7 Best Proxycurl Alternatives: Comprehensive 2026 Comparison

Proxycurl built a strong reputation as a developer-first B2B data enrichment API, offering engineering teams programmatic access to LinkedIn profile and company data without the burden of maintaining scraping infrastructure. For teams building sales intelligence tools, recruiting platforms, and data-driven applications, it was a go-to solution for fresh, real-time professional data.

But Proxycurl is no longer available. In January 2025, LinkedIn filed a federal lawsuit against Proxycurl for "the unauthorized creation of hundreds of thousands of fake accounts and the scraping of millions of LinkedIn member profiles." Unable to match Microsoft-owned LinkedIn's legal resources, Proxycurl shut down operations on July 4, 2025, leaving its customers searching for alternatives on short notice.

If you were relying on Proxycurl (or considering it before the shutdown), you now need a new data foundation. Whether you are looking to:

• Access comprehensive, verified B2B contact and company data from legally defensible sources

• Build data-driven applications with developer-friendly APIs and scalable data infrastructure

• Collect LinkedIn and web data at enterprise scale with audit-ready compliance

• Run prospecting and outreach campaigns from a single platform without assembling a multi-tool stack

• Monitor real-time buying signals and job changes through webhook-driven alerts

• Find a lightweight, affordable LinkedIn data API replacement for a small engineering team

This guide covers the best alternatives for each of these needs. Some of these platforms replace Proxycurl's narrow LinkedIn API approach with far broader data and intelligence capabilities, while others replicate its developer-first model on a more sustainable legal foundation. The right choice depends on your team's size, technical resources, and what you plan to build.

Let's dive in.

What Was Proxycurl?

Proxycurl was a B2B data enrichment API platform designed for software engineers building data-driven applications. Founded by Steven Goh in Singapore, the company offered programmatic access to LinkedIn profile and company data through a suite of RESTful APIs, eliminating the need for teams to build and maintain their own scraping infrastructure.

Its key features included:

• People API for enriching person profiles with work history, education, skills, and contact information

• Company API for accessing company profiles, employee listings, and organizational data

• Contact API for discovering email addresses and phone numbers

• Jobs API for accessing job listings and hiring intelligence

• Search API for Boolean search across LinkedIn's people and company databases

• LinkDB dataset containing 472 million+ public LinkedIn profiles for bulk purchase

Proxycurl served companies including IBM, HP, Rightbound, Agicap, and Dover, and powered features at platforms like UserGems and Lusha. The service earned a 4.3/5 rating on G2 and 4/5 on Capterra, with users praising its developer experience, transparent pricing, and data freshness.

However, Proxycurl's core business model (scraping LinkedIn profiles without authorization) carried a fatal legal vulnerability. In January 2025, LinkedIn sued the company, and by July 4, 2025, Proxycurl had permanently shut down. The founder cited LinkedIn's "unlimited war chest" as a Microsoft subsidiary and the inability to recover legal fees even if the case was won.

The shutdown highlighted a critical lesson for B2B data buyers: any data provider dependent on unauthorized scraping of a single platform carries the risk of disappearing overnight. That is why the alternatives on this list emphasize legal defensibility, multi-source data aggregation, and sustainable business models alongside raw data access.

Looking for comprehensive, verified B2B data backed by enterprise-grade compliance? ZoomInfo provides 500M+ contacts and 200M+ verified business emails through legally sourced, multi-source data. Start your free trial and see the difference verified data makes.

How We Curated Our List of Proxycurl Alternatives

After researching the B2B data market following Proxycurl's shutdown, we focused on finding platforms that serve the diverse needs of former Proxycurl users. While Proxycurl excelled as a developer-first LinkedIn data API, its single-source scraping model left gaps in legal sustainability, data breadth, and workflow completeness. Teams migrating from Proxycurl are typically looking for platforms that excel at:

• Providing verified, multi-source B2B data with enterprise-grade compliance

• Offering developer-friendly API access for building custom applications

• Aggregating data from multiple sources to reduce platform dependency risk

• Combining data access with prospecting and outreach execution

• Delivering real-time signals and alerts through modern webhook architectures

• Collecting web data at scale with court-tested legal standing

• Offering affordable, lightweight API access for small engineering teams

Each tool on this list addresses one or more of these needs. Some are direct replacements for Proxycurl's API-first model, while others take a broader approach by combining data with intelligence, execution, or infrastructure capabilities.

1. ZoomInfo — Best Alternative for Comprehensive, Verified B2B Data with AI-Powered GTM Intelligence

ZoomInfo is an all-in-one AI GTM platform built on the industry's strongest B2B data foundation. Unlike Proxycurl's approach of scraping a single social network without authorization, ZoomInfo operates a multi-source data platform that spans 500M contacts, 100M companies, 135M+ verified phone numbers, and 200M+ verified business email addresses, all backed by legally defensible data sourcing and enterprise-grade compliance. Its key features include:

• Comprehensive B2B data spanning identity data, company attributes, technographics, org charts, and dynamic buying signals

• GTM Context Graph that fuses ZoomInfo's data with your CRM records, conversation intelligence, and behavioral signals into an intelligence layer processing 1.5B+ data points daily

• Enterprise API and MCP access enabling developers and AI agents to consume ZoomInfo data programmatically in any front-end or custom application

• GTM Workspace for sellers and GTM Studio for marketers, RevOps, and GTM engineers; native execution tools powered by the same intelligence layer

For teams that relied on Proxycurl to enrich CRM records, build prospect lists, or power data-driven products, ZoomInfo provides the same core data access through its Enterprise API and MCP server, while adding verified contact data, buyer intent signals, and AI-powered execution that Proxycurl never offered.

