People leave People Data Labs (PDL) when a per-record bill meets real volume. Pro starts at $98 a month for 350 credits, or $0.28 a record, and volume above about 100,000 records goes through sales (PDL docs, September 2026). Free hides contact data (PDL pricing, September 2026). Its docs index lists no MCP server (PDL docs, September 2026).
This page ranks six People Data Labs API alternatives for teams that pull records in code, through an agent or at volume. For a two-column view, see LeadOcean vs People Data Labs.
TL;DR
| Tool | Best for | Starting price | Cost at 1M records a month |
|---|---|---|---|
| LeadOcean | API, agent and volume buyers | Free (1,000 records, one-off). Pro $499 a month | $499 a month flat. Fair use applies |
| BlitzAPI | Flat-price people and company search | Core $399 a month. Plus $499 adds verified emails | $499 on Plus for accounts opened by September 30, 2026, inside the 15M results a month launch-offer limit |
| Coresignal | Job postings and raw profile volume | Mini $49 a month. Pro $499 for 35,000 credits | No public price at 1M. About $10,000 derived at the Elite rate of $0.0005 a credit (two Elite months) |
| Crustdata | Live company and people data for agents | No public price list | 2,000,000 credits to enrich with business email. no public dollar price per credit (Crustdata pricing, September 2026) |
| Explorium | Company breadth, events and intent | Lite $29 for 500 credits | About $30,000 at $0.015 a credit |
| FullEnrich | Waterfall emails and mobiles | Pro from $29 a month for 500 credits | No public 1M price. Top monthly tier: 100,000 credits for $3,500 |
"1M records" means 1M work-email lookups that return a result. PDL has no public 1M price. Pro is $98 for 350 credits and about $0.20 to $0.28 a profile, and above about 100,000 profiles a year it is quote only (PDL blog, September 2026). Figures are list prices or list-rate arithmetic. Where a vendor sells no plan at 1M, the cell shows its top public tier or a derived figure. Enterprise quotes are lower.
What we evaluated
- API access: the plan that opens it and the rate limit.
- MCP: whether an agent can pull records or only read docs.
- Price model: flat or credits, and the cost of 1M records.
- Data: stated coverage and email and phone fields.
- Limits that bite: plan gates, expiring credits, fair use.
We ran no accuracy test, so we quote no quality numbers.
1. LeadOcean: best for API, agent and volume buyers
LeadOcean holds 693M people, 366M with an email and 166M with a phone number, plus 63M companies. You search with 50 people filters and 34 company filters, and counts are free. Enrichment is POST /v1/people/enrich, phones are GET /v2/people/phone, and exports run up to 50,000 rows per request.
Pro is $499 a month with no credits and no overage invoice. It includes 5 API keys and 100 requests per second per key. The MCP server at https://api.leadocean.io/mcp signs in with OAuth 2.1 and exposes 12 tools.
Pros
- Flat $499 a month at any volume.
- REST and MCP on every plan, including Free.
- Free counts, and a miss on enrich is a free 404.
Cons
- No licensed dataset files for your warehouse.
- Fewer profiles than PDL's 2.47B All dataset (PDL docs, September 2026).
Best for: engineers, RevOps and agents that need volume and a fixed bill.
Pricing: Free is 1,000 records, one-off, no card. Pro is $499 a month, flat (LeadOcean pricing, September 2026).
2. BlitzAPI: best for flat-price search by API
BlitzAPI sells B2B data on flat monthly plans. Core is $399 a month without emails or phones. Plus is $499 and adds verified emails. Full is $599 and adds US phones (BlitzAPI pricing, September 2026).
The 50 requests per second and 15,000,000 monthly results apply to accounts opened by September 30, 2026 (BlitzAPI Terms, September 2026). The standard rate is 5 requests a second. Phone data is US only (BlitzAPI docs, September 2026). Its MCP server serves documentation, not data (BlitzAPI docs, September 2026).
