# Dropcontact API + MCP vs ZeroBounce

> ZeroBounce scores 62.4 (B) to Dropcontact's 59.1 (C) for lead enrichment. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/dropcontact-vs-zerobounce
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/dropcontact-vs-zerobounce.md (~4,850 tokens)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (the key docs and every listing in one file, at most 16 MB, about 4 million tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (the whole catalogue as tools, no key)
- DNS: dig +short TXT <slug>.grade.anchorterminal.com (the grade as a DNS TXT record, for a sandbox with no HTTP where names still resolve; also top., best.<category>. and <a>.vs.<b>. under the zone, and the same under grade.letme.dev)
- Licence: CC BY 4.0, credit Anchor Terminal and link this page (https://www.anchorterminal.com/terms/#data)
- Updated: 2026-11-07

ZeroBounce scores 62.4 (B) on agent readiness against Dropcontact API + MCP's 59.1 (C), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. Dropcontact API + MCP leads on reliability, payments & pricing and transparency & trust. Both do lead enrichment.

- Dropcontact API + MCP: grade C, 59.1/100, rank #717 of 1510. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/dropcontact.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/dropcontact.json
- ZeroBounce: grade B, 62.4/100, rank #561 of 1510. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/zerobounce.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/zerobounce.json
- Best lead, contact and company data APIs for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/lead-data/index.md
- All 231 leads comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/lead-data/index.md

## Which one, for what

### Dropcontact API + MCP (C)

Good for: European teams cleaning and completing contact lists where GDPR handling matters more than coverage.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 85 against 75
- Payments & pricing, 40 against 35
- Transparency & trust, 72 against 63

Also in its favour:
- Free to start without a card

Watch for: No OpenAPI file or changelog

### ZeroBounce (B)

Good for: Email verification before outreach, the verification-first listing in lead-data.

Ahead on:
- Agent ergonomics, 69 against 64
- Security & auth, 65 against 59
- Maintenance & community, 70 against 15

Also in its favour:
- Runs on your own machine

Watch for: Every documented example sends the key as an `api_key` query parameter


## Why the edge

### Maintenance & community: ZeroBounce +55

- Dropcontact API + MCP (15): No changelog. The newest dated API change found is the `API_ERROR` option, on by default for accounts created since 1 June 2026, which answers 400 when every record in a request has an error. That is between 90 and 180 days ago (10). The rebuilt docs carry no dated entries, so none fall in the 90 days from 6 August (0). Email support on every plan and no public changelog (5 of 15). No official SDKs and no registry entry we could read (0). No packages to judge (0, an in-between 3 with nothing behind it before). 10 + 0 + 5 + 0 + 0 = 15.
- ZeroBounce (70): Closed service. The JavaScript SDK 3.0.0 was published on 25 October 2026 (30). No API changelog; the dated changes found in 90 days are that release and status-page notices, fewer than three releases (10 of 20). Support by email and 24/7 chat per the docs, a public status page; replies not tested (10 of 15). Official SDKs in many languages and an MCP server (15). Package health not checked (5 of 10). 30+10+10+15+5 = 70.

### Reliability: Dropcontact API + MCP +10

- Dropcontact API + MCP (85): Atlassian Statuspage at status.dropcontact.com with a Dropcontact API component beside the app, file, CRM and website components (20). Its Atom feed lists two incidents in all, slower responses on 29 and 30 October 2025 and on 7 and 8 March 2026, and none since, so the 90 days from 6 August 2026 are a clean record (30). 60 requests a second, 250 records a request and 15 kB a record (15). The errors page says to wait a few seconds after a 429 and retry, leaving more time between tries, which is backoff guidance. No idempotency key or safe-retry guidance for the enrich call (10). No SLA found (0). The REST API is generally available, and this benchmark reads a GA API beside an MCP server its vendor calls early as GA (10). 20 + 30 + 15 + 10 + 0 + 10 = 85.
- ZeroBounce (75): Hosted lines. Statuspage at status.zerobounce.net with API, API-US, API-EU, Bulk API, website and Cloudflare components (20). The incident feed for 8 August to 6 November shows a 6-minute members platform disruption on 9 September, about 3 minutes of reduced EU API availability on 1 October, and a file upload issue on 26 October resolved within 6 minutes, all minor (20). Limits published per endpoint group with numbers and block lengths (15). 429 is documented with advice to throttle, but no Retry-After, and a block can last an hour or a day (10 of 15). No SLA found (0). Generally available (10). 20+20+15+10+0+10 = 75.