Why Choose ZoomInfo Over Proxycurl for B2B Data and Intelligence

Proxycurl delivered raw LinkedIn profile data through an API. ZoomInfo delivers verified, multi-source B2B intelligence through multiple access lanes, with accuracy, depth, and compliance that a scraping-based provider could not match.

The Most Comprehensive Verified B2B Data: No Scraping, No Single-Source Risk

Proxycurl's data came from scraping a single professional network without authorization, a model that created both legal risk (which proved fatal) and data quality limitations (completeness depended entirely on what individuals chose to put on their LinkedIn profiles). ZoomInfo takes a fundamentally different approach.

ZoomInfo's data platform aggregates from four source categories: automated ML scanning of 28 million site domains daily, third-party partner data covering 95 million businesses, a contributory community of 200,000+ Lite users, and an in-house Data Training Lab of 300+ human researchers. This multi-source pipeline produces first-party data with up to 95% accuracy, externally validated when a Fortune 500 competitive RFP analyzing 25 million contacts across vendors concluded that "no other competitor came even close."

The scale difference is significant: 500M contacts and 100M companies versus Proxycurl's approximately 473 million LinkedIn profiles. But the real advantage is data dimensions. Where Proxycurl returned work history, education, and skills from a single source, ZoomInfo provides 120M direct-dial phone numbers, technographic profiles of 30,000+ technologies across 30M+ companies, buyer intent signals from 210 million IP-to-Organization pairings, company hierarchies, org charts, and 34M+ company profiles outside North America for global coverage.

The compliance infrastructure removes the legal risk that killed Proxycurl entirely. ZoomInfo holds ISO 27001, ISO 27701, SOC 2 Type II, TRUSTe GDPR and CCPA certifications, all renewed annually. The data itself is legally sourced through multi-channel verification, not unauthorized scraping.

ZoomInfo in Action: When your team needs to enrich a CRM record, ZoomInfo returns the contact's verified direct-dial phone number, business email, current company attributes, technology stack, org chart position, and active intent signals, all from a single platform. No stitching together a scraping API for profiles plus a separate vendor for phone numbers plus another for technographics. One query, one complete picture.

ZoomInfo gives us the information we need to execute. We don't have to go through and spend our time digging. It's already there, so we can be three steps ahead. (Vensure)

GTM Context Graph: Intelligence That Goes Beyond Static Profile Data

Proxycurl returned static snapshots of professional profiles: who someone is, where they work, and what they had done. Useful for enrichment, but it told you nothing about whether that person's company was actively researching your category, whether the buying committee had shifted, or why a deal was stalling.

ZoomInfo's GTM Context Graph transforms raw data into actionable intelligence. It fuses ZoomInfo's comprehensive third-party data with a customer's own CRM records, conversation transcripts from Chorus, email interactions, and behavioral signals into a unified intelligence layer. The result: AI that captures not just what happened in a deal, but why it happened.

This intelligence layer powers capabilities Proxycurl never approached. Buyer Intent data tracks signals from 6 trillion+ new keyword-to-device pairings sourced monthly, identifying companies actively researching topics relevant to your product. Guided Intent, exclusive to ZoomInfo, identifies topics historically correlated with deal success rather than requiring manual topic selection. WebSights resolves anonymous website traffic to companies and buying teams. These signals flow directly into prioritized account feeds and AI-drafted outreach through GTM Workspace.

ZoomInfo in Action: Your marketing team identifies a surge in intent signals from mid-market SaaS companies researching your product category. The GTM Context Graph connects these signals to specific contacts at those accounts, reveals that three companies on the list recently hired new VPs of Sales (a pattern correlated with your closed-won deals), and surfaces the buying committee members along with direct dials. Your sales team receives prioritized accounts with pre-drafted, context-aware outreach in GTM Workspace.

That combination of our internal CRM data, external signals, and AI that's given all that context has helped us craft very specific account- and persona-based messages. And people have responded to them right away. (Seismic)

Universal Access: APIs, MCP, and Native Products for Every Team

Proxycurl offered a single access lane: a REST API that required engineering resources to integrate and build workflows around. If you were a non-technical user, you needed a developer to make Proxycurl useful.

ZoomInfo delivers its intelligence through three access lanes that serve every role on a go-to-market team:

• Enterprise API and MCP: For developers and AI agents. The API suite covers Search, Enrich, Copilot AI, Marketing, and Engagement endpoints, documented at docs.zoominfo.com. The MCP server connects AI models directly to ZoomInfo data as a native tool, currently supporting Claude and ChatGPT. API access is included in all plans.

