List building · Updated
DataForSEO review (2026): the fastest way to build local business lists
DataForSEO is the best way we found to build local business lists: thousands of businesses per city in seconds, about $0.37 per 1,000 rows, most with a phone number. Its limit is scope: it only knows businesses with a map listing, and it filters by category, not by meaning.
pipe0 buys from DataForSEO and offers its business listings as pipe0's local business search. The scores come from our own benchmark, not from that relationship. How we review
What we reviewed
DataForSEO sells a large catalog of SEO and marketing data APIs. We reviewed one of them, Business Listings Search, for a single job: building lists of local businesses for sales and marketing outreach.
Tested for
- Listing local businesses by category and city, on four scenarios
- Phone, website and freshness of every row returned
- Speed and cost against Exa, Parallel, Crustdata and Amplemarket
Not scored here
- Search result, keyword, backlink and other SEO APIs
- Business info and review endpoints for a single listing
Our score for DataForSEO, the average of four criteria
The best tool we tested for local business lists: two to six times the rows of the next best tool, in seconds, at $0.37 per 1,000. It only knows businesses with a map listing.
Best for
- Lists of storefronts, trades, clinics, venues and restaurants by city
- Outreach that needs a phone number and opening hours per location
- Large lists: thousands of rows per city, paged in seconds
Skip it if
- Your targets have no map listing, such as online-only brands
- You need firmographics: headcount, revenue, funding or tech stack
- Nobody on your team can call an API
One live endpoint that answers in about a second. You work in category ids and a latitude, longitude and radius string, and errors arrive inside an HTTP 200.
The biggest list in every scenario, 80 to 96% of rows with a phone, and 94 to 98% of records updated this year. Permanently closed listings are flagged, not hidden.
$0.012 per request plus $0.00036 per business: about $0.37 per 1,000 rows, the cheapest per useful row we measured. Prepaid credit doesn't expire.
A synchronous REST API, a free category list, cursor paging with no depth limit, and an official MCP server. At most eight filters per request.
DataForSEO at a glance
- What it searches
- Business listings by category, location and radius, with filters for rating, reviews, claimed listings and opening status Source
- Categories
- About 5,300 category ids, downloadable for free Source
- Page size and paging
- Up to 1,000 businesses per request; a cursor token pages past that with no depth limit Source
- Rate limits
- 2,000 calls per minute, 30 at the same time Source
- MCP server
- Official, hosted at mcp.dataforseo.com/mcp, also open source Source
- Company
- DataForSEO OÜ, registered in Estonia (EU), registry code 14502291 Source
What is DataForSEO?
DataForSEO is an Estonian data company that sells SEO and marketing data through APIs: search results, keywords, backlinks and business data. Agencies and software companies build products on top of it.
Its Business Listings Search API is a database of local businesses with a map listing. Give it a category, a location and a radius, and it returns the matching businesses, up to 1,000 per request, each with an address, phone number, website, rating and opening hours.
What is the best API for local business lists?
DataForSEO, in our benchmark. On four lists (New York City barbershops, Dallas–Fort Worth HVAC contractors, Chicago event venues and Miami property managers) it returned the most businesses every time, two to six times the next best tool, in seconds. Prompt-based agents from Exa and Parallel returned hundreds at best, and company databases built from LinkedIn pages barely list storefront businesses: 26 barbershops in all of New York City.
How many businesses each tool finds
Unique rows per list, one run each. All four panels share one scale, so a short bar is a short list.
Barbershops in New York City
DataForSEO
Exa ultra
Exa medium
Parallel Task pro
Parallel Entity
Crustdata
Amplemarket
HVAC contractors in Dallas–Fort Worth
DataForSEO
Exa ultra
Exa medium
Parallel Task pro
Parallel Entity
Crustdata
Corporate event venues in Chicago
DataForSEO
Exa ultra
Exa medium
Parallel Task pro
Parallel Entity
Crustdata
Amplemarket
Property managers in Miami
DataForSEO
Exa ultra
Exa medium
Parallel Task pro
Parallel Entity
Crustdata
Amplemarket
Company databases count every row they returned; most were neighbouring businesses such as suppliers, software and planners.
Is DataForSEO business data accurate?
Mostly, and it says when it isn't. Three out of four of its NYC barbershops matched a shop on the state licence list by address, and every row was inside a New York City ZIP code. Most of the rest are unlicensed shops and salons that also cut hair. 8% were listings marked permanently closed, which one filter removes.
