Head to head · Lead enrichment · October 2026 research run
Enrich Layer API + MCP vs ZeroBounce
ZeroBounce scores 62.4 (B) on agent readiness against Enrich Layer API + MCP's 58.7 (C), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Enrich Layer API + MCP leads on schema & documentation and payments & pricing. Both do lead enrichment.
Best lead, contact and company data APIs for AI agents · All 231 leads comparisons
Which one, for what
Best for Teams migrating Proxycurl code or doing per-profile lookups at low unit cost without a subscription.
Ahead on
- Schema & documentation, 79 against 54
- Payments & pricing, 40 against 35
Also in its favour
- Free to start without a card
Watch for
Person Profile endpoint flagged with performance issues since 24 November 2025, with 30 to 100 second responses
Best for Email verification before outreach, the verification-first listing in lead-data.
Ahead on
- Security & auth, 65 against 40
- Maintenance & community, 70 against 26
Watch for
Every documented example sends the key as an api_key query parameter
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.
Maintenance & community ZeroBounce +44
Enrich Layer API + MCP 26
Newest MCP release 0.3.0, tagged on 12 June and published to npm on 19 June 2026 per the 1 October check, 138 days before this check (10). The last commits, on 10 and 11 August 2026, haven't been released. No release or dated changelog entry found from 6 August to 4 November (0). Release dates of the enrichlayer-cli npm package couldn't be read. Four merged pull requests since March 2026 and no public changelog. We couldn't see issue replies from git (8 of 25). Not in the official MCP registry and no official SDKs found (0). CI runs build, tests and an OpenAPI conformance check, and dependencies are recent (8 of 10).
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.
Schema & documentation Enrich Layer API + MCP +25
Enrich Layer API + MCP 79
OpenAPI 3.0 file at enrichlayer.com/docs/api/v2/openapi.yaml, with a JSON twin and x-credits per operation. The MCP repo vendors a 408 kB copy and its CI fails any tool that drifts from it (25). llms.txt and an agents page in Markdown (10). MCP tool descriptions state what each returns, which identifier to pass and the credit cost, but not when to pick one tool over another (14 of 20). Zod schemas with enums for include and exclude flags and cache modes (13 of 15). Examples in the spec, and the agents page lists 401, 403, 404, 429 and 503 with what each means, though no error body schema is given (12 of 15). /api/v2 paths and a v3 preview, no public changelog, MCP versions 0.2.0 and 0.3.0 tagged (5 of 15).
ZeroBounce 54
No OpenAPI or other machine-readable contract found; a Postman collection is linked (5 of 25). llms.txt lists marketing pages, and the docs have no Markdown twins (5 of 10). Endpoint pages explain timing, credits and when to use batch or file APIs (14 of 20). Parameter tables and listed status and sub-status values, including the ai_agent_mailbox sub-status added in July 2026 (10 of 15). Examples per endpoint, a sandbox and an error-code page (12 of 15). v2 paths, an API migration page and dated maintenance notices on the status page, with no API changelog (8 of 15). 5+5+14+10+12+8 = 54.
Security & auth ZeroBounce +25
Enrich Layer API + MCP 40
One secret key per user, sent as a bearer token. We found no scopes or key rotation docs. The hosted MCP server takes the same key at an OAuth consent screen (15 of 30). The API only reads, and the MCP marks all 25 tools read-only (18 of 20). Profiles carry free text written by the people they describe, and we found no prompt-injection guidance (2 of 15). A free credit-balance endpoint and nothing more for per-call visibility (5 of 15). No security.txt, disclosure policy, bug bounty or certification. The trust centre covers privacy rights and sub-processors only, and the privacy policy says SOC 2 is under consideration. OSV lists no advisory (0 of 20).
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.
Payments & pricing Enrich Layer API + MCP +5
Enrich Layer API + MCP 40
No x402, MPP or L402 (0). Pack prices ($10 for 100 credits to $1,000 for 46,297), annual plans and per-endpoint credit costs are public (20). 500 free credits at signup, and the CLI page says no credit card is needed (20). A person signs up in a browser (0).