• GTM Workspace: For sellers. An AI-powered execution workspace where prioritized accounts, AI-drafted outreach, and deal context converge without toggling between tools.

• GTM Studio: For marketers, RevOps, and GTM engineers. A builder environment for audience definition, campaign orchestration, and pipeline measurement using natural language.

All three lanes draw from the same GTM Context Graph, meaning the intelligence available to an AI agent querying the MCP server is identical to what a seller sees in Workspace or a marketer uses in Studio.

ZoomInfo in Action: Your engineering team builds a custom AI agent using ZoomInfo's MCP server that automatically researches target accounts, identifies buying committee members, and drafts personalized outreach. Meanwhile, your marketing team uses GTM Studio to build and launch a multi-channel play targeting the same accounts, and your sales reps execute from GTM Workspace with full account context. One intelligence layer powers every surface.

The plug-and-play aspect of the API means I can integrate it very easily into any process and get information at a moment's notice. (BDO Canada)

NOTE: We also evaluated other comprehensive B2B data platforms including Cognism and Lusha. While Cognism offers strong European coverage with phone-verified mobile numbers and Lusha provides a lightweight prospecting tool with a generous free plan, ZoomInfo's combination of data scale (500M contacts, 200M+ verified emails), intelligence depth (GTM Context Graph), and universal access (API, MCP, Workspace, Studio) makes it the most complete alternative for teams that need more than just a data API replacement.

ZoomInfo Pricing

ZoomInfo uses a custom-quoted, seat-and-credit-based subscription model tailored to each organization's needs. Pricing depends on the number of users, monthly credit volume, features, company size, and contract length.

ZoomInfo offers three product lines with tiered plans:

• Sales plans (Professional, Advanced, Enterprise) for prospecting, account prioritization, and AI-powered outreach

• Marketing plans (Marketing Demand, ABM Lite, ABM Enterprise) for audience targeting, display advertising, and multi-channel orchestration

• Additional products including Chorus (conversation intelligence) and Chat (data-powered website chat) priced separately

ZoomInfo Lite provides a permanent free tier (not a trial) with access to ZoomInfo's B2B database, 10 monthly export credits, individual and company searches, a Chrome extension, and HubSpot integration. A 7-day free trial is also available with broader feature access.

Credits work on a 1 credit = 1 export model: searching and viewing data within ZoomInfo does not consume credits; only exporting to a file, CRM, or via API does.

Who Should Use ZoomInfo?

Choose ZoomInfo if:

• Your go-to-market team needs verified, ready-to-use B2B data, not raw scraped profiles that require cleaning and verification. ZoomInfo's multi-source data pipeline with up to 95% accuracy and 300+ human researchers delivers direct dials that actually ring and emails that actually land, eliminating the bounce rate and data quality problems that plagued scraping-based providers.

• You need AI-powered intelligence that goes beyond static profile data. The GTM Context Graph connects buyer intent signals, conversation intelligence, and CRM data to reveal which accounts to prioritize, who the decision-makers are, and what messaging will resonate; capabilities Proxycurl's raw profile data never provided.

• Your developers and AI agents need programmatic access backed by enterprise compliance. ZoomInfo's Enterprise API, MCP server, and API access included in all plans deliver the same programmatic access Proxycurl offered, with ISO 27001, SOC 2 Type II, and GDPR/CCPA certifications that survive enterprise procurement scrutiny.

Need comprehensive, verified B2B data that won't disappear overnight? Start your free ZoomInfo trial and experience the difference between scraped LinkedIn profiles and a verified, AI-powered data platform.

2. People Data Labs — Best Alternative for Enterprise-Scale Data Infrastructure

Source: People Data Labs

People Data Labs is a B2B data infrastructure provider that supplies raw workforce and company data at massive scale to developers, data engineers, and product teams building data-dependent applications. Its key capabilities include:

• Massive data scale: Nearly 3 billion raw person records de-duplicating to 1.5 billion unique profiles and over 74 million company profiles

• Developer-first API suite: Person Enrichment, Person Search, Person Identify, Company Enrichment, Company Search, and IP Enrichment APIs with five language SDKs and sandbox environments

• Flexible data delivery: APIs for real-time lookups, bulk Data License Feeds via S3, GCP, Azure, Snowflake, and native Snowflake and Databricks marketplace access

• Enterprise compliance: ISO 27001 certification, SOC 2 Type 2 attestation, quarterly external penetration testing, and NIST 800-53r5 adherence

For teams that used Proxycurl to build data products and embed workforce data into their applications, People Data Labs is the most direct architectural replacement. Named customers include Clay, Hire Ez, SeekOut, Gem, S&P Global, and Affinity.

Why Choose People Data Labs Over Proxycurl for Data Infrastructure

People Data Labs stands out in the following areas:

• Legally Sustainable Data FoundationProxycurl's scraping-based model violated LinkedIn's Terms of Service and led directly to its shutdown. People Data Labs aggregates data from multiple public and licensed sources through a diversified sourcing strategy, meaning no single platform's legal action can bring down the entire service. The company's investor backing (a Series B led by Craft Ventures at a $300M pre-money valuation) signals that legal diligence on the data sourcing model passed institutional scrutiny.

