enrichcli vs clearbit

Clearbit was the developer's enrichment tool. Clean API, excellent documentation, predictable pricing, great data quality. If you needed to enrich an email address or look up a company, Clearbit was the obvious choice.

Then HubSpot acquired Clearbit in December 2023 and rebranded it as Breeze Intelligence. You can no longer buy Clearbit as a standalone product. It's bundled into HubSpot's platform, and if you're not a HubSpot customer, you're locked out.

Thousands of developers lost their go-to enrichment API overnight.

What Happened to Clearbit

Here's the timeline:

• 2014-2023: Clearbit operates as an independent company. Their Person API, Company API, and Reveal API become industry standards for developer-friendly enrichment.
• December 2023: HubSpot acquires Clearbit. The standalone API begins sunsetting.
• 2024-2025: Clearbit is rebranded as Breeze Intelligence, available only within HubSpot's ecosystem.
• 2026: No standalone Clearbit product exists. Existing API keys have been deprecated.

If you're a developer who used Clearbit's API directly — you need a replacement.

What Made Clearbit Great (and What to Look for in a Replacement)

1. Clean API Design

Clearbit's API was a model of good design. Simple endpoints, consistent JSON responses, comprehensive documentation. You could go from zero to enriched data in under 5 minutes.

What to look for: Any replacement should have a well-documented API with consistent response formats and quick onboarding.

2. Multiple Enrichment Types

Clearbit supported person enrichment (email to profile), company enrichment (domain to firmographics), and reveal (IP to company). One vendor for all three.

What to look for: A single tool that handles email, company, domain, and person enrichment. Avoid stitching together 4 different providers.

3. Transparent Pricing

Clearbit had published pricing tiers. No "contact sales" gates for basic access.

What to look for: Published prices. Free tier for testing. No annual commitments required.

4. Developer-First Experience

Clearbit was built for developers. No mandatory dashboard. No Chrome extension bundled in. Just an API.

What to look for: API or CLI access. No GUI requirement. Code examples in your language.

How enrichcli Compares

Feature	Clearbit (was)	Breeze Intelligence (now)	enrichcli
Standalone product	Yes (deprecated)	No (HubSpot only)	Yes
CLI tool	No	No	Yes
REST API	Yes	HubSpot API only	Yes
Person enrichment	Yes	Yes (via HubSpot)	Yes
Company enrichment	Yes	Yes (via HubSpot)	Yes
Domain enrichment	Yes	Yes (via HubSpot)	Yes
IP reveal	Yes	Yes (via HubSpot)	No
Published pricing	Yes	No (bundled)	Yes
Free tier	Limited	No	50 credits/day
Annual contract	Optional	HubSpot contract	No
CRM required	No	Yes (HubSpot)	No

The Key Differences

enrichcli Is Standalone

No platform dependency. No CRM requirement. Install the CLI, get an API key, start enriching. Your enrichment tool shouldn't lock you into a specific CRM vendor.

enrichcli Has a CLI

Clearbit never had a command-line tool. You always needed to write code or use curl. enrichcli is terminal-native:

# What used to require curl + Clearbit API
$ curl -s "https://person.clearbit.com/v2/people/find?email=ceo@stripe.com" \
    -H "Authorization: Bearer sk_clearbit_abc123"

# Now
$ enrich email ceo@stripe.com

Same data. Fewer keystrokes. No curl incantations to remember.

Cached Lookups Are Free

With Clearbit, every API call cost money — even if you looked up the same email twice. enrichcli caches results server-side. If someone on the platform already enriched that email, your lookup is instant and free.

This is meaningful at scale. If you're enriching emails from popular companies, a significant percentage of your lookups will hit the cache.

Pricing Is Simpler

Clearbit had complex pricing with different tiers for different API products. enrichcli has one credit system: 1 enrichment = 1 credit, regardless of type. Email, company, domain, LinkedIn — all the same price.

enrichcli Plan	Price	Credits
Free	$0	50/day
Pro	$29/month	1,000/month
Growth	$79/month	5,000/month
Team	$199/month	10,000/month

What enrichcli Doesn't Have (Yet)

Transparency matters, so here's what Clearbit offered that enrichcli doesn't:

• IP Reveal — Clearbit could identify companies from IP addresses (useful for website visitor identification). enrichcli doesn't offer this.
• Salesforce/HubSpot native integration — Clearbit had deep CRM integrations. enrichcli is a CLI/API tool by design — you integrate it yourself.
• Clearbit's database size — Clearbit had one of the largest enrichment databases in the industry. enrichcli uses MixRank's data, which is comprehensive but different in coverage.
• Webhooks — Clearbit supported async webhooks for enrichment. enrichcli returns results synchronously.

Who Should Switch to enrichcli

You should switch if:

• You used Clearbit's API as a standalone product and don't want HubSpot
• You're a developer who wants enrichment from the terminal
• You need simple, credit-based pricing without seat fees
• You want cached lookups that don't cost extra
• You're building enrichment into scripts, pipelines, or AI agents

You should use Breeze Intelligence if:

• You're already a HubSpot customer
• You need IP reveal for website visitor identification
• You want native CRM enrichment without any code

You should look elsewhere if:

• You need the absolute largest database possible (consider ZoomInfo or Apollo)
• You need enrichment in 200+ countries (consider People Data Labs)

Migrating from Clearbit

If you have existing code that calls Clearbit's API, switching to enrichcli involves:

1. Install the CLI:

$ brew install enrichcli/tap/enrichcli

2. Get an API key at app.enrichcli.com

3. Replace API calls:

# Old: Clearbit Person API
$ curl "https://person.clearbit.com/v2/people/find?email=ceo@stripe.com" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer sk_clearbit_abc"

# New: enrichcli
$ enrich email ceo@stripe.com --json

4. Map response fields — enrichcli's response format is different from Clearbit's. You'll need to update any code that parses the response.

The data model is similar (both return person and company data from an email), so the migration is mostly mechanical: swap the API call and update field mappings.

The Bottom Line

Clearbit was great. It's gone. HubSpot ate it.

If you're looking for a developer-friendly enrichment tool that doesn't lock you into a platform, enrichcli picks up where Clearbit left off — with a CLI that Clearbit never had.