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Category · Sync

CRM APIs, or where the rows go to be useful

Six providers that put the result somewhere a rep will actually see it. Skip this stage and you have built an expensive pipeline whose output lives in a spreadsheet nobody opens.

See the 6 providers All 26 GTM APIs
unit-cost.txt entry plans
hubspot · free tier$0
apollo · 1 credit$0.02
From $0 to $0.02, and the unit decides more than the vendor unit prices, Sept-Oct 2026
6providers in this category
3usable at zero cost
0bill per call, no floor
6ship an MCP server
The category

What this stage actually buys you

This is the stage teams skip, and it is the reason so many enrichment pipelines quietly stop being used after a quarter. The data was good, the cost was fine, and nobody wired it into the place where work happens.

There is no cost argument for skipping it. HubSpot includes full CRM API access on its free tier, so the write-back step in any pipeline on this site costs exactly nothing. Attio has a free plan too, and both publish an official MCP server alongside the REST API.

The decision between them is not price, it is whether your data model fits. If your motion runs on contacts and deals, HubSpot is free and your reps already know it. If it runs on something else, being able to define your own objects stops being a nice-to-have.

The directory

Every sync provider, filtered

Filtered to the 6 providers that serve this stage. Billing model is the filter worth starting with, because it decides whether a quiet month costs you anything.

Reviewed in full, with each rate card read off the vendor's own page: Apollo, HubSpot and Attio.

Also reviewed here: Pipedrive, Salesforce and Salesloft.

Showing 6 of 6

Apollo API

Best all-in-one GTM API
Featured
MotionSourceEnrichEngageSync
ModelMCP serverFree tierPer seat

One of the few providers here that covers sourcing, enrichment and sending behind a single key, which is why it is usually the first API a GTM team wires up and the last one they rip out. The catch is that credits and seats are coupled, so the API inherits a per-seat price even when no human logs in.

  • People and organization search across Apollo's own database
  • Enrichment returns 1 credit for email, 9 if a mobile comes back
  • Sequence, contact and task endpoints cost 0 credits
  • Credits are granted per seat per YEAR, not per month

From$49/seat/mo

Visit Read the review

HubSpot API

Best free CRM endpoint
MotionSyncEngage
ModelMCP serverFree tierPer seat

Every enrichment pipeline eventually has to land somewhere a rep will look. HubSpot gives you full CRM object access on the free tier, which makes it the cheapest place to put the rows you just paid for.

  • CRM objects, associations, properties and workflows over REST
  • Two official MCP servers, one remote for the CRM, one local for builds
  • Free tier includes API access, not just the interface

FromFree tier

Visit Read the review

Attio API

Best API-first CRM
MotionSync
ModelMCP serverFree tierPer seat

Attio treats the schema as yours rather than theirs, so the objects your GTM motion actually runs on do not have to be bent into somebody else's idea of a deal. The MCP server, API and SDK ship as one developer platform.

  • Custom objects and attributes defined through the API
  • MCP server published alongside the REST API and SDK
  • Free plan available, paid from $44 per user per month

From$44/user/mo

Visit Read the review

Pipedrive

Best CRM API for small sales teams
MotionSyncEngage
ModelMCP serverPer seat

Pipedrive is the CRM most small sales teams already run, and its API is priced into the seat rather than metered. What it does meter is complexity: every endpoint has a token cost and every account has a daily budget, so a search costs twenty times what a read does.

  • No per-call charge. API access comes with every paid seat
  • Daily budget is 30,000 tokens times a plan multiplier times seats
  • A search costs 40 tokens, a single read costs 2

FromUS$14/seat/mo

Visit Read the review

Salesforce

Best CRM API for enterprise integration
MotionSyncEngage
ModelMCP serverPer seat

Salesforce has the deepest API surface of any CRM in this directory, and the only one you have to buy on purpose. On Pro Suite the Web Services API is a $25 per user per month add-on; from Core it is included. What you get then is not one API but more than a dozen, metered as a daily org budget rather than a request rate.

  • API access costs $25/user/mo extra on Pro Suite, included from Core
  • Daily org budget: 100,000 calls plus 1,000 per Enterprise license
  • REST, SOAP, Bulk 2.0, GraphQL, Metadata, Tooling and Pub/Sub

FromUS$125/seat/mo

Visit Read the review

Salesloft

Best documented cost-based rate limit
MotionEngageSync
ModelMCP serverPer seat

Salesloft publishes no price and documents its rate limit better than almost anyone here. The limit is 600 cost per minute for the whole team, every endpoint has a cost, and asking for page 501 of a list costs 30 of your 600 instead of 1.

