The Provider Field Guide
Every enrichment provider does one of two jobs: identity (who is this person, where do they work) or contact (what is their cell and personal email). Most pricing pages hide which job they do and what a full record actually costs. This guide is the comparison we did before wiring providers into the engine, published so you can use it with or without us.
Run identity first, contact second, backfill third. Confirm who the person is with a broad identity layer, then send only confirmed matches to a contact layer, then send only the misses to a cheaper backfill source. Each stage only pays for what the previous stage could not resolve, which is why a waterfall beats any single all-in-one subscription on cost per usable record.
The other rule: read the credit math, not the headline price. “1 credit per contact” usually means 1 credit for an email and several more for a phone reveal. A candidate you can actually text often costs 5 to 10 times the advertised per-credit rate. The costs below are our estimate of a genuinely useful record at wholesale API rates, not the marketing number.
peopledatalabs.com · 1.5B+ profiles
Best for
The broadest identity layer. Employment history, education, location, and a LinkedIn URL match. The best first pass in almost any waterfall.
The gotcha
Contact data coverage is thinner than the identity data. Use it to find and confirm the person, then enrich contacts elsewhere.
apollo.io · 275M+ profiles
Best for
B2B contacts with company intel, org charts, and hiring signals. Generous free tier for testing.
The gotcha
The headline per-credit price hides the 8-credit phone reveal. A candidate with phone costs ~9 credits, not 1. Budget accordingly.
zoominfo.com · 200M+ profiles
Best for
Deepest company intelligence: org charts, technographics, intent, direct dials. The org-chart depth is the differentiator for team mapping.
The gotcha
Sold on annual contracts with negotiated minimums. The API is the wholesale path, but entry pricing is the highest on this list.
explorium.ai · 170M+ profiles
Best for
Skills-based filtering, career trajectory, job-change alerts. Accepts LinkedIn URLs directly for enrichment.
The gotcha
Smaller profile base than PDL. Best as a second identity source and a cheap full-enrichment pass.
contactout.com · 150M+ profiles
Best for
Personal emails and mobile numbers behind LinkedIn profiles. One of the strongest personal-contact hit rates.
The gotcha
It is a contact layer, not a search engine. Feed it identities found elsewhere.
rocketreach.co · 700M+ profiles
Best for
Verified emails and phones with high coverage on professional roles. Searches by current employer work well for poaching plays.
The gotcha
Verification status matters: weight the "verified" flag over the raw hit.
hunter.io · 100M+ profiles
Best for
Domain-based email finding and verification. Give it a company domain and it returns the email pattern and known addresses.
The gotcha
Work emails only. Wrong tool for discretion verticals where you need personal contacts.
lusha.com · 100M+ profiles
Best for
Direct dials and business emails with strong enterprise coverage. Clean compliance posture (GDPR/CCPA).
The gotcha
Pricier per reveal than ContactOut/SignalHire. Use where its enterprise coverage is the edge.
signalhire.com · 650M+ profiles
Best for
Real-time contact data pulled from live social profiles. Good backfill layer when the primary contact source misses.
The gotcha
Best as the third pass in a waterfall: it fills gaps rather than leading.
snov.io · 100M+ profiles
Best for
High-volume, low-cost email finding and verification.
The gotcha
Volume tool. Verify before sending: pair the finder with its verifier.
Costs are estimates of a useful record at wholesale API rates as of mid-2026; providers change plans and credit math regularly, so verify against current pricing before budgeting. We have no affiliate relationship with anyone on this list.
The engine ships with your own provider keys plugged into exactly this waterfall: identity first, contact second, backfill third, every credit accounted for. You pay the providers wholesale; we never mark up a record.