• Infrastructure-Layer Scale and FlexibilityProxycurl forced every use case through a per-call API gateway. People Data Labs offers multiple delivery modes: real-time APIs for transactional enrichment, Search APIs with Elasticsearch DSL and SQL syntax, Data License Feeds for bulk delivery, and delta file deliveries for incremental updates. The Person Identify API accepts fuzzy inputs (partial name plus company, email, or location) and returns up to 20 ranked candidate matches, solving a friction point Proxycurl users encountered when a LinkedIn URL was not available.

• Enterprise-Grade Compliance and TransparencyPeople Data Labs holds ISO 27001 and SOC 2 Type 2 certifications, encrypts all data at rest and in transit using FIPS 140-2 algorithms, and provides a Subject Request API for programmatic GDPR/CCPA compliance. This removes procurement friction that Proxycurl's "in process" SOC 2 claim could not address.

Source: People Data Labs

NOTE: We also evaluated Coresignal and Bright Data for this use case. While Coresignal offers multi-source aggregation with AI-enriched tiers and Bright Data provides enterprise-grade proxy infrastructure, People Data Labs offers the most seamless data infrastructure for developer teams embedding workforce data into products. Its 3 billion raw records, per-match pricing, fuzzy identity resolution, and enterprise compliance credentials make it the strongest architectural fit for Proxycurl's former builder-buyer audience.

For a deeper look at People Data Labs' capabilities, see our People Data Labs Review.

People Data Labs Pricing

People Data Labs uses credit-based, pay-per-match pricing. A free tier with 100 monthly lookups allows testing with no credit card required (contact fields are returned as presence flags rather than actual values). Pro plans start at $98 per month with full field access. Enterprise plans offer custom pricing for accounts above 100K monthly credits, with dedicated support teams and Data License Feed access.

For a full breakdown of People Data Labs' plans and costs, see our People Data Labs Pricing guide.

Who Should Use People Data Labs?

Choose People Data Labs if:

• You are building a product that depends on workforce or company data as core infrastructure, such as a recruiting platform, sales intelligence tool, or investment research application.

• You need legally sustainable data sourcing that can withstand enterprise procurement scrutiny, with ISO 27001 and SOC 2 Type 2 certifications.

• You operate at scale where bulk data access or data warehouse integration beats per-call API economics.

3. Coresignal — Best Alternative for Multi-Source, API-First B2B Data

Source: Coresignal

Coresignal is an API-first B2B public web data provider that targets the same technical buyer persona Proxycurl served. The platform differentiates through its multi-source aggregation model combining data from 15+ public web sources, a three-tier data processing architecture, and ethical compliance certification as a founding EWDCI member. Its key capabilities include:

• Large, continuously refreshed dataset: 839M+ employee profiles, 75M+ company records, and 425M+ job postings

• Three processing tiers: Base (raw), Clean (standardized), and Multi-Source (aggregated and AI-enriched)

• Fast API with bulk query support: Average 176 millisecond response time with support for 10,000 records per bulk query

• Ethical data collection: No fake accounts, no login scraping, only publicly available data

Why Choose Coresignal Over Proxycurl for Multi-Source Data

Coresignal stands out in the following areas:

• Legally Defensible Collection MethodologyProxycurl used fake accounts to scrape login-secured LinkedIn areas, the specific practice that triggered the lawsuit and shutdown. Coresignal collects only publicly available data and cites established legal precedents (HiQ v. LinkedIn, Meta v. Bright Data) supporting its approach. As a founding member of the EWDCI (Ethical Web Data Collection Initiative), Coresignal has structured its data collection within recognized legal boundaries.

• Multi-Source Aggregation for Richer ProfilesProxycurl's data came exclusively from LinkedIn. Coresignal's Multi-Source tier aggregates from 15+ public web sources including Indeed, Glassdoor, Owler, Docker Hub, and Craft. The AI-based enrichment fills gaps with derived fields like description_enriched, is_decision_maker, projected_base_salary, and management_level that Proxycurl expected customers to compute themselves. Multi-Source company profiles carry 500+ data fields, and employee profiles carry 300+ fields.

• Three-Tier Processing Gives Cost-Performance ControlProxycurl offered a single tier: pay per API call, receive whatever the scraper returned. Coresignal lets you choose: Base tier for the lowest cost per record (you handle normalization), Clean tier for standardized single-source data, or Multi-Source tier for fully enriched records. This flexibility lets growing teams start at a lower cost and upgrade as their data quality needs increase.

Source: Coresignal

NOTE: We also evaluated Bright Data and ScrapIn for this use case. While Bright Data offers enterprise-grade proxy infrastructure and ScrapIn provides a lightweight LinkedIn scraping API, Coresignal offers the best API-first data infrastructure for mid-sized B2B data teams that need production-grade, legally defensible, multi-source intelligence at scale.

