Crustdata (YC F24) Review: Drive Growth With Live Sales & Hiring Alerts

Missing timely data can seriously stall your growth.

If you’re looking to act on the latest company or people signals, finding accurate, up-to-date data—without endless manual research—is a real headache when evaluating data platforms like Crustdata. Here’s the truth: Most data solutions leave you dealing with stale leads and missed opportunities every single day, and that’s costing you deals and momentum. Crustdata tackles this with a platform built for instant company and people data, delivering live signals through APIs and monthly flat files. From automatic CRM enrichment to AI-powered lead curation, I’ve dug deep to see how it compares with other B2B data tools.

In this review, I’ll break down how Crustdata gives you live insights that actually help you move faster when sourcing, qualifying, and nurturing accounts.

So, in this Crustdata review, you’ll get a clear picture of its standout features, value for sales and marketing workflows, real pricing details, plus how it stacks up against its closest competitors.

By the end, you’ll know if this platform offers the features you need to find and act on valuable signals before anyone else.

Let’s get started.

Crustdata Overview

Crustdata is a newer data intelligence player, founded back in 2020. Headquartered in India with a US office, their core mission is making valuable company signals easy for anyone to access.

They’re laser-focused on B2B companies needing the absolute freshest data for sales, recruiting, or investment. Their specialty is catching early buying signals like stealth hires—information that legacy platforms often miss entirely.

They recently raised $500K in seed funding with Y Combinator’s backing. I think this move, which we’ll analyze through this Crustdata review, injects serious credibility into their technology roadmap.

Unlike competitors that rely on aggregated third-party lists, Crustdata is a first-party data provider. You get data directly from the source, which I find leads to higher accuracy and more timely signals.

I’ve seen them work with everyone from agile sales teams to data scientists and venture capital firms. They’re a solid fit for organizations that can’t afford to operate on last quarter’s stale data.

Their strategic focus is clearly on API-first delivery, designed to feed modern AI systems and custom data stacks. It’s a smart response to the need for embedding live intelligence into your own tools.

Now let’s examine their core capabilities.

Crustdata Features

Tired of making critical business decisions with outdated data?

Crustdata features provide real-time company and people intelligence, helping you stay ahead in a competitive market. Here are the five main Crustdata features that revolutionize how you access and use business data.

1. Real-time API Access for Company Signals

Are you still relying on stale company data?

Outdated business intelligence can lead to missed opportunities or misinformed decisions. This can seriously impact your sales and investment strategies.

Crustdata’s API delivers live company signals, providing instant updates on hiring, funding rounds, and key events. From my testing, this feature is incredibly responsive, allowing sales teams to act on account triggers as they happen.

This means you get immediate access to critical data, enabling faster, smarter decision-making and more targeted outreach.

2. Real-time People Data via APIs

Struggling to keep track of key individuals’ career moves?

Keeping contact information current and understanding professional changes is a constant challenge. You might miss crucial shifts within target accounts.

This feature offers live signals from individuals, allowing you to search, enrich, or monitor anyone in real-time. What I found impressive is how quickly it alerts you to career changes or executive hires, which is fantastic for recruiting.

The result is you can easily track champions within your target accounts, ensuring your outreach is always relevant and timely.

3. Flat File Company & People Data

Need bulk data but not real-time API calls?

Building robust analytics or machine learning models often requires large volumes of comprehensive data. Relying solely on APIs for this can be inefficient and costly.

Crustdata provides monthly refreshed datasets, unifying information from over 11 trusted sources. You can easily filter this data by criteria like funding, stage, or industry, making it cost-effective for internal systems.

This means your team can enrich existing data, build powerful analytics, or train ML models with fresh, comprehensive datasets without constant API calls.

4. Dynamic CRM Enrichment

Is your CRM data constantly going stale?

Maintaining accurate prospect and customer profiles is a headache, as data frequently changes. Stale CRM records lead to wasted sales and marketing efforts.

This feature uses AI to automatically update your CRM, ensuring your team always has fresh contact information and business intelligence. Here’s what I found: Crustdata keeps your profiles accurate and current, directly integrating with your existing systems.

This ensures your sales and marketing efforts are always based on the most up-to-date information, drastically improving effectiveness and conversion rates.

5. AI-Powered Thematic Company Screener (Company GPT)

Spending too much time manually building targeted lists?

Finding specific company profiles, like fintech startups with recent funding, can be incredibly time-consuming. You often miss out on highly relevant leads.

Company GPT leverages AI to enrich prospect lists, curating data from various internet sources. This is where Crustdata shines, offering granular searches like “fintech companies that raised Series A in 90 days”.

