The 6 best people search APIs in 2026

Exa’s 2026 comparison of people search APIs groups services into B2B and professional search, public-records and identity tools, and internal company directories, focusing primarily on the first two categories. It profiles Exa, People Data Labs, Crustdata, and Linkup for professional discovery, contrasting natural-language and schema-based search capabilities with structured SQL or field-filter approaches, data coverage, enrichment options, and pricing. Searchbug and EnformionGO are presented as public-records alternatives for identity verification, contact discovery, and background-related searches, with access and pricing varying by result type and volume. The guide also distinguishes cached database indexes, which are generally faster and cheaper but may lag behind job changes, from live web retrieval, which can provide more current information at greater cost and latency. It concludes that the best API depends on whether users need structured recruiting filters, flexible open-ended criteria, current web data, contact information, or identity-record matching.

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