Best Proxycurl Alternative for AI Platforms After Shutdown

When Proxycurl suddenly shut down after their lawsuit, thousands of AI platforms found themselves scrambling for the best Proxycurl alternative. If you're running an AI SDR or recruiting platform, you may have run into this yourself.

Now everyone's asking the same question: which alternative can actually deliver the same level of data quality and reliability that these AI systems demand?

TLDR:

• Proxycurl shut down in January 2025 following lawsuit, leaving AI platforms without their primary data source

• Crustdata offers the best alternative with real-time data crawling and purpose-built AI platform features

• Coresignal provides datasets but only monthly updates, limiting real-time AI workflows

• People Data Labs offers extensive records but comes with high costs and JSON-only limitations

• MixRank specializes in job data but lacks complete people enrichment features

• Choose based on your specific needs: real-time requirements, data volume, and AI platform type

What Happened to Proxycurl and Why You Need an Alternative

Proxycurl's shutdown sent shockwaves through the AI platform ecosystem. The company announced its closure after a major lawsuit in earlier this year.

For AI platforms that relied on Proxycurl's APIs, this shutdown created immediate business challenges. AI SDRs lost access to tons of data, recruiting platforms couldn't enrich candidate information, and investment intelligence tools found themselves without important executive data.

The Proxycurl shutdown shows why AI platforms need data providers with solid compliance frameworks and diversified data sources rather than relying solely on single-platform scraping.

The impact extends beyond finding a replacement. Many AI platforms built their entire data pipelines around Proxycurl's specific API structure and data format. This means migration involves switching providers and often requires major engineering work to adapt to new data schemas and integration patterns.

We've seen this challenge firsthand at Crustdata. Since Proxycurl's announcement, we've helped dozens of AI platforms migrate their data infrastructure. The key lesson here is that diversification matters. Platforms that relied on multiple data sources weathered this disruption much better than those dependent on a single provider.

How We Tested Proxycurl Alternatives for AI Platforms

We approached this review from the perspective of AI platform builders who need reliable, compliant data solutions. Our assessment focused on four key factors that determine success for AI SDR platforms and recruiting tools.

First, real-time data availability. AI platforms can't afford stale information when personalizing outreach or identifying prospects. We focused on solutions that provide fresh data at the moment of request rather than monthly database dumps.

Second, data coverage breadth. People enrichment APIs need complete information including job history, social profiles, and contact details. We checked how well each provider fills data gaps across different professional profiles.

Third, compliance standards. Given Proxycurl's legal challenges, we looked at each provider's approach to data collection, storage, and compliance with privacy regulations. This includes their terms of service, data retention policies, and transparency about data sources.

Finally, integration features. AI platforms need flexible data formats, webhook support, and detailed documentation. We assessed how easily each alternative integrates with existing AI workflows and whether they support the advanced features that modern AI platforms require.

1. Best Overall: Crustdata

Crustdata delivers the most complete alternative to Proxycurl, designed for AI platforms that need real-time, accurate data. We've built our entire infrastructure around the requirements of AI SDRs, recruiting tools, and investment platforms.

Our real-time data crawling sets us apart from competitors who rely on monthly database updates. When you request a profile through our API, we scrape the web to pull the most current information from the web at that moment. This means your AI platform always works with fresh data, not outdated records that could embarrass your users.

The unified API architecture solves a major problem with other providers. Instead of dealing with duplicate records and conflicting information from multiple sources, we combine data from 10+ sources into single, clean records with unique identifiers. This eliminates the data quality issues that plague other solutions.

Our webhook features go far beyond basic job change notifications. The Watcher API provides real-time alerts for funding rounds, executive hires, social media activity, and dozens of other signals that AI platforms use for timing and personalization.

Social media integration is another key differentiator. We're one of the few providers that can access social posts from people and companies, which is important for AI SDR personalization and signal detection. This social data helps AI platforms craft more relevant, timely outreach.

