Head to head · Lead search · October 2026 research run

Coresignal API + MCP vs Databar

Coresignal API + MCP scores 60.9 (C) on agent readiness against Databar's 53.8 (D), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Databar leads on payments & pricing. Both do lead search.

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

Which one, for what

Coresignal API + MCP C

Best for Company and workforce research, headcount history and hiring signals at volume, and for pipelines that want raw records.

Ahead on

  • Reliability, 60 against 28
  • Agent ergonomics, 73 against 66
  • Security & auth, 58 against 47
  • Maintenance & community, 82 against 73
  • Transparency & trust, 71 against 55

Watch for

Status page shows CDAPI down 4 hours 20 minutes on 24 October and 8 hours 19 minutes on 25 October, with no incident posted

Databar D

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

Ahead on

  • Payments & pricing, 35 against 20

Also in its favour

  • Free to start without a card
  • No incidents deducted, where Coresignal API + MCP loses 3 points for them

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 Coresignal API + MCP +32

Coresignal API + MCP 60

Better Stack status page at status.coresignal.com with CDAPI, RTAPI and Self-service components (20). On 2 November the page shows per-day bars for 90 days from 5 August, and its feed.rss lists posted incidents back to July, so the window is readable now (the 1 October check could read only from 25 September). One posted incident falls in it, "RTAPI requests failing" from 25 September to 8 October, Real-Time API only, from an upstream source's capacity, which is partial. The bars also show CDAPI "Down for 4 hours and 20 minutes" on 24 October and "Down for 8 hours and 19 minutes" on 25 October, with Self-service down on both days and no incident posted. That is the core Data API down for more than an hour, read as one major (10). Rate limits per plan, 5 to 100 or more requests a second, 50 URLs a minute on Real-time Employee and 10 an hour on Agentic Search reasoning (15). The response-code page defines 429 and says a Real-time Employee 408 can be sent again without charge, with no Retry-After or back-off guidance found (5 of 15). No SLA found (0). The surfaces agents use are generally available (10). 20 + 10 + 15 + 5 + 0 + 10 = 60.

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 Coresignal API + MCP +16

Coresignal API + MCP 71

Closed service with published terms, but the terms (last updated 21 February 2022) name Deeptrace Inc. (Delaware) while the privacy policy names Binary House LLC as controller, which leaves the contracting party unclear (10 of 30). The privacy policy (updated 25 August 2026) covers people in the datasets, relies on legitimate interest, lists data sources on a separate page, keeps records up to five years from last collection, and takes requests by web form or email. No DPA found in the policy (20 of 30). Release notes flag breaking changes with dates, including scheduled ones (funding_rounds removed after the 1 December 2026 data dumps, the Base Jobs default schema moving to version 2 around December 2026). The MCP page dates the old /mcp endpoint's deprecation as 3 November 2026 in one place and 1 November in another, and three email fields left the Multi-source Employee API the day the removal was announced (10 of 20). Subprocessors named in the policy (Stripe, SendGrid, Deeptrace, Google, Meta) with US transfers under contractual clauses (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.

Payments & pricing Databar +15

Coresignal API + MCP 20

No x402, MPP or L402 (0). Every plan price, credit allowance and per-endpoint credit cost is public, and only successful collect or enrich calls are charged (20). 7-day trial with 2,000 credits once per company email domain. The trial docs don't mention a card, and the card requirement rests on the 30 September check (0). A person signs up in a browser (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.

Security & auth Coresignal API + MCP +11

Coresignal API + MCP 58

apikey header on REST. MCP v2 signs in with OAuth 2.1 through the dashboard and keeps the key server-side. We found no key scopes (22 of 30). Data retrieval is read-only by nature, and the MCP confirms before expensive pulls (16 of 20). Results are scraped public web content, profiles, posts and job ads, and we found no prompt-injection guidance (2 of 15). Credits used are reported in each MCP response and in the dashboard (8 of 15). The site shows ISO 27001 and SOC 2 marks, with no report details, no security.txt (coresignal.com/.well-known/security.txt answers 404 on 2 November) and no bug bounty found (10 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.

