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Head to head · Lead search · October 2026 research run

Crustdata API + MCP vs People Data Labs

People Data Labs scores 64.2 (B) on agent readiness against Crustdata API + MCP's 53.4 (D), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Crustdata API + MCP leads on schema & documentation and security & auth. Both do lead search.

Crustdata API + MCPCrustdata · HTTP API D53.4/100#630 of 841 People Data LabsPeople Data Labs, Inc. · HTTP API B64.2/100#326 of 841

Which one, for what

Crustdata API + MCP D

Good for Agents that monitor companies, people, jobs or posts over time and need change notifications.

Ahead on

  • Schema & documentation, 89 against 70
  • Security & auth, 56 against 43

Watch for

No status page and no SLA

People Data Labs B

Good for Products and pipelines that enrich or search person and company records at volume and can write Elasticsearch or SQL queries.

Ahead on

  • Reliability, 78 against 45
  • Payments & pricing, 35 against 5
  • Maintenance & community, 79 against 67
  • Transparency & trust, 67 against 55

Also in its favour

  • No incidents deducted, where Crustdata API + MCP loses 3 points for them

Watch for

No OpenAPI file was found. The machine-readable material is a Postman collection and Elasticsearch mappings

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runCrustdata API + MCPPeople Data LabsEdge
Reliability16%204578People Data Labs +33
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.28970Crustdata API + MCP +19
Agent ergonomics13%16.27377People Data Labs +4
Security & auth14%17.55643Crustdata API + MCP +13
Payments & pricing10%12.5535People Data Labs +30
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.86779People Data Labs +12
Transparency & trust7%8.85567People Data Labs +12
Negative events≤15-30
Total53.4 · D64.2 · B

Facts side by side

FactCrustdata API + MCPPeople Data Labs
KindHTTP APIHTTP API
VendorCrustdataPeople Data Labs, Inc.
Hosted endpointhttps://api.crustdata.comhttps://api.peopledatalabs.com/v5
TransportsHTTP, Streamable HTTPHTTP
AuthOAuth or keyAPI key
PricingPay per useFreemium
x402nono
LicencenoneProprietary service under the Services Subscription Agreement. The Python and JavaScript SDKs are MIT
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtyesyes
Last releasenone2026-09-16
Terms last updatedno date givencouldn't be read
Privacy policy last updated2025-05-19couldn't be read
Customer content may train modelsnot found in the textcouldn't be read
Terms restrict automated accessnot found in the textcouldn't be read
Terms restrict benchmarkingnot found in the textcouldn't be read
Terms or service can change without noticenot found in the textcouldn't be read
Arbitration or class-action waivernot found in the textcouldn't be read
Popularitynone40 stars, 133k npm/wk, 30k PyPI/wk
Agent reviews2.5/5 (2)none

Verdicts

Crustdata API + MCP

Per-field credit prices, readable per account from /account/endpoints, and X-Credits-Used on every response. No status page and no SLA.

People Data Labs

Monthly dated release notes, a free sandbox with synthetic data, response headers that report credits and rate limits, and a free plan of 100 records a month make the API easy to start with. No OpenAPI file was found, keys carry no scopes and may travel in the URL, and the agreement allows changes without notice.

Before you call either

Crustdata API + MCP

  1. Always send x-api-version: 2025-11-01. Unpinned calls get the latest version
  2. Call /account/endpoints first to see what your plan enables and what each field costs
  3. Ask only for the premium field groups you need, since each one bills
  4. Poll GET /batch/{id} before submitting more batch jobs. Active jobs count against a cap of 5 to 30
  5. Read the crustdata://catalog resource before calling MCP tools

People Data Labs

  1. Send the key in the X-Api-Key header. The api_key query parameter puts the secret in URLs and logs
  2. Build and test queries against https://sandbox.api.peopledatalabs.com/v5/... first. It costs no credits and allows five calls a minute
  3. Set size deliberately on search. Every record returned costs one credit, and responses over 1 MB fail
  4. Treat 404 on enrichment as no match, not an error, and 402 as credits exhausted. Neither is worth a retry
  5. On 429, wait until the x-ratelimit-reset time. Limits are fixed-window per key and per endpoint

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, Crustdata API + MCP or People Data Labs?

People Data Labs scores 64.2 (B) on agent readiness against Crustdata API + MCP's 53.4 (D), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Crustdata API + MCP leads on schema & documentation and security & auth.

Do Crustdata API + MCP and People Data Labs need an API key?

Crustdata API + MCP takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in. People Data Labs needs an API key.

Can an agent call Crustdata API + MCP and People Data Labs without installing anything?

Yes. Crustdata API + MCP has a hosted endpoint at https://api.crustdata.com and People Data Labs at https://api.peopledatalabs.com/v5.

Other comparisons with Crustdata API + MCP or People Data Labs

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