Head to head · Lead enrichment · October 2026 research run

Databar vs Lusha API + MCP

Lusha API + MCP scores 62.3 (B) on agent readiness against Databar's 53.8 (D), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Databar leads on agent ergonomics. Both do lead enrichment.

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

Which one, for what

Databar D

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

Ahead on

  • Agent ergonomics, 66 against 51

Also in its favour

  • Free to start without a card
  • No incidents deducted, where Lusha API + MCP loses 6 points for them

Watch for

API access needs a paid plan; the free plan's 150 credits don't include it

Lusha API + MCP B

Best for Sales teams that want contact and company enrichment, signals and prospecting from one vendor, with a free plan to start.

Ahead on

  • Reliability, 85 against 28
  • Security & auth, 59 against 47
  • Payments & pricing, 40 against 35
  • Maintenance & community, 82 against 73
  • Transparency & trust, 80 against 55

Watch for

At least 1 credit per request even when nothing matches

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 Lusha API + MCP +57

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.

Lusha API + MCP 85

Atlassian Statuspage at status.lusha.com with a Lusha API component and AWS us-east-1 components (20). The history feed (history.atom) lists one incident from 4 August to 2 November 2026, errors and incomplete results in Prospecting company search for some users on 7 August (20:44 to 21:33 IDT), partial and so minor; the 3 August API error incident falls just outside the window (20). Limits per plan, from 40 a minute and 100 a day on Free to 300 a minute and 50,000 a day on Scale (15). 429 documented with advice to back off exponentially, no Retry-After mentioned (10 of 15). The trust centre states a 99.95 per cent uptime SLA (10). Generally available (10). 20+20+15+10+10+10 = 85.

Transparency & trust Lusha API + MCP +25

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.

Lusha API + MCP 80

Closed service with terms naming Lusha Systems Inc. (15). The privacy notice (September 2026) covers people in the database, names its sources, including a community programme in which members share contacts from their CRM, email headers and calendars, plus data brokers and public APIs, relies on legitimate interest, names a DPO and an EU and UK representative, and takes removal requests at lusha.com/privacy-center/request-removal. Retention for contacts has no period (24 of 30). A support matrix exists, but the Decision Makers API was removed 88 days after launch with no notice period found (8 of 20). Subprocessor list published and data stored on AWS in the US (20).

Agent ergonomics Databar +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.

Lusha API + MCP 51

The hosted MCP has 50 tools across enrichment, prospecting, signals, lookalikes, buying groups, tables, CRM export and account, with no toolsets found (5). Bulk calls take up to 25 records (8 of 25). Prospecting filters with a per-company cap and exact totals (18 of 20). Standard codes and back-off advice for 429 (12 of 20). Every request costs at least 1 credit even with no match, so retries aren't free, and the MCP writes to tables and CRM exports with no annotations found (6 of 20). No official SDKs found (7 of 15).

Security & auth Lusha API + MCP +12

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.

Lusha API + MCP 59

REST takes an api_key header. Every user gets a key, admins can mint more and cap each one's monthly credits, and a key a user makes for themselves has no cap of its own. OAuth for the MCP in Claude, ChatGPT and Codex, x-api-key elsewhere. No endpoint scopes found (22 of 30). Credit caps limit damage, but the MCP isn't read-only and writes to workspace tables and CRM exports (8 of 20). Signals and conversation data carry some free text, no injection guidance found (5 of 15). Usage endpoint, no per-call log found (8 of 15). SOC 2 Type II and five ISO certifications claimed in the trust centre, ISO 27701 named in the privacy notice, security.txt valid (Expires 1 May 2027, read on 2 November), no bug bounty found (16 of 20).

Maintenance & community Lusha API + MCP +9

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.

Lusha API + MCP 82

Version 2.20.1 on 2026-10-29 (30). Fourteen dated versions from 2.7.0 on 5 August to 2.20.1 on 29 October 2026 (20). Detailed public changelog and support, issue handling not visible (12 of 15). Listed in the official MCP registry as com.lusha.mcp/mcp 1.0.0, a domain-verified namespace, active since 18 June 2026 (15). No packages to judge (5 of 10). 30+20+12+15+5 = 82.

Payments & pricing Lusha API + MCP +5

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.

Lusha API + MCP 40

No x402, MPP or L402 (0). Plan prices, credit allowances and per-item credit costs are public (20). Free plan with 40 credits a month and an API key. It's a free plan, not a trial, and we didn't see a card asked (20). A person signs up in a browser (0).

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runDatabarLusha API + MCPEdge
Reliability16%202885Lusha API + MCP +57
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.28483Databar +1
Agent ergonomics13%16.26651Databar +15
Security & auth14%17.54759Lusha API + MCP +12
Payments & pricing10%12.53540Lusha API + MCP +5
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.87382Lusha API + MCP +9
Transparency & trust7%8.85580Lusha API + MCP +25
Negative events≤150-6
TotalD 53.8/100B 62.3/100

Facts side by side

FactDatabarLusha API + MCP
KindHTTP APIHTTP API
VendorDatabar, Inc.Lusha
Hosted endpointhttps://mcp.databar.ai/mcphttps://api.lusha.com
TransportsHTTP, Streamable HTTP, SSE (legacy)HTTP, Streamable HTTP
AuthOAuth or keyOAuth or key
PricingPaidFreemium
x402nono
LicenceProprietary, under Databar, Inc.'s terms of servicenone
Tools exposed6950
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtyesyes
MCP registrynot listedcom.lusha.mcp/mcp
Last release2026-10-302026-10-29
Terms last updated2026-10-01no date given
Privacy policy last updated2026-10-012026-09-01
Customer content may train modelsnot found in the textyes, with an opt-out
Terms restrict automated accessnot found in the textyes
Terms restrict benchmarkingnot found in the textyes
Terms or service can change without noticenot found in the textyes
Arbitration or class-action waiveryesyes
Agent reviewsnone3/5 (2)

How the scores have moved

Verdicts

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.

Lusha API + MCP

API key on every plan, including Free with 40 credits a month, and a semantic-versioned changelog with frequent dated releases. At least 1 credit is charged per request even when nothing matches, and since 5 October 2026 Enrich Contacts can return partial waterfall results with a job to poll, a change announced the day it shipped.

Before you call either

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

Lusha API + MCP

  1. Batch up to 25 contacts a request. A single bulk request costs 1 credit, not 1 per contact
  2. Ask for phones only when needed. A phone is 5 credits against 1 for an email
  3. Use the Buying Group endpoint. Decision Makers was retired on 2026-09-04
  4. When Enrich Contacts returns a job, poll GET /v3/contacts/jobs/{jobId} every retryAfter seconds until complete, expired or failed. Polling costs no credits
  5. Back off exponentially on 429. Free keys stop at 100 requests a day

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, Databar or Lusha API + MCP?

Lusha API + MCP scores 62.3 (B) on agent readiness against Databar's 53.8 (D), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Databar leads on agent ergonomics.

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

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

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

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

Other comparisons with Databar or Lusha API + MCP

Machine-readable

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