Best People Search APIs 2025: Person Data API Guide | Crustdata

Every hour your team spends manually searching prospects or candidates across multiple sources is an hour your competitors are closing deals and filling roles faster.

A people search API removes the hours wasted on manual lookups, outdated lists, and incomplete candidate or lead data. Instead, it integrates into your system to find fresh, verified people instantly based on your specific criteria to find fresh, verified people instantly.

In this guide, you’ll see how people search API works, where it’s used, how it compares to enrichment, what makes an API reliable, and the 10 best people search APIs for 2025. 

What is a people search API?

A People Search API is a tool that enables you to programmatically retrieve detailed information about individuals from large datasets based on filters like name, company, job title, skills, location, or even a LinkedIn URL. Instead of manually searching LinkedIn, public directories, or social media, a People Search API connects your software directly to third-party or proprietary databases.

With a single query, like a name, email, phone number or other filters like job title, past work experience etc., you can find people that fit your criteria. 

Teams utilize People Search APIs to automate tasks that were previously slow and manual. They help sales teams build targeted lead lists, recruiters find and verify candidates faster, and investors identify founders who match their investment criteria, all in a fraction of the time.

In short, a People Search API gives you instant access to high-quality people data without the burden of maintaining your own database or spending hours manually searching multiple sources.

Difference between people search API and enrichment API

Key features and uses of people search APIs

A People Search API does more than return names and emails; it provides structured, verified profiles that you can filter, segment, and integrate directly into sales, recruitment, or investment workflows. 

Key features of a good people search API

1. Multi-field search:

Users can search by name, email, phone number, job title, company, skills, location, or seniority level, and combine these fields to match only the profiles that fit exact criteria. For example, you can filter for senior executives in the technology sector at companies with over 500 employees, or locate professionals with machine learning expertise working at specific firms.

2. Precise filtering:

Filters make it possible to segment results by region, seniority, company size, or specific keywords. This level of control lets sales and recruiting teams narrow large datasets quickly. Many APIs also support requests that run multiple filters.

3. Real-Time Data:

Data is retrieved directly from verified sources such as public records, professional directories, and online profiles at the moment of each request. This ensures that lead and candidate information reflects recent changes, reducing wasted outreach caused by outdated contact details.

4. Data Validation:

A well-designed People Search API checks for duplicates, corrects inconsistencies, and confirms that a person is verified. Returned profiles often include career histories, links to social profiles, education details, current roles, and employer information, giving users enough verified context to make informed outreach or hiring decisions.

5. Legal compliance

Built-in compliance controls help businesses meet legal requirements like GDPR, CCPA, and other data privacy standards when handling personal information.

6. Integration

A good People Search API uses standard REST endpoints and well-documented schemas. This allows companies to easily connect it to existing CRM platforms, applicant tracking systems, or sales automation tools.

Best People Search APIs in 2025: Comprehensive Analysis

1. Crustdata:

Crustdata is a YC-backed real-time B2B data platform known for delivering live people and company search data through robust APIs and webhooks. Unlike legacy static databases, Crustdata combines signals from 16+ verified sources, including professional profiles, web traffic, product reviews, and social signals and refreshes all data points constantly to keep every profile up to date.

Why Crustdata stands out?

• Real-Time People Discovery:

Crustdata is one of the few platforms that offers a truly real-time People Search API returning results based on live web data at the moment of the request, not from an outdated, pre-indexed database.

• Extensive, Verified Coverage:

We offer a constantly updated database of over 1 billion profiles and 60+ million companies, complete with verified details such as academic background, career history, seniority, contact information, and live hiring signals.

• Advanced Search and Filtering:

Custom prospect or candidate lists can be built with precision using 20+ filters, covering geography, seniority, job function, company type, past companies, school alumni, and more.

• Developer-Ready API:

Crustdata’s API is easy to integrate with any CRM, ATS, or sales tool. We have clear documentation and dedicated engineers for each account to support you during integration.

• Data Quality: 

Every record is automatically verified, cross-checked, and deduplicated, ensuring sales, recruiting, and investment teams always work with accurate, up-to-date data.

Key Use Cases:

• Sales Teams: Identify decision-makers at high-growth companies, track real-time signals, and build prospect lists. 
  
  

• Recruiting Teams: Find candidates with experience and skills you are looking for and build candidate lists
  
  

• Investors/VCs: Identify founders who match specific investment criteria.

Pricing:

Crustdata offers a flexible, consumption-based pricing model. Free demo available to test the API before you scale.

