The Companies API returns firmographic records on about 50 million companies through a credit-priced API, for developers building their own data layer. Ocean uses contextual intelligence to find your next deal, with the reason on every account.
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The Companies APICheap, fast firmographic lookups by API. A fit for developers who enrich sign-ups or CRM records at volume.
The Companies API is a company-data API. It says it holds about 50M companies and 300+ data points, and it enriches a company from a domain, email or social URL for one credit.
Ranking companies by how closely they match your own won and lost deals, with the reason, a segment and a tier on each account.
Ocean is contextual intelligence for go-to-market. It reads what every company actually does from its own website, learns what good looks like from your closed-won and closed-lost deals, and ranks your whole market against it, with the reason behind each score. The ranked accounts arrive in your CRM, your rep queue or your AI agents.
What buyers weigh, grouped by the job each part does. A light blue background marks the stronger side.
| Topic | Ocean | The Companies API |
|---|---|---|
| Finding the right accounts | ||
| Lookalikes | Ocean is stronger here. Core of the product. Segments and models learned from your won and lost CRM deals. | A similar-companies endpoint takes one or more domains, such as your customers, and returns similar companies at one credit each. It doesn’t rank them against your won and lost results. |
| Learns your ICP from won and lost deals | Ocean is stronger here. Learned automatically from your won and lost deals. | You supply domains or filters. We found no description of learning fit from your CRM’s won and lost deals. |
| The reason behind each account | Ocean is stronger here. Segment, score, tier and matched signals on every account and every export. | Returns a similarity score you can sort by. We found no explanation of why a company matched. |
| Coverage | Ocean is stronger here. Segments your whole market and shows win rate, deal size and cycle time for each segment. | About 50M companies filtered on 300+ data points, with offline companies removed from results. Reviewers say test coverage against your own segment. |
| Contacts and data | ||
| Contacts | Verified emails and direct phones from a waterfall across 16+ data sources. Charged only when a contact is found, and exports are free. | Company data only. We found no contact data documented, so pair it with a contact vendor. |
| Firmographic enrichment by API | Doesn’t sell a general enrichment API. It ranks companies by fit. | Core strength: enrich a company from a domain, email or social URL for one credit, with on-demand re-analysis, SDKs and 50 to 1,000 requests a second. |
| Buying signals | Up-to-date signals built in-house from each company’s own teams, leaders, hiring and website. | Data points include technologies and web-traffic bands. We found no hiring, funding or intent signals documented. |
| Workflow and pricing | ||
| CRM sync | Two-way with HubSpot, Salesforce, Pipedrive and Attio. Reads your deals to learn, then writes scores, segments and signals back. | No native CRM sync documented. You call the API from your own code or tools to enrich CRM records. |
| AI agents and MCP | MCP server, public API and a chat agent on the same data and lookalike engine. | Endpoints to ask a question about a company or fetch its context for an LLM, at 10 credits a call. We found no MCP server documented. |
| Security and privacy | SOC 2 Type II and GDPR, per Ocean’s own site. | Says its data is public and GDPR-compliant. We found no security page or compliance report, so ask for them. |
| Pricing | Two ways to buy: a flat-rate plan with credits included, or a custom plan built around your deals and credit volume. | Published: $95, $295 and $595 a month for 50,000, 250,000 and 500,000 credits. |
The Companies API publishes three monthly credit plans. Every plan has all API features and all 50M companies, and one credit is one company returned.
Some calls cost more than one credit: asking a question about a company or fetching its context is 10 credits. The signup gives 500 free credits, and a toggle advertises two months free on annual billing. Review sites quote only two of the three plans.
A flat-rate plan with credits included, or a custom plan built around your deals.
Contacts are charged only when one is found. Exports are free.
See Ocean pricingThe Companies API gives developers company records. Ocean tells a revenue team which companies are worth going after.
Choose The Companies API if Use both ifFive steps. Most teams that use a company-data API keep it for enrichment and add Ocean to decide which companies matter.
Take the customer domains you feed its similar-companies search, and run them through Ocean to see how its matches compare with segments learned from your deals.
Find your plan, monthly credit use, the calls that cost more than one credit and your requests-per-second needs.
Connect HubSpot, Salesforce, Pipedrive or Attio. Ocean reads your closed-won and closed-lost deals to learn what a good account looks like.
Ocean proposes segments and scores, with the reason on each. Correct anything that doesn’t match how you sell.
Scores, segments and matched signals go back to your CRM, or into Apollo, Instantly or Lemlist sequences.
Expect a headline database size, because counts come from its own records and not your market; ask for coverage on your list.
Expect a score or a label with little behind it, because explanations are the hard part; ask about one real account.
Expect a quote that grows with seats, credits and add-ons, because the entry price is the smallest line; price your real volume.
Expect a trust-center link or a request form, because reports sit behind a sales step; ask for the date and scope.
Ocean is better because it tells it like it is: contextual intelligence to find your next deal, with the reason on every account.
Start using OceanThe right alternative depends on what you use The Companies API for. Here’s what each is built for and where Ocean starts.
Apollo
ZoomInfo
Clay
Crunchbase
TheirStackShort answers on what The Companies API does, what it costs, how Ocean compares and what to check before you buy.
A firmographic data API on about 50M companies. It enriches a company from a domain, email or social URL, searches by filters or prompt, and returns similar companies, priced in monthly credits.
Startup is $95 a month for 50,000 credits, Scaleup $295 for 250,000 and Enterprise $595 for 500,000, with extra credits at $2.50, $1.75 and $1.50 per 1,000. New accounts get 500 free credits.
Its similar-companies endpoint takes seed domains and returns similar companies. Ocean finds lookalikes of your best customers, learned from your won, lost and open deals, with the reason on each.
We found no description of that. Ocean reads your CRM deals, clusters them into segments with win rate, cycle and deal size, and ranks every company against them.
We found no contact data documented. Ocean returns ranked companies with contacts for them.
We found none documented. It has endpoints to ask a question about a company and fetch its context for an LLM. Ocean has an MCP server and a public API on the same data and lookalike engine.
It says its data is public and GDPR-compliant. We found no security page or compliance report, so ask for them.
Ocean reads what each company does from its own website, learns from your closed-won and closed-lost deals, and returns ranked matches with the reason on each one.
Today we can more confidently say we're reaching out to all the companies that could potentially buy from us.
Josh Pudnos,
Director of Commercial Operations, Brandwatch
With Ocean.io we can focus our ad spend on the right companies.
Martin Nørgaard Klausen,
Co-Founder, Lead Motor, Zen Media
Working with a trusted partner saves a ton of engineering time and ongoing AI costs. Speed and quality are higher out of the gate.
Stefan Kollenberg,
Data Partnerships, Clay
Ocean.io reduced our average cost per Marketing Qualified Lead by 23%.
Garrett Butler,
Digital Engagement, CBC
Ocean.io expands the sea into an ocean, and Scalestack is great at fishing in this vast ocean.
Ezequiel,
Head of Product Operations, Scalestack
Ocean.io allows us to identify lookalike companies with incredible accuracy.
Maged,
Head of Product, Surfe
