BlitzAPI is the better buy when you want a price you can read and a fast, flat-rate API. Crustdata is the better buy when you want live web data and change alerts, and can accept a quote. Only BlitzAPI prints a dollar price, though its 1M figure holds for accounts opened by September 30, 2026.
Verdict
- Pick BlitzAPI if you are a developer or data team that enriches by API and wants one flat monthly fee. Verified work emails start on Plus at $499 a month, and US phones need Full at $599.
- Pick Crustdata if you need live profile fetches, job and post search, or watchers that alert you when a person or company changes. Expect to get your dollar price per credit from the dashboard or sales.
- Pick neither if you want a flat price and an MCP server that returns records and a bulk CSV export. BlitzAPI documents no export and its MCP server reads docs only. Crustdata publishes no dollar price. LeadOcean Pro is $499 a month with all three.
Side by side
All figures checked in September 2026. Where a vendor prints nothing, the cell says "Not published".
| BlitzAPI | Crustdata | |
|---|---|---|
| Data size | 550M+ profiles, 65M+ companies (quality docs) | 1B people claimed. Homepage shows both 60M and 200M+ companies, so no single company count (crustdata.com) |
| Email coverage | 65M+ verified work emails (quality docs) | Not published as a count. Business email is +1 credit on enrich (pricing docs) |
| Phone coverage | 45M+ US numbers, US only (quality docs) | Not published as a count. Phone is +2 credits (pricing docs) |
| API | REST on every plan and the free trial (pricing) | REST with a Bearer key and an x-api-version header (enrichment docs) |
| MCP | docs.blitz-api.ai/mcp, API documentation only, no records (MCP docs) | install.crustdata.com/mcp, OAuth or API key (MCP docs) |
| Rate limit | 50 a second per endpoint for accounts opened by September 30, 5 standard (pricing) | 15 a minute on person enrich, 30 on search (rate limits) |
| Bulk export | None documented. Cursor paging through the API (docs index) | Async batch jobs, up to 10,000 identifiers a job on batch person enrich (rate limits) |
| Price model | Flat monthly plan, no credits on paid plans (pricing) | Credits per call (pricing docs) |
| Entry price | Core at $399 a month, no emails or phones. Free trial of 1,000 credits (pricing) | No public dollar price. A Crustdata blog post reports a lowest tier from $95 a month (blog) |
| Cost at 1M records | $499 a month on Plus, for an account opened by September 30 (pricing) | No public 1M price. 2,000,000 credits for 1M work-email lookups (pricing docs) |
Data and coverage
BlitzAPI publishes more coverage numbers than Crustdata. It lists 550M+ profiles, 65M+ companies, 65M+ verified work emails and 45M+ US phone numbers (BlitzAPI quality docs, September 2026). Crustdata's homepage claims 1B people but gives no email or phone counts (Crustdata, September 2026).
On people, Crustdata claims the larger index. On company count, nothing settles it: Crustdata's homepage states both 60M companies and 200M+ companies, so this page quotes no single figure (Crustdata, September 2026).
Phones are US only on BlitzAPI, and phone endpoints are not on the free trial (BlitzAPI docs, September 2026). Crustdata sells phone numbers as a +2 credit add-on and publishes no country split (Crustdata pricing docs, September 2026). Test both on 200 of your own contacts before you commit.
The result unit differs. One BlitzAPI result is one person, company, email, phone or job posting returned, and a call that finds nothing counts nothing (BlitzAPI pricing, September 2026). Crustdata bills credits per call, and its search is 0.03 credits per result.
Both go beyond people and companies. BlitzAPI lists 100M+ job postings in the same API. Crustdata adds job search, social posts, live web fetch and change watchers (Crustdata pricing docs, September 2026).
API and developer experience
Both are self-serve REST APIs, but they ask different things of you. BlitzAPI uses an x-api-key header and every account starts with 1,000 free credits and no card (BlitzAPI docs, September 2026). Crustdata uses a Bearer key plus a required x-api-version: 2025-11-01 header (Crustdata docs, September 2026).
BlitzAPI work email lookup, from its docs. It takes a LinkedIn profile URL and costs 1 record (BlitzAPI docs, September 2026).
curl --request POST \
--url https://api.blitz-api.ai/v2/enrichment/email \
--header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
--header 'x-api-key: '"$BLITZAPI_API_KEY" \
--data '{"person_linkedin_url":"https://www.linkedin.com/in/jane-doe"}'Crustdata person enrich, from its docs. It takes up to 25 profile URLs a request and returns the base profile for 1 credit (Crustdata docs, September 2026).
curl --request POST \
--url https://api.crustdata.com/person/enrich \
--header "authorization: Bearer $CRUSTDATA_API_KEY" \
--header "content-type: application/json" \
--header "x-api-version: 2025-11-01" \
--data '{"professional_network_profile_urls": ["https://www.linkedin.com/in/jane-doe/"]}'The shapes differ. BlitzAPI has one call per data type: email and phone are separate endpoints. Crustdata returns a profile and bills contact fields on top. The self-serve pricing docs list a business email at +1 credit on this endpoint, 2 credits in all (Crustdata pricing docs, September 2026). The enrichment reference points email and phone lookups to Contact Enrich, so confirm the cost on your key with GET /account/endpoints.
Contact Enrich needs an enterprise plan, and self-serve keys get a 403 (Crustdata contact docs, September 2026).
Rate limits split the two hardest. BlitzAPI allows 50 requests a second per endpoint on accounts opened by September 30, and 5 a second standard (BlitzAPI pricing, September 2026). Crustdata defaults to 15 requests a minute on person enrich and 30 on search (Crustdata rate limits, September 2026).
