Waterfall enrichment · Updated
Surfe review (2026): the highest contact coverage we measured
Surfe found more mobile numbers and work emails than any other provider in our benchmark, because it is a waterfall of 15+ providers behind one API. The trade-offs are speed and per-user credits.
pipe0 buys data from Surfe and uses it in its waterfalls. The scores come from our own benchmark, not from that relationship. How we review
Our score for Surfe, the average of four criteria
The best contact data we have measured: first in every test we ran, with 96% mobile coverage, from a LinkedIn and CRM tool that is easy to start. Slow, async lookups and per-user credits are the price.
Best for
- Sales teams that prospect on LinkedIn and live in a CRM
- Anyone who needs mobile numbers at the highest coverage available
- Developers who want one waterfall API instead of fifteen contracts
Skip it if
- You need sub-second lookups in a live product
- Your team is large and few people need data
- You want to choose and order the providers yourself without BYOK
A Chrome extension that enriches LinkedIn profiles straight into HubSpot, Salesforce, or Pipedrive. A rep is productive on day one.
First in all four of our benchmark tests, including 96% mobile coverage with the highest agreement of any high-coverage provider.
Misses are free and the API bills one credit per result found. Allowances are per user and reset monthly, and top-up prices aren't published.
A clean, well-documented API: batches of 10,000 people, webhooks instead of polling, 50,000 enrichments a day, and an MCP server on the same key.
Surfe at a glance
- Founders
- David Chevalier (CEO) and Romain Ginestou Source
- Offices
- New York, Paris, and Barcelona Source
- Users
- 50,000+, according to Surfe Source
- Data providers
- 15+ in its waterfall, including Findymail, Hunter, Prospeo, Wiza, People Data Labs, and ContactOut Source
- CRMs
- HubSpot, Salesforce, Pipedrive, and Copper Source
- API
- Async jobs with webhooks or polling, 10 requests a second, batches of up to 10,000 people Source
- MCP server
- Beta, at mcp.eu.surfe.com, with the same API key Source
- Compliance
- GDPR and CCPA compliant, ISO 27001 certified, according to Surfe Source
Surfe in our benchmark
We ran the same records through every provider we test and counted who returned a result. These are Surfe's numbers from August and September 2026.
| Test | Records | Coverage | Agreement | Median time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| LinkedIn URL to mobileLinkedIn profiles | 150 | 96% | 74% | 4.4 s |
| LinkedIn URL to work emailLinkedIn profiles | 120 | 69.2% | – | – |
| LinkedIn URL to personal emailLinkedIn profiles | 100 | 50% | 81% | – |
| Email to LinkedIn URLLinkedIn profiles | 100 | 25% | 87% | 4.4 s |
How fast Surfe answers
LinkedIn URL to mobile. Median response time per lookup, lower is faster.
Wiza
Low-cost
Surfe
Amplemarket
Premium
Surfe answered in 4.4 s, 4x faster than Amplemarket on this test.
How often Surfe agrees with other providers
LinkedIn URL to mobile. Each square is one person both providers returned a mobile number for.
Low-cost provider
vs Prospeo
98%47 of 48
Surfe and Prospeo returned the same mobile number for 47 of 48 people.
Premium provider
vs Amplemarket
76%90 of 119
Surfe and Amplemarket returned the same mobile number for 90 of 119 people.
- Samples are small, 100 to 150 records per test, so treat a few points of difference as noise.
- The LinkedIn profile set passed one vendor's resolvability filter, so absolute rates run higher than on a typical list. Comparisons between providers stay fair.
- Agreement is the share of results that match what other providers returned for the same person. It is a proxy for accuracy, not ground truth.
Run ids: 20260804T202803Z-237d, 20260814T095606Z-9ef2, 20260902T151427Z-0e5f, 20260902T162611Z-cde5. How we test
What is Surfe?
