Captain Data vs Clay (2026): which should you pick?
As of Nov 13, 2026, Clay grades higher than Captain Data: 2.8 against 1.6 out of 4.0.
Checked Oct 17, 2026 and Nov 13, 2026 · graded Oct 17, 2026 and Nov 13, 2026 by ToolGPA
Clay grades higher on value for money, features, ease of use and platforms. They get the same grade on the free plan.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
Captain Data
People and company data API built on LinkedIn profiles
Clay
Data enrichment tables that query 150+ data providers in one place
Which one is for you
Pick Captain Data if
- Fits if you are a developer who needs LinkedIn-based people data in your own tool
- Works for teams that prefer volume pricing to per-seat plans
Look elsewhere if
- Not for you if you want an app to prospect in, as there is no dashboard
- Pricey if you start small, as the base rate is €59.99 per 1,000 credits
- Watch out: unused credits do not roll over month to month on monthly billing
- Watch out: the page was read with the euro setting, and its dollar figures were not confirmed
Pick Clay if
- Fits if you build lists with odd criteria no single database sells
- Works for teams that want several data providers behind one bill and don't mind building spreadsheet workflows
Look elsewhere if
- Pricey if you're on your own, as the first paid plan is $167 a month billed yearly, or $185 monthly
- Tight if you're staying free, with 200 rows per table, 100 data credits a month and no phone enrichment
- Watch out: two meters apply, data credits and actions, and extra credits cost 30% more than plan credits
- Skip it if you just want to look someone up, as it's built for building workflows
- Watch out: CRM auto-sync and webhooks start on Growth at $446 a month, and the Clay API is Enterprise only
How we grade them
| 1.6GPACaptain DataWeak | 2.8GPAClayGood | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | D€59.99 per 1,000 credits from a 2,500-credit start is about €150 a month, and the volume slider shows €600 for 20,000. That is the dearer end for what is a data API. | BLaunch is $167 a month billed yearly with unlimited seats, about $33.40 a head for five, just inside this category's cheaper quarter ($34). It buys 2,500 data credits and 15,000 actions a month. On your own, the whole $167 is yours to pay. |
| Free plan and trial | C100 free credits with no card, one time. | CA free plan with 100 data credits and 500 actions a month, unlimited seats, waterfalls and Claygent, plus a 14-day trial. But tables stop at 200 rows and there's no phone enrichment. |
| Features | CPeople enrichment, people and company search, company employees and an MCP server. There is no dashboard prospecting app. | AWaterfalls across 150-plus providers, where a lookup that finds nothing costs nothing, plus Claygent for web research, job-change signals, its own sequencer and CRM and warehouse sync. No rival here draws on so many sources. |
| Ease of use | DNo store rating on record. It is an API product and needs a developer. | CNo App Store rating on record, and this is a web app where the work is building the table itself. If spreadsheet formulas make you nervous, expect a learning curve. |
| Platforms and integrations | CWeb, with an API and MCP server and two listed integrations. No apps. | BWeb only, but with HubSpot, Pipedrive, Attio, Outreach, Instantly, lemlist, Apollo.io and Snowflake on the list, and webhooks from Growth. No desktop or phone apps. |
| Best for | LinkedIn-based people data over an API | building custom lead lists from many data sources |
The GPA is the average of the five grades: an A is 4 points, an F is none. The full reasons are on each tool's page: Captain Data and Clay. How we grade
Price against what you get
Captain Data starts at about $67.02 a month and scores 1.7 out of 4 on features, ease of use and platforms. Clay starts at $167 a month and scores 3.0.
Clay scores higher, and starts $99.98 a month higher: the question is whether the extra is worth that to you. Of the other lead and email finders on the chart, 37 score higher than Captain Data for less, and none scores higher than Clay for less.
Features, ease of use and platforms, averaged
What paid plans start at, a month (each step along is roughly double) →
- The best score at each price
- Has a free plan
- No free plan
Where they differ
- Captain Data also covers AI agents.
- Clay also covers email campaigns.
At a glance
| Captain Data | Clay | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free trial | Free plan |
| Starts at | €59.99 per 1,000 credits, billed monthly (from 2,500 credits) | $167 per month for 2,500 data credits, billed annually |
| Free plan | None | 100 data credits and 500 actions a month, unlimited seats and tables, up to 200 rows per table, waterfalls and Claygent. No phone number enrichment. |
| Free trial | 100 free credits, no credit card required | 14-day trial of paid plans |
| Web | ||
| Made by | Captain Data | Clay Labs Inc. |
| Price read from | captaindata.com | clay.com |
| Checked | Nov 13, 2026 | Oct 17, 2026 |
Worth knowing
Captain Data
- The page was read with the euro setting showing; a US dollar setting exists but its figures were not confirmed.