So as a marketer, you can generate highly targeted lists and gain in-depth company insights, leading to more relevant and impactful outreach.

You’ll actually appreciate how these Crustdata features work together to create a coherent, data-driven strategy for your entire organization.

Crustdata Pricing

Crustdata Pricing: Understanding Your Investment

Transparent pricing? Not exactly.

Crustdata pricing uses a freemium model with some published costs, but detailed pricing for higher tiers and advanced features requires direct contact with their sales team.

Plan	Price & Features
Free Monthly Plan	Free • 5 searches per month • AI search capabilities • Create alerts & custom lists
Paid Subscription	~$95/month • 50 searches per month • Expanded access • Standard features
Real-time API Access	Credit-based (monthly/annual) • Real-time hiring/funding signals • Developer support • API key management • Free trial available
Flat File Data	Custom pricing • Monthly refresh of millions of profiles • CSV/JSON on-demand • Filter by funding, stage, industry • Ideal for analytics & ML
Enterprise Custom Plan	Custom pricing – contact sales • Advanced features • Higher usage volumes • Custom datasets • Dedicated support

1. Value Assessment

Smart scaling for data needs.

From my cost analysis, Crustdata’s freemium model allows you to test their core search capabilities before committing. What impressed me is how the pricing scales from free to custom to match your data consumption, meaning you only pay for what you actively use.

This means your budget can start small and expand as your business demands more real-time data insights.

2. Trial/Demo Options

Evaluate before you invest.

Crustdata offers a free monthly plan for basic searches, and you can also try their Real-time API Access for free. What I found valuable is that the free options allow genuine feature exploration before needing to contact sales or commit to a paid plan.

This lets you validate the platform’s utility for your specific use cases before spending on higher Crustdata pricing tiers.

3. Plan Comparison

Choosing your data pathway.

The free and paid subscription plans are ideal for individual users or small teams needing limited searches, while the API and Flat File options target heavier data users. What stands out is how enterprise pricing offers tailored solutions for large-scale, complex data integration and custom datasets.

This tiered approach helps you match Crustdata pricing to actual usage requirements rather than overpaying for unused capabilities.

My Take: Crustdata’s pricing model is highly flexible, moving from freemium to custom enterprise solutions, making it suitable for businesses of all sizes needing scalable real-time data.

The overall Crustdata pricing reflects scalable value for diverse data requirements.

Crustdata Reviews

What do actual users say?

This section dives into Crustdata reviews, analyzing real user feedback to provide balanced insights into what customers truly experience with the software.

1. Overall User Satisfaction

High praise for data reliability.

From my review analysis, Crustdata users consistently express strong satisfaction, particularly regarding data accuracy and real-time delivery. What impressed me is how users highlight the platform’s reliability in providing up-to-date information, a critical factor for informed decision-making.

This suggests you can expect a dependable source for live company and people data.

2. Common Praise Points

Users love the real-time data and integrations.

Customers frequently commend Crustdata’s real-time data accuracy and seamless integration capabilities via APIs and webhooks. From customer feedback, the platform’s versatility across business units (sales, HR, investment) also stands out as a significant advantage.

This means you’ll find it easy to incorporate fresh data into your existing workflows and systems.

3. Frequent Complaints

No publicly available complaints found.

Review-wise, no specific public complaints or frustrations were readily available in the user feedback I analyzed. What stands out is how the feedback leans overwhelmingly positive, focusing on strengths rather than identified weaknesses or challenges encountered by users.

This pattern suggests users are generally satisfied, without common pain points emerging publicly.

Overall, the Crustdata reviews reveal overwhelming satisfaction, especially regarding data quality and integration ease.

Best Crustdata Alternatives

Struggling to find the perfect data solution?

The best Crustdata alternatives include several strong options, each better suited for different business scenarios, team sizes, and specific data needs beyond just real-time information.

1. Apollo.io

Need an all-in-one sales engagement platform?

Apollo.io excels if your primary need is a comprehensive sales intelligence platform that combines prospecting, engagement, and revenue-driving tools. From my competitive analysis, Apollo.io offers a more robust engagement suite for outbound activity than Crustdata’s data-centric approach.

Choose Apollo.io when you require extensive sales outreach capabilities alongside your B2B data.

2. ZoomInfo Sales

Seeking an established, feature-rich enterprise solution?

ZoomInfo Sales is your pick if you need a highly mature and proven sales intelligence platform with broad data coverage and advanced features. What I found comparing options is that ZoomInfo provides comprehensive sales intelligence for larger teams, although its pricing can be significantly higher than other options.

Consider this alternative if your enterprise needs a market leader with extensive features and a track record for sales teams.