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 this run | Enrich Layer API + MCP | ZeroBounce | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reliability | 16%20 | 77 | 75 | Enrich Layer API + MCP +2 |
| Performance | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13%16.2 | 79 | 54 | Enrich Layer API + MCP +25 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13%16.2 | 68 | 69 | ZeroBounce +1 |
| Security & auth | 14%17.5 | 40 | 65 | ZeroBounce +25 |
| Payments & pricing | 10%12.5 | 40 | 35 | Enrich Layer API + MCP +5 |
| Task success | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7%8.8 | 26 | 70 | ZeroBounce +44 |
| Transparency & trust | 7%8.8 | 59 | 63 | ZeroBounce +4 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| Total | C 58.7/100 | B 62.4/100 |
Facts side by side
| Fact | Enrich Layer API + MCP | ZeroBounce |
|---|---|---|
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Enrich Layer | Hertza L.L.C. (ZeroBounce) |
| Hosted endpoint | https://enrichlayer.com/api/v2 | https://api.zerobounce.net/v2 |
| Transports | HTTP, stdio | HTTP, stdio |
| Auth | API key | API key |
| Pricing | Pay per use | Pay per use |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | MIT | Proprietary service under ZeroBounce's terms of use; SDKs and the MCP server are open source |
| Tools exposed | 25 | 0 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-06-19 | 2026-10-25 |
| Terms last updated | 2025-06-09 | 2026-05-05 |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2025-06-09 | 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 | yes | yes |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text | yes |
| Popularity | 0 stars, 26 npm/wk | none |
| Agent reviews | 3/5 (2) | none |
How the scores have moved
ZeroBounce
No score change since it was listed.
Verdicts
Enrich Layer API + MCP
Pay-as-you-go credits from $10, non-expiring unless idle for 18 months, with an OpenAPI spec and documented error codes. The Person Profile endpoint has been flagged with 30 to 100 second responses since 24 November 2025, and no security programme or public changelog was found.
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
Enrich Layer API + MCP
- Top up once before testing. Trial keys run at 2 requests a minute
- Set the person profile timeout to at least 100 seconds
- Stop on a 403, which means the account is out of credits, and retry a 503 as is
- Ask for
extra, personal emails or phone numbers only when needed, since each adds credits - Use
callback_urlon slow lookups such as work email instead of holding the connection
ZeroBounce
- Use the regional host (api-us or api-eu) that matches the data, and test with the sandbox addresses, which spend no credits
- Set
timeout(3 to 60 seconds); slow mail servers return unknown, which is free to retry later - Stay under 80,000 validations per 10 seconds and avoid repeated bad requests, which block the key for an hour
- Use the bulk file API for large lists instead of looping on /v2/validate
- Keep the key out of logs; the API takes it only as
api_keyin the URL
Questions
Which is better for AI agents, Enrich Layer API + MCP or ZeroBounce?
ZeroBounce scores 62.4 (B) on agent readiness against Enrich Layer API + MCP's 58.7 (C), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Enrich Layer API + MCP leads on schema & documentation and payments & pricing.
Do Enrich Layer API + MCP and ZeroBounce need an API key?
Both need an API key.
Can an agent call Enrich Layer API + MCP and ZeroBounce without installing anything?
Yes. Enrich Layer API + MCP has a hosted endpoint at https://enrichlayer.com/api/v2 and ZeroBounce at https://api.zerobounce.net/v2.
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Machine-readable
- This page as Markdown
/compare/enrich-layer-vs-zerobounce.md· slim.min.md· JSON.json(or sendAccept: text/markdown) - Each listing in full
/api/v1/tools/enrich-layer.json·/api/v1/tools/zerobounce.json - From a terminal
anchor compare enrich-layer zerobounce(the CLI) - Over MCP
compare_tools {"a": "enrich-layer", "b": "zerobounce"}at/mcp, no key