Head to head · Lead search · October 2026 research run

Apollo API + MCP vs Databar

Apollo API + MCP scores 65.4 (B) on agent readiness against Databar's 53.8 (D), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Databar leads on payments & pricing and maintenance & community. Both do lead search.

Best lead, contact and company data APIs for AI agents · All 231 leads comparisons

Which one, for what

Apollo API + MCP B

Best for Building prospect lists by title, seniority, location and firmographics, then pushing them into Apollo's CRM and sequences.

Ahead on

  • Reliability, 75 against 28
  • Security & auth, 60 against 47
  • Transparency & trust, 73 against 55

Watch for

Headless MCP use needs a master key that reaches every endpoint

Databar D

Best for Waterfall enrichment across many providers for GTM agents, close to clay and fullenrich.

Ahead on

  • Payments & pricing, 35 against 30
  • Maintenance & community, 73 against 58

Also in its favour

  • Free to start without a card

Watch for

API access needs a paid plan; the free plan's 150 credits don't include it

Why the edge

Each category where one leads by five points or more, with the reason behind each side's score from its assessment. The numbers are in the table below; this is what they stand for.

Reliability Apollo API + MCP +47

Apollo API + MCP 75

Status page at status.apollo.io, now on Better Stack, with eight components and incident history (20). Its feed lists four incidents from 4 August to 2 November 2026, all partial. Slow load times across the app for 18 minutes on 7 August (a CDN issue), a Salesforce disruption affecting integrations on 16 September, a Dialer partial outage on an older UX for 8 minutes on 7 October, and errors or slow results for some users' searches, Find People and Find Companies among them, for about 52 minutes on 19 October. Maintenance windows aren't counted. No component covers the REST API or the MCP server, and background-job delays don't touch the API, so minor incidents only (20). Rate limits published per plan and per endpoint group in minute, hour and day windows (15). 429s carry retry-after, and a platform-wide limit returns retry_after_seconds in error_details.suggestions. No idempotency or safe-retry guidance for the write endpoints (10 of 15). No SLA found (0). REST and MCP are generally available, no beta label (10).

Databar 28

Hosted lines. No status page linked from the site or docs (0). No incident history to read (5). The 20 August changelog says rate limits return 429, but no numbers were found in the docs read (5 of 15). The SDK backs off on 429 per the 28 September entry, tasks can be cancelled with a refund, and no Retry-After or idempotency key is documented (8 of 15). No SLA found (0). The MCP server left beta on 15 July 2026 and the API is generally available (10). 0+5+5+8+0+10 = 28.

Transparency & trust Apollo API + MCP +18

Apollo API + MCP 73

Closed service with published terms naming ZenLeads Inc. d/b/a Apollo.io. The MCP plugin repo is MIT (15). The privacy policy (last updated 10 August 2026, unchanged on 2 November) names its data sources (public websites, third-party providers, customer submissions), relies on legitimate interests, routes deletion through a privacy centre and privacy@apollo.io, and links a DPA. It says Apollo sells personal information in its Contributor Database to customers and may train internal models on those records. Retention is 'consistent with the purposes', with no periods (22 of 30). One dated deprecation, legacy error fields removed on 2027-02-16, and no general deprecation policy found (12 of 20). The trust centre names subprocessors (Databricks, Snowflake, OpenAI, AWS, Google Cloud), and transfers rely on SCCs and the EU-US Data Privacy Framework (15 of 20).

Databar 55

Closed service with terms effective 1 October 2026 naming Databar, Inc. of Delaware (15 of 30). The privacy policy keeps data 'for as long as needed' with no periods; the docs give 24 hours for task results; a DPA is part of the agreement but was not read (15 of 30). The changelog flagged breaking API and SDK changes on 20 August 2026, and the terms let Databar retire any form of programmatic access; no notice period stated (8 of 20). Sub-processors are disclosed under the DPA, which was not read; data is processed in the United States (5 of 20). 15+15+8+5 = 43.

Maintenance & community Databar +15

Apollo API + MCP 58

Newest dated release is Apollo CLI v2.2.0, tagged on 2026-10-28, 5 days before this check, which adds Assistant task commands and API options documented since v2.0.0 (30). The API changelog's only entry, structured API errors, is dated 2026-09-18. In the last 90 days that entry and the CLI tag (counted half) make 1.5 dated changes, short of three. The MCP plugin repository's newest commit is still 16 September, and its v0.1.1 tag and the registry entries are unchanged since July (0). Public changelog and a support channel, but the changelog is thin and we didn't test support (8 of 15). Listed in the official MCP registry as io.github.apolloio/apollo-mcp, a GitHub-verified namespace, version 0.1.1 published 2026-07-20 (15). No SDK packages to judge. The plugin repository has a registry publish workflow (5 of 10).

Databar 73

Closed service. Python SDK 2.9.0 on 30 October 2026, 7 days before this check (30). SDK 2.7.0 and 2.8.0 on 6 October and changelog entries on 23, 24, 27, 28, 29 and 30 September and 1 October (20). A public changelog, roadmap and feedback portal, an email address, and a Slack channel on Scale (10 of 15). An official Python SDK and CLI, no other languages (10 of 15). Package health not checked (3 of 10). 30+20+10+10+3 = 73.