New York City barbershops against the licence list
New York State licenses 1,952 barbershops in the city, marked by the line.
Checked against the licence list
matched by address
DataForSEO
80% with a phone, all inside NYC ZIP codes
Exa ultra
copied the licence registry; 8% with a phone
Not checked
row count only
Exa medium
all inside NYC, 68% with a phone
Parallel Task pro
Parallel Entity
companies, no addresses
Parallel Task ultra
55% inside NYC
Amplemarket
about 18 real
Crustdata
about 8 real
A list can pass the licence count: unlicensed shops, salons that also cut hair, and permanently closed listings, which DataForSEO flags.
Records were fresh: 94% of NYC records and 98% of Dallas records had been updated in 2026. Most rows are ready for outreach.
DataForSEO rows ready to call or visit
Share of each list with a phone number and with a website. Tracks run to 100%.
Barbershops in New York City
Phone
Website
HVAC contractors in Dallas–Fort Worth
Phone
Website
Corporate event venues in Chicago
Phone
Website
Property managers in Miami
Phone
Website
94% of NYC records and 98% of Dallas records had been updated in 2026. Each row also carries rating, review count, opening hours and whether the owner claimed the listing.
How fast is DataForSEO, and what does it cost?
A page of 1,000 businesses comes back in one to three seconds and costs about $0.37. The price is $0.012 per request plus $0.00036 per business, so you know what a list costs before you run it. Research agents take two to fourteen minutes per list and bill per run, which puts a short list at several dollars per 1,000 rows.
How long a list takes
Time per run, from each vendor's own timestamps. Each bar spans the fastest and the slowest list.
Filter and company search
DataForSEO
Filter search over map listings
Parallel Entity
Company search
Prompt-based agents
Exa medium
Prompt-based research agent
Exa ultra
Prompt-based research agent
Parallel FindAll
Verified list search
Parallel Task pro
Prompt-based research task
Parallel Task ultra
Prompt-based research task
The line marks 10 minutes. Past it, a run doesn't fit an interactive workflow or the step limit most automation tools set.
What 1,000 rows cost
Vendor price per 1,000 rows, before any reseller margin. Log scale: each tick is ten times the last.
Filter and company search
DataForSEO
Filter search over map listings
Parallel Entity
Company search
Prompt-based agents
Exa medium
Prompt-based research agent
Exa ultra
Prompt-based research agent
Parallel FindAll
Verified list search
Parallel Task pro
Prompt-based research task
Parallel Task ultra
Prompt-based research task
Per-run pricing makes a short list expensive per row. Parallel Entity is the cheapest per row, but its rows are company profiles without an address or a phone.
Does DataForSEO find every business?
No source does. Between 42% and 85% of the businesses Exa's agent found were also in DataForSEO's list; the rest were real misses or businesses just outside the radius or category. For a complete territory, run a second source and merge on the address.
How much of Exa's list DataForSEO already had
Share of Exa's rows that DataForSEO also returned. The rest are businesses DataForSEO missed, or rows just outside its radius or category.
Exa rows also in DataForSEO
Miami property managers
NYC barbershops
Chicago venues
DFW HVAC
against DataForSEO's first 1,000 of 2,147 rows
What can't DataForSEO do?
It only knows businesses with a map listing, so online-only companies are missing entirely. It filters by category, not meaning: "venues that host corporate events for 100 or more guests" is a category search followed by a qualifying step on the description, services and attributes each listing carries. And it has no headcount, revenue or ownership data.
It is also built for developers. Categories are ids such as
barber_shop, the location is a latitude, longitude and radius string,
and a failed task comes back inside an HTTP 200 with its own status code.
The free category list and the official MCP server make it easier to use
from an agent than by hand.
DataForSEO and pipe0
pipe0 buys from DataForSEO and offers Business Listings as its local business search, with category and city autocomplete done for you. Rows land in a sheet, where enrichment pipes add emails and decision makers.
DataForSEO, Exa or a company database: which should you use?
Use DataForSEO when your targets are storefronts, trades, clinics, restaurants or venues and you need thousands of them with phone numbers. Use a company database when filters such as headcount or tech stack describe the list, and Exa when only a prose brief does.
