6 Best UpLead Alternatives in 2026 (Compared)

People leave UpLead when a rep tool becomes a data pipeline. UpLead sells credits. Essentials is $99 a month for 170 credits, Plus is $199 for 400, and extra credits cost $0.60 or $0.50 (UpLead pricing, September 2026). A single day of credit purchases is capped at $2,000 (UpLead help center, September 2026).

The API allows 500 requests a minute, and API access is on Professional only, which is annual and custom-priced (UpLead API docs, September 2026). Neither its homepage nor its docs mention MCP. That suits a rep who builds a list of a few hundred contacts in the app. It is a poor fit for code or an agent that pulls records at volume.

This page ranks six alternatives for API and volume buyers. LeadOcean is first because it has one flat price and an MCP server that returns records. For a two-column view, see LeadOcean vs UpLead. For the API angle alone, read UpLead API alternatives.

TL;DR

"1M records" here means 1M work-email lookups that return a result, one credit each where the vendor uses credits. Where a vendor sells no plan at that volume, the cell says so and names its highest public tier. UpLead has no public price at 1M either. Its highest public tier is Plus, where $0.50 extra credits are capped at $2,000 of purchases a day, about 124,000 extra credits a month. Professional is a custom quote, so ask each vendor at your volume.

What we evaluated

• API access: which plan opens it, the endpoints that return people and companies, and the default rate limit.
• MCP: whether an agent can search and enrich through the server, or only read documentation.
• Price model: flat, credits or seats, and what 1M records a month costs at list price.
• Data: stated coverage, email and phone fields, and search filters.
• Limits that bite: plan gates, expiring credits, seat minimums and fair-use clauses.

We read each vendor's pricing page and docs in September 2026. We ran no find-rate or accuracy test for this page, so we quote no quality numbers. UpLead's 95% accuracy claim is its own and we have not tested it.

1. LeadOcean: best for API, agent and volume buyers

LeadOcean is one dataset behind one REST API and one MCP server. It 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. 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.

The price does not move with volume. Pro is $499 a month with unlimited searches, enrichments and lookups, 5 API keys and 100 requests per second per key. There are no credits and no overage invoice. A very large month is paced down to one request a minute until the reset, not cut off. More headroom is one email to support.

curl -X POST "https://api.leadocean.io/v1/people/enrich" \
  -H "x-api-key: $LEADOCEAN_API_KEY" \
  -H "content-type: application/json" \
  -d '{"linkedin_url":"https://www.linkedin.com/in/jane-doe","reveal_email":true}'

The MCP server at https://api.leadocean.io/mcp signs in with OAuth 2.1 and exposes 12 tools, from search_leads to find_phone and export_leads. Claude, Cursor or your own agent can pull records directly. Every person or company returned counts as one record, and count_leads is free, so you can size an audience before you pull it. The app at app.leadocean.io also has an Exports page with a filter builder and CSV download, for people who do not want to write code.

Pros

• Flat $499 a month at any volume, with no credit meter.
• REST and MCP on every plan, including Free.
• Email status on every record, from verified to spam_trap.
• Free counts, and a miss on POST /v1/people/enrich is a free 404.

Cons

• No Chrome extension, CRM integrations or intent data. UpLead has all three.
• No accuracy guarantee and no bounce refunds, because there are no credits.
• One dataset, so a niche source needs another tool.

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 and enrichment by API

BlitzAPI sells B2B data as an API on flat monthly plans. Its pricing page lists 550M+ profiles, 65M+ companies, 65M+ verified work emails and 45M+ US phone numbers, plus job postings and identity resolution (BlitzAPI pricing, September 2026). It is the closest rival to LeadOcean on price model, and the nearest thing to UpLead's Prospector with an API key instead of a screen.

The plan ladder is where it gets fiddly. Core is $399 a month and leaves out emails and phones. Plus is $499 and adds verified work emails. Full is $599 and adds US phone numbers. If you enrich for contact data, you buy Plus or Full. UpLead sells a mobile number inside the same credit, and BlitzAPI's phones are US only, so check your regions.

Two details to check before you commit. The 50 requests per second and 15,000,000 monthly results belong to a lifetime offer for accounts opened by September 30, 2026. Standard accounts run at 5, and limits apply per endpoint (BlitzAPI docs, September 2026). And its MCP server gives an assistant the API documentation, not the data (BlitzAPI docs, September 2026).

Pros

• Flat monthly price, with a fair-use line of 15,000,000 results a month for accounts opened by September 30, 2026. Limits for later accounts are not published (BlitzAPI Terms, September 2026).
• Jobs data and identity resolution sit next to people and company search.
• 1,000 free credits to try, with no card.

