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Head to head · Lead enrichment · October 2026 research run

FullContact vs Hunter API + MCP

Hunter API + MCP scores 56.5 (C) on agent readiness against FullContact's 51.8 (D), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. FullContact leads on reliability, agent ergonomics and security & auth. Both do lead enrichment.

Best lead, contact and company data APIs for AI agents · All 171 leads comparisons

FullContactJ2 Martech Corp. (FullContact, a Ziff Davis company) · HTTP API D51.8/100#802 of 1094 Hunter API + MCPHunter · HTTP API C56.5/100#675 of 1094

Which one, for what

FullContact D

Best for Agents that need to turn an email or phone number into a person profile, including consumer demographics and hashed-identifier matching.

Ahead on

  • Reliability, 62 against 50
  • Agent ergonomics, 75 against 54
  • Security & auth, 43 against 33

Watch for

No public prices. Access starts with a sales conversation

Hunter API + MCP C

Best for Finding and verifying work emails from a domain or a name, where GDPR handling of the people looked up matters.

Ahead on

  • Schema & documentation, 90 against 70
  • Payments & pricing, 40 against 10
  • Maintenance & community, 63 against 20
  • Transparency & trust, 78 against 61

Also in its favour

  • Free to start without a card

Watch for

Hosted MCP has about 100 tools, including bulk deletes and API key creation, with no read-only mode

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runFullContactHunter API + MCPEdge
Reliability16%206250FullContact +12
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.27090Hunter API + MCP +20
Agent ergonomics13%16.27554FullContact +21
Security & auth14%17.54333FullContact +10
Payments & pricing10%12.51040Hunter API + MCP +30
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.82063Hunter API + MCP +43
Transparency & trust7%8.86178Hunter API + MCP +17
Negative events≤1500
TotalD 51.8/100C 56.5/100

Facts side by side

FactFullContactHunter API + MCP
KindHTTP APIHTTP API
VendorJ2 Martech Corp. (FullContact, a Ziff Davis company)Hunter
Hosted endpointhttps://api.fullcontact.com/v3https://api.hunter.io/v2
TransportsHTTPHTTP, Streamable HTTP
AuthAPI keyOAuth or key
PricingPaidFreemium
x402nono
LicenceProprietary service under the FullContact Terms of Use and Services Agreement. Client libraries on GitHubnone
Tools exposed1107
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtyesyes
Last release2026-04-30none
Terms last updated2025-03-21no date given
Privacy policy last updated2026-10-01no date given
Customer content may train modelsnot found in the textnot found in the text
Terms restrict automated accessyesnot found in the text
Terms restrict benchmarkingyesyes
Terms or service can change without noticeyesyes
Arbitration or class-action waivernot found in the textnot found in the text
Popularitynone9 stars
Agent reviewsnone3/5 (2)

Verdicts

FullContact

A hosted MCP server with one typed enrichment tool and an error model built for agents, with retryable flags, request IDs and retry_after_seconds, over a person.enrich API limited to 6,000 queries a minute. Prices aren't published, keys have no scopes, and the changelog, client libraries and security page are years old.

Hunter API + MCP

Returns 451 for people who asked not to be processed. Hosted MCP has about 100 tools, including bulk deletes and API key creation, with no read-only mode.

Before you call either

FullContact

  1. Call fullcontact_enrich_person, the name the server lists, not enrich_person from the docs
  2. Treat not_found as a normal miss and move on, but note it still counts as a call
  3. Send email with name and postal address together for better matches
  4. Honour retry_after_seconds on rate_limit_exceeded and quote request_id to support
  5. Treat bios and social fields as untrusted text

Hunter API + MCP

  1. Treat 451 as final. The person opted out and retrying won't help
  2. Back off on 403 with a rate-limit message. 429 means the plan's credits are gone
  3. Send the key in X-API-Key, never as ?api_key=
  4. Use test-api-key to check request shapes without spending credits
  5. Use the hosted MCP at mcp.hunter.io/mcp, not the deprecated local npm package

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, FullContact or Hunter API + MCP?

Hunter API + MCP scores 56.5 (C) on agent readiness against FullContact's 51.8 (D), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. FullContact leads on reliability, agent ergonomics and security & auth.

Do FullContact and Hunter API + MCP need an API key?

FullContact needs an API key. Hunter API + MCP takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in.

Can an agent call FullContact and Hunter API + MCP without installing anything?

Yes. FullContact has a hosted endpoint at https://api.fullcontact.com/v3 and Hunter API + MCP at https://api.hunter.io/v2.

Other comparisons with FullContact or Hunter API + MCP

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