A side-by-side look at how the two compare, and which one fits your use case.
| Dimension | PersistData | Kaspr |
|---|---|---|
| Data model | Server-side data API; per-request fetch, not a large owned brand-name database | Hybrid: an owned/aggregated database plus a LinkedIn-session Chrome extension. Kaspr markets a database of "500M+ phone numbers and emails globally" with a strong European focus (its site cites ~120M European contacts) and says it verifies against 150+ sources (vendor claims, not independently audited). For scale context, France's CNIL stated in its Dec 2024 decision that Kaspr's database held "about 160 million contacts," materially smaller than the 500M+ headline. The flagship workflow is a Chrome extension running on top of your own logged-in LinkedIn / Sales Navigator session. Kaspr states it "does not scrape" and only matches its database; the CNIL's published decision found it had unlawfully collected details from profiles whose owners had restricted visibility (CNIL, Dec 2024). Primary workflow is NOT server-side, with the REST API as the exception (as of June 2026). |
| Login / seat required | No login, no seat, no extension | Yes to all three for the main workflow: per kaspr.io and the Chrome Web Store listing (as of June 2026), the headline product requires a Kaspr account/paid seat, the Chrome extension installed, and that extension connected to your own logged-in LinkedIn account. A web-app dashboard exists for lead management and CSV enrichment, but the flagship is the LinkedIn extension. The only login/seat/extension-free path is the REST API, described as "limited" from Starter and "full" from Business+. |
| LinkedIn account ban risk | None; fully server-side, never touches your LinkedIn session | Real and non-trivial for the extension workflow, which runs inside your authentic logged-in LinkedIn session. Kaspr's own help center advises pacing profile visits, spreading them across the day, and hiding the extension (Kaspr "LinkedIn profile-visit guidelines"), which itself signals the risk; some G2 reviewers report LinkedIn flagging activity after install (user-reported). Exception: the Kaspr REST API is served server-side and carries no LinkedIn-account risk. Fairness caveat: a no-LinkedIn-risk path is NOT exclusive to PersistData; Kaspr's own API and any database-served vendor also avoid it. PersistData's distinction is that its ENTIRE product, not just an API tier, is server-side (as of June 2026). |
| Pricing model | One-time packs or month-to-month; transparent per-credit (PersistData's published terms) | Credit-based subscription. Per kaspr.io/pricing (June 2026): Free $0/mo; Starter ~$49/mo (€45/£39) annual, higher monthly (~$65/mo); Business ~$79/mo (€79/£69, marked "BEST VALUE") annual, higher monthly (~$99/mo); Enterprise custom-quoted/unpublished. Kaspr states annual billing is ~25% cheaper than monthly. Scarce metered credits are phone and direct-email; "unlimited B2B emails" are listed without qualifier, though third-party reviewers (e.g. prospeo.io) describe them as generic/company addresses. All figures are vendor list prices. |
| Approx. $ per record | ~$0.02-$0.10 per credit; 1 credit per profile/company, 5 credits per verified email (PersistData's stated rates) | Roughly ~$0.40-$0.80 per phone/direct-email credit at published list prices (OUR estimate from kaspr.io, not a Kaspr-published per-record rate). Worked example: Starter ~$49/mo for ~100 phone credits/mo ≈ ~$0.49 per phone record (direct emails far scarcer at ~5/mo, so much pricier each); Business ~$79/mo for ~200 phone + ~200 direct-email credits/mo ≈ ~$0.20 per metered credit if fully used. Generic "B2B emails" are unlimited (effectively $0) but company-level, not verified direct contacts. On these estimates this is materially higher per verified direct record than PersistData's stated ~$0.02-$0.10/credit; Enterprise is custom-quoted and could narrow the gap, and true blended $/record at scale is unknown (list prices as of June 2026). |
| Pay only for found | Yes; a not-found costs 0 credits (per PersistData's terms) | Yes, per Kaspr's stated model: its FAQ says a credit is charged only when a contact is successfully revealed, a miss costs 0 credits, and revealing both a phone and an email costs two credits (one each). This is the same model PersistData uses, so pay-for-found is NOT a PersistData-exclusive advantage; Kaspr and several other credit-based vendors also do not charge for empty lookups (Kaspr FAQ; as of June 2026). |
| Free tier | Evaluation via low-cost packs (no perpetual free plan) | Yes, per kaspr.io/pricing (June 2026): Free plan at $0/mo with 15 B2B email + 5 phone + 5 direct-email credits/mo, a 100-lead export cap, Chrome extension access, lead management, and limited CSV enrichment. Presented as a genuine perpetual free tier (not a time-limited trial) but deliberately thin on the scarce phone/direct-email credits. |
| Annual lock-in | None; one-time packs or month-to-month | Yes, per Kaspr's own terms: subscriptions run monthly or yearly and are "automatically renewed by tacit agreement" (kaspr.io/terms), and the cancellation help article requires notice before renewal (commonly described as at least 48 hours before a monthly renewal or one month before an annual one). Separately, billing is the single biggest source of negative third-party feedback: Trustpilot reviewers (~1.6/5) cluster on surprise auto-renewal charges, refund refusals, and billing disputes; these are user reports, not adjudicated findings (kaspr.io/terms; Trustpilot; as of June 2026). |
| API access | API-first by design; server-side, no seat | Yes; a key-based REST API exists but access is tier-gated, per Kaspr's docs and pricing page. You create an account, generate a key, and call REST endpoints (docs at kaspr.stoplight.io / docs.developers.kaspr.io) for fields such as name, email, phone, and job title, including lookups by LinkedIn ID. Pricing lists "limited" API on Starter and "full" on Business and above. We could not independently verify, beyond Kaspr's own pages, the exact boundary of "limited" vs "full." Net: developers can get programmatic server-side access, but the unrestricted version sits behind the higher paid tier (as of June 2026). |
Kaspr's clearest edge is European/EMEA mobile and direct-dial phone coverage (it cites ~120M European contacts, a vendor claim), which reviewers consistently single out, paired with a fast, LinkedIn-native prospecting UX across profiles, Sales Navigator, groups, and events. It offers self-serve SMB onboarding with a genuine perpetual free tier, solid CRM/sales-tool integrations (HubSpot, Salesforce, Pipedrive, Ringover), a pay-for-found credit model, and credibility as Cognism's self-serve SMB layer (Cognism acquired Kaspr in 2022, confirmed). Its review profile is split: approximately 4.4/5 across ~831 G2 reviews (European, small-business skew, as of June 2026), where users praise the UX and EMEA phone data, against a poor approximately 1.6/5 across ~85 Trustpilot reviews driven almost entirely by billing/auto-renewal/refund complaints (user reports) rather than data quality.
PersistData fits when you want a fully server-side data layer with no login, no seat, and no extension, so your LinkedIn account is never in the loop, versus Kaspr's flagship extension that runs on your own logged-in session. It is month-to-month or one-time packs with no auto-renewal trap, addressing the most-repeated complaint in Kaspr's Trustpilot reviews, and at PersistData's stated ~$0.02-$0.10/credit it is materially cheaper per verified direct record than Kaspr's list-price estimates. Two honesty notes: pay-for-found is shared, not exclusive (Kaspr's FAQ says a miss costs 0 credits too), and Kaspr's own REST API also carries no LinkedIn-account risk; PersistData's distinction is that its entire product, not just an API tier, is server-side.