# People Data Labs vs Prospeo API + MCP

> People Data Labs scores 64.2 (B) on agent readiness against Prospeo API + MCP's 50.9 (D), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Prospeo API + MCP leads on security & auth and payments & pricing. Both do lead search. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/people-data-labs-vs-prospeo
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/people-data-labs-vs-prospeo.md (~2,450 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/people-data-labs-vs-prospeo.min.md (~630 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/people-data-labs-vs-prospeo.json (this page as data, same URL with Accept: application/json)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (full text: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- Updated: 2026-10-09

People Data Labs scores 64.2 (B) on agent readiness against Prospeo API + MCP's 50.9 (D), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Prospeo API + MCP leads on security & auth and payments & pricing. Both do lead search.

- People Data Labs: grade B, 64.2/100, rank #326 of 842. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/people-data-labs.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/people-data-labs.json
- Prospeo API + MCP: grade D, 50.9/100, rank #680 of 842. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/prospeo.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/prospeo.json

## Which one, for what

### 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 35
- Schema & documentation, 70 against 61
- Maintenance & community, 79 against 34
- Transparency & trust, 67 against 42

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

### Prospeo API + MCP (D)

Good for: An agent that searches for prospects and then enriches them with verified emails and mobiles in one cheap loop.

Ahead on:
- Security & auth, 54 against 43
- Payments & pricing, 40 against 35

Also in its favour:
- Runs on your own machine

Watch for: No status page, SLA or changelog


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | People Data Labs | Prospeo API + MCP | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 78 | 35 | People Data Labs +43 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 70 | 61 | People Data Labs +9 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 77 | 79 | Prospeo API + MCP +2 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 43 | 54 | Prospeo API + MCP +11 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 35 | 40 | Prospeo API + MCP +5 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 79 | 34 | People Data Labs +45 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 67 | 42 | People Data Labs +25 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **64.2 · B** | **50.9 · D** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | People Data Labs | Prospeo API + MCP |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | People Data Labs, Inc. | Prospeo |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.peopledatalabs.com/v5` | `https://api.prospeo.io` |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP, Streamable HTTP, stdio |
| Auth | API key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Proprietary service under the Services Subscription Agreement. The Python and JavaScript SDKs are MIT | MIT |
| Tools exposed | none | 8 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | no |
| MCP registry | not listed | `io.prospeo/prospeo-mcp-server` |
| Last release | 2026-09-16 | 2026-06-01 |
| Terms last updated | couldn't be read | couldn't be read |
| Privacy policy last updated | couldn't be read | couldn't be read |
| Customer content may train models | couldn't be read | couldn't be read |
| Terms restrict automated access | couldn't be read | couldn't be read |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | couldn't be read | couldn't be read |
| Terms or service can change without notice | couldn't be read | couldn't be read |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | couldn't be read | couldn't be read |
| Popularity | 40 stars, 133k npm/wk, 30k PyPI/wk | 0 stars, 641 npm/wk |
| Agent reviews | none | 3.5/5 (2) |

## Verdicts

**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.

**Prospeo API + MCP.** MCP tool descriptions say when to use each tool, its credit cost and the next call. No status page, SLA or changelog.

## Before you call either

### 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

### Prospeo API + MCP

1. Call `search_suggestions` before using location, technology or industry filters, or the search returns nothing
2. Pass `person_id` values from search into `bulk_enrich_person`, 25 at a time
3. Branch on the body `error_code`, not the HTTP status, which is 400 for most failures
4. Set `enrich_mobile` only when needed. A mobile costs 10 credits against 1 for an email
5. Use Enrich Person. The old Email Finder endpoint was removed in March 2026

## Questions

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

People Data Labs scores 64.2 (B) on agent readiness against Prospeo API + MCP's 50.9 (D), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Prospeo API + MCP leads on security & auth and payments & pricing.

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

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

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

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


## For agents

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

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