1. [Compare](/compare.txt) 2. Ocean vs The Companies API # Ocean vs The Companies API: pricing and how they compare 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. [Start for free](https://book.ocean.io/inbound/api) [Book a demo](https://book.ocean.io/inbound/api) [See The Companies API pricing](#how-much-does-the-companies-api-cost) Ask AI to compare * [Ask Claude to compare Ocean and The Companies API (opens in a new tab)](https://claude.ai/new?q=Compare%20Ocean.io%20and%20The%20Companies%20API%20for%20company%20data%3A%20firmographic%20enrichment%20by%20domain%2C%20similar-company%20search%2C%20learning%20from%20CRM%20deals%2C%20contacts%2C%20signals%2C%20MCP%20and%20API%20access%20and%20credit%20pricing.%20Use%20https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ocean.io%2Fcompare%2Focean-vs-the-companies-api%20and%20other%20sources%2C%20and%20say%20where%20each%20one%20is%20stronger.) * [Ask ChatGPT to compare Ocean and The Companies API (opens in a new tab)](https://chatgpt.com/?q=Compare%20Ocean.io%20and%20The%20Companies%20API%20for%20company%20data%3A%20firmographic%20enrichment%20by%20domain%2C%20similar-company%20search%2C%20learning%20from%20CRM%20deals%2C%20contacts%2C%20signals%2C%20MCP%20and%20API%20access%20and%20credit%20pricing.%20Use%20https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ocean.io%2Fcompare%2Focean-vs-the-companies-api%20and%20other%20sources%2C%20and%20say%20where%20each%20one%20is%20stronger.) * [Ask Perplexity to compare Ocean and The Companies API (opens in a new tab)](https://www.perplexity.ai/search?q=Compare%20Ocean.io%20and%20The%20Companies%20API%20for%20company%20data%3A%20firmographic%20enrichment%20by%20domain%2C%20similar-company%20search%2C%20learning%20from%20CRM%20deals%2C%20contacts%2C%20signals%2C%20MCP%20and%20API%20access%20and%20credit%20pricing.%20Use%20https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ocean.io%2Fcompare%2Focean-vs-the-companies-api%20and%20other%20sources%2C%20and%20say%20where%20each%20one%20is%20stronger.) * [Ask Gemini to compare Ocean and The Companies API (opens in a new tab)](https://www.google.com/search?udm=50&q=Compare%20Ocean.io%20and%20The%20Companies%20API%20for%20company%20data%3A%20firmographic%20enrichment%20by%20domain%2C%20similar-company%20search%2C%20learning%20from%20CRM%20deals%2C%20contacts%2C%20signals%2C%20MCP%20and%20API%20access%20and%20credit%20pricing.%20Use%20https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ocean.io%2Fcompare%2Focean-vs-the-companies-api%20and%20other%20sources%2C%20and%20say%20where%20each%20one%20is%20stronger.) * [Ask Grok to compare Ocean and The Companies API (opens in a new tab)](https://grok.com/?q=Compare%20Ocean.io%20and%20The%20Companies%20API%20for%20company%20data%3A%20firmographic%20enrichment%20by%20domain%2C%20similar-company%20search%2C%20learning%20from%20CRM%20deals%2C%20contacts%2C%20signals%2C%20MCP%20and%20API%20access%20and%20credit%20pricing.%20Use%20https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ocean.io%2Fcompare%2Focean-vs-the-companies-api%20and%20other%20sources%2C%20and%20say%20where%20each%20one%20is%20stronger.) Updated November 13, 2026. [See sources](#sources) Used by teams at * Coinbase * Revolut * Stripe * HubSpot * Harmony * Productboard * Twilio * Qualtrics * Seismic * Datadog * Jeeves * Plaid * Gartner * PostHog * Decagon * Orb * Rippling * Copy.ai * Aircall * beehiiv * TextExpander * Intercom * Deel * Radisson Hotel Group * Schneider Electric * Swisscom * Micron Technology * GSK * Sony * [How they differ](#how-they-differ) * [Comparison](#ocean-vs-the-companies-api) * [The Companies API cost](#how-much-does-the-companies-api-cost) * [Which to choose](#which-to-choose) * [Switching](#switching-from-the-companies-api) * [Alternatives](#the-companies-api-alternatives) * [FAQ](#the-companies-api-faq) --- ## How do Ocean and The Companies API differ? ### ![The Companies API logo: The Companies API alternatives, pricing and comparison with Ocean](https://cdn-bunny.ocean.io/assets/custom/compare/the-companies-api-mark.webp?width=256) The Companies API Cheap, 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. ### Ocean 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. --- ## The Companies API and Ocean features, side by side What buyers weigh, grouped by the job each part does. A light blue background marks the stronger side. __Ocean vs The Companies API comparison__ | 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. | --- ## How much is The Companies API? 