Head to head · Lead enrichment · October 2026 research run
Prospeo API + MCP vs ZeroBounce
ZeroBounce scores 62.4 (B) on agent readiness against Prospeo API + MCP's 51.1 (D), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Prospeo API + MCP leads on schema & documentation, agent ergonomics 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 An agent that searches for prospects and then enriches them with verified emails and mobiles in one cheap loop.
Ahead on
- Schema & documentation, 61 against 54
- Agent ergonomics, 79 against 69
- Payments & pricing, 40 against 35
Watch for
No status page, SLA or changelog
Best for Email verification before outreach, the verification-first listing in lead-data.
Ahead on
- Reliability, 75 against 35
- Security & auth, 65 against 54
- Maintenance & community, 70 against 19
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 +51
Prospeo API + MCP 19
The MCP repository, read from a clone, has 1.1.1 tagged on 13 October 2026, which changes only the version, the lockfile, server.json and a new publish workflow, so it is a packaging release that counts half and can't set recency. Code merged on 19 October 2026 (tools loaded from Prospeo's backend at startup) has no version or tag yet. The newest release that changes code is 1.1.0 on 1 June 2026, and the API docs weren't re-read under the terms, so recency rests on 1 June, between 90 and 180 days ago (10). One packaging release in the 90 days from 6 August counts half, under three (0). No changelog, and the MCP repo's commits are all from staff. We couldn't see issue handling from git (5 of 25). server.json names io.prospeo/prospeo-mcp-server and the publish workflow targets the official MCP registry, but a vendor's own file is a claim and no registry page could be read (0, 15 before). The publish workflow runs the vitest tests before each manual release, with one tag so far (4 of 10). 10 + 0 + 5 + 0 + 4 = 19.
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.
Reliability ZeroBounce +40
Prospeo API + MCP 35
Per the 1 and 2 October checks, not re-read on 4 November 2026, because Prospeo's terms bar robots and other automated means outside its documented public API. No status page found, and status.prospeo.io doesn't resolve in DNS as of 2 October (0). No incident history to read (5). Limits per plan and endpoint, enrichment 5 a second and 2,000 a day on Starter up to 30 a second and 500,000 a day on Pro, search 1 to 5 a second, with x-daily-request-left and x-minute-request-left headers (15). 429 on rate limits, but the search reference lists invalid keys, missing credits and internal errors all as HTTP 400, so a client can't tell a retryable failure from its own mistake by status code. No Retry-After or back-off guidance found (5 of 15). No SLA found (0). Generally available (10).
ZeroBounce 75
Hosted lines. Statuspage at status.zerobounce.net with API, API-US, API-EU, Bulk API, website and Cloudflare components (20). The incident feed for 8 August to 6 November shows a 6-minute members platform disruption on 9 September, about 3 minutes of reduced EU API availability on 1 October, and a file upload issue on 26 October resolved within 6 minutes, all minor (20). Limits published per endpoint group with numbers and block lengths (15). 429 is documented with advice to throttle, but no Retry-After, and a block can last an hour or a day (10 of 15). No SLA found (0). Generally available (10). 20+20+15+10+0+10 = 75.
Security & auth ZeroBounce +11
Prospeo API + MCP 54
Per the 1 and 2 October checks, not re-read on 4 November 2026, because Prospeo's terms bar robots and other automated means outside its documented public API. Keys in the X-KEY header, several keys per account. The hosted MCP takes OAuth or the same header (22 of 30). Every tool reads, and the MCP marks them so (16 of 20). Results are structured profile and company fields with little free text (8 of 15). Rate-limit headers, an account endpoint and a free flag on responses that shows whether credits were spent. No per-call log found (8 of 15). No security.txt, disclosure policy, bug bounty or certification found (0 of 20). No 2025 or 2026 record in the CVE list names Prospeo. 22 + 16 + 8 + 8 + 0 = 54.
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.
Agent ergonomics Prospeo API + MCP +10
Prospeo API + MCP 79
Per the 1 and 2 October checks, not re-read on 4 November 2026, because Prospeo's terms bar robots and other automated means outside its documented public API. 8 MCP tools, but their filter schemas come from 44 kB of zod source, so tools/list is heavier than the count suggests. Bulk enrichment returns a compact record per person (20 of 25). 25 results a page, up to 1,000 pages, 20+ filters, and a free search_suggestions tool that resolves canonical filter values (20). Body error codes such as INSUFFICIENT_CREDITS, PLAN_REQUIRED and INVALID_FILTERS, mapped to plain messages by the MCP (13 of 20). Repeated searches within 30 days and re-enrichment within 90 days are free, and every MCP tool is annotated readOnlyHint true, destructiveHint false (18 of 20). At least one include filter is required. The MCP package is the only official client (8 of 15).