Surfe started as a Chrome extension that moves LinkedIn profiles into a CRM, and that is still how most of its 50,000+ users meet it. Open a profile, and Surfe shows the person's work email and mobile number, checks whether they are already in HubSpot or Salesforce, and adds them with one click. Around that it has grown a web app, people and company search, an API, and an MCP server.
David Chevalier and Romain Ginestou run it from offices in Paris, Barcelona, and New York. It is Pipedrive's official enrichment provider and supplies data to HubSpot's prospecting agent, which says something about how other software companies rate its data.
Why its coverage is so high
Surfe is not a database. It is a waterfall. Each email lookup runs through Findymail, LeadMagic, Hunter, RocketReach, Prospeo, Wiza, and DropContact in that order, and every address is checked by ZeroBounce before it comes back. Mobile numbers go through a different chain of nine providers, including People Data Labs, ContactOut, and Datagma. A source that misses hands the person to the next one.
That design shows in our benchmark. We ran the same 150 LinkedIn profiles through nine providers, and Surfe found a mobile number for 144 of them. The next best, at 79%, was a single premium source. Surfe's numbers also matched what other providers returned 74% of the time, the highest agreement of any provider above 50% coverage. It led the work email test too, and finding a LinkedIn profile from an email address.
On personal email it tied for first, with an address for half the profiles and 81% agreement with the other providers. Finding the LinkedIn profile behind an email address is the hardest test we run, and Surfe led that one too, at 25% with 87% agreement.
Where it falls short
Speed is the first trade-off. Every Surfe enrichment is an asynchronous job: you submit people, then poll or wait for a webhook. Phone numbers came back in a median of 4.4 seconds in our test, and email lookups take longer. That is fine for a list or a CRM sync. It is too slow for anything a user waits on.
Pricing is the second. Credits come per user: 150 emails and 50 mobile numbers a month on Essential, 1,000 and 100 on Pro. They reset on the billing date, and top-ups expire after three months, at a price Surfe shows only inside the app. A team where one person runs enrichment for everyone ends up buying seats for credits.
Surfe for developers and agents
The API is documented and built for volume: batches of up to 10,000 people, 10 requests a second, and up to 50,000 enrichments a day, with webhooks so you don't have to poll. Misses are free on every path we tested. The MCP server, still in beta, gives Claude, Cursor, and other clients the same search and enrichment tools with the same key.
What is unclear is which plan you need. The pricing page lists API access under Enterprise. The developer docs let any account create a key, and Surfe's own help center says it is still aligning API quotas with its Essential and Pro plans. Ask before you build on it.
Surfe and pipe0
We buy data from Surfe. In pipe0's default mobile waterfall it runs second, after Wiza: Wiza answers most profiles more cheaply, and Surfe finds the numbers Wiza misses. It is also in our work email and role-finding waterfalls. We put it there because of the benchmark above, and the scores on this page come from the same numbers.
If you want Surfe's data without its per-user credits, pipe0 is one way to get it: you pay per result found, and Surfe sits inside a waterfall you can see and reorder.
Who should buy Surfe
Buy Surfe if your reps prospect on LinkedIn and work in HubSpot, Salesforce, or Pipedrive, and mobile coverage matters to your pipeline. It is the easiest way we know to put the best contact data we have measured in front of a salesperson.
Look elsewhere if you need answers in under a second, if a few people do the enrichment for a large team, or if you want to choose the providers yourself. Then an API waterfall, or Crustdata for company data, is the better fit.
Surfe pros and cons
Pros
The highest coverage in our benchmark
Surfe found a mobile number for 96% of 150 profiles and a work email for 69% of 120, first among nine providers both times. It also led on personal email and on finding a LinkedIn URL from an email.
A waterfall behind one API
Each lookup runs through 15+ providers, from Findymail and Hunter to People Data Labs and ContactOut, then validation. You get the coverage of a waterfall with one key and one bill.