Pros
- Flat price. The launch offer states a fair-use line of 15,000,000 results a month for accounts opened by September 30, 2026.
- No credit meter on paid plans.
- A free trial of 1,000 credits.
Cons
- Three paid tiers, and phones need the top one.
- The MCP server cannot pull records.
Best for: teams that want a second flat-price API and run their own code.
Pricing: Core $399, Plus $499, Full $599 a month (BlitzAPI pricing, September 2026).
3. Coresignal: best for job postings and profile volume
Coresignal sells employee, company and job records on credits, and lists 907M+ employee profiles and 482M+ job postings (Coresignal, September 2026). Multi-source employee records carry professional emails and a four-value email status (Coresignal docs, September 2026). The Base Employee API pages list no email field, and neither dictionary lists a phone field.
A Base record costs 10 credits and a work-email lookup 20 (Coresignal docs, September 2026). Pro is $499 for 35,000 credits, or 3,500 Base records. Elite is $5,000 for 10,000,000 credits, which is 500,000 email lookups (Coresignal pricing, September 2026). Its MCP server uses OAuth 2.1 and exposes 5 tools (Coresignal docs, September 2026).
Pros
- Job postings and 907M+ employee profiles.
- Flat-file datasets for licensing.
Cons
- No phone field in the employee data dictionaries.
- Cost scales with every record.
Best for: teams that need job postings or bulk profiles and accept credits.
Pricing: Mini $49 a month up to Elite at $5,000 (Coresignal pricing, September 2026).
4. Crustdata: best for live data and signals in agents
Crustdata sells real-time company and people data through APIs, and lists 1 billion+ people (Crustdata, September 2026).
Pricing is credit based and its page shows no dollar price per credit (Crustdata pricing, September 2026). Search costs 0.03 credits a result and person enrichment 1 to 7 (Crustdata docs, September 2026). The MCP server signs in with OAuth (Crustdata docs, September 2026).
Pros
- Live data and change watchers.
- Cheap search, so you narrow before you enrich.
- MCP server that returns records.
Cons
- No public price per credit, so 1M records cannot be priced from the site.
- Enrichment defaults to 15 requests a minute (Crustdata docs, September 2026). The contact endpoint needs an enterprise plan (Crustdata docs, September 2026).
Best for: AI SDR and signal workflows that need fresh data more than volume.
Pricing: Credit based, no public price list (Crustdata docs, September 2026).
5. Explorium: best for company breadth, events and intent
Explorium sells business and prospect data on prepaid credits, and claims 767M+ professional profiles and 146M+ business entities (Explorium, September 2026).
A contact lookup costs 2 credits for email and 5 with phone (Explorium docs, September 2026). Packs run from $29 for 500 credits to $7,499 for 500,000, and credits expire after 12 months (Explorium pricing, September 2026). The default limit is 200 queries a minute (Explorium docs, September 2026), and the MCP server has 11 tools (Explorium docs, September 2026).
Pros
- Events, intent and company enrichments in one vendor.
- MCP server with free statistics tools.
Cons
- Credits expire and packs are non-refundable.
- 200 queries a minute makes 1M rows a multi-day job.
Best for: teams that want buying signals next to people data.
Pricing: Free with 100 credits. Lite $29, up to Scale at $7,499 (Explorium pricing, September 2026).
6. FullEnrich: best for waterfall emails and mobiles
FullEnrich runs a waterfall across many data vendors per contact, and you pay only for data it finds (FullEnrich pricing, September 2026).
A work email costs 1 credit, a personal email 3 and a mobile 10. The entry plan is Pro at $29 a month for 500 credits. The page opens on $55 a month for 1,000 credits (FullEnrich docs, September 2026). The API allows 60 calls a minute, with up to 100 contacts per bulk request (FullEnrich docs, September 2026). The MCP server can search, enrich and export (FullEnrich help, September 2026).
