A side-by-side look at how the two compare, and which one fits your use case.
| Dimension | PersistData | Proxycurl |
|---|---|---|
| Data model | Server-side data API; per-request fetch, not a large owned brand-name database | Owned aggregated database built by large-scale LinkedIn scraping, served from its LinkDB cache or live-fetched per request (no customer cookie). Proxycurl marketed LinkDB as "over 485 million" profiles (vendor claim, per nubela.co; not independently verified, with other sources citing lower figures such as ~401M). Per Proxycurl's docs, requests could serve cached records or fetch live (~88% real-time, up to ~29-day freshness; vendor figures). This is the same broad server-side architecture PersistData uses, so the model itself is not a PersistData-exclusive edge; the difference is data-sourcing and operational status. Note: the service is defunct as of July 2025. |
| Login / seat required | No login, no seat, no extension | No. Per Proxycurl's own docs and Postman tutorials (nubela.co), it was API-first: sign up, copy a Bearer key, call REST endpoints server-to-server, with no paid seat and no Chrome extension. On this dimension PersistData is comparable to how Proxycurl operated, not uniquely better. (Historical; service shut down July 2025.) |
| LinkedIn account ban risk | None; fully server-side, never touches your LinkedIn session | None to the customer's LinkedIn account. Per Proxycurl's published docs, the workflow ran on Proxycurl's own database and live-fetching, not the buyer's logged-in session or cookie, so a buyer's personal LinkedIn account was not exposed to bans. This "no customer-account risk because it is server-side" property is NOT exclusive to PersistData; Proxycurl shared it while operating. The platform-level risk fell on Proxycurl and proved terminal: LinkedIn (Microsoft) sued in January 2025 ALLEGING mass fake-account scraping, and Proxycurl ceased operations July 4, 2025. Net for a 2026 buyer: no account-ban risk because the service no longer exists. |
| Pricing model | One-time packs or month-to-month; transparent per-credit (PersistData's published terms) | Credit-based subscriptions plus pay-as-you-go. Per Proxycurl's pricing page (nubela.co/proxycurl/pricing.html, archived copy, NOT re-verified against a live page; service is gone): subscriptions ran roughly Starter 2,500 credits/$49/mo, Growth 25,000/$299, Pro ~89,900/$899, Ultra ~211,000/$1,899, Enterprise below that, with subscription credits issued "12+2 months upfront, expiring in a year" and auto-renewal. Pay-as-you-go (no monthly commitment) reportedly ran $10 for 100 credits down to ~$1,000 for ~46,297 credits. All figures are historical and approximate. |
| Approx. $ per record | ~$0.02-$0.10 per credit; 1 credit per profile/company, 5 credits per verified email (PersistData's stated rates) | Roughly $0.009-$0.02 per credit on subscription tiers and ~$0.0216-$0.10 per credit on pay-as-you-go (cheapest at the largest top-up), with 1 credit = 1 person profile on the core endpoint (some endpoints cost more, e.g. Employee Search reportedly 10 credits/request plus 6 per employee returned). Per Proxycurl's published pricing page (archived, not re-verified live). These are low per-record figures sitting in a similar band to what PersistData targets (~$0.02-$0.10/credit), so PersistData's low per-credit pricing is competitive but not category-defining versus what Proxycurl charged. |
| Pay only for found | Yes; a not-found costs 0 credits (per PersistData's terms) | No. Per Proxycurl's own blog posts ("Why Do We Charge Credits for 404s?"), Proxycurl charged a credit for a not-found (HTTP 404), treating it as a successful query because its servers did the lookup work; it stated it did not charge for genuine infrastructure failures (503, 429). This is a real, source-backed advantage for PersistData, whose "a miss = 0 credits" model is more customer-friendly than Proxycurl's documented charge-on-404 policy. Fair caveat: pay-for-found is not unique to PersistData across the market, but it is a genuine edge specifically versus Proxycurl's stated policy. |
| Free tier | Evaluation via low-cost packs (no perpetual free plan) | Yes, modest. Per Proxycurl's getting-started and Postman tutorials (nubela.co), new accounts received 10 free credits on signup with no credit card (enough for ~10 test calls), and a few endpoints were permanently free (e.g., profile-picture, disposable-email-check). Figures are historical, as the service no longer operates. |
| Annual lock-in | None; one-time packs or month-to-month | Yes, on discounted subscription tiers. Per Proxycurl's pricing page, subscriptions carried a 12-month commitment with credits "12+2 months upfront, expiring within a year" and auto-renewal. Its escape hatch was pay-as-you-go, which had no monthly commitment (credits described as not expiring except after 18 months of payment inactivity). So PersistData's "month-to-month or one-time packs, no annual lock-in" was a genuine advantage over Proxycurl's subscription tiers, though Proxycurl's own PAYG tier was also commitment-free, so a no-lock-in path existed there too. Figures are historical. |
| API access | API-first by design; server-side, no seat | Yes; the API was the entire product. Per Proxycurl's docs and SDK repos (github.com/nubelaco), access was key-based REST (Bearer token from the dashboard), available to every account including the free tier and not gated behind a top/enterprise tier, with official Python/JS SDKs, Postman collections, and ~21 documented endpoints. Directly comparable to PersistData's API-first positioning. Reflects the service as it operated before its July 2025 shutdown. |
Important context first: Proxycurl is defunct. Per the founder's farewell post (nubela.co), it permanently ceased operations on July 4, 2025 after LinkedIn/Microsoft filed a January 2025 federal suit ALLEGING mass fake-account scraping, with trade press (Social Media Today, Law.com) reporting a permanent injunction around July 28, 2025; this page is therefore historical, and PersistData exists to fill the gap it left. When it was running, Proxycurl was, by its docs and developer reputation, a strong API-only LinkedIn enrichment service: a clean Bearer-key REST API, official Python/JS SDKs, ~21 endpoints, deep person/company attributes (vendor-claimed 50+ person and 27+ company attributes), freshness controls, and low published per-record cost, reportedly reaching roughly $10M ARR (trade-press figure). Its review footprint was thin because it sold to developers rather than GTM buyers: G2 reportedly around 3.9/5 on a small, unconfirmed review count, and a small Trustpilot presence (~10 reviews per a search snippet, not directly confirmed), as of June 2026.
PersistData fits whenever you need an operating, predictable, server-side data API today; the most basic win over Proxycurl is simply that PersistData is live and Proxycurl is not. On commercial model, PersistData's \"a miss = 0 credits / pay-only-for-found\" is genuinely more customer-friendly than Proxycurl's documented charge-on-404 policy, and its month-to-month or one-time packs avoid the 12-month commitment Proxycurl required on its discounted subscription tiers. Be clear about what is NOT exclusive, though: the \"no customer LinkedIn-account ban risk because it's fully server-side\" property is something Proxycurl also had while operating, pay-for-found is offered by some other vendors too, and Proxycurl's PAYG tier was likewise commitment-free, so those are advantages over Proxycurl's subscription tiers rather than category-defining firsts.