For teams that need real-time and verified people data and robust API delivery, Crustdata is one of the most advanced people search APIs to consider in 2025.

2. PeopleDataLabs:

People Data Labs is a leading people search and enrichment API provider trusted by data-driven teams for large-scale identity resolution and profile enrichment. It’s known for flexible query capabilities and massive data coverage.

Key Features:

• On-Demand Search:
  Gain instant access to a rich workforce dataset and choose from 200+ field attributes to find highly targeted person profiles.
  
  

• Flexible Scale:
  Retrieve exactly what you need from a single matching record to the entire dataset and pay only for the profiles you use.
  
  

• Fast and Developer-Friendly:
  Results are delivered quickly through NoSQL-powered search. Build and integrate easily with APIs.

Data Coverage:

• 700 million+ person profiles: Sourced globally with over 100 fields covering work history, education, contact details, demographics, and social profiles.
  
  

• Global coverage: Data spans 244 countries, including the USA, China, Japan, Germany, and India.
  
  

• Updated regularly: The dataset is maintained with frequent updates to keep profile information accurate.
  
  

Developer and Customer Support:

• People Data Labs offers extensive developer documentation, SDKs, and a live Slack channel for direct support.
  
  

• A free sandbox environment is available for testing and integration.

Pricing:

• Flexible pay-per-match model, starting at less than $0.02 per person match on tiered monthly plans.
  
  

• For bulk enrichment, pricing ranges from $0.10–$0.50 per profile, with a free tier for testing and proof of concept.

With massive scale, robust query flexibility, and both bulk and real-time capabilities, People Data Labs remains one of the top people search APIs for engineering and data teams in 2025.

3. Trestle IQ - Find Person API

To build a database that updates itself without manual work, you need the right mix of data APIs and real-time triggers. The best setups combine three core types of APIs, each serving a specific role in keeping your candidate data fresh and useful.

Key features:

• Proprietary Address Graph: Trestle’s 1.79 billion address-name linkages have a 95%+ accuracy for location-based identity matching for verifying addresses and demographic information.
  
  

• Robust Person Search: Handles multi-field queries (name, email, job title, skills) with advanced filters for seniority, industry, and geography.
  
  

• Enterprise-grade Scale: Supports up to 1,000 QPS (queries per second) with a guaranteed 99.99% uptime, backed by continuous data ingest.
  
  

• Compliance Ready: Real-time identity verification aligned with GDPR/CCPA for secure data use.
  
  

Data Coverage

• 479 million identities, with strong emphasis on North America and Europe.

• 1.79 billion verified address-name linkages to match people to places.

• Sources include public records, social signals, and professional networks.

Data Freshness

• Continuous updates: Some details, like phone carrier changes, update within 15 minutes of detection, while bigger updates, like address changes, are checked and refreshed every month, with multiple trusted sources used to verify each record.

  
  

Developer & Customer Support

• Developer-first with SDKs, Postman collection, and robust API documentation.

• Dedicated onboarding, live help, and SLAs for enterprise-grade reliability.
  
  

Pricing

• Transparent tiers: Starter at $220/month (1,000 queries), Small Business at $440/month (5,000 queries), plus custom Enterprise plans.

• Free demo available to test the API before you scale.
  
  

Trestle IQ is built for businesses that need real-time identity accuracy, especially when address and demographic resolution are important.

4. Coresignal

Coresignal is recognized for delivering extensive publicly sourced employee and company data through developer-friendly APIs.

Key features

• Lowest Cost of Entry: The Starter plan begins at $49/month, making it highly attractive for startups and smaller teams needing large-scale data without hefty upfront contracts.
  
  

• Robust Self-Serve Options: Access Company, Employee, and Jobs APIs with full Elasticsearch DSL support, ideal for precise queries like skill-specific or role-based talent searches.
  
  

• Free Testing: Get started easily with a 200-credit free trial (plus 400 Search credits), no credit card required, valid for 14 days.

Data Coverage

• Over 773 million employee records

• 40 million company records

Data Freshness

• Most datasets are fully refreshed monthly

• Backend database APIs update every 6 hours

Developer & Customer Support

• All tiers include technical documentation and support.

• Pro and Premium plans come with a dedicated account manager.

