A side-by-side look at how the two compare, and which one fits your use case.
| Dimension | PersistData | Clearbit (now HubSpot Breeze Intelligence) |
|---|---|---|
| Data model | Server-side data API; per-request fetch, not a large owned brand-name database | Data model: Owned/aggregated database, not a live LinkedIn scraper. The vendor markets a proprietary dataset built from many public and third-party sources (commonly cited as '250+ sources') and refreshed on a roughly 30-day cycle. Scale is a vendor/third-party marketing claim, not independently audited: commonly cited (vendor pages and review blogs, June 2026) as ~44-48M+ companies and ~350-360M+ business contacts with 100+ attributes. Operated under APIHub, Inc., listed in the California AG data-broker registry (San Francisco, CA). |
| Login / seat required | No login, no seat, no extension | Login / seat required: Yes, substantially so post-acquisition. As of June 2026, public sources indicate it is effectively unusable without a paid HubSpot subscription (reported minimum: a Starter Customer Platform / paid seat); there is no standalone Breeze Intelligence purchase and no non-HubSpot CRM path. Per Clearbit's and HubSpot's announcements, the legacy Chrome extension / Clearbit Connect and free tools were sunset (all free Clearbit tools April 30, 2025; Logo API December 8, 2025). It does NOT require a LinkedIn login. |
| LinkedIn account ban risk | None; fully server-side, never touches your LinkedIn session | LinkedIn account ban risk: Effectively none for your LinkedIn account; Breeze matches against its own aggregated database and, per the vendor's description, does not run under your LinkedIn session or cookie. For fairness, this safety property is NOT exclusive to PersistData; most owned-database vendors (ZoomInfo, Apollo, Cognism) share it. The more relevant risk class here is contractual/platform dependence on HubSpot, not LinkedIn bans. No credible public report links Breeze to LinkedIn-account bans (June 2026). |
| Pricing model | One-time packs or month-to-month; transparent per-credit (PersistData's published terms) | Pricing model: Credit-based and bundled into HubSpot's seat/credit model; no clean public per-credit list price for the data itself. As of June 2026, third-party sources commonly cite an entry tier of ~$45/mo (annual) or ~$50/mo (monthly) for 100 credits, varying by HubSpot plan. Larger 1,000 / 10,000-credit pack prices are NOT published by HubSpot; circulating figures (~$150-$450 and ~$700-$4,500/mo) are third-party estimates. A June 2025 migration moved billing to unified HubSpot Credits (widely cited ~$0.01/credit). The dominant real cost is the required HubSpot subscription (Professional/Enterprise can run well over $1,000/mo before credits); enterprise pricing is custom-quoted. |
| Approx. $ per record | ~$0.02-$0.10 per credit; 1 credit per profile/company, 5 credits per verified email (PersistData's stated rates) | Approx. $ per record: No clean public per-record number. Per third-party sources and HubSpot's own materials, standard contact/company enrichment is now effectively $0 on a paid (Core) seat since around September 2025. Credit-consuming actions are cited at ~$0.01/credit; at entry-pack math ($45-$50 per 100 credits) that is roughly $0.45-$0.50 per record for credit-billed actions, and advanced actions consume multiple credits (blog estimates ~$0.10 per research task, ~$1.00 per recommended lead; approximate, not official). Present as roughly $0.01-$0.50 per record, caveated that core enrichment is now seat-bundled rather than cleanly priced per record and effective cost is disputed across sources (June 2026). |
| Pay only for found | Yes; a not-found costs 0 credits (per PersistData's terms) | Pay only for found: Not disclosed / unverified for Breeze. HubSpot's docs say credits are consumed 'when specific actions are performed' but do NOT state whether a credit is skipped or refunded on a no-match. Standard enrichment is reported free on a paid seat (post-~Sept 2025), so basic fills are effectively zero-cost regardless of match, and re-enriching an already-charged record within the same term is reportedly not re-charged. Whether a credit-consuming ADVANCED action still burns a credit on a miss could not be verified from any official source. PersistData's 'miss = 0 credits' is a genuine differentiator, but we do NOT assert that Breeze charges on a miss. |