Cons

• Three paid tiers, and phones need the top one.
• Phone numbers are US only.
• The MCP server reads docs. An agent cannot search or enrich through it.
• The fast rate limit depends on when the account opened.

Best for: teams that want a flat-price search and enrichment API and run their own code.

Pricing: Core $399, Plus $499, Full $599 a month (BlitzAPI pricing, September 2026).

3. LeadMagic: best for a low per-credit price on valid emails

LeadMagic is a credit-based enrichment API. It lists 400M+ people profiles and 25M+ companies, and reaches them through REST, CSV, a command-line tool and a hosted MCP server (LeadMagic, September 2026). Failed lookups cost nothing, and a valid work email costs 1 credit.

For a UpLead buyer, the credit price is the draw. Essential is $99 a month for 5,000 credits, about $0.02 each. Professional is $499 for 50,000. Ultimate is $849 for 100,000, or $0.0085 a credit (LeadMagic pricing, September 2026). A mobile costs 5 credits. Searching in the app spends no credits on any paid plan, with daily export allowances from 10,000 rows on Essential to 100,000 on Ultimate. The search API bills about 1 credit per returned person on Essential and Growth. Professional and Ultimate get zero-credit search at 5 and 10 requests a second (LeadMagic docs, September 2026).

The Email Finder endpoint allows 600 requests a minute. LeadMagic also states that a sustained find rate below 10% can lead to throttling or suspension (LeadMagic docs, September 2026). Bad input lists carry a real risk. The MCP server uses OAuth, and a preview_cost call shows the price of a large job first (LeadMagic docs, September 2026).

Pros

• The lowest per-credit list price in this group.
• No charge when an email is not found.
• API and MCP on every plan, with a cost preview before large operations.
• Searching in the app is free of credits, so you can narrow a list before you pay to reveal it. The search API is zero-credit only on Professional and Ultimate.

Cons

• The top self-serve plan is 100,000 credits, so 1M a month needs an Enterprise quote.
• A smaller stated database than LeadOcean.
• A minimum find-rate policy can throttle lists with poor match rates.

Best for: teams that enrich a few hundred thousand valid emails a month and want the cheapest credits.

Pricing: Essential $99, Growth $249, Professional $499, Ultimate $849 a month (LeadMagic pricing, September 2026).

4. FullEnrich: best for waterfall emails and mobiles behind an API

FullEnrich is an enrichment layer that queries 25+ sources for each contact, and you pay only for data it finds. Its pricing page lists access to 800M people and 50M companies, plus people and company search (FullEnrich pricing, September 2026). The API and an MCP server come on the paid plan. It suits teams whose UpLead misses are the problem, since a waterfall tries several vendors.

Credits are the meter. A work email costs 1 credit, a personal email 3 and a mobile 10. Pro starts at $29 a month for 500 credits, which is $0.058 each. The 1,000-credit tier is $55 a month, or $0.055 each. Profile data costs 0.25 credits on its own (FullEnrich docs, September 2026). A mobile at the 1,000-credit rate costs $0.55. That is still about the price of one UpLead credit, which covers an email and a mobile.

The API allows 60 calls a minute, with up to 100 contacts in a bulk request. Higher limits are an Enterprise feature (FullEnrich docs, September 2026). The MCP server can search, enrich and export, and it asks you before it spends credits (FullEnrich help, September 2026).

Pros

• Waterfall across 25+ sources, so one call can cover several vendors.
• Search, enrichment and export in the MCP server.
• Unlimited users on Pro, and credits roll over for 3 months on monthly plans.
• SOC 2 Type II, GDPR and CCPA listed on the pricing page.

Cons

• Mobiles cost 10 credits each, so phone-heavy pulls get expensive fast.
• The default API limit is 60 calls a minute.
• A credit meter at volume. There is no public price at 1M work emails: the top monthly tier is 100,000 credits for $3,500 a month, and above that you contact sales.

Best for: teams that want waterfall contact data, mostly emails and mobiles, through an API or an agent.

Pricing: Free trial with 50 credits. Pro from $29 a month for 500 credits, up to $3,500 for 100,000. Enterprise custom (FullEnrich pricing, September 2026).

5. People Data Labs: best for data licences and per-match enrichment

People Data Labs (PDL) is a long-running person and company data API with bulk licences. It is ISO and SOC 2 Type 2 compliant, which matters for procurement (PDL pricing, September 2026). It charges per match: a person enrichment request that returns a profile costs one credit, and a miss costs none.