### Transparency & trust: Dropcontact API + MCP +9

- Dropcontact API + MCP (72): Closed service with terms (updated 5 August 2025) naming Dropcontact SAS, registered in Bobigny, no. 823 752 647 (15). The personal data charter (updated 5 August 2025) keeps prospecting data 3 years after the relationship plus 4 in intermediate storage, takes rights requests at data@dropcontact.io, says data may be collected from publicly accessible information and hosted in the EU with some subcontractors in the United States under standard contractual clauses, and a DPA is published. The pricing page says processing runs only on Dropcontact's own algorithms on EU servers with no reliance on non-compliant third-party providers, and that it uses no contact databases. It now also says mobile numbers come from signature extraction within internal email flows, with five years of history, which the charter doesn't mention (22 of 30). One dated change for new accounts (1 June 2026) and no deprecation policy (8 of 20). EU hosting and US subcontractors stated, no named subprocessor list found (10 of 20). 15 + 22 + 8 + 10 = 55.
- ZeroBounce (63): Closed service under terms naming Hertza L.L.C. (ZeroBounce) of Nevada; SDKs and MCP server open source (15 of 30). The data protection page says uploaded data is never kept more than 30 days, the privacy policy of 30 June 2026 keeps account data 'as long as needed', and EU and UK DPAs are published (22 of 30). An API migration page, with no dated deprecation policy (6 of 20). A sub-processor list naming each provider and the data exchanged (16 of 20). 15+22+6+16 = 59.

### Security & auth: ZeroBounce +6

- Dropcontact API + MCP (59): One API key per account in the `X-Access-Token` header, no scopes found. OAuth or the key as a bearer token on the MCP (20 of 30). Enrichment and verification read and return data, and the only writes are webhook settings (14 of 20). Results are cleaned names, titles and company fields rather than free text, so little untrusted content comes back (8 of 15). Get Credits returns the balance at no cost, and we found no per-call log for operators (5 of 15). security.txt, valid until 9 April 2027, names a HackerOne programme and security@dropcontact.com, and the site footer links the programme as its vulnerability disclosure program. The HackerOne page wasn't re-read. No SOC 2 or ISO 27001 found (12 of 20). No 2025 or 2026 record in the CVE list names Dropcontact. 20 + 14 + 8 + 5 + 12 = 59.
- ZeroBounce (65): Several named keys besides a Master key, regeneration, deactivation and IP whitelists (25), less 10 because the documented calls carry the key in the `api_key` query string (15 of 30). Validation only reads, though file and list endpoints can delete uploads (12 of 20). Results are structured status codes with little free text (10 of 15). API usage and dashboard statistics endpoints (10 of 15). SOC 2 Type 2, ISO/IEC 27001:2022, continuous testing with Intigriti and penetration testing with BitSentinel; no public disclosure policy found (18 of 20). 15+12+10+10+18 = 65.

### Agent ergonomics: ZeroBounce +5

- Dropcontact API + MCP (64): The MCP has a handful of tools (enrich from a name and company or a LinkedIn URL, validate an email, check credits, then fetch the result by request ID), and REST takes up to 250 contacts a call. No field selection (20 of 25). No search, so little to page or filter. `forceResults=true` returns the records already enriched (10 of 20). The errors page gives each message with a fix, and per-record keys such as `only_contact_data` say what to add (20). Asynchronous jobs keyed by `request_id` and pay on success, but no idempotency key, and webhooks can arrive out of order or twice (8 of 20). Few required fields and no official SDKs (6 of 15). 20 + 10 + 20 + 8 + 6 = 64.
- ZeroBounce (69): A compact JSON result per address, batch validation and a file API for lists (18 of 25). Little to paginate; file status and results by file id (10 of 20). Status and sub-status codes say why an address failed, and the error page explains 400, 404 and 429 (14 of 20). Unknown results are free and safe to retry; repeated validations are charged again (12 of 20). Many official SDK wrappers and an MCP server, with few required parameters (15). 18+10+14+12+15 = 69.

### Payments & pricing: Dropcontact API + MCP +5

- Dropcontact API + MCP (40): No x402, MPP or L402 (0). Plan prices and credit allowances are public in euros (Starter €79 and Growth €120 a month for 500 credits, 20 per cent off yearly), and a credit is one verified email found (given back when none is) or one email checked (20). 50 free credits at signup with no card (20). A person signs up in a browser and creates the key in the app (0). 0 + 20 + 20 + 0 = 40.
- ZeroBounce (35): No x402, MPP or L402 (0). Per-credit prices public, from $39 for 2,000 validations (20). Freemium of 100 validations a month for business or premium domains; a card requirement isn't stated, and free webmail addresses don't qualify (15 of 20). A person signs up in a browser (0). 0+20+15+0 = 35.

## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Dropcontact API + MCP | ZeroBounce | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 85 | 75 | Dropcontact API + MCP +10 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 54 | 54 | even |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 64 | 69 | ZeroBounce +5 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 59 | 65 | ZeroBounce +6 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 40 | 35 | Dropcontact API + MCP +5 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 15 | 70 | ZeroBounce +55 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 72 | 63 | Dropcontact API + MCP +9 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **59.1 · C** | **62.4 · B** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Dropcontact API + MCP | ZeroBounce |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Dropcontact | Hertza L.L.C. (ZeroBounce) |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.dropcontact.com/v1` | `https://api.zerobounce.net/v2` |
| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP | HTTP, stdio |
| Auth | OAuth or key | API key |
| Pricing | Paid | Pay per use |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | none | Proprietary service under ZeroBounce's terms of use; SDKs and the MCP server are open source |
| Tools exposed | none | 0 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | none | 2026-10-25 |
| Terms last updated | 2025-08-01 | 2026-05-05 |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2020-06-04 | 2026-06-30 |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text | yes |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text | yes |
| Agent reviews | 3.5/5 (2) | none |

## How the scores have moved

### Dropcontact API + MCP

- +8.1 on 4 November 2026 (D to C): product, new evidence, correction
- +0.1 on 27 October 2026: checklist
- -0.2 on 8 October 2026: checklist

### ZeroBounce

No score change since it was listed.

## Verdicts

**Dropcontact API + MCP.** Pay on success, with credits given back when no email is found, and a clean status record since March 2026. The docs now list every error message with a fix and carry llms.txt. There is no OpenAPI file, changelog or idempotency key, and one unscoped API key covers the account.

**ZeroBounce.** ZeroBounce's v2 API verifies emails with detailed status and sub-status codes, publishes per-endpoint limits, a Statuspage with short incidents only in the last 90 days, SOC 2 Type 2 and ISO 27001, and $0.0195 per email at the smallest pack. The documented key travels in the query string, and there is no OpenAPI contract.

## Before you call either

### Dropcontact API + MCP

1. Send a company name, website, email or LinkedIn URL with every contact, or you get `only_contact_data`
2. Read `success` on every 200. A result still processing answers 200 with `success: false`
3. Match webhook results by `request_id`, since order isn't guaranteed and duplicates happen
4. Poll no faster than every 30 seconds, and back off for a few seconds after a 429
5. Call Get Credits to read the balance at no cost

### ZeroBounce

1. Use the regional host (api-us or api-eu) that matches the data, and test with the sandbox addresses, which spend no credits
2. Set `timeout` (3 to 60 seconds); slow mail servers return unknown, which is free to retry later
3. Stay under 80,000 validations per 10 seconds and avoid repeated bad requests, which block the key for an hour
4. Use the bulk file API for large lists instead of looping on /v2/validate
5. Keep the key out of logs; the API takes it only as `api_key` in the URL

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Dropcontact API + MCP or ZeroBounce?

ZeroBounce scores 62.4 (B) on agent readiness against Dropcontact API + MCP's 59.1 (C), and leads in 3 of 7 scored categories. Dropcontact API + MCP leads on reliability, payments & pricing and transparency & trust.

### Do Dropcontact API + MCP and ZeroBounce need an API key?

Dropcontact API + MCP takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in. ZeroBounce needs an API key.

### Can an agent call Dropcontact API + MCP and ZeroBounce without installing anything?

Yes. Dropcontact API + MCP has a hosted endpoint at https://api.dropcontact.com/v1 and ZeroBounce at https://api.zerobounce.net/v2.


## For agents

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

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- [Apollo API + MCP vs ZeroBounce](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/apollo-vs-zerobounce.md)
- [Clay vs Dropcontact API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/clay-vs-dropcontact.md)
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- [Dropcontact API + MCP vs LeadMagic API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/dropcontact-vs-leadmagic.md)
- [Dropcontact API + MCP vs Lusha API + MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/dropcontact-vs-lusha.md)
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Query this catalogue directly over MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (Streamable HTTP, no key). How: https://www.anchorterminal.com/agents/#mcp