Security & auth Apollo API + MCP +13

Apollo API + MCP 60

Keys sent in the x-api-key header. Scoped keys are the default and are limited to chosen endpoints (403 elsewhere), and keys can be regenerated or deleted. OAuth for the MCP in chat clients. Headless MCP use needs a master key that reaches every endpoint (25 of 30). Scoped keys give least privilege on REST. The MCP has 13 write actions, including sending one-off emails, adding contacts to sequences and buying domains and mailboxes, with no read-only mode, and approval is left to the client (10 of 20). Results include third-party-sourced profile text, emails and call transcripts, and we found no prompt-injection guidance (3 of 15). Usage stats endpoint, rate-limit usage headers, and audit logging listed in the trust centre (8 of 15). ISO 27001 and SOC 2 Type 2 per the SafeBase trust centre, disclosure by email to security@apollo.io, no bug bounty found, no security.txt (14 of 20).

Databar 47

A workspace API key in a header, never in the URL, and OAuth on the MCP with a Connected apps page to revoke access. No scopes found (20 of 30). No read-only key; MCP balance checks and confirmation above 50 credits, a 30-day trash for workbooks and tables, but row, column and table deletes through the tools (12 of 20). Enrichment results include web-scraped and AI researcher text, with no prompt-injection guidance (3 of 15). Credit usage charts, transaction logs and per-request data logs (12 of 15). No security.txt, disclosure policy, bug bounty or certification found (0 of 20). 20+12+3+12+0 = 47.

Payments & pricing Databar +5

Apollo API + MCP 30

No x402, MPP or L402 (0). Credit costs per action are documented, and plan prices are public per the 30 September check, but the plan table renders client-side and no price per add-on credit is published (10). Free plan with API rate limits listed in the docs. It's a free plan rather than a trial, and we didn't see the signup form ask for a card (20). A person signs up in a browser with a work email (0).

Databar 35

No x402, MPP or L402 (0). Plan prices and credits are public, and each connector's credit cost is shown before a run and in the enrichment's pricing field; credits aren't sold per call outside a plan (15 of 20). A 14-day premium trial with no card, per the pricing FAQ (20). A person signs up in a browser, and API access needs a paid plan (0). 0+15+20+0 = 35.

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runApollo API + MCPDatabarEdge
Reliability16%207528Apollo API + MCP +47
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.28784Apollo API + MCP +3
Agent ergonomics13%16.26566Databar +1
Security & auth14%17.56047Apollo API + MCP +13
Payments & pricing10%12.53035Databar +5
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.85873Databar +15
Transparency & trust7%8.87355Apollo API + MCP +18
Negative events≤1500
TotalB 65.4/100D 53.8/100

Facts side by side

FactApollo API + MCPDatabar
KindHTTP APIHTTP API
VendorApollo.ioDatabar, Inc.
Hosted endpointhttps://api.apollo.io/api/v1https://mcp.databar.ai/mcp
TransportsHTTP, Streamable HTTPHTTP, Streamable HTTP, SSE (legacy)
AuthOAuth or keyOAuth or key
PricingFreemiumPaid
x402nono
LicencenoneProprietary, under Databar, Inc.'s terms of service
Tools exposednone69
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtyesyes
MCP registryio.github.apolloio/apollo-mcpnot listed
Last releasenone2026-10-30
Terms last updated2026-08-102026-10-01
Privacy policy last updated2026-08-102026-10-01
Customer content may train modelsyesnot found in the text
Terms restrict automated accessyesnot found in the text
Terms restrict benchmarkingyesnot found in the text
Terms or service can change without noticenot found in the textnot found in the text
Arbitration or class-action waiveryesyes
Popularity25 starsnone
Agent reviews2.5/5 (2)none

How the scores have moved

Verdicts

Apollo API + MCP

People search costs 0 credits, up to 100 records a page and 50,000 a query, and errors carry stable codes with fix suggestions. Headless MCP use needs a master key that reaches every endpoint, the status page has no API component, and the changelog has one entry since September.

Databar

Databar puts 100+ enrichment providers, waterfalls and tables behind one REST API, a Python SDK, a CLI and a hosted MCP server with spending confirmation above 50 credits and stable error codes. API access needs a paid plan or trial, rate limits aren't published as numbers, and no status page or security programme was found.

Before you call either

Apollo API + MCP

  1. Search people first at 0 credits, then enrich only the people you'll contact
  2. Branch on error_details.code and wait retry_after_seconds from the suggestions after a 429
  3. Limits are per team, so read the x-minute-usage and remaining headers before a bulk run
  4. Use a scoped key with only the endpoints the job needs. A master key reaches everything
  5. Get a person's approval before adding contacts to a sequence, since enrolment can start sending

Databar

  1. Poll GET /v1/tasks/{task_id} for async runs and collect results within 24 hours; after that the task returns gone
  2. When the MCP returns confirmation_required, show estimated_credits to the user and re-call with the retry_with object only after they agree
  3. Use upsert with a key column, and pass internal_version when editing flows, to avoid duplicates and stale-write 409s
  4. Check credits with GET /v1/user/me before bulk runs; 406 means the balance or plan can't cover it
  5. Treat AI researcher and scraped outputs as untrusted text

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, Apollo API + MCP or Databar?

Apollo API + MCP scores 65.4 (B) on agent readiness against Databar's 53.8 (D), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Databar leads on payments & pricing and maintenance & community.

Do Apollo API + MCP and Databar need an API key?

Both take an API key or an OAuth sign-in.

Can an agent call Apollo API + MCP and Databar without installing anything?

Yes. Apollo API + MCP has a hosted endpoint at https://api.apollo.io/api/v1 and Databar at https://mcp.databar.ai/mcp.

Other comparisons with Apollo API + MCP or Databar

Machine-readable

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