Misses are free
Emails and phone numbers cost a credit only when Surfe finds one. The reverse lookup reserves 10 credits and refunds them on a miss.
Built into the tools reps use
The Chrome extension enriches LinkedIn profiles into HubSpot, Salesforce, Pipedrive, or Copper, and Surfe is Pipedrive's official data enrichment provider.
Cons
Slow, asynchronous lookups
Every enrichment is a job you poll or receive by webhook, and each lookup can run through several providers. Expect seconds per person, not milliseconds.
Small allowances per user
Essential includes 150 email and 50 mobile credits per user a month. Credits reset on the billing date and don't roll over, and purchased top-ups expire after three months.
API access is unclear on paper
The pricing page lists the API under Enterprise, while the developer docs let any account create a key. Surfe says it is still aligning API quotas with its plans.
Personal email is opt-in
Personal addresses cost 2 credits and must be enabled by Surfe support for your account. Until then, asking for one returns a work address instead of an error.
Surfe pricing
Surfe has a free plan. Paid plans start at $39/mo per user for Essential, billed annually ($49 billed monthly).
| Plan | Price | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | 20 email and 5 mobile credits a month, 1 contact a day added to the CRM. |
| Essential | $39/user/mo annual, $49 monthly | 150 email and 50 mobile credits per user a month, 1,000 search results a week. |
| Pro | $79/user/mo annual, $89 monthly | 1,000 email and 100 mobile credits per user a month, 10,000 search results a day, lookalikes and list builder. |
| Enterprise | Custom | Custom credits, unlimited search, SSO and SCIM, and API search and waterfall enrichment. |
- A work email costs 1 email credit and a mobile number 1 mobile credit, charged only when found. A personal email costs 2 credits; a LinkedIn URL from an email costs 10 search credits, refunded on a miss.
- Plan credits belong to each user and reset on the billing date. Only purchased top-ups are pooled across the team, and they expire after three months. Top-up prices are shown only in the app.
- The Surfe for CRM connector is a separate module at $29 a month.
Prices as of Oct 6, 2026, from Surfe's pricing page.
Surfe alternatives
| Alternative | Pick it when |
|---|---|
| pipe0 | You want Surfe's coverage inside a larger waterfall you can see and reorder, billed per result with no per-user credits. |
| Crustdata | You need live company and people data for an agent or a product, with contact data as a secondary need. |
| FullEnrich | You want a flat price per email and phone from a waterfall, without a CRM extension or per-user plans. |
| Apollo | You want contact data and sequences in one tool and your market is mostly US tech. |
Frequently asked questions
Is Surfe's data good?
In our benchmark it was the best we have measured. Surfe found a mobile number for 96% of 150 LinkedIn profiles and a work email for 69% of 120, first among nine providers both times. Its mobile numbers matched other providers 74% of the time, the best of the high-coverage providers.
How much does Surfe cost?
Surfe has a free plan. Essential costs $39 per user a month billed annually or $49 monthly, Pro $79 or $89, and Enterprise is custom. Credits are per user and reset monthly. Prices as of October 2026.
Why does Surfe find so many phone numbers?
Surfe is a waterfall. Each lookup runs through 15+ data providers in a fixed order, so a miss in one source gets checked against the next. A single database can't match that coverage.
Does Surfe have an API and an MCP server?
Yes. The API at developers.surfe.com runs asynchronous enrichment jobs with webhooks, up to 10,000 people per batch and 10 requests a second. The MCP server is in beta and uses the same API key.
Is Surfe GDPR compliant?
Surfe states that it is GDPR and CCPA compliant and ISO 27001 certified. It is based in Europe, with offices in Paris and Barcelona as well as New York.
Surfe or Apollo: which should I choose?
Choose Surfe if contact coverage matters most, especially mobile numbers, and your reps work from LinkedIn into a CRM. Choose Apollo if you want sequences and a dialer in the same tool and your market is mostly US tech.
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