| Free tier | Evaluation via low-cost packs (no perpetual free plan) | Free tier: No standalone free tier. Per Clearbit's help center and HubSpot's changelog, legacy free Clearbit tools/APIs were discontinued April 30, 2025 and the free Logo API was sunset December 8, 2025; no free trial of Breeze Intelligence is publicly offered. Caveats (June 2026): basic/standard contact and company enrichment is reported included at no extra credit cost on paid HubSpot (Core) seats since ~September 2025, but that still requires a paid HubSpot subscription; HubSpot's free CRM does not include Breeze enrichment. Net: nothing is usable for free without paying for HubSpot. |
| Annual lock-in | None; one-time packs or month-to-month | Annual lock-in: Yes; annual commitment terms apply via HubSpot contracts, documented in HubSpot's own knowledge base and Terms of Service. Per those docs: subscriptions are typically annual commitments that auto-renew unless auto-renewal is turned off before term end; HubSpot states it does not allow cancellation before the end of the current term (you are billed through term end); and downgrades/cancellations, including credit-capacity packs, take effect only at term end. The best monthly credit price generally requires the annual commitment; month-to-month carries higher unit cost. Some reviewers additionally report that exceeding a credit limit can auto-bump the account to a higher tier for the rest of the contract (user/reviewer-reported, not confirmed official behavior). |
| API access | API-first by design; server-side, no seat | API access: Largely retired as an independent product, per Clearbit/HubSpot announcements and multiple third-party sources. Standalone Clearbit Enrichment, Prospector, Reveal, Risk, and Logo APIs have been deprecated/retired (Logo API shut down December 8, 2025). Reports indicate new API keys are not issued to accounts created in 2024 or later, and only some legacy 2023-and-earlier accounts may retain key access (reported but NOT officially confirmed). As of June 2026 there is no standalone, key-based Breeze Intelligence data API sold on its own; enrichment is consumed inside HubSpot behind a paid contract (meaningful programmatic use is generally enterprise tier). It is no longer API-first. |
The standalone Clearbit product no longer exists: per HubSpot's own announcements it was acquired (announced Nov 1, 2023, closed Dec 4, 2023) and rebranded to Breeze Intelligence at INBOUND on September 18, 2024, so this comparison is partly historical and explains why a standalone API-first option like PersistData has a place. Importantly, Breeze was absorbed and rebranded by an acquirer, not shut down for legal reasons, and the capability lives on inside HubSpot. Within HubSpot it is genuinely best-in-class: native zero-setup CRM auto-enrichment, form shortening, and workflow triggers; strong firmographic/company enrichment plus ICP fit scoring (vendor cites 40-100+ attributes and an ~30-day refresh); first-party buyer-intent and website de-anonymization (Reveal heritage); and a HubSpot-backed brand and compliance posture (SOC 2 / GDPR-CCPA / ISO 27001 claims are vendor/third-party-reported and should be re-verified against HubSpot's current trust center). Review standing is strong: G2 approximately 4.4/5 across roughly 625-629 reviews as of June 2026, listed as "Breeze Intelligence (formerly Clearbit)"; we do not cite a Trustpilot score because that page exists with too few reviews (~2) to be reliable.
PersistData fits when you want a standalone, API-first data layer you can call from your own software without a HubSpot seat, a CRM login, or an annual contract; since Clearbit's standalone APIs have been retired and enrichment is now consumed inside HubSpot, a developer or non-HubSpot team that wants key-based programmatic access is the clearest place PersistData genuinely wins. It is also month-to-month or one-time packs with no annual lock-in, against HubSpot's documented annual-commitment-and-auto-renewal structure, and it charges 0 credits on a miss. Be honest about the limits, though: Breeze also carries no LinkedIn-account ban risk (that safety is shared with most owned-database vendors, not exclusive to PersistData), its standard contact/company enrichment is now effectively free on a paid HubSpot seat, and whether Breeze charges per attempt on a miss is not disclosed, so PersistData's pay-for-found is framed as our confirmed policy rather than a proven contrast against Breeze.