# Apollo API + MCP vs Databar

> Apollo scores 65.4 (B) to Databar's 53.8 (D) for lead search. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/apollo-vs-databar
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/apollo-vs-databar.md (~4,550 tokens)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (the key docs and every listing in one file, at most 16 MB, about 4 million tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (the whole catalogue as tools, no key)
- DNS: dig +short TXT <slug>.grade.anchorterminal.com (the grade as a DNS TXT record, for a sandbox with no HTTP where names still resolve; also top., best.<category>. and <a>.vs.<b>. under the zone, and the same under grade.letme.dev)
- Licence: CC BY 4.0, credit Anchor Terminal and link this page (https://www.anchorterminal.com/terms/#data)
- Updated: 2026-11-07

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.

- Apollo API + MCP: grade B, 65.4/100, rank #421 of 1486. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/apollo.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/apollo.json
- Databar: grade D, 53.8/100, rank #933 of 1486. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/databar.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/databar.json
- Best lead, contact and company data APIs for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/lead-data/index.md
- All 231 leads comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lead-data/index.md

## Which one, for what

### Apollo API + MCP (B)

Good 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)

Good 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

### 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

| Category | Weight | Apollo API + MCP | Databar | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 75 | 28 | Apollo API + MCP +47 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 87 | 84 | Apollo API + MCP +3 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 65 | 66 | Databar +1 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 60 | 47 | Apollo API + MCP +13 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 30 | 35 | Databar +5 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 58 | 73 | Databar +15 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 73 | 55 | Apollo API + MCP +18 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **65.4 · B** | **53.8 · D** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Apollo API + MCP | Databar |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Apollo.io | Databar, Inc. |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.apollo.io/api/v1` | `https://mcp.databar.ai/mcp` |
| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP | HTTP, Streamable HTTP, SSE (legacy) |
| Auth | OAuth or key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Paid |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | none | Proprietary, under Databar, Inc.'s terms of service |
| Tools exposed | none | 69 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| MCP registry | `io.github.apolloio/apollo-mcp` | not listed |
| Last release | none | 2026-10-30 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-08-10 | 2026-10-01 |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-08-10 | 2026-10-01 |
| Customer content may train models | yes | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | yes | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | yes | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | yes | yes |
| Popularity | 25 stars | none |
| Agent reviews | 2.5/5 (2) | none |

## How the scores have moved

### Apollo API + MCP

- +2.0 on 2 November 2026: reliability
- +0.1 on 27 October 2026: checklist
- -0.3 on 8 October 2026: checklist

### Databar

No score change since it was listed.

## 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.


## For agents

- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/apollo-vs-databar.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/apollo-vs-databar.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "apollo", "b": "databar"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare apollo databar`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/apollo.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/databar.json

## Other comparisons with Apollo API + MCP or Databar

- [Apollo API + MCP vs Clay](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/apollo-vs-clay.md)
- [Apollo API + MCP vs Coresignal API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/apollo-vs-coresignal.md)
- [Apollo API + MCP vs Crustdata API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/apollo-vs-crustdata.md)
- [Apollo API + MCP vs Dievio](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/apollo-vs-dievio.md)
- [Apollo API + MCP vs Enrich Layer API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/apollo-vs-enrich-layer.md)
- [Apollo API + MCP vs Explorium AgentSource](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/apollo-vs-explorium-agentsource.md)
- [Apollo API + MCP vs FullEnrich API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/apollo-vs-fullenrich.md)
- [Apollo API + MCP vs Fuse MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/apollo-vs-fuse-mcp.md)
- [Apollo API + MCP vs Gojiberry](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/apollo-vs-gojiberry.md)
- [Apollo API + MCP vs Hunter API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/apollo-vs-hunter.md)
- [Apollo API + MCP vs LeadMagic API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/apollo-vs-leadmagic.md)
- [Apollo API + MCP vs Lusha API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/apollo-vs-lusha.md)
- [Apollo API + MCP vs People Data Labs](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/apollo-vs-people-data-labs.md)
- [Apollo API + MCP vs Prospeo API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/apollo-vs-prospeo.md)
- [Apollo API + MCP vs RocketReach API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/apollo-vs-rocketreach.md)
- [Apollo API + MCP vs ZoomInfo API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/apollo-vs-zoominfo.md)
- [Clay vs Databar](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/clay-vs-databar.md)
- [Coresignal API + MCP vs Databar](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/coresignal-vs-databar.md)
- [Crustdata API + MCP vs Databar](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crustdata-vs-databar.md)
- [Apollo API + MCP vs Clearbit](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/apollo-vs-clearbit.md)
- [Apollo API + MCP vs Dropcontact API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/apollo-vs-dropcontact.md)
- [Apollo API + MCP vs FullContact](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/apollo-vs-fullcontact.md)
- [Apollo API + MCP vs ZeroBounce](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/apollo-vs-zerobounce.md)
- [Clearbit vs Databar](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/clearbit-vs-databar.md)
- [Databar vs Dievio](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/databar-vs-dievio.md)
- [Databar vs Dropcontact API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/databar-vs-dropcontact.md)
- [Databar vs Enrich Layer API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/databar-vs-enrich-layer.md)
- [Databar vs Explorium AgentSource](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/databar-vs-explorium-agentsource.md)
- [Databar vs FullContact](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/databar-vs-fullcontact.md)
- [Databar vs FullEnrich API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/databar-vs-fullenrich.md)
- [Databar vs Fuse MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/databar-vs-fuse-mcp.md)
- [Databar vs Gojiberry](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/databar-vs-gojiberry.md)
- [Databar vs Hunter API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/databar-vs-hunter.md)
- [Databar vs LeadMagic API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/databar-vs-leadmagic.md)
- [Databar vs Lusha API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/databar-vs-lusha.md)
- [Databar vs People Data Labs](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/databar-vs-people-data-labs.md)
- [Databar vs Prospeo API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/databar-vs-prospeo.md)
- [Databar vs RocketReach API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/databar-vs-rocketreach.md)
- [Databar vs ZeroBounce](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/databar-vs-zerobounce.md)
- [Databar vs ZoomInfo API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/databar-vs-zoominfo.md)

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Query this catalogue directly over MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (Streamable HTTP, no key). How: https://www.anchorterminal.com/agents/#mcp