You pass seed domains in lookalikeDomains and it returns matches (Ocean.io docs, September 2026). Its llms.txt lists 67M company profiles and 250M+ employee records.

Search costs 0.2 credits a result. Enrich is 0.1 and lookup 0.05. Reveal email is 1 credit per email found and reveal phone is 10 (Ocean.io credits docs, September 2026).

The MCP server has 8 tools and takes the API token in the URL. Self-serve keys get 60 requests a minute and 1,000 requests a day.

Pros

• Strongest lookalike workflow in this list.
• People search returns up to 10,000 results per request.
• MCP exports of up to 10,000 records.
• Cheap lookups at 0.05 credits.

Cons

• No readable public price. Its pricing pages return a bot check.
• 1,000 requests a day on self-serve keys.
• Token sits in the MCP URL, not behind OAuth.
• Reveals are billed per find, and guessed results are charged.

Best for: account-based teams that start from five good customers and want more like them.

Pricing: No public price we could read (Ocean.io, September 2026). 1M search results is 200,000 credits. No public 1M price.

5. Apollo: best if you also want a sales app

Apollo is a sales platform with a large database behind it. Its pricing page cites 30 million companies. Organization enrichment is 1 credit per company (Apollo API pricing, September 2026).

Every plan includes API access. The official MCP server at https://mcp.apollo.io/mcp works on any plan, including Free, and spends the same credits (Apollo MCP docs, September 2026).

The cost is the seat. Credits are per seat, pooled across the team, and expire each billing cycle. Database search on paid plans allows 200 requests a minute and 50,000 a day.

Pros

• Sequences, dialer and Chrome extension in the same product.
• Free plan with API access and MCP.
• Search limits of 50,000 requests a day on paid plans.
• Public prices on every plan.

Cons

• Per-seat credits make volume expensive: 4,000 credits on Professional.
• Credits expire each cycle, including purchased add-ons.
• Price of extra credits is not public.
• Record selection per action caps at 10,000 on Organization.

Best for: sales teams that want search and outreach in one tool.

Pricing: Basic $65 per seat a month, Professional $99, Organization $149 (minimum 3 seats). Billed yearly: $49, $79 and $119 (Apollo pricing, September 2026). 1M company enrichments at 1 credit each is $24,750 a month at list on monthly billing, or $19,600 a month equivalent on yearly billing.

6. Coresignal: best for raw size and job data

Coresignal sells employee, company and job records on credits. Its homepage claims 70M+ company records, 907M+ employee records and 482M+ job postings, with daily company updates (Coresignal, September 2026).

Search by filter is free. Fetching a Base company record costs 10 credits and a multi-source record 20 (Coresignal docs, September 2026). Its MCP server has 5 tools and uses OAuth 2.1.

Rate limits follow the plan. Free, Mini and Starter get 5 requests a second, Pro 10, Growth 20, Premium 50 and Scale 100 (Coresignal rate limits, September 2026).

Pros

• Free filter search. You pay when you fetch a record.
• Job posting data at 1 credit each.
• Public prices from $49 to $5,000 a month.
• Bulk Collect of 10,000 records per request.

Cons

• A company record costs 10 to 20 credits, so volume adds up fast.
• Free trial lasts 7 days and credits do not carry to a paid plan.
• Search preview returns 20 records a call, up to 1,000 over 50 pages.
• Premium, Scale and Elite are marked contact-sales on the pricing page.

Best for: teams that need job postings and the largest raw count, and can budget per record.

Pricing: Mini $49 a month, Starter $199, Pro $499, Growth $1,000, Premium $1,500, Scale $3,000, Elite $5,000. Billed yearly is 10% off (Coresignal pricing, September 2026). 1M Base company records is 10,000,000 credits, which is one Elite month at $5,000 ($4,500 a month billed yearly). That is our arithmetic, not a published 1M price, and Elite is marked contact sales.

7. People Data Labs: best for bulk dataset licences

People Data Labs lists 76,606,079 company records (PDL company stats, September 2026). Company Enrichment costs one credit per match. Company Search allows only 10 requests a minute by default (PDL usage limits, September 2026).

Company Pro starts at $100 a month for 1,000 records, or $960 a year billed yearly. PDL advises Enterprise above 400,000 company profiles a year (PDL company pricing, September 2026).

There is no official PDL MCP server. Only community servers exist, and they are not from PDL (PDL docs llms.txt, September 2026).

Pros

• The largest company set among the self-serve tools here.
• Query any field in the schema.
• A 404 is not billed.
• Bulk and flat-file licences for data teams.

Cons

• No official MCP server.
• 10 company searches a minute by default.
• Self-serve stops well below 1M records a month.
• Person and company data are priced on separate plans.

Best for: data teams that want to license a large dataset and run their own matching.

Pricing: Company Pro from $100 a month for 1,000 records (PDL, September 2026). No public 1M price.

Comparison table

How to choose

• You build a pipeline or an agent and need volume. Pick LeadOcean. Flat price, 200 requests a second and free counts.
• You need live signals. Pick Crustdata for watchers and live fetch, and budget from the dashboard.
• You start from your best customers. Pick Ocean.io or CompanyEnrich for lookalikes. CompanyEnrich is cheaper and has a public price.
• You want search and outreach in one tool. Pick Apollo and accept per-seat credits.
• You need job postings or the biggest raw count. Pick Coresignal and check the credits per record first.
• You license a dataset. Pick People Data Labs and talk to its sales team above 400,000 company profiles a year.

Verdict

LeadOcean wins for developers and agents who pull company lists at volume, because the price is flat and the counts are free. Crustdata wins for live signals. Ocean.io and CompanyEnrich win for lookalikes, with CompanyEnrich cheaper on public prices. Apollo wins for teams that want outreach in the same product. Coresignal wins on job data and raw size. PDL wins for dataset licences. Start with a free count, then pick the tool that fits your pace and budget.

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