Which tool for which list
Every cell cites the measurement behind it. Company databases are Crustdata and Amplemarket, searched with their filters.
| Job | DataForSEO | Exa | Parallel | Company databases |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Local businesses by categoryBarbershops in New York City | Best pick826 to 3,959 rows per city in seconds | Works146 to 341 rows in 3 to 6 minutes | Weak17 to 200 rows in 8 to 14 minutes | Weak26 barbershops, most of them noise |
| Phone, hours and rating per locationHVAC contractors to call | Best pick80 to 96% of rows with a phone | Mixed97% with a phone in Dallas, 8% in NYC | WeakEntity Search returns no phone | Not built for itNo phone per location |
| Companies by firmographics or tech stackUS apparel brands on Shopify | Not built for itOnly businesses with a map listing | Weak26 brands, 25 already in Crustdata | Not testedEntity Search wasn't run on this | Best pick77 verified Shopify brands in seconds |
| Lists published on the webExhibitors at a trade show | Not built for itNo event or membership data | WorksA few hundred accurate rows per run, never the full list | Not testedFindAll fits the shape; not run | Not built for itNo exhibited-at filter |
| One researched answer per rowThe imprint page of a small company | Not built for itNot a web research tool | Not testedNot benchmarked for this | Best pickTask base solved 5 of 5, in 22 to 63 s | Not built for itNot a web research tool |
One run per scenario. “Not tested” means we didn't measure it, not that it fails.
DataForSEO pros and cons
Pros
Volume
3,959 New York City barbershops in 15 seconds, against 1,932 from the next best tool, which took five and a half minutes.
Contact-ready rows
80 to 96% of rows had a phone number. Every row carries the address, coordinates, rating, review count, opening hours and whether the owner claimed the listing.
Predictable price
You pay per request and per business returned, so the cost of a list is known before you run it: $0.37 for a full page of 1,000.
Fresh and honest about closures
94% of NYC records and 98% of Dallas records were updated in 2026, and 8% of NYC rows were marked permanently closed, so you can filter them out.
Cons
Only businesses with a listing
Companies without a storefront, like online brands or software firms, aren't in the data at all.
Categories, not prompts
You pick from about 5,300 category ids. An ask like 'venues that host 100+ guests' needs a second filtering step.
Developer-first
No app for sales teams. You call the API, through their MCP server, or through a tool built on top of it.
Thin on firmographics
No headcount, revenue or ownership data. Pair it with a company database or enrichment if you need them.
DataForSEO pricing
DataForSEO has no free plan. Paid plans start at $50 minimum prepaid top-up, pay as you go.
| Plan | Price | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Trial | $0 | $1 in trial credit. |
| Pay as you go | $50 minimum top-up | Prepaid credit for every DataForSEO API. No subscription, and the credit doesn't expire. |
| Business Listings Search | $0.012 per request | Plus $0.00036 per business returned, so a full page of 1,000 businesses costs about $0.37. |
- The category list is free to call.
- DataForSEO raised Business Listings prices by 20% on July 1, 2026. The older product page still shows the previous rates.
Prices as of Oct 15, 2026, from DataForSEO's pricing page.
DataForSEO alternatives
| Alternative | Pick it when |
|---|---|
| pipe0 local business search | You want DataForSEO's listings in a sheet or through an agent, with enrichment pipes for emails and contacts on the same rows. |
| Exa | The list is defined somewhere on the web, like a show's exhibitors, rather than by a business category. |
| Crustdata | Your targets are companies you describe with firmographics or a tech stack, not storefronts. |
| Parallel | You need one researched answer per business, not a bigger list. |
Frequently asked questions
What is DataForSEO Business Listings?
An API that searches a database of local business listings by category, location and radius. Each result includes the name, address, coordinates, phone, website, rating, review count and opening hours.
How much does DataForSEO Business Listings cost?
$0.012 per request plus $0.00036 per business returned, so 1,000 businesses cost about $0.37. Accounts are prepaid, with a $50 minimum top-up and a $1 trial credit.
What is the best API for building local business lists?
In our October 2026 benchmark, DataForSEO returned the most businesses in all four scenarios, 826 to 3,959 per city, in 2 to 15 seconds. Exa's research agent returned 146 to 1,932 in 3 to 6 minutes, and LinkedIn-based company databases found 26 barbershops in New York City.
Is DataForSEO data up to date?
In our test, 94% of New York City records and 98% of Dallas records had been updated in 2026. Permanently closed businesses are flagged, 8% of the NYC barbershops, and can be excluded with one filter.
Does DataForSEO have an MCP server?
Yes. DataForSEO publishes an official MCP server, hosted at mcp.dataforseo.com/mcp and available as open source.
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