For a deeper look at Coresignal's features and performance, see our Coresignal Review.

Coresignal Pricing

Coresignal offers a free tier (no credit card required) with 200 Collect credits and 400 Search credits valid for 14 days. Paid plans start at $49/month (Starter), scaling to Pro ($800/month), Premium ($1,500/month), and custom Enterprise tiers. Annual plans receive a 20% discount. Bulk dataset purchases start at $1,000.

For a full breakdown of Coresignal's plans and costs, see our Coresignal Pricing guide.

Who Should Use Coresignal?

Choose Coresignal if:

• Your engineering team needs API-first access to B2B data with flexible processing tiers to control cost and quality tradeoffs.

• You need legally defensible data collection with EWDCI certification and GDPR/CCPA compliance.

• You value multi-source data aggregation that produces richer profiles than any single-source scraper can deliver.

4. Apollo.io — Best Alternative for Self-Serve Prospecting and Engagement

Source: Apollo.io

Apollo.io is a B2B sales platform that combines contact data, multichannel outreach, enrichment, and conversation intelligence in a single, self-serve interface. Unlike Proxycurl's API-only model that required engineering resources, Apollo delivers immediate value through a complete user interface where non-technical sales and marketing teams can prospect, sequence, call, and analyze without writing a single line of code. Its key capabilities include:

• Generous free-forever plan with 75 monthly credits and access to the full 270M+ contact database

• All-in-one prospecting and engagement combining data search, multichannel sequences, a built-in dialer, and CRM integrations

• Waterfall enrichment that cascades through multiple data providers for 5% more emails, 7% more phone numbers, and 45% lower bounce rates compared to single-source lookups

• AI-powered intent data covering 1,600+ topics included on all plans at no extra charge

Why Choose Apollo.io Over Proxycurl for Self-Serve Teams

Apollo.io stands out in the following areas:

• Zero-Dollar Entry Point with a Complete PlatformProxycurl's cheapest option was $10 for 100 API credits that returned raw JSON requiring engineering work to use. Apollo's free-forever plan includes a complete interface where an SDR can search for prospects, build lists, launch email sequences, and start booking meetings within minutes, no developer needed. The free plan includes 75 monthly credits, 2 active sequences, and a Chrome Extension.

• All-in-One Platform Eliminating the Multi-Tool TaxProxycurl was one component in a stack: you still needed a CRM, an outreach tool, a dialer, and a verification service. Apollo collapses these into a single platform with data, sequences, a dialer, conversation intelligence, deal management, and CRM sync.

• Waterfall Enrichment Reducing Single-Source DependencyProxycurl's entire dataset came from scraping one platform, creating the single point of failure that proved fatal. Apollo's waterfall enrichment cascades through its own proprietary database (built from 2M+ data contributors) and dozens of third-party providers. If one source fails, the system continues delivering results from other sources.

Source: Apollo.io

NOTE: We also evaluated Crustdata and People Data Labs as self-serve options. While Crustdata offers a free trial focused on company data and People Data Labs provides 100 free API lookups per month, Apollo.io offers the most complete and usable experience for teams that need to prospect, engage, and close deals, not just enrich data. Its free-forever plan with a full UI provides the lowest-friction path to restoring prospecting operations after Proxycurl's shutdown.

For a comprehensive look at Apollo.io's features and how it performs in practice, see our Apollo.io Review.

Apollo.io Pricing

Apollo.io uses a hybrid per-seat plus credit model. The Free plan ($0 forever) includes 75 monthly credits, 2 sequences, and Gmail integration. The Basic plan starts at $49/seat/month (annual), the Professional plan at $79/seat/month with enrichment and unlimited sequences, and the Organization plan at $119/seat/month (annual only, minimum 3 seats) with SSO, advanced reporting, and custom API access.

Who Should Use Apollo.io?

Choose Apollo.io if:

• You need immediate prospecting capability without engineering resources, where non-technical team members can search, sequence, and call from one interface.

• You want to consolidate a fragmented sales stack (data provider + outreach tool + dialer + enrichment) into a single per-seat subscription.

• You prefer waterfall enrichment from multiple data sources over single-source dependency.

5. Bright Data — Best Alternative for Enterprise-Grade Web Data Collection

Source: Bright Data

Bright Data is an enterprise web data platform that provides the infrastructure to collect, process, and deliver public web data at scale. Rather than offering ready-made B2B contact databases, Bright Data provides the technical foundation (proxies, scraping APIs, pre-built datasets, and compliance frameworks) that engineering teams need to build their own data collection systems. Its key capabilities include:

• Massive proxy infrastructure: 150M+ residential proxy IPs spanning 195 countries

• Pre-built LinkedIn datasets: 900M+ LinkedIn records available for bulk purchase with scheduled refresh delivery

• Web scraper APIs for 120+ platforms with built-in CAPTCHA solving and proxy rotation

• Court-tested legal compliance: Successfully defended against Meta and X lawsuits, plus ISO 27001:2022, SOC 2, GDPR, and CCPA certifications

Bright Data serves 20,000+ organizations including Fortune 500 enterprises, with 2025 revenue surpassing $300M.

