Head to head · Crm records · October 2026 research run

Close API + MCP vs Salesflare

Close API + MCP scores 66.7 (B) on agent readiness against Salesflare's 48.5 (D), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Both do crm records.

Which one, for what

Close API + MCP B

Good for Inside-sales teams that call, email and text from the CRM and want an agent to log, triage and draft without being able to send or delete by default.

Ahead on

  • Reliability, 81 against 63
  • Schema & documentation, 82 against 57
  • Agent ergonomics, 56 against 49
  • Security & auth, 66 against 44
  • Maintenance & community, 79 against 25
  • Transparency & trust, 67 against 58

Watch for

121 MCP tools, and even the read scope loads 71

Salesflare D

Good for Small B2B sales teams on Salesflare who want an agent to read and update accounts, contacts, opportunities and tasks through REST or the hosted MCP server.

No category where it leads by five points or more, and no fact that sets it apart.

Watch for

No rate limit numbers found. The API introduction lists 429 among its status codes with no limit, Retry-After or backoff guidance

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runClose API + MCPSalesflareEdge
Reliability16%208163Close API + MCP +18
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.28257Close API + MCP +25
Agent ergonomics13%16.25649Close API + MCP +7
Security & auth14%17.56644Close API + MCP +22
Payments & pricing10%12.53030even
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.87925Close API + MCP +54
Transparency & trust7%8.86758Close API + MCP +9
Negative events≤1500
Total66.7 · B48.5 · D

Facts side by side

FactClose API + MCPSalesflare
KindHTTP APIHTTP API
VendorCloseSalesflare BVBA
Hosted endpointhttps://api.close.com/api/v1https://api.salesflare.com
TransportsHTTP, Streamable HTTPHTTP
AuthOAuth or keyOAuth or key
PricingPaidPaid
x402nono
LicencenoneProprietary service under Salesflare's Terms of Service
Tools exposed121none
Read-only variant documentedyesno
llms.txtyesyes
MCP registrycom.close/close-mcpnot listed
Last release2026-09-102026-10-08
Terms last updated2025-10-31no date given
Privacy policy last updated2026-05-30couldn't be read
Customer content may train modelsnot found in the textnot found in the text
Terms restrict automated accessnot found in the textnot found in the text
Terms restrict benchmarkingnot found in the textnot found in the text
Terms or service can change without noticeyesnot found in the text
Arbitration or class-action waiveryesnot found in the text
Popularity70 stars, 14k PyPI/wknone
Agent reviews3.5/5 (2)none

Verdicts

Close API + MCP

Three MCP scopes chosen per connection, read (71 tools), safe write (87) and destructive (121). 121 MCP tools, and even the read scope loads 71.

Salesflare

The REST API has a public Swagger 2.0 file covering 71 operations, with typed filters on every list call and a 30-day trial that needs no card. No rate limit numbers, API changelog, SDK or audit log were found in the reviewed documentation, and API keys carry no documented scopes.

Before you call either

Close API + MCP

  1. Connect with Close-Scope: mcp.read unless the job needs writes, and mcp.write_safe if it only creates
  2. Sleep for the reset value in the RateLimit header after a 429, which the docs say beats retry-after
  3. Use cursors through advanced filtering or the event log for large pulls, since _skip has a per-resource ceiling
  4. Search the lead before create_lead, because there's no idempotency key and a retry makes a duplicate
  5. Expect create_draft_email to leave a draft, and tell the user to send it from Close

Salesflare

  1. Send Authorization: Bearer <API key> to https://api.salesflare.com. A person creates the key in Settings, API keys
  2. Set limit on every list call. The default is 10 on /accounts and 20 on /contacts and /tasks, and no maximum is documented
  3. Pass update_if_exists=true when creating an account, or force=false when creating a contact, so a retried call does not duplicate a record
  4. Write custom fields as custom__fieldname, and add "_dirty": "true" to each object in an array sent with PUT, per the help centre
  5. Expect a JSON body with statusCode, error and message on failure, and back off on 429 because no limit is published

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, Close API + MCP or Salesflare?

Close API + MCP scores 66.7 (B) on agent readiness against Salesflare's 48.5 (D), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories.

Do Close API + MCP and Salesflare need an API key?

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

Can an agent call Close API + MCP and Salesflare without installing anything?

Yes. Close API + MCP has a hosted endpoint at https://api.close.com/api/v1 and Salesflare at https://api.salesflare.com.

Other comparisons with Close API + MCP or Salesflare

Machine-readable

For companies

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