3. PitchBook

Focused on in-depth financial and investment data?

PitchBook is ideal if your core need is comprehensive financial market data, including detailed funding histories, investor profiles, and M&A activity. From my analysis, PitchBook specializes in deep financial market insights, critical for private equity and venture capital research, unlike Crustdata’s broader real-time signals.

Choose PitchBook when investment analysis and granular financial data are paramount for your business.

4. Cognism

Is contact data, especially phone numbers, crucial?

Cognism is an excellent alternative if phone numbers are a critical component of your outreach strategy, and if you operate heavily in European markets. From my competitive analysis, Cognism offers strong European market contact data, which is a feature Crustdata does not explicitly provide, focusing instead on real-time signals.

Consider this competitor when direct phone outreach and a strong European dataset are essential for your sales efforts.

The best Crustdata alternatives depend on your specific data needs and operational priorities more than just general feature comparisons.

Crustdata Setup

Thinking about a complex software rollout?

Crustdata setup revolves heavily around API and webhook integrations, meaning deployment complexity depends on your technical capabilities and desired depth of integration.

1. Setup Complexity & Timeline

This isn’t just an off-the-shelf product.

Crustdata implementation largely depends on your team’s technical expertise for integrating APIs or processing flat files. What I found about deployment is that technical proficiency with APIs drives implementation speed, as real-time data access requires developer support and API key management.

You’ll need a clear understanding of your integration needs and dedicated technical resources to ensure a smooth deployment.

2. Technical Requirements & Integration

Expect your IT and data teams to be involved.

Your systems will need to consume data via APIs or process flat files like CSV/JSON. From my implementation analysis, integrating with existing CRMs is a core capability, but requires your team to manage the data flow and mapping for enrichment.

Plan for your technical infrastructure to support API calls or bulk file processing to leverage Crustdata’s real-time data.

3. Training & Change Management

User adoption goes beyond simple interface use.

While the Company GPT tool is user-friendly, developers and data analysts will need training on API documentation and data dictionaries for effective utilization. From my analysis, training developers on the API is crucial for maximizing the platform’s power, particularly for AI agent powering.

Invest in training for your technical teams to fully grasp the data’s potential, and for sales/marketing on leveraging enriched insights.

4. Support & Success Factors

Vendor support can accelerate your implementation.

Crustdata emphasizes developer support and API key management for real-time access, indicating a commitment to assisting technical users. From my analysis, their team ships fast, listens closely, and delivers, which suggests a proactive approach to successful implementation.

Focus on clear communication with their support team and leverage their developer resources to ensure your integration proceeds smoothly.

Overall, successful Crustdata setup requires dedicated technical resources and a clear integration strategy to maximize its powerful data capabilities.

Bottom Line

Does Crustdata fit your data intelligence needs?

My Crustdata review shows a powerful solution for businesses demanding real-time, accurate company and people data to fuel their automation and decision-making processes.

1. Who This Works Best For

Businesses prioritizing real-time, dynamic data insights.

Crustdata is ideal for sales, marketing, recruiting, and investment teams requiring fresh, accurate data for automation, lead enrichment, and deal sourcing. From my user analysis, companies building AI platforms and agents find its API-first approach invaluable for powering intelligent workflows and internal systems with dynamic information.

You’ll succeed if your operations depend on up-to-the-minute insights to maintain a competitive advantage in a fast-moving market.

2. Overall Strengths

Unmatched real-time data accuracy and freshness.

The software succeeds by aggregating and instantly delivering accurate company and people data from diverse sources via flexible APIs and flat files. From my comprehensive analysis, Crustdata’s focus on first-party data ensures superior freshness compared to many legacy providers relying on older, static datasets.

These strengths translate into more effective sales outreach, precise marketing campaigns, and smarter investment decisions for your business.

3. Key Limitations

No publicly detailed pricing for higher tiers.

While a $95/month entry plan exists, the lack of transparent pricing for extensive data needs or enterprise solutions could be a hurdle for budget planning. Based on this review, the absence of phone numbers in its dataset may require using a supplementary tool for some traditional outbound sales strategies.

I find these limitations manageable if your primary need is real-time, accurate data and you’re prepared for a custom pricing discussion.

4. Final Recommendation

Crustdata earns a strong recommendation.

You should choose this software if your business thrives on real-time data accuracy, seamless integration, and powering AI-driven strategies with dynamic intelligence. From my analysis, this platform excels for data-intensive B2B operations that value agility and precision over static data affordability.

My confidence level is high for businesses prioritizing live data to gain a significant competitive edge.

This Crustdata review highlights strong value for the right business, especially for those leveraging AI with dynamic data.