Why Choose Bright Data Over Proxycurl for Enterprise Web Data

Bright Data stands out in the following areas:

• Court-Validated Legal StandingThe single most important distinction: Bright Data has successfully defended web scraping in U.S. federal court, while Proxycurl was shut down by a similar legal challenge. On January 23, 2024, a U.S. Federal Court ruled in Bright Data's favor against Meta, and on May 10, 2024, a federal judge dismissed X's allegations. Bright Data is the first and only web scraping company to have prevailed in U.S. federal court twice.

• Enterprise Infrastructure ScaleProxycurl was a developer-focused API for one data source. Bright Data provides four product categories spanning Web Access APIs, Data Feeds, Data & Insights, and Proxy Infrastructure. The Web Scraper API covers 120+ platforms including LinkedIn, Amazon, Instagram, and Google. The platform processes over 5.5 trillion HTTPS requests annually with 99.99% uptime.

• Pre-Built LinkedIn Datasets for Bulk AccessWhere Proxycurl charged per API call (making millions of profiles prohibitively expensive), Bright Data's dataset pricing starts at $250 per 100K records, significantly more economical for bulk use cases. Teams can purchase one-time snapshots or scheduled refreshes (daily, weekly, or monthly) in JSON, NDJSON, CSV, or Parquet formats.

Source: Bright Data

NOTE: We also evaluated ScrapIn and Apify for enterprise web data needs. While ScrapIn offers a simpler developer experience for LinkedIn-specific scraping and Apify provides a broader scraping platform with pre-built actors, Bright Data offers the strongest legal defensibility with court-validated compliance, the largest proxy infrastructure, and the deepest enterprise support ecosystem.

Bright Data Pricing

Bright Data uses usage-based pricing that varies by product. Scraper APIs start at $0.75/1K records, datasets start at $250/100K records, and residential proxies start at $2.50/GB. New accounts receive a 7-day Playground mode for testing without a credit card, and Bright Data matches first deposits dollar-for-dollar up to $500.

Who Should Use Bright Data?

Choose Bright Data if:

• Your team needs large-scale LinkedIn data products (recruiting marketplaces, prospecting databases, competitive intelligence) requiring bulk access to millions of profiles.

• Legal defensibility is a critical procurement requirement, and you need court-tested compliance documentation that has survived platform legal challenges.

• You collect web data from multiple sources beyond LinkedIn and want a unified infrastructure platform handling proxy rotation, CAPTCHA solving, and anti-bot bypass.

6. Crustdata — Best Alternative for Real-Time, Webhook-Driven B2B Intelligence

Source: Crustdata

Crustdata is a real-time B2B data API platform that provides live company and people intelligence via APIs and dataset delivery. Designed as "People and Company Search for AI", the platform covers 1 billion people profiles and 60 million companies. Its key capabilities include:

• Real-time webhook monitoring: The Watcher API delivers instant notifications via webhook for job changes, promotions, funding rounds, hiring surges, and more

• Multi-source data unification: 16+ trusted sources unified into 250+ company datapoints and 90+ people datapoints

• AI-agent optimized infrastructure: Clean, structured data with predictable schemas and sub-2-second response times

• YC-backed and compliant: SOC 2 certified, GDPR and CCPA compliant, backed by Y Combinator and a $6M seed round

Crustdata grew revenue from $770K to $4M+ in seven months while maintaining profitability, with customers including Y Combinator, HubSpot founder Dharmesh Shah's agent.ai, and Ryan Reynolds' MNTN.

Why Choose Crustdata Over Proxycurl for Real-Time Intelligence

Crustdata stands out in the following areas:

• Webhook-Driven Alerts Eliminate Polling LatencyProxycurl required developers to periodically poll profiles to detect changes like job movements or company updates. Crustdata's Watcher API inverts this: you subscribe to events, and Crustdata pushes notifications via webhook the moment a change occurs. The Watcher offers 11+ distinct watch types covering job changes, promotions, funding announcements, headcount growth, and department-specific hiring.

• Multi-Source Data Reduces Platform RiskProxycurl's dependency on LinkedIn as its sole data source created the single point of failure that proved fatal. Crustdata pulls from 16+ trusted sources and unifies them into comprehensive profiles. If one source changes availability, the dataset continues operating from other sources.

• Purpose-Built for AI Agent Workflows

Proxycurl returned data for humans to review in CRMs and sales tools. Crustdata was designed for AI agents and automated pipelines, with structured schemas that integrate directly into agentic workflows. The API returns data from 10+ sources in a single call, eliminating the multi-vendor enrichment workflows that required stitching together Proxycurl data with technographic providers, intent vendors, and contact databases.

Source: Crustdata

NOTE: We also evaluated LinkdAPI and NinjaPear (the new venture from Proxycurl's founder). While NinjaPear offers competitive intelligence data and represents the founder's post-Proxycurl pivot, Crustdata offers the most comprehensive real-time infrastructure for AI-native teams. Its webhook architecture, multi-source foundation, and proven traction among AI agent builders make it the strongest choice for teams building the next generation of data-driven applications.