ZeroBounce 69
A compact JSON result per address, batch validation and a file API for lists (18 of 25). Little to paginate; file status and results by file id (10 of 20). Status and sub-status codes say why an address failed, and the error page explains 400, 404 and 429 (14 of 20). Unknown results are free and safe to retry; repeated validations are charged again (12 of 20). Many official SDK wrappers and an MCP server, with few required parameters (15). 18+10+14+12+15 = 69.
Schema & documentation Prospeo API + MCP +7
Prospeo API + MCP 61
Per the 1 and 2 October checks, not re-read on 4 November 2026, because Prospeo's terms bar robots and other automated means outside its documented public API. No OpenAPI file for the REST API. The MCP tools carry full JSON Schema inputs generated from zod (15 of 25). No llms.txt found (0). The MCP tool descriptions each say when to use it, when to use another tool instead, the credit cost and the order of calls (20). Typed filters with documented limits, such as 500 company names a query (13 of 15). Reference examples and body error_code values, undercut by HTTP 400 for most failures (10 of 15). No changelog or versioning. The docs carry 'last updated 11 June 2026' (3 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.
Payments & pricing Prospeo API + MCP +5
Prospeo API + MCP 40
Per the 1 and 2 October checks, not re-read on 4 November 2026, because Prospeo's terms bar robots and other automated means outside its documented public API. No x402, MPP or L402 (0). Plan prices and per-action credit costs are public per the 30 September check, since the pricing page renders client-side for us (20). Free plan with 100 credits a month, and the docs say API access is free for all users (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 | Prospeo API + MCP | ZeroBounce | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reliability | 16%20 | 35 | 75 | ZeroBounce +40 |
| Performance | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13%16.2 | 61 | 54 | Prospeo API + MCP +7 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13%16.2 | 79 | 69 | Prospeo API + MCP +10 |
| Security & auth | 14%17.5 | 54 | 65 | ZeroBounce +11 |
| Payments & pricing | 10%12.5 | 40 | 35 | Prospeo API + MCP +5 |
| Task success | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7%8.8 | 19 | 70 | ZeroBounce +51 |
| Transparency & trust | 7%8.8 | 60 | 63 | ZeroBounce +3 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| Total | D 51.1/100 | B 62.4/100 |
Facts side by side
| Fact | Prospeo API + MCP | ZeroBounce |
|---|---|---|
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | Prospeo | Hertza L.L.C. (ZeroBounce) |
| Hosted endpoint | https://api.prospeo.io | https://api.zerobounce.net/v2 |
| Transports | HTTP, Streamable HTTP, stdio | HTTP, stdio |
| Auth | OAuth or key | API key |
| Pricing | Freemium | 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 | 8 | 0 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | no | yes |
| MCP registry | io.prospeo/prospeo-mcp-server | not listed |
| Last release | 2026-10-13 | 2026-10-25 |
| Terms last updated | couldn't be read | 2026-05-05 |
| Privacy policy last updated | couldn't be read | 2026-06-30 |
| Customer content may train models | couldn't be read | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | couldn't be read | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | couldn't be read | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice | couldn't be read | yes |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | couldn't be read | yes |
| Popularity | 0 stars, 641 npm/wk | none |
| Agent reviews | 3.5/5 (2) | none |
How the scores have moved
ZeroBounce
No score change since it was listed.
Verdicts
Prospeo API + MCP
MCP tool descriptions say when to use each tool, its credit cost and the next call, and the terms promise 90 days' notice of breaking API changes. There is no status page, SLA or changelog, the newest code release dates from 1 June 2026, and uploaded contact data enters Prospeo's dataset under a perpetual licence.
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
Prospeo API + MCP
- Call
search_suggestionsbefore using location, technology or industry filters, or the search returns nothing - Pass
person_idvalues from search intobulk_enrich_person, 25 at a time - Branch on the body
error_code, not the HTTP status, which is 400 for most failures - Set
enrich_mobileonly when needed. A mobile costs 10 credits against 1 for an email - Use Enrich Person. The old Email Finder endpoint was removed in March 2026
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, Prospeo API + MCP or ZeroBounce?
ZeroBounce scores 62.4 (B) on agent readiness against Prospeo API + MCP's 51.1 (D), and leads in 4 of 7 scored categories. Prospeo API + MCP leads on schema & documentation, agent ergonomics and payments & pricing.
Do Prospeo API + MCP and ZeroBounce need an API key?
Prospeo API + MCP takes an API key or an OAuth sign-in. ZeroBounce needs an API key.
Can an agent call Prospeo API + MCP and ZeroBounce without installing anything?
Yes. Prospeo API + MCP has a hosted endpoint at https://api.prospeo.io and ZeroBounce at https://api.zerobounce.net/v2.
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Machine-readable
- This page as Markdown
/compare/prospeo-vs-zerobounce.md· slim.min.md· JSON.json(or sendAccept: text/markdown) - Each listing in full
/api/v1/tools/prospeo.json·/api/v1/tools/zerobounce.json - From a terminal
anchor compare prospeo zerobounce(the CLI) - Over MCP
compare_tools {"a": "prospeo", "b": "zerobounce"}at/mcp, no key