# Enrich Layer API + MCP vs ZeroBounce

> ZeroBounce scores 62.4 (B) to Enrich Layer's 58.7 (C) for lead enrichment. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/enrich-layer-vs-zerobounce
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/enrich-layer-vs-zerobounce.md (~4,050 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 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.

- Enrich Layer API + MCP: grade C, 58.7/100, rank #735 of 1510. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/enrich-layer.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/enrich-layer.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

### Enrich Layer API + MCP (C)

Good 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

### ZeroBounce (B)

Good 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

### 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 | Enrich Layer API + MCP | ZeroBounce | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 77 | 75 | Enrich Layer API + MCP +2 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 79 | 54 | Enrich Layer API + MCP +25 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 68 | 69 | ZeroBounce +1 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 40 | 65 | ZeroBounce +25 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 40 | 35 | Enrich Layer API + MCP +5 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 26 | 70 | ZeroBounce +44 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 59 | 63 | ZeroBounce +4 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **58.7 · C** | **62.4 · B** | |

## 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

### Enrich Layer API + MCP

- +2.9 on 4 November 2026: new evidence
- no change on 27 October 2026: checklist
- -0.2 on 8 October 2026: checklist

### 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

1. Top up once before testing. Trial keys run at 2 requests a minute
2. Set the person profile timeout to at least 100 seconds
3. Stop on a 403, which means the account is out of credits, and retry a 503 as is
4. Ask for `extra`, personal emails or phone numbers only when needed, since each adds credits
5. Use `callback_url` on slow lookups such as work email instead of holding the connection

### 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, 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.


## For agents

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

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- [Clearbit vs ZeroBounce](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/clearbit-vs-zerobounce.md)
- [Coresignal API + MCP vs ZeroBounce](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/coresignal-vs-zerobounce.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