Pros
- Waterfall sourcing, so one call covers several vendors.
- Search, enrichment and export in the MCP server.
Cons
- Mobiles cost 10 credits each.
- A credit meter and a 60 calls a minute default at volume.
Best for: teams that want waterfall mobiles through an API or an agent at modest volume.
Pricing: Pro from $29 a month for 500 credits, Enterprise custom (FullEnrich pricing, September 2026).
Comparison table
| Tool | Best for | Starting price | Cost at 1M records a month | API | MCP | Rate limit |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| LeadOcean | API, agent and volume buyers | Free. Pro $499 a month | $499 flat. Fair use applies | REST on every plan | Yes. OAuth 2.1, 12 tools | 100 requests per second per key |
| BlitzAPI | Flat-price search | Core $399 a month | $499 on Plus | REST. Emails from Plus | Docs only | 50 per second for accounts opened by September 30, 2026. Standard 5 |
| Coresignal | Jobs and profile volume | Mini $49 a month | No public price at 1M. About $10,000 derived | REST | Yes. OAuth 2.1, 5 tools | 5 to 100+ per second by plan |
| Crustdata | Live data for agents | No public price list | 2,000,000 credits. no public dollar price per credit (Crustdata pricing, September 2026) | REST | Yes. OAuth | 15 to 30 a minute by default |
| Explorium | Breadth, events, intent | Lite $29 for 500 credits | About $30,000 | REST | Yes. 11 tools | 200 queries a minute |
| FullEnrich | Waterfall mobiles | Pro from $29 a month | No public 1M price. Top tier $3,500 a month for 100,000 credits | REST on every plan | Yes. Search, enrich, export | 60 calls a minute. Bulk of 100 |
The 1M column is list-price arithmetic on email lookups. Coresignal bills 20 credits per email lookup at the Elite rate of $0.0005, which is about $10,000 derived and no single plan reaches it. Explorium uses 2 credits at $0.015. FullEnrich sells no plan at 1M a month, so its cell shows the top public tier.
How to choose
- You pull data in code or with an agent, at volume: LeadOcean. One flat price, REST and MCP on every plan.
- You want a second flat-price API: BlitzAPI Plus.
- You need job postings: Coresignal.
- You need fresh signals: Crustdata.
- You want intent data: Explorium.
- You need waterfall mobiles: FullEnrich, at 10 credits a mobile.
Verdict
LeadOcean wins for API, agent and volume buyers: a flat price, emails and phones in one plan, and an MCP server that returns records. BlitzAPI is the runner-up. Coresignal wins for job postings, Crustdata for live signals, Explorium for intent and FullEnrich for waterfall mobiles. Keep PDL for licensed dataset files. Otherwise start on the free plan and compare the same lookups.
FAQ
Why do teams leave People Data Labs?
Cost at volume. PDL bills a credit per matched record from $0.28, and its Free plan hides contact data (PDL pricing, September 2026).
What is the cheapest People Data Labs alternative at volume?
At 1M records a month, LeadOcean and BlitzAPI Plus are cheapest on list price, both at $499. Coresignal has no public price at 1M, and the derived figure is about $10,000 at the Elite rate. FullEnrich has no public 1M price either, and its top tier is $3,500 a month for 100,000 credits.
Which alternative has an MCP server that returns data?
LeadOcean, Coresignal, Crustdata, Explorium and FullEnrich all do. BlitzAPI's server reads documentation only.
Can LeadOcean replace PDL's dataset licences?
No. LeadOcean is an API, an MCP server and a CSV export. For files in your cloud storage, keep PDL.
Do I need a credit card to try LeadOcean?
No. The free plan needs a work email and no card. It gives you 1,000 records, one-off, with the same API and MCP server as Pro. See pricing.
Related: People Data Labs alternative (LeadOcean vs PDL), People Data Labs vs Wiza, pricing.
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