Crustdata vs Snov.io (2026): Data, Pricing and API Compared

Crustdata is the deeper data source, and Snov.io is the one you can price and use today. Crustdata claims 1B people plus live web signals, but publishes credits and no dollars per credit. Snov.io publishes every plan up to 100,000 credits, then adds the sending, warm-up and CRM tools around the data.

Verdict

• Pick Crustdata if you build agents or products on live people and company data, with jobs, posts and change watchers, and you accept a sales conversation before you know the bill (Crustdata pricing, September 2026).
• Pick Snov.io if you want a published price from $39 a month, verified emails on a self-serve plan, and campaigns, warm-up and a CRM in the same login (Snov.io pricing, September 2026).
• Pick neither if you pull people and company data by API at volume and want a fixed bill. Both bill by the credit, and both want a quote at 1M. LeadOcean is one option, covered below.

Side by side

Data and coverage

Crustdata claims the bigger index. Its homepage counts 1B people and says it indexes web pages into one graph of people and companies (Crustdata, September 2026). The same page states both 60M and 200M+ companies, so quote neither without asking.

Snov.io gives two figures too. The lead finder page claims 500M+ verified contacts and 60M+ companies (Snov.io, September 2026). The Database Search guide says more than 50 million prospects, updated monthly (Snov.io help, September 2026). We cannot tell which number the search tool queries.

The two sell different things. Crustdata sells depth and freshness: employment history, jobs, posts and watchers that alert on a changed person or company. A person watcher costs 5 credits per changed person at the 30-day interval (Crustdata pricing docs, September 2026). Snov.io sells the last step: a verified email, a verifier, and a list you can send to.

Neither publishes an email or phone count. Snov.io routes phones through partner providers, at 10 tokens (Wiza) or 22 tokens (Zeliq) per number found (Snov.io help, September 2026). Run the same 200 people through both before you commit.

API and developer experience

Both have a REST API and a hosted MCP server. The shape differs. Crustdata answers in the same request. Snov.io starts a task and you collect the result. Placeholders below stand in for real people.

Crustdata, enrich a person by profile URL (person enrich docs):

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/"]}'

That returns the base profile for 1 credit, with up to 25 URLs per request (Crustdata docs, September 2026). The pricing docs add 1 credit for a business email and 2 for a phone on the same endpoint. They say to call /account/endpoints to see which fields your plan can use (Crustdata pricing docs, October 2026). The enrichment guide sends you to Contact Enrich for emails and phones. Contact Enrich needs an enterprise plan, and self-serve keys get a 403 (Crustdata contact docs, September 2026).

Snov.io needs a bearer token first. You post client credentials to https://api.snov.io/v1/oauth/access_token, and the token lasts 3,600 seconds. Then you start a name and domain search, up to 10 rows a request (Snov.io API docs, September 2026).

curl -X POST "https://api.snov.io/v2/emails-by-domain-by-name/start" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SNOV_ACCESS_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"rows":[{"first_name":"Jane","last_name":"Doe","domain":"acme.com"}]}'

The reply carries a task_hash. You call GET /v2/emails-by-domain-by-name/result with it, or pass a webhook_url to get the answer pushed. A hit costs 1 credit for a valid or unknown email.

Rate limits set the pace at volume. Snov.io allows 60 requests a minute and 10 rows a request, so 1M lookups need 100,000 start calls: about 28 hours (100,000 / 60 a minute = 1,667 minutes). Crustdata allows 15 a minute on person enrich and 25 URLs a request: about 44 hours for 1M URLs (40,000 requests / 15 = 2,667 minutes). Both figures are derived, not published.

Crustdata's route around that is batch. A batch person enrich job takes up to 10,000 identifiers, so 1M is 100 jobs, and default limits allow 5 active jobs at once (Crustdata rate limits, September 2026). Snov.io's route is its bulk finders in the app. The bulk domain finder takes up to 20,000 domains a search (Snov.io lead finder, September 2026).

On MCP, Crustdata accepts OAuth sign-in for interactive clients and an API key as a bearer token for code (Crustdata MCP docs, September 2026). Snov.io's server covers prospect search, email verification, CRM and LinkedIn actions, and works on every plan (Snov.io MCP, September 2026). Snov.io's is the more complete workflow tool. Crustdata's is the more complete data tool.

