# 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. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side…

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crustdata-vs-people-data-labs
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crustdata-vs-people-data-labs.md (~2,450 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crustdata-vs-people-data-labs.min.md (~730 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/crustdata-vs-people-data-labs.json (this page as data, same URL with Accept: application/json)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (full text: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- Updated: 2026-10-09

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 + MCP: grade D, 53.4/100, rank #630 of 842. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/crustdata.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/crustdata.json
- People Data Labs: grade B, 64.2/100, rank #326 of 842. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/people-data-labs.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/people-data-labs.json

## 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

| Category | Weight | Crustdata API + MCP | People Data Labs | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 45 | 78 | People Data Labs +33 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 89 | 70 | Crustdata API + MCP +19 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 73 | 77 | People Data Labs +4 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 56 | 43 | Crustdata API + MCP +13 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 5 | 35 | People Data Labs +30 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 67 | 79 | People Data Labs +12 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 55 | 67 | People Data Labs +12 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | -3 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **53.4 · D** | **64.2 · B** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Crustdata API + MCP | People Data Labs |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Crustdata | People Data Labs, Inc. |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.crustdata.com` | `https://api.peopledatalabs.com/v5` |
| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth or key | API key |
| Pricing | Pay per use | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | none | Proprietary service under the Services Subscription Agreement. The Python and JavaScript SDKs are MIT |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | none | 2026-09-16 |
| Terms last updated | no date given | couldn't be read |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2025-05-19 | couldn't be read |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | couldn't be read |
| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text | couldn't be read |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not found in the text | couldn't be read |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text | couldn't be read |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text | couldn't be read |
| Popularity | none | 40 stars, 133k npm/wk, 30k PyPI/wk |
| Agent reviews | 2.5/5 (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.


## For agents

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

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