Crustdata Pricing

Crustdata operates on transparent, credit-based API pricing. Real-time data enrichment costs 5 credits per profile (up to 10 minutes latency), while cached database enrichment costs 1 credit per profile (under 10 seconds). Flat-file datasets start at $49/month with monthly refresh. A free trial is available for testing endpoint latency and schema compatibility. All customers receive dedicated Slack channels for direct engineering support.

Who Should Use Crustdata?

Choose Crustdata if:

• You are building AI agents or automated workflows that need real-time, webhook-driven signals to trigger actions instantly.

• You need multi-source data aggregation from 16+ sources to reduce platform dependency risk after experiencing Proxycurl's shutdown.

• You require SOC 2 certified, GDPR/CCPA compliant data with transparent pricing and direct engineering support via dedicated Slack channels.

7. ScrapIn — Best Alternative for Lightweight Real-Time LinkedIn Data API

Source: ScrapIn

ScrapIn is a B2B data intelligence API platform that gives developers real-time access to LinkedIn profile and company data without requiring LinkedIn accounts or managing scraping infrastructure. It is the most direct successor to Proxycurl's core offering: a developer-first, real-time LinkedIn scraping API at a comparable price point. Its key capabilities include:

• Real-time LinkedIn scraping returning current profile data rather than serving from a stale database

• Production-grade reliability: 98.8% uptime, 300 million API requests/month capacity, and sub-two-second response times

• Comprehensive endpoint coverage: Person profiles, person matching from partial data, company profiles, company search, and social activity tracking

• GDPR and CCPA compliance with data minimization principles and opt-out mechanisms

ScrapIn has served over 400 companies since its 2020 founding and recently merged with Reverse Contact (March 2026), expanding into broader B2B identity resolution.

Why Choose ScrapIn Over Proxycurl as a Direct API Replacement

ScrapIn stands out as the most direct Proxycurl replacement:

• ScrapIn Is Operationally AvailableProxycurl shut down permanently on July 4, 2025. ScrapIn is actively operating, processing 300 million API requests per month, and investing in expanded capabilities through the Reverse Contact merger. For teams that need a near-identical Proxycurl replacement with minimal re-architecture, ScrapIn offers the most familiar integration pattern.

• Person Match Endpoint for Incomplete DataScrapIn's Person Match endpoint resolves full LinkedIn profiles from partial data (any combination of name, company, domain, email, or location) without requiring a LinkedIn URL. Proxycurl's Person Lookup required more structured inputs, creating friction when enriching messy CRM data from diverse sources like form fills, webinar signups, or CSV imports.

• Expanding Platform Through Reverse Contact MergerThe March 2026 merger adds a roadmap for verified email/phone data, dataset delivery (CSV, JSON, Parquet), webhooks, and cloud integrations (S3, GCP, Azure), positioning ScrapIn to grow beyond a simple scraping API into a broader data platform.

Source: ScrapIn

NOTE: We also evaluated LinkdAPI and Apify for this lightweight API use case. While LinkdAPI offers similar LinkedIn scraping with comparable endpoints and Apify provides a broader scraping platform with LinkedIn-specific actors, ScrapIn offers the strongest combination of production reliability (98.8% uptime at 300M requests/month), developer experience (reflected in a 4.4/5 G2 rating), and expanding capabilities through the Reverse Contact merger.

ScrapIn Pricing

ScrapIn uses credit-based pricing with three tiers. A paid 7-day trial costs $30 for low-volume API testing. Pay-as-you-go bundles start at $500 with credits valid for 12 months. Enterprise annual contracts offer guaranteed rate limits, high concurrency, and Slack-based technical support. Each successful API call consumes 1 credit across core endpoints.

Important consideration: ScrapIn operates in the same legal gray area that led to Proxycurl's shutdown. While the platform has GDPR and CCPA compliance and is pursuing SOC 2 and ISO 27001 through the Reverse Contact merger, third-party LinkedIn scraping without authorization still carries the same category of risk. Teams with strict compliance requirements should evaluate this carefully.

Who Should Use ScrapIn?

Choose ScrapIn if:

• Your engineering team needs a near-identical Proxycurl replacement with real-time LinkedIn scraping and a familiar API pattern.

• You value data freshness over data breadth, needing current profile snapshots rather than pre-built databases.

• You are a small technical team comfortable with the legal considerations of third-party LinkedIn scraping and need an affordable entry point.