Pricing

Both charge per credit, so cost scales with records. The worked example counts work emails only, with every lookup a hit. Monthly list price comes first, billed-yearly after it.

10,000 records a month

• Crustdata: 10,000 x 2 credits (1 base + 1 business email) = 20,000 credits on /person/enrich. On the enterprise-only contact endpoint it is 10,000 x 1 = 10,000 credits. No public dollar price, because Crustdata publishes credits and not dollars per credit (Crustdata pricing docs, September 2026). A blog post reports a lowest tier from $95 a month, with no stated allowance (Crustdata blog, September 2026).
• Snov.io: 10,000 emails is 10,000 credits. Pro S holds 5,000, so you need Pro M: 20,000 credits for $189 a month, or $141.75 a month billed yearly (Snov.io pricing, September 2026). That is $189 / 10,000 = $0.0189 an email, with half the credits left over.

Phones add cost on both. On Snov.io, 10,000 numbers through Wiza is 10,000 x 10 = 100,000 tokens. At $0.02 a token that is $2,000, before the tokens your plan includes (Snov.io pricing, September 2026). On Crustdata, a phone is +2 credits a record, and the dollar value is not public.

1M records a month

• Crustdata: 1,000,000 x 2 = 2,000,000 credits on /person/enrich, or 1,000,000 on the contact endpoint. No public 1M price. Dollars are credits times your quoted price per credit, which is not public.
• Snov.io: 1,000,000 emails is 1,000,000 credits. The largest public plan is Ultra at $738 a month for 100,000 credits, or $553.50 billed yearly. Past that, Custom Ultra starts at 200,000 credits, by quote (Snov.io pricing, September 2026). There is no public 1M price, so we do not multiply Ultra out to one.

Search is cheaper to compare. Crustdata charges 0.03 credits per search result, so 10,000 results cost 300 credits, plus extra for premium fields (Crustdata pricing docs, September 2026). Snov.io charges 1 credit per prospect saved with an email, and Database Search shows names and titles before you pay.

Credits expire differently. Crustdata's docs say purchased credits expire 12 months after purchase (Crustdata credits, September 2026). A Crustdata blog post from 30 July 2026 says 6 months (Crustdata blog, September 2026), so confirm the term before you buy in bulk. Snov.io credits refresh every 30 days and roll over on annual plans or with plan renewal on (Snov.io pricing, September 2026).

Ask both vendors for a quote at your volume. Neither publishes one.

Where Crustdata wins

A larger claimed index. Crustdata claims 1B people against Snov.io's 500M+ contacts. If your target is a long-tail profile, the bigger graph may hold it.

Live data and signals. Crustdata fetches live profiles, searches jobs and posts, and watches people and companies for change. Snov.io lists no job, post or change-alert data on its pricing, API or MCP pages. If a hiring or job-change trigger drives your outbound, that gap decides it.

Built for code and agents. Crustdata is an API and an MCP server with nested search filters and batch jobs of 10,000. It also has no recipient caps, warm-up slots or campaign limits to work around, because it does not send email.

Where Snov.io wins

A price you can read. Plans from Starter at $39 to Ultra at $738 are on one page, with 25% off for annual billing (Snov.io pricing, September 2026). You can total a bill for 100,000 credits without a call.

Contact data without an enterprise gate. An email is 1 credit on a published plan. Crustdata's dedicated contact endpoint needs an enterprise plan.

Finding and sending in one app. Snov.io includes campaigns, unlimited senders, warm-up, a CRM and LinkedIn automation next to the finder (Snov.io pricing, September 2026). A small sales team that wants one login should pick it. Crustdata is a data source only.

If you need volume through an API

LeadOcean is a people and company data API with a hosted MCP server, 693M people and 63M companies, with no seats and no credits. Free gives 1,000 records one-off with no card. Pro is $499 a month flat, with REST and MCP on both plans. Export up to 50,000 rows per request with POST /v1/exports, and call count_leads first because counts are free. It is the data layer only, with no live web fetch, watchers or sending. Keep Crustdata for signals and Snov.io for outreach. See pricing and the Crustdata alternative.

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