Key advantages for AI platforms:

• Fast API response times for real-time workflows

• Social post access for personalization and signal detection

• Advanced webhooks for triggered events

• Dedicated Slack channels with 5-10 minute response times

2. Limited Data Freshness: Coresignal

Coresignal offers a large profile databases in the market, which is good for bulk datasets.

However, their monthly update cycle creates major limitations for AI platforms. In fast-moving markets, month-old data means missed opportunities and outdated prospect information. A prospect who changed jobs three weeks ago might still show their old position in Coresignal's database.

They do offer live scraping APIs as a separate option, but this comes with additional complexity and cost. The pricing structure can become expensive for AI platforms that need frequent real-time lookups.

The data quality is generally solid for static analysis, but the refresh lag makes it challenging for real-time AI workflows that depend on current information for personalization and timing.

3.People Data Labs

People Data Labs (PDL) has been in the market longer than most competitors and have built extensive data coverage across multiple sources.

PDL only uses one core data source for professional networking info, which can be restrictive for teams that require broader social media and web presence data to build comprehensive profiles.

Their static database approach means you're working with pre-processed records rather than real-time data. Without real-time webhooks like Crustdata, recruiting platforms that need to know about recent job changes/profile updates or AI SDRs looking for fresh social signals face significant timing challenges in keeping their data current.

4. Narrow Focus Platform: MixRank

MixRank excels in job posting data, offering more complete job coverage than most alternatives. If your AI platform focuses on job market analysis or recruiting intelligence, their job data depth is valuable.

However, their people and company enrichment features are limited compared to other providers. This narrow focus works for specialized use cases but falls short for AI platforms that need complete profile enrichment.

The monthly update cycle and limited webhook support make it challenging for real-time AI applications.

For investment platforms or AI SDRs that need broad company and people data beyond just job postings, MixRank's limitations become apparent quickly.

How to Choose the Best Proxycurl Alternative

Your choice depends on your AI platform's specific requirements and growth stage. Start by identifying your primary use case and data freshness needs.

For AI SDRs that rely on social signals and profile updates/job change notifications, real-time features matter a ton. These platforms need fresh social posts, recent job changes, and immediate webhook notifications to time their outreach effectively.

Recruiting platforms should focus on people data depth and webhook functionality. The ability to track candidate movements and get notified about job updates in real-time can make the difference between successful placements and missed opportunities.

Investment platforms need complete company data with funding alerts and executive change notifications. Real-time data becomes important when tracking portfolio companies or identifying investment opportunities based on leadership changes.

Budget considerations also play a role. Startups and growing platforms often need cost-effective solutions that can scale with their usage, while enterprise platforms might focus on complete coverage over cost savings.

Integration complexity matters too. Consider your engineering team's capacity and timeline. Some alternatives require major migration work, while others offer more straightforward API compatibility.

FAQ

What caused Proxycurl to shut down?

Proxycurl shut down in January 2025 after a lawsuit was filed against the company. Despite potential legal defenses, Proxycurl decided that fighting the lawsuit wasn't viable and chose to close operations rather than engage in prolonged litigation.

How quickly can I migrate from Proxycurl to an alternative?

Migration timelines vary based on your integration complexity and chosen alternative. Simple API replacements might take a few days, while complete migrations involving data schema changes could require several weeks. We recommend starting with a parallel integration to test functionality before fully switching over.

Which Proxycurl alternative offers the best pricing for startups?

Pricing varies greatly based on usage patterns and feature requirements. Crustdata offers startup-friendly pricing with pay-as-you-scale models. We recommend checking total cost of ownership including integration time and ongoing maintenance.

Final thoughts on finding reliable Proxycurl alternatives

You can replace Proxycurl's functionality with solutions that offer better real-time features and complete data coverage. Crustdata changes how AI platforms access people data by providing live crawling at the moment of request rather than stale monthly updates. This best alternative to Proxycurl makes sure your AI SDRs and recruiting tools never miss fresh prospects or work with outdated information.