The Final Verdict

Proxycurl served the B2B data community well as a developer-first LinkedIn data API, but its shutdown in July 2025 highlighted the risks of building on a single-source, scraping-dependent data foundation. The alternatives on this list address different needs across the spectrum of former Proxycurl users:

• ZoomInfo for comprehensive, verified B2B data with AI-powered GTM intelligence and enterprise-grade compliance

• People Data Labs for enterprise-scale raw data infrastructure with legally defensible sourcing

• Coresignal for multi-source, API-first B2B data with flexible processing tiers

• Apollo.io for self-serve prospecting and engagement with data, outreach, and dialer in one platform

• Bright Data for enterprise-grade web data collection with court-tested legal standing

• Crustdata for real-time, webhook-driven B2B intelligence built for AI agents

• ScrapIn for a lightweight, developer-first LinkedIn data API as a direct Proxycurl replacement

The choice depends on your team's size, technical resources, compliance requirements, and what you plan to build. For teams that used Proxycurl as a component in a broader sales or marketing stack, platforms like ZoomInfo and Apollo.io offer more complete solutions that combine data with intelligence and execution. For teams that embedded Proxycurl as data infrastructure inside their own products, People Data Labs, Coresignal, and Crustdata provide sustainable architectural replacements. And for small teams that simply need a lightweight LinkedIn API to get back up and running, ScrapIn offers the most familiar migration path.

Need verified B2B data that won't disappear overnight? ZoomInfo delivers 500M+ contacts and 200M+ verified business emails through legally sourced data, AI-powered intelligence, and enterprise-grade compliance. Start your free trial and build on a foundation designed to last.

Proxycurl Alternatives FAQ

Why did Proxycurl shut down?

Proxycurl was shut down on July 4, 2025 after LinkedIn filed a federal lawsuit in January 2025 for "the unauthorized creation of hundreds of thousands of fake accounts and the scraping of millions of LinkedIn member profiles." The founder cited LinkedIn's financial resources as a Microsoft subsidiary and the inability to recover legal fees under the American Rule as the primary reasons for choosing to shut down rather than fight the lawsuit. The company had reached approximately $10M in revenue at the time of shutdown.

What is the best overall Proxycurl alternative?

There is no single best alternative because Proxycurl users had different needs. ZoomInfo is the top choice for teams needing comprehensive, verified B2B data with AI-powered intelligence and execution tools. People Data Labs is the strongest option for developer teams building products that embed workforce data as infrastructure. Apollo.io is the best fit for self-serve sales teams that need data and outreach in one platform without engineering resources.

Is there a free Proxycurl alternative?

Several alternatives offer free tiers. Apollo.io provides a free-forever plan with 75 monthly credits and full platform access. ZoomInfo Lite offers a permanent free plan with 10 monthly export credits and access to its B2B database. People Data Labs includes 100 free monthly lookups with obfuscated contact fields. Coresignal offers a free tier with 200 Collect credits valid for 14 days.

Which Proxycurl alternative is safest from a legal and compliance perspective?

ZoomInfo holds the most comprehensive compliance credentials, including ISO 27001, ISO 27701, SOC 2 Type II, and TRUSTe GDPR/CCPA certifications, with legally sourced data that does not depend on unauthorized scraping. Bright Data is the only web data provider that has successfully defended web scraping practices in U.S. federal court against both Meta and X. People Data Labs holds ISO 27001 and SOC 2 Type 2 certifications with legally diversified data sourcing. ScrapIn, while operationally available, still relies on third-party LinkedIn scraping that carries similar legal risks to what shut down Proxycurl.

Which alternative is best for developers building data-driven applications?

People Data Labs and Coresignal are the strongest options for developer teams building products that embed B2B data. People Data Labs offers 1.5 billion unique profiles with five language SDKs, sandbox environments, and bulk data delivery via Snowflake and S3. Coresignal offers 839M+ employee profiles with three processing tiers and Elasticsearch DSL query support. Crustdata is the best choice specifically for teams building AI agents, with its webhook-driven Watcher API and data schemas optimized for machine consumption.

How does ZoomInfo compare to Proxycurl for API access?

ZoomInfo's Enterprise API covers Search, Enrich, Copilot AI, Marketing, and Engagement endpoints documented at docs.zoominfo.com, with API access included in all relevant plans. The MCP server enables AI models to access ZoomInfo data through natural language. While Proxycurl offered simpler, more affordable per-call API pricing, ZoomInfo provides verified data (up to 95% accuracy on first-party data) from legally defensible sources across 500M contacts and 100M companies, a scope that far exceeds Proxycurl's approximately 473 million LinkedIn profiles.

What happened to Proxycurl's team after the shutdown?

The team behind Proxycurl, led by founder Steven Goh, pivoted to NinjaPear, a B2B Customer Data Platform and Competitive Intelligence Data company. NinjaPear offers company intelligence APIs including Customer Listing, Company Details, Employee Count, and Competitor APIs, representing a shift away from LinkedIn-specific scraping toward broader company intelligence data that does not depend on scraping professional social networks.

Is it risky to use another LinkedIn scraping API after Proxycurl's shutdown?

Platforms that scrape LinkedIn without authorization operate in the same legal gray area that led to Proxycurl's shutdown. LinkedIn has demonstrated willingness to pursue legal action against unauthorized scrapers. Teams with strict compliance requirements or enterprise procurement processes should prioritize alternatives that use legally defensible data sourcing methods, such as ZoomInfo (multi-source verified data), People Data Labs (diversified public and licensed sources), or Bright Data (court-validated scraping practices that only collect publicly available data without fake accounts).