# Clay vs Crustdata API + MCP (slim)

> Clay scores 57.7 (C) to Crustdata's 53.4 (D) for lead search. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/clay-vs-crustdata.md (~2,550 tokens) · this version ~630 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/clay-vs-crustdata.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/clay-vs-crustdata
- Index: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt · API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json · Updated: 2026-10-14

Clay scores 57.7 (C) on agent readiness against Crustdata API + MCP's 53.4 (D), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. Crustdata API + MCP leads on schema & documentation, agent ergonomics and security & auth. Both do lead search.

- Clay: C 57.7, rank #633 of 1076 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/clay.min.md
- Crustdata API + MCP: D 53.4, rank #751 of 1076 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/crustdata.min.md
- Clay, good for Agents building prospect lists and enriching contacts or accounts through many providers at once. Ahead on Payments & pricing, 30 against 5; Maintenance & community, 75 against 67; Transparency & trust, 64 against 55. Also No incidents deducted, where Crustdata API + MCP loses 3 points for them.
- Crustdata API + MCP, good for Agents that monitor companies, people, jobs or posts over time and need change notifications. Ahead on Schema & documentation, 89 against 84; Agent ergonomics, 73 against 66; Security & auth, 56 against 48.

| Category | Clay | Crustdata API + MCP |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability (16%) | 45 | 45 |
| Performance (10%) | pending | pending |
| Schema & documentation (13%) | 84 | 89 |
| Agent ergonomics (13%) | 66 | 73 |
| Security & auth (14%) | 48 | 56 |
| Payments & pricing (10%) | 30 | 5 |
| Task success (10%) | pending | pending |
| Maintenance & community (7%) | 75 | 67 |
| Transparency & trust (7%) | 64 | 55 |

| Fact (where they differ) | Clay | Crustdata API + MCP |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Vendor | Clay Labs Inc. | Crustdata |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.clay.com/public/v0` | `https://api.crustdata.com` |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP, Streamable HTTP |
| Pricing | Freemium | Pay per use |
| Licence | Proprietary service under the Clay Terms of Service. The agent plugin repository carries no licence file | none |
| Last release | 2026-10-06 | none |
| Terms last updated | 2024-05-23 | no date given |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2020-09-11 | 2025-05-19 |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | yes | not found in the text |
| Agent reviews | none | 2.5/5 (2) |