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

People Data Labs (PDL) is a data API that returns a full person profile per match. Snov.io is an outreach suite that sells emails by the credit, with an API and MCP server attached. If you are buying data, they overlap less than the names suggest.

Verdict

• Pick People Data Labs if you need person profiles, phone numbers at scale, fast enrichment calls or licensed bulk files. You pay per match, and a miss is free.
• Pick Snov.io if you want emails for a few thousand prospects a month and also want to send the campaign from the same app. It has an official MCP server and a low entry price.
• Pick neither if you want to search people by title, seniority and country across one database, with phones, and no credits. LeadOcean is one option: Pro is $499 a month, flat.

Side by side

Data and coverage

PDL has far more records, and Snov.io sells fewer records inside a tool built for sending. The counts are not like for like. PDL counts person profiles. Snov.io counts verified contacts, and it gives two different sizes.

PDL's 2.47B is its full person dataset. Only part of it has contact data: 592M profiles with an email and 470M with a mobile (PDL datasets, September 2026). Snov.io's lead finder page says 500M+ verified contacts and 60M+ companies. Its Database Search guide says more than 50 million prospects, updated monthly (Snov.io lead finder; Snov.io help, September 2026). We cannot tell you which number the search tool queries.

Phones are where they split. PDL says 764M profiles have any phone number. Snov.io publishes no phone count, and its phone tool does not read its own database. You pick a provider, Wiza at 10 tokens or Zeliq at 22 tokens per number found (Snov.io help, September 2026). Snov.io sells tokens at $0.02 each (Snov.io pricing, September 2026). A number costs about $0.20 or $0.44.

Search depth differs too. Snov.io's Database Search filters prospects by job title, skills, location, management level and department, and companies by location, industry, size, revenue, specialties and founding year (Snov.io help, September 2026). PDL queries any field in the person schema.

Test both on your own list before you buy. Snov.io's Trial gives 50 credits. PDL's Free plan gives 100 but obscures contact data, so you need Pro to see emails.

API and developer experience

Both have REST APIs, but they feel different. PDL answers one person per call, right away. Snov.io starts a task and you collect the result.

PDL takes the key in an X-Api-Key header and enriches on a LinkedIn profile, an email, a phone or a name plus company. A match returns 200 and is billed. A miss returns 404 and is not (PDL docs, September 2026).

curl -G "https://api.peopledatalabs.com/v5/person/enrich" \
  -H "X-Api-Key: $PDL_API_KEY" \
  --data-urlencode "profile=linkedin.com/in/jane-doe"

Snov.io first needs a bearer token. You post your client ID and secret to https://api.snov.io/v1/oauth/access_token, and the token lasts 3,600 seconds. Then you start a search, here a name plus domain, 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 until the status is completed. A hit costs 1 credit for a valid or unknown email.

Rate limits shape how each scales. Snov.io allows 60 requests a minute across the API. PDL enrichment allows 1,000 a minute on paid plans, but Person Search allows only 10 a minute by default (PDL usage limits, September 2026). Snov.io's search returns up to 20 profiles a page.

On MCP, Snov.io has an official server at https://mcp.snov.io/mcp. It signs in with OAuth and covers prospect search, email finding, CRM and LinkedIn actions (Snov.io MCP, September 2026). PDL lists no MCP server in its docs, and only community servers exist (PDL llms.txt, September 2026).

Pricing

Both price per unit, but the unit differs. A PDL credit returns a whole profile. A Snov.io credit returns one email. Snov.io then charges extra tokens for phones.

At 10,000 records a month

For Snov.io, 10,000 emails is 10,000 credits. Pro S has 5,000 credits, so you need Pro M: 20,000 credits for $189 a month, or $141.75 a month billed yearly (Snov.io pricing, September 2026). Snov.io says a Pro M credit costs about 0.9 cents. Used at half capacity, your 10,000 emails cost $189 / 10,000 = $0.0189 each.

Phones are extra. 10,000 numbers through Wiza is 10,000 x 10 tokens x $0.02 = $2,000. Through Zeliq it is 10,000 x 22 x $0.02 = $4,400.

For PDL, 10,000 profiles is 10,000 credits. PDL says Pro profiles cost about $0.20 to $0.28 each, depending on volume and plan. So 10,000 x $0.20 = $2,000 and 10,000 x $0.28 = $2,800 (PDL blog, February 2026). PDL does not publish its Pro price at 10,000 credits a month, so treat this as a range, not a quote (PDL pricing, September 2026).

For emails alone Snov.io is about 10 to 15 times cheaper per record. For emails plus phones the gap closes: both land near $2,000 when Snov.io finds every number through Wiza.

At 1M records

Neither vendor publishes a price at 1M. Do not multiply a small-plan rate out to a million and call it a quote.

Snov.io's largest public plan is Ultra at $738 a month for 100,000 credits, or $553.50 a month billed yearly. Beyond that is Custom Ultra, from 200,000 credits, by quote (Snov.io pricing, September 2026). Phones stay on tokens.

PDL's self-serve Pro is meant for volumes below roughly 100,000 profiles. Above that, PDL quotes Enterprise only. Its docs and blog disagree on whether the line is per month or per year (PDL blog, September 2026). Ask both for a quote at your volume.

Where People Data Labs wins

• Full profiles. One credit returns title, work history, location and contact data, not only an email.
• Phone coverage. 470M mobile and 764M any-phone profiles, by PDL's own stats, from one dataset.
• Faster calls. Enrichment runs at 1,000 a minute on paid plans, against 60 a minute on Snov.io, and replies come back in the same request.
• Person-first matching. You can match on a LinkedIn URL, phone or name plus company, with no domain needed.
• Bulk files. An annual Data License delivers person data to S3, GCP or Azure (PDL docs, September 2026).

Where Snov.io wins

• Price at small volume. Starter is $39 a month, and an email costs about 0.9 cents at Pro M. PDL's entry rate is $0.28 a profile.
• Outreach in the same product. Snov.io sells campaigns, warm-up, LinkedIn automation and a CRM. PDL is an API only.
• Official MCP. You can connect Snov.io to Claude or Cursor today. PDL has no official server.
• Email checking built in. Snov.io verifies emails and flags valid or unknown, so one call returns a sendable status.
• No sales call at 100,000 credits. Ultra is a public price. PDL sends buyers above about 100,000 profiles to Enterprise.

If you need volume through an API

We build LeadOcean, so weigh this section accordingly. LeadOcean holds 693M people and 63M companies, with 166M people carrying a phone number, and you reach them over REST and MCP. Free is 1,000 records, one-off, with no card. Pro is $499 a month, flat, with unlimited searches and lookups and a limit of 100 requests per second per key (LeadOcean pricing, September 2026).

For bulk work, POST /v1/exports returns up to 50,000 rows per request. The app also has an Exports page with a filter builder, a price preview and CSV download (LeadOcean exports docs, September 2026). There is no sequencer, dialer or CRM. See the PDL alternative page and the Snov.io alternative page for line-by-line versions.

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