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. * Startup: 50,000 credits, about $1.90 per 1,000, 50 requests a second and $2.50 per extra 1,000 credits: $95 a month * Scaleup: 250,000 credits, about $1.18 per 1,000, 250 requests a second and $1.75 per extra 1,000: $295 a month * Enterprise: 500,000 credits, about $1.19 per 1,000, 1,000 requests a second and $1.50 per extra 1,000: $595 a month ### What the price leaves out 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. ### How Ocean charges 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 pricing](/pricing.txt) --- ## Should you choose Ocean or The Companies API? The Companies API gives developers company records. Ocean tells a revenue team which companies are worth going after. ### Choose The Companies API if * You’re building a product or workflow that needs company data from a domain * You want a low-cost API with high request rates for enrichment at volume * You want similar companies from a handful of seed domains in your own code ### Use both if * You use The Companies API to enrich records and Ocean to rank which companies fit * You compare its similar companies against Ocean’s ranked matches for your best customers [Talk to us](https://book.ocean.io/inbound/api) ### Choose Ocean if * You want the ICP learned from your won, lost and open deals, as segments with win rate, cycle and deal size * You want the reason on every account and an exact count of the market * You want contacts and ranked accounts pushed into your CRM, not only company records * You’d rather not build the scoring layer yourself [Start for free](https://book.ocean.io/inbound/api) --- ## How to switch from The Companies API to Ocean Five steps. Most teams that use a company-data API keep it for enrichment and add Ocean to decide which companies matter. ### 1. Export your seed domains 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. ### 2. Check your credits and rate limits Find your plan, monthly credit use, the calls that cost more than one credit and your requests-per-second needs. ### 3. Connect your CRM Connect HubSpot, Salesforce, Pipedrive or Attio. Ocean reads your closed-won and closed-lost deals to learn what a good account looks like. ### 4. Review the segments and scores Ocean proposes segments and scores, with the reason on each. Correct anything that doesn’t match how you sell. ### 5. Send scored accounts Scores, segments and matched signals go back to your CRM, or into Apollo, Instantly or Lemlist sequences. ### Questions to ask before you rely on The Companies API for targeting * **How complete is coverage for our target segment and region?** Expect a headline database size, because counts come from its own records and not your market; ask for coverage on your list. * **How is similarity decided, and can we see why a company matched?** Expect a score or a label with little behind it, because explanations are the hard part; ask about one real account. * **Which calls cost more than one credit at our usage?** Expect a quote that grows with seats, credits and add-ons, because the entry price is the smallest line; price your real volume. * **Can we see its security and data-source documentation?** 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 Ocean](https://book.ocean.io/inbound/api) --- ## How do other The Companies API alternatives compare to Ocean? The right alternative depends on what you use The Companies API for. Here’s what each is built for and where Ocean starts. ### [![Apollo logo: Apollo alternatives and pricing](https://cdn-bunny.ocean.io/assets/custom/compare/apollo-mark.webp?width=192)Apollo](/compare/ocean-vs-apollo.txt) * Built for: Contacts and sequencing in one tool, with published self-serve plans. * Where Ocean starts: Ocean starts from which accounts deserve outreach, then pushes contacts to Apollo, Instantly or Lemlist sequences. ### [![ZoomInfo logo: ZoomInfo alternatives and pricing](https://cdn-bunny.ocean.io/assets/custom/compare/zoominfo-mark.webp?width=192)ZoomInfo](/compare/ocean-vs-zoominfo.txt) * Built for: Contact and direct-dial volume, with third-party intent, in one contract. * Where Ocean starts: Ocean ranks accounts from your closed-won deals instead of selling a database. ### [![Clay logo: Clay alternatives and pricing](https://cdn-bunny.ocean.io/assets/custom/compare/clay-mark.webp?width=192)Clay](/compare/ocean-vs-clay.txt) * Built for: GTM engineers who assemble custom enrichment and research workflows from many data sources. * Where Ocean starts: Ocean starts from your closed-won deals and ranks the market, instead of a build. ### [![Crunchbase logo: Crunchbase alternatives and pricing](https://cdn-bunny.ocean.io/assets/custom/compare/crunchbase-mark.webp?width=192)Crunchbase](/compare/ocean-vs-crunchbase.txt) * Built for: Teams that find companies through funding data and growth predictions. * Where Ocean starts: Ocean ranks companies by how they match your wins, funded or not. ### [![TheirStack logo: TheirStack alternatives and pricing](https://cdn-bunny.ocean.io/assets/custom/compare/theirstack-mark.webp?width=192)TheirStack](/compare/ocean-vs-theirstack.txt) * Built for: Technical sellers and data teams that want transparent, low-cost technographics and hiring signals read from job postings. * Where Ocean starts: Ocean learns which companies fit from your own deals, then ranks the whole market with the reason on each account, beyond which tools they use. --- ## The Companies API pricing and alternatives: common questions Short answers on what The Companies API does, what it costs, how Ocean compares and what to check before you buy. **What is The Companies API?** 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. **How much does The Companies API cost?