  • 600 cost a minute, shared across every integration on the team
  • Deep paging is charged: page 501 and beyond costs 30 instead of 1
  • No published price. The pricing page is titled Talk to Sales

FromQuote only

Visit Read the review
Buyer's guide

Four things that decide this choice

In the order they cost you money.

01

Write back or the pipeline is theater

Enriched rows that land in a spreadsheet get used for about a quarter. Enriched rows that land on the record a rep opens every morning get used indefinitely. This is the whole argument for this stage and it is not really about the API.

02

Route on enriched data, not on form fields

What someone types into a company-size dropdown is a guess. What your enrichment returned for their domain is a fact. Assign owners from the enriched firmographics and your routing stops depending on prospect honesty.

03

Custom objects, or the schema becomes the constraint

Standard CRMs model contacts, companies and deals. If your motion runs on partners, locations, vehicles or franchises, you either bend it into notes fields forever or you pick a CRM that lets you define the object properly.

04

Upsert, never insert

Every pipeline eventually processes the same person twice. A write path that creates rather than matches turns a working pipeline into a duplicate generator, and cleaning that up costs more than the enrichment did.

Keep going

Comparisons, stacks and alternatives

The same providers, seen three other ways: head to head on the compare hub, by the reason teams leave on the alternatives hub, and wired together with the cost run end to end on the stacks hub.

Every pairing in this stage, with the arithmetic done on a worked volume: HubSpot vs Attio, HubSpot vs Salesforce, Pipedrive vs Salesforce and Attio vs Salesforce.

Also read side by side: HubSpot vs Pipedrive, Attio vs Pipedrive, Clay vs HubSpot and Attio vs Clay.

And: HubSpot vs Zoho CRM, Pipedrive vs Zoho CRM, Salesforce vs Zoho CRM and Apollo vs HubSpot.

And: Apollo vs Attio, Attio vs folk, HubSpot vs Close and HubSpot vs Freshsales.

And: Attio vs Twenty, HubSpot vs Copper, Attio vs Close and HubSpot vs folk.

Teams leaving one of these have somewhere to go: Apollo, Salesforce and HubSpot.

Teams leaving one of these have somewhere to go: Pipedrive and Attio.

HubSpot API vs Attio API

Compare

A free CRM API against a CRM whose data model you define in code.

Compare them →

HubSpot API vs Salesforce

Compare

A CRM that gives the API away against one that sells it by the seat.

Compare them →

Pipedrive vs Salesforce

Compare

US$14 a seat with the API included against US$125 a seat before the first call.

Compare them →

Inbound speed to lead

Stack

Form submission to enriched, verified, routed and sequenced in under a minute, with no human in the path.

See the stack →

Agent-driven account research

Stack

Point an AI client at two MCP servers and have it write a researched account brief straight into the CRM.

See the stack →

Apollo API alternatives

Alts

Apollo's credit is level with the specialists once you read the period on it. What sends teams looking is the seat it is attached to, the license, or a European list.

See the alternatives →

Salesforce alternatives

Alts

Almost nobody leaves Salesforce because the API is bad. They leave because reaching it costs $125 a seat.

See the alternatives →

HubSpot API alternatives

Alts

The free tier is the best in the category. The bill when you outgrow it is why people look at HubSpot alternatives.

See the alternatives →

Pipedrive alternatives

Alts

A $14 seat with the API included. The daily token budget is what people hit before they start looking.

See the alternatives →

Picking the provider is the easy half

We run the bake-off on your own list, pick the order, and build the pipeline behind it: routing, credit ceilings and the write-back that puts the result in front of a rep the same day.

See the stacks

Worked with 300+ companies. A senior operator runs your account.

FAQ

CRM and sync APIs, answered

How many CRM and sync APIs are in this directory?

6, each with its own review carrying the price, the rate limit and the auth method read from the vendor's own pages.

Which CRM and sync APIs have a free tier?

Apollo, HubSpot and Attio. What each free tier includes differs a lot, so the review says what you actually get.

How are CRM and sync APIs billed?

1 of the 6 charges per unit (Apollo); the rest sell a plan, where what you are buying is throughput rather than volume.

Which ones ship an MCP server?

Apollo, HubSpot, Attio, Pipedrive, Salesforce and Salesloft. The ones the directory reviews live on the MCP page with the connect details.