The entry price is high per record, but it is still below UpLead's credit. Pro starts at $98 a month for 350 credits, and PDL puts Pro profiles at about $0.20 to $0.28 each. The Free plan gives up to 100 records a month with contact data hidden. Enterprise is custom volume on annual contracts, with data licence feeds for your own warehouse (PDL docs, September 2026).

Enrichment allows 1,000 calls a minute on paid plans. The bulk endpoint can raise the effective rate up to a hundred times (PDL docs, September 2026). We found no MCP server in PDL's docs index (PDL docs, September 2026), so an agent needs a wrapper you host.

Pros

• A fast API with a stated 1,000 calls a minute on paid plans.
• Bulk person enrichment and dataset licences for your own warehouse.
• ISO and SOC 2 Type 2 shown on the pricing page.

Cons

• About $0.20 to $0.28 a profile, and no public 1M price. Above about 100,000 profiles a year it is quote only.
• Contact data is hidden on the Free plan.
• No MCP server found in the docs index.

Best for: teams that license data or need compliance paperwork and accept per-record pricing.

Pricing: Free up to 100 records a month. Pro from $98 a month for 350 credits. Enterprise custom (PDL pricing, September 2026).

6. Apollo: best for reps who want a database and a sequencer in one

Apollo is a sales platform with a contact database attached. Its pricing page lists 240M contacts and 30M companies, sequences, a dialer and a Chrome extension (Apollo pricing, September 2026). It is the closest match to what UpLead gives a rep, and it ranks last here because the pricing is built around seats, not volume.

Basic is $49 per seat a month with 30,000 credits a year. Professional is $79 with 48,000. Organization is $119 with 72,000 and a three-seat minimum, all billed annually. On monthly billing Professional is $99 per seat with 4,000 credits a month. The API is on every plan, including Free. An email costs 1 credit and a phone number 8. Unused credits expire at the end of each cycle.

For code, the limits are workable. Enrichment endpoints allow 1,000 requests a minute on paid plans, and search allows 200 a minute and 50,000 a day (Apollo docs, September 2026). Apollo MCP connects to Claude and ChatGPT for search, enrichment and sequences (Apollo MCP, September 2026). Apollo also says its plans are for internal business use only.

Pros

• Database, sequences, dialer and Chrome extension in one tool.
• An MCP server that searches, enriches and manages sequences.
• A free plan and a 14-day trial of paid plans.

Cons

• Seats and credits both scale your bill, and credits expire each cycle.
• Search is capped at 50,000 requests a day.
• Internal use only, so you cannot build a product on it.

Best for: sales reps who prospect and send from one workspace.

Pricing: Free. Basic $49, Professional $79, Organization $119 per seat a month, billed annually (Apollo pricing, September 2026).

Comparison table

Sources are linked in each tool section, all checked in September 2026. Vendors change plans often, so confirm on the pricing page before you buy. The 1M column is for email lookups. Apollo is 250 Professional seats on monthly billing ($99 each, 4,000 credits) or 400 Basic seats billed yearly ($49 each, 2,500 credits a month). PDL publishes no 1M price. LeadMagic's top public tier is Ultimate at 100,000 credits for $849 a month, and FullEnrich's is 100,000 credits for $3,500 a month. Neither sells 1M a month publicly.

How to choose

• You pull data in code or with an agent, at volume: LeadOcean. One flat price, REST and MCP on every plan, 100 requests per second.
• You want a flat-price API from a second vendor: BlitzAPI Plus, if you can live with a docs-only MCP server.
• You buy valid emails by the hundred thousand: LeadMagic, at $0.0085 a credit on Ultimate.
• You need waterfall emails and mobiles: FullEnrich, and budget 10 credits per mobile.
• You need compliance paperwork or a licensed dataset: People Data Labs.
• Your reps live in the tool: Apollo, or stay on UpLead for its Chrome extension and accuracy guarantee.
• You bought UpLead for technology data: price that on its own. See Wappalyzer alternatives.
• You want to keep UpLead for a few reps: run volume pulls through an API and keep a small plan. The recipe is on LeadOcean vs UpLead.

Verdict

LeadOcean wins for API, agent and volume buyers. It has a flat price, emails and phones in one plan, and an MCP server that returns records. BlitzAPI is the flat-price runner-up if you run your own code. LeadMagic wins for cheap valid emails and FullEnrich for waterfall mobiles. PDL wins for licensed datasets and Apollo for reps who want a sequencer. Stay on UpLead if a rep needs its extension and written accuracy guarantee. Otherwise start on the free plan and compare the same lookups.

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