Pricing

• Free plan: $0/month (200 Collect + 400 Search credits for 14 days)

• Starter: from $49/month

• Pro: from $800/month

• Premium: from $1,500/month

Coresignal makes it simple for engineering and sales teams to tap into large-scale public professional and company data, with flexible APIs, powerful filtering, and the best low-cost entry point in the market.Company Enrichment APIs

5. ZoomInfo 

ZoomInfo remains one of the largest players in B2B data, with huge global coverage and strong integrations.

Key Features 

• Scale & Depth: Offers one of the deepest verified datasets for B2B contacts and accounts, backed by daily processing of 1.5 billion+ data points.
  
  

• Verified Data: Combines NLP, AI, ML, and human QA to continuously verify and refresh data.
  
  

• Enterprise Integrations: Deeply embedded into CRM and MAP ecosystems, ZoomInfo integrates directly with tools like Salesforce, HubSpot, Marketo, Slack, Outreach, and more.
  
  

Data Coverage

• 321M+ professional profiles

• 104M+ company profiles

Data Freshness

• 1.5B+ data points processed daily

• Multi-layered, real-time verification using NLP, AI, ML, and human QA

• Supports real-time data delivery through API integrations and sync with CRMs, MAPs, and third-party apps
  
  

Developer & Customer Support

• Access to a Data Services team for enterprise and white-glove setups

• Support available by chat, phone, and email

• Specialized support for Copilot, Web Chat, and Conversation Intelligence tools

Pricing

• Pricing not publicly listed

For large sales teams needing deep B2B coverage, robust real-time enrichment, and tight CRM integrations, ZoomInfo remains a great choice.

6. Cognism

Cognism is a global B2B people search and contact intelligence provider trusted by 4,000+ companies. Its people search API delivers phone-verified contacts (Diamond Data®) and real-time signals like hiring and buyer intent. 

Key Features

• Versatile API Delivery: Access data via REST or GraphQL and receive real-time updates with webhooks
  
  

• Verified Diamond Data® Accuracy: Access 12.5 million phone level verified identity data.

  
  

• Compliance: SOC 2 certified, GDPR- and CCPA-compliant, ensuring secure global use.

  
  

• Integrations: Native integrations with popular CRMs like Hubspot, Salesforce, Outreach.

  
  

Data Coverage

• 400+ million global B2B profiles across all industries.

• Strong European coverage for mobile numbers and verified emails.

• Up to 16 data points per profile, including direct dials and emails.

• Continuously expanded through large-scale web crawling, trusted partnerships, and proprietary networks.

Data Freshness

• Real-time ingestion and nightly re-verification cycles to maintain accuracy.

• Diamond Data® is phone-verified every ingest cycle to ensure live mobile number validity.

• 800,000+ data points refreshed daily for up-to-date people search results.

Customer Support

• Dedicated onboarding, training, and technical account managers to ensure customers go live quickly and successfully.

Pricing

• Custom quotes based on chosen package

• Add-on credits for Redeem API usage (1 credit/contact).

• Diamond Data® and Signals available as premium add-ons.

7. Searchbug

Searchbug offers precise U.S. people search and identity verification with flexible pay-per-use pricing. Its unified API delivers detailed profiles, addresses, phones, emails, DOB, and more.

Key Features:

• Unified People Search Endpoint: Combines deep people lookup and background check into a single API, with JSON or XML output over HTTPS.

• Background Check API: Adds enriched screening like SSN validation and criminal checks with a secure two-step tokenized flow.

• TCPA Compliance: Integrated DNC checks and phone validation to ensure outreach stays legally safe.

Data Coverage:

• Continuous re-indexing ensures no stale records.

• Real-time validation on every query for phone numbers, SSNs, or driver license data.

Customer Support:

• Live phone support plus chat and email during business hours.

• Highly rated by developers for responsive, real human troubleshooting when integrating regulated data.

Pricing:

• Volume-tiered pricing drops from ~$0.77 down to ~$0.30 per match.

• No subscriptions or hidden fees, ideal for startups or high-volume enterprises that want predictable costs.

Searchbug’s combination of detailed U.S. coverage, up to date data, legal-safe DNC screening, makes it a top pick for any business needing robust people search, skip-tracing, or background checks, especially when compliance and security are important.

8. Clearbit (Breeze Intelligence)

Clearbit, now Breeze Intelligence under HubSpot, is a leading people and company search API for B2B teams needing fresh enrichment, anonymous visitor identification, and smooth CRM workflows. Its full dataset is rebuilt every 30 days, ensuring over 90% deliverability for enriched emails.

Key Features:

• Real-Time Intent Signals: Unmasks anonymous site traffic and prioritizes prospects by buying signals.