** 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. **Does The Companies API find lookalike companies?** 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. **Does it learn from my won and lost deals?** 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. **Does The Companies API include contacts?** We found no contact data documented. Ocean returns ranked companies with contacts for them. **Does it have an MCP server?** 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. **Is The Companies API ready for an enterprise security review?** It says its data is public and GDPR-compliant. We found no security page or compliance report, so ask for them. **How does Ocean find lookalike companies?** 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. --- ## Sources (10) checked November 13, 2026 * [The Companies API](https://www.thecompaniesapi.com/) * [The Companies API pricing](https://www.thecompaniesapi.com/pricing) * [Search for similar companies (The Companies API)](https://www.thecompaniesapi.com/api/search-similar-companies) * [Getting started (The Companies API)](https://www.thecompaniesapi.com/api) * [Best company enrichment APIs (Reply.io, a competitor)](https://reply.io/blog/best-company-enrichment-apis) * [Apollo pricing](https://www.apollo.io/pricing) * [ZoomInfo pricing and product pages](https://www.zoominfo.com/pricing) * [Clay](https://www.clay.com/) * [Crunchbase](https://www.crunchbase.com/) * [TheirStack](https://theirstack.com/) --- ## What teams say about Ocean [All case studies](/case-studies.txt) --- > 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 [Read Brandwatch's story](/case-studies/brandwatch.txt) > With Ocean.io we can focus our ad spend on the right companies. > > — Martin Nørgaard Klausen, Co-Founder, Lead Motor, Zen Media [Read Zen Media's story](/case-studies/zenmedia.txt) Laura Salmina, Sales Developer at Tele2 IoT [Read Tele2 IoT's story](/case-studies/tele2.txt) Julian Berbec, Growth Marketer at Monta [Read Monta's story](/case-studies/monta.txt) > 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 [Read Clay's story](/case-studies/clay.txt) > Ocean.io reduced our average cost per Marketing Qualified Lead by 23%. > > — Garrett Butler, Digital Engagement, CBC [Read CBC's story](/case-studies/cbc.txt) > Ocean.io expands the sea into an ocean, and Scalestack is great at fishing in this vast ocean. > > — Ezequiel, Head of Product Operations, Scalestack [Read Scalestack's story](/case-studies/scalestack.txt) > Ocean.io allows us to identify lookalike companies with incredible accuracy. > > — Maged, Head of Product, Surfe [Read Surfe's story](/case-studies/surfe.txt) --- [ocean.io logomark](/index.txt) ocean.io logotype [Home](/index.txt) [Discovery](/index.txt) [Workflows](/index.txt) [Context studio](/index.txt) [Search](/index.txt) [Assistant](/index.txt) [Leads](/index.txt) [API](/index.txt) [Extension](/index.txt) Recommendations Segments Models ### Recommendations 1,304 companies Tier 1 · 68 Tier 2 · 241 Tier 3 · 512 Tier 4 · 483 All CRM statuses 1 | Company | Score | Segment | Matched signals | Status | Location | | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ----- | ------------------ | ---------------------------------- | ------- | -------------- | | ![Moss logo](https://cdn-bunny.ocean.io/logos/getmoss.com/5cd47a9faf8cd98ac4805334af0a3a31be1edb6c.png?width=72) Moss | T1 92 | Mid-market FinTech | Industries: FinTech +2 | Net new | Germany | | ![Spendesk logo](https://cdn-bunny.ocean.io/logos/spendesk.com/680a4a70ec12e26b7920057edb74b23cfc8af299.png?width=72) Spendesk | T1 89 | Mid-market FinTech | Industries: FinTech +2 | Net new | France | | ![Brex logo](https://cdn-bunny.ocean.io/logos/brex.com/2c66f22edd5c0a2cb1eec442e151128e4e8019a8.png?width=72) Brex | T1 86 | Mid-market FinTech | Industries: FinTech +2 | Net new | United States | | ![Payhawk logo](https://cdn-bunny.ocean.io/logos/payhawk.com/a80969444c1e52f57ae3374048cab1e00e0fdb22.png?width=72) Payhawk | T1 83 | Mid-market FinTech | Industries: FinTech +2 | Net new | United Kingdom | | ![Ramp logo](https://cdn-bunny.ocean.io/assets/custom/pricing/ramp-logomark.webp?width=72) Ramp | T2 79 | Mid-market FinTech | Industries: FinTech +2 | Net new | United States | | ![Rydoo logo](https://cdn-bunny.ocean.io/logos/rydoo.com/32e0ac2fe888f3db8ff3e0eeef98dacb410722b6.png?width=72) Rydoo | T2 74 | Mid-market FinTech | Industries: Software +2 | Net new | Belgium | | ![Circula logo](https://cdn-bunny.ocean.io/logos/circula.com/7a2303a2a1b191b8bcda9eff1af4ec066361f27d.png?width=72) Circula | T2 68 | Mid-market FinTech | Industries: Software +2 | Net new | Germany | | ![Wallester logo](https://cdn-bunny.ocean.io/logos/wallester.com/91c6be05eb0e08e95d0b13c9b1216345389226c2.png?width=72) Wallester | T2 63 | Mid-market FinTech | Industries: Financial Services +2 | Net new | Estonia | ## Move with your market * Context learned from your closed-won deals * Accounts ranked on fit, with the reason shown * Direct push to Salesforce, HubSpot, Pipedrive and Attio [Start for free](https://book.ocean.io/inbound/api) [Book a demo](https://book.ocean.io/inbound/api)