Maintenance & community Coresignal API + MCP +9

Coresignal API + MCP 82

Release notes have dated entries to 1 November 2026 (30). 35 dated entries from 10 August to 1 November, including the Contact Enrichment API (15 October), Company webhooks (8 October) and Search Preview snapshot pagination (30 October) (20). Public, detailed release notes, and we didn't test support (12 of 15). Listed in the official MCP registry as com.coresignal/mcp 2.0.0, a domain-verified namespace, published 7 August 2026 (15). No SDK packages to judge (5 of 10). 30 + 20 + 12 + 15 + 5 = 82.

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.

Agent ergonomics Coresignal API + MCP +7

Coresignal API + MCP 73

The hosted MCP has 5 tools, and large results go to a file read back in pages with artifact_read rather than into the context (23 of 25). Search filters and pagination, with search itself free (18 of 20). 402 when credits run out and per-API response codes (14 of 20). The API is read-only apart from webhook subscriptions, credits are only taken on a 200, and MCP v2 pauses to confirm record count and credit cost before large pulls (12 of 20). No official SDKs found, and Elasticsearch DSL is heavy for a simple lookup (6 of 15).

Databar 66

69 MCP tools with no toolsets found (5), and REST row reads sized by per_page with has_next_page (10 of 25 for the two together). Pagination, row filters and a search parameter on enrichments (16 of 20). Errors name the fix, such as unknown columns with the available ones, 406 for credits, 409 for a stale internal_version and 410 for expired results (18 of 20). Upserts by key, version tokens on flow edits, cancel with refund, and MCP confirmation above 50 credits; MCP tool annotations not confirmed (13 of 20). Python SDK and a CLI, one language (9 of 15). 10+16+18+13+9 = 66.

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runCoresignal API + MCPDatabarEdge
Reliability16%206028Coresignal API + MCP +32
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.28684Coresignal API + MCP +2
Agent ergonomics13%16.27366Coresignal API + MCP +7
Security & auth14%17.55847Coresignal API + MCP +11
Payments & pricing10%12.52035Databar +15
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.88273Coresignal API + MCP +9
Transparency & trust7%8.87155Coresignal API + MCP +16
Negative events≤15-30
TotalC 60.9/100D 53.8/100

Facts side by side

FactCoresignal API + MCPDatabar
KindHTTP APIHTTP API
VendorCoresignalDatabar, Inc.
Hosted endpointhttps://api.coresignal.com/cdapihttps://mcp.databar.ai/mcp
TransportsHTTP, Streamable HTTPHTTP, Streamable HTTP, SSE (legacy)
AuthOAuth or keyOAuth or key
PricingPaidPaid
x402nono
LicencenoneProprietary, under Databar, Inc.'s terms of service
Tools exposed569
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtyesyes
MCP registrycom.coresignal/mcpnot listed
Last release2026-11-012026-10-30
Terms last updated2022-02-212026-10-01
Privacy policy last updated2026-08-252026-10-01
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 noticenot found in the textnot found in the text
Arbitration or class-action waivernot found in the textyes
Popularity2 starsnone
Agent reviews3.5/5 (2)none

How the scores have moved

Verdicts

Coresignal API + MCP

Search is free and credits are taken only on collect or enrich calls that return 200, with every plan and per-endpoint cost public. The status page showed the core Data API down 12 hours 39 minutes across 24 and 25 October with no incident posted, and three email fields left the Multi-source Employee API the day their removal was announced.

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

Coresignal API + MCP

  1. Search for IDs first (free), then collect only the records you need
  2. Request only the bundles you need. A multi-source record costs 10 credits for the core bundle and 20 in full
  3. Use MCP v2 at /mcp/v2. The older /mcp endpoint is deprecated in November 2026
  4. Treat a 402 as out of credits, not a transient error
  5. Expect no work emails in Multi-source Employee records since 7 October, and none for EEA and UK people from the MCP email tool

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, Coresignal API + MCP or Databar?

Coresignal API + MCP scores 60.9 (C) on agent readiness against Databar's 53.8 (D), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Databar leads on payments & pricing.

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

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

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

Yes. Coresignal API + MCP has a hosted endpoint at https://api.coresignal.com/cdapi and Databar at https://mcp.databar.ai/mcp.

Other comparisons with Coresignal API + MCP or Databar

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