• HubSpot-Native APIs: Built for fast integration into CRM workflows, lead routing, and campaign automation.

Data Coverage:

• Global B2B Reach: Covers over 389M contact records and 50M company profiles across all major industries and geographies.

• Multi-Source Verification: Pulls from hundreds of public, proprietary, and crowdsourced sources with real-time scoring to reduce stale or mismatched records.

Data Freshness:

• 30-Day Refresh Cycle: Every record is refreshed monthly, ensuring that changes like role updates or company events are reflected.

Customer Support:

• HubSpot Ecosystem Support - Fully backed by HubSpot’s community forums, live chat, and onboarding help for smooth implementation.

Pricing:

• Credit-Based Billing - Flexible pay-as-you-go credits for enrichment tasks, with entry-level plans starting around $45/month and scalable volume discounts for enterprise pipelines.
  
  

• No Long-Term Lock-In - Monthly credit resets make it easy for teams to adjust usage as needs grow or shift.

9. Lusha

Lusha remains one of the strongest people search APIs in 2025, thanks to its AI-powered lead discovery, vast global data, real-time freshness, and tight compliance standards. 

Key Features:

• AI-powered recommendations: The platform offers daly AI recommendations of prospects that adapt to user behavior and CRM activity, automating smarter prospecting.

• Intent Mode: This feature which is exclusive to Scale plans identifies high-intent buyers and regenerates contacts dynamically for more precise targeting.

• Compliance: Lusha has compliance with SOC 2, ISO 27701 certifications, plus GDPR and CCPA compliance.

Data Coverage:

• 45M people profiles in North America

• 50M enterprise business profiles

• 44M SMB business profiles

• 21M GDPR-compliant European people profiles

Data Freshness:

• Real-time updates: AI continuously cross-checks and refreshes profiles using public sources and user inputs.

• Strict retention policies: Proportional data deletion aligns with GDPR to prevent stale or unnecessary records.

Customer Support:

• Feedback portal for direct input to Lusha’s product team and community voting on feature requests.

• Dedicated CSM (Scale plan) for personalized enterprise-level support.

• Help Center and live chat with 24/7 availability via Intercom.

Pricing:

• Free plan with 5 credits/month to get started risk-free.

• Pro plan ($49.90/month) for SMBs, including pooled credits for team use.

• Scale plan with unlimited credits and advanced features for large teams.

  
  

10. Apollo.io

Apollo.io continues to stand out in 2025 for its real-time data freshness, multi-source coverage, developer-first webhooks, and a flexible, usage-based pricing model that scales with any GTM team.

Key Features:

• Unified Search & Enrichment: One REST API for both people search and contact enrichment with 65+ advanced filters.

• Bulk & Single Record Options: Supports high-volume enrichment and one-off lookups equally well.

• Sequence Management: Automate outreach workflows directly via API, not just through the app.
  
  

Data Coverage:

• 210M+ Verified Contacts: Drawn from contributor networks, third-party data providers, and continuous public crawling.

• Verified Emails & Direct Dials: High deliverability for sales and marketing teams.

Data Freshness

• Monthly Database Checks: Apollo runs monthly audits to keep all contact data accurate and up to date.

• Opt-Out Compliance: Records are regularly updated to remove individuals who opt out directly or through trusted third parties.

Customer Support

• Fast help via Apollo’s in-app support and ticketing.

• Comprehensive Knowledge Base with guides, FAQs, and troubleshooting articles.

  
  

Pricing

• Free Tier - 50 free credits + 5 mobile credits for early-stage testing.

• Usage-Based Model - Pay only for successful API calls, no hidden fees.

• Flexible Plans - Paid tiers from $49–$119/user/month (annual) with predictable scaling.

Best People Search APIs 2025 - Feature Comparison

Conclusion

Many people search APIs advertise “real-time” results, but still rely on static databases that are updated only once in a while. Crustdata takes a different approach, built for teams that need accurate, up-to-date people lists created from live, continuously verified data.

With over 1 billion professional profiles, 60 million company records, and more than 20 advanced search filters, Crustdata helps sales and recruiting teams find the right contacts, with live signals for job changes, promotions, and company moves delivered instantly through APIs and webhooks.

If reaching the right decision-makers at the right time is critical for your sales, hiring, or investment strategy, Crustdata’s truly real-time data keeps your outreach precise and relevant and ensures you don’t miss any person that fits your criteria.