At those limits, 1M lookups at 50 a second is 20,000 seconds, about 5.6 hours. At BlitzAPI's standard 5 a second it is 200,000 seconds, about 2.3 days. On Crustdata, 1M single-profile requests at 15 a minute is 66,667 minutes, about 46 days.
Crustdata's way round that is batching. At 25 profiles a request, 1M profiles is 40,000 requests, or 2,667 minutes at 15 a minute (about 44 hours). Batch person enrich runs async jobs of up to 10,000 identifiers.
MCP is the other split. BlitzAPI's MCP server gives an AI tool access to its API documentation, not to records (BlitzAPI MCP docs, September 2026). Crustdata's hosted server at install.crustdata.com/mcp answers data questions, with OAuth for interactive clients and an API key for code (Crustdata MCP docs, September 2026).
Pricing
BlitzAPI prints every price. Crustdata prints credits and no dollars. The worked example below is 10,000 and 1M work-email lookups a month, on monthly list price. Neither vendor publishes a billed-yearly figure.
| Records a month | BlitzAPI, cheapest plan with emails | Crustdata |
|---|---|---|
| 10,000 | Plus: 1 x $499 = $499 a month | 10,000 x 2 credits = 20,000 credits. No public dollar price |
| 1M | Plus: 1 x $499 = $499 a month, for accounts opened by September 30, 2026 | 1,000,000 x 2 credits = 2,000,000 credits. No public 1M price |
BlitzAPI arithmetic. Plus adds verified work emails for $499 a month. For accounts opened by September 30, 2026, 1M results sit under the 15,000,000 results a month fair use line, so one plan covers both rows (BlitzAPI pricing, September 2026). Only emails actually found count, so 1M lookups return at most 1M results. Core at $399 does not include emails. US phones need Full at $599 (BlitzAPI pricing, September 2026).
Read the dates before you rely on $499 at 1M. The 50 requests a second and the 15,000,000 results a month apply to accounts whose first subscription takes effect by September 30, 2026 (BlitzAPI Terms, September 2026). For later accounts the pricing page still lists $399, $499 and $599 but no fair use volume (BlitzAPI pricing, October 2026). No price is published above 15,000,000 results.
Crustdata arithmetic. A work-email lookup is 1 base credit plus 1 for a business email, so 2 credits on /person/enrich. The enterprise-only /person/contact/enrich is 1 credit, so 1,000,000 credits for 1M (Crustdata pricing docs, September 2026). Dollars equal credits times your quoted price per credit, and that price is not public, so this page does not multiply it out.
Two Crustdata details matter for budgeting. Purchased credits expire 12 months after purchase in its docs. A Crustdata blog post from 30 July 2026 says 6 months, so confirm the term in your dashboard before you buy in bulk (Crustdata credits, September 2026). The same blog post reports a lowest tier from $95 a month, which the pricing page does not list (Crustdata blog, September 2026).
Where BlitzAPI wins
- A price you can read. Three flat plans on one page, so you can size a purchase before talking to anyone (BlitzAPI pricing, September 2026).
- Speed. 5 requests a second per endpoint on standard accounts and 50 on accounts opened by September 30, against 15 a minute on Crustdata person enrich.
- No credit balance. Paid plans have no credits to run down or expire.
- Job postings in the same API. 100M+ postings sit beside people and companies.
Where Crustdata wins
- A larger people index. It claims 1B people against BlitzAPI's 550M+.
- Live data and watchers. It can fetch live profiles and web pages and watch a person for changes, at 5 credits per changed person on the 30-day tier (Crustdata pricing docs, September 2026). BlitzAPI documents no watchers.
- An MCP server that returns data. An assistant can ask for people and get records back.
- Pay for what you request. Search is 0.03 credits per result and some misses are free, which can cost less than a flat fee for light, selective use.
If you need volume through an API
LeadOcean is the data layer only: no credits, no per-record price, no rep workspace. The Free plan gives 1,000 records one-off with no card, and Pro is $499 a month flat. Both get the same REST API, a 12-tool MCP server that returns records, and POST /v1/exports for bulk CSV, up to 50,000 rows a request. The dataset holds 693M people, 366M with an email and 166M with a phone, with 100 requests per second per key. See pricing for the fair-use terms.
FAQ
Is BlitzAPI or Crustdata cheaper?
BlitzAPI is the only one you can price from public pages. Plus is $499 a month for work emails on an account opened by September 30. Crustdata publishes credits, so a fair comparison needs your quoted price per credit.
Which has the bigger database?
Crustdata claims 1B people on its homepage. BlitzAPI lists 550M+ profiles (BlitzAPI quality docs, September 2026). Both are vendor claims, so run a match test on your own list.
Do BlitzAPI and Crustdata both have an MCP server?
Both do, and they do different jobs. BlitzAPI's gives AI tools its documentation and returns no records. Crustdata's connects an assistant to its data after you sign in (Crustdata MCP docs, September 2026).
Which is faster for bulk lookups?
BlitzAPI. At the standard 5 requests a second, 1M lookups take about 2.3 days; at 50 a second, on accounts opened by September 30, about 5.6 hours. Crustdata's default of 15 requests a minute pushes you toward batch jobs.
Can I try either for free?
BlitzAPI gives every account 1,000 free credits with no card, but phone endpoints are not on the trial (BlitzAPI docs, September 2026). Crustdata's pricing page lists no free plan or dollar prices (Crustdata pricing, September 2026).
Does either offer a bulk CSV export?
BlitzAPI documents none, and data comes through the JSON API with cursor paging (BlitzAPI docs, September 2026). Crustdata offers async batch jobs of up to 10,000 identifiers on batch person enrich.
Related: Crustdata vs Wiza, Crustdata vs Snov.io, Crustdata vs Kaspr, BlitzAPI alternative, BlitzAPI alternatives, pricing. Back to all blog posts.
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