- Unused credits do not roll over month to month on monthly billing.
- Pricing scales with volume only, and there is no per-seat plan or dashboard prospecting app.
Clay
- Two meters apply: data credits pay providers for data, and actions count each enrichment or export. Both are sized separately on paid plans.
- Data credits start at $0.05 each; extra credits cost 30% more than plan credits on Launch and Growth.
- Actions reset each billing cycle; data credits roll over up to twice the monthly amount on Launch and Growth.
- The free plan has no phone number enrichment and stops at 200 rows per table.
Key features
Captain Data
- People enrichment
- Return a full profile from a LinkedIn profile URL for 1 credit per record.
- Find people and companies
- Resolve a person from a name and optional company, or a company from a name or domain, at 2 credits per record.
- Search endpoints
- People and company search cost 1 credit per request plus 1 credit per result, with one page counted as one request.
- Company employees
- Retrieve the employees of a given company through a dedicated endpoint, billed per request and per result.
- MCP server
- A Model Context Protocol server exposes the same data to Claude, Cursor and other agents.
Clay
- Waterfall enrichment
- A column asks one data provider after another until a value is found, drawing on more than 150 providers. A lookup that returns nothing costs nothing.
- Claygent
- An AI agent with web research that fills in custom data points a provider does not sell. It is included on every plan, the free one too.
- Audiences and search
- Build lists of companies and people from Clay's search and imports. Paid plans add unlimited search and CSV uploads.
- Signals
- Track job changes, promotions, new hires, company news and social posts from Launch, and website intent from Growth.
- Sequencer and integrations
- Send email from Clay's own sequencer or push leads to Instantly, lemlist, Outreach and HubSpot sequences.
- CRM and warehouse sync
- Growth syncs and enriches CRM records automatically and connects to Snowflake, BigQuery, Databricks and Postgres.
Plans
Captain Data
Silver (20,000 credits)€600
per month for 20,000 credits, billed monthly
Shown on the volume slider at €29.99 per 1,000 credits, 50% under the €59.99 base rate.
Clay
Free$0
100 data credits and 500 actions a month, unlimited seats, 200 rows per table, waterfalls, Claygent and your own API keys.
Launch$167
per month for 2,500 data credits, billed annually ($185 monthly)
Plus 15,000 actions a month, phone enrichment, job-change signals and email sending. Data credits alone are $414 a month at 10,000 a month, billed annually.
Growth$446
per month for 6,000 data credits, billed annually ($495 monthly)
Plus 40,000 actions a month, CRM auto-sync, HTTP API and webhook automation, web intent signals, ad audiences and priority support.
EnterpriseCustom
Annual commitment, 100,000+ data credits, Clay API access, SSO, SCIM, role-based access and a dedicated growth strategist.
Ways to pay less
Captain Data
No public discounts listed.
Clay
- Annual discount
Save 10% with annual billing
Clay's pricing page marks annual billing as a 10% saving: Launch starts at $167 a month billed yearly against $185 billed monthly.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, Captain Data or Clay?
As of Nov 13, 2026, Captain Data is cheaper to start with: about $67.02 a month, against $167 a month for Clay. Captain Data starts at €59.99 per 1,000 credits, billed monthly (from 2,500 credits), and Clay starts at $167 per month for 2,500 data credits, billed annually.
Which has a free plan, Captain Data or Clay?
As of Nov 13, 2026, only Clay has a free plan. Captain Data does not, though it has a free trial.
More comparisons
How this page was made
- The verdict at the top follows a fixed rule. When both tools are in the same category and either is in our top three for it, the verdict follows that ranking: the higher-placed tool is our pick. The top three weigh who each tool suits as well as its grades, so a pick can go against the GPA. Otherwise the page does not pick one and says which grades higher: the higher GPA first; on a tie, the one with a free plan, then the one that starts cheaper in dollars a month, counted the same way for both; if they are still level, what the choice depends on.
- The grades are our own, from each tool’s review or report card. The GPA is their average.
- Prices, plans and platforms come from each tool’s listing. The table above says where each price was read and when.
- The differences and the answers to the questions are worked out from those listings.