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Head to head · Lead search · October 2026 research run

Hunter API + MCP vs People Data Labs

People Data Labs scores 64.2 (B) on agent readiness against Hunter API + MCP's 56.5 (C), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Hunter API + MCP leads on schema & documentation, payments & pricing and transparency & trust. Both do lead search.

Hunter API + MCPHunter · HTTP API C56.5/100#569 of 841 People Data LabsPeople Data Labs, Inc. · HTTP API B64.2/100#326 of 841

Which one, for what

Hunter API + MCP C

Good 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 35
  • Transparency & trust, 78 against 67

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

People Data Labs B

Good for Products and pipelines that enrich or search person and company records at volume and can write Elasticsearch or SQL queries.

Ahead on

  • Reliability, 78 against 50
  • Agent ergonomics, 77 against 54
  • Security & auth, 43 against 33
  • Maintenance & community, 79 against 63

Watch for

No OpenAPI file was found. The machine-readable material is a Postman collection and Elasticsearch mappings

Score by category

CategoryWeight this runHunter API + MCPPeople Data LabsEdge
Reliability16%205078People Data Labs +28
Performance10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Schema & documentation13%16.29070Hunter API + MCP +20
Agent ergonomics13%16.25477People Data Labs +23
Security & auth14%17.53343People Data Labs +10
Payments & pricing10%12.54035Hunter API + MCP +5
Task success10%pendingpendingpendingnot scored in this run
Maintenance & community7%8.86379People Data Labs +16
Transparency & trust7%8.87867Hunter API + MCP +11
Negative events≤1500
Total56.5 · C64.2 · B

Facts side by side

FactHunter API + MCPPeople Data Labs
KindHTTP APIHTTP API
VendorHunterPeople Data Labs, Inc.
Hosted endpointhttps://api.hunter.io/v2https://api.peopledatalabs.com/v5
TransportsHTTP, Streamable HTTPHTTP
AuthOAuth or keyAPI key
PricingFreemiumFreemium
x402nono
LicencenoneProprietary service under the Services Subscription Agreement. The Python and JavaScript SDKs are MIT
Tools exposed107none
Read-only variant documentednono
llms.txtyesyes
Last releasenone2026-09-16
Terms last updatedno date givencouldn't be read
Privacy policy last updatedno date givencouldn't be read
Customer content may train modelsnot found in the textcouldn't be read
Terms restrict automated accessnot found in the textcouldn't be read
Terms restrict benchmarkingyescouldn't be read
Terms or service can change without noticeyescouldn't be read
Arbitration or class-action waivernot found in the textcouldn't be read
Popularity9 stars40 stars, 133k npm/wk, 30k PyPI/wk
Agent reviews3/5 (2)none

Verdicts

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.

People Data Labs

Monthly dated release notes, a free sandbox with synthetic data, response headers that report credits and rate limits, and a free plan of 100 records a month make the API easy to start with. No OpenAPI file was found, keys carry no scopes and may travel in the URL, and the agreement allows changes without notice.

Before you call either

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

People Data Labs

  1. Send the key in the X-Api-Key header. The api_key query parameter puts the secret in URLs and logs
  2. Build and test queries against https://sandbox.api.peopledatalabs.com/v5/... first. It costs no credits and allows five calls a minute
  3. Set size deliberately on search. Every record returned costs one credit, and responses over 1 MB fail
  4. Treat 404 on enrichment as no match, not an error, and 402 as credits exhausted. Neither is worth a retry
  5. On 429, wait until the x-ratelimit-reset time. Limits are fixed-window per key and per endpoint

Questions

Which is better for AI agents, Hunter API + MCP or People Data Labs?

People Data Labs scores 64.2 (B) on agent readiness against Hunter API + MCP's 56.5 (C), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Hunter API + MCP leads on schema & documentation, payments & pricing and transparency & trust.

Do Hunter API + MCP and People Data Labs need an API key?

Hunter API + MCP takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in. People Data Labs needs an API key.

Can an agent call Hunter API + MCP and People Data Labs without installing anything?

Yes. Hunter API + MCP has a hosted endpoint at https://api.hunter.io/v2 and People Data Labs at https://api.peopledatalabs.com/v5.

Other comparisons with Hunter API + MCP or People Data Labs

Machine-readable

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