Census vs Context.dev
Census and Context.dev are both data integration & ETL tools. Census is aimed at enterprise, while Context.dev is aimed at developers and small businesses. Both have a free plan.
Operational analytics from the warehouse
One API for scraping, search, brand data and people search
| Pricing | Freemium | Freemium · $20 |
| Starting price | Not published | $20/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | 14 days | — |
| Built for | Enterprise | Developers, Small businesses, Enterprise |
| Platforms | web | web |
| Country | US · 2018 | — |
| Rating | — | — |
Choose Census if
Data teams activating warehouse data.
- Warehouse-native activation
- Strong reliability
- dbt-friendly
Look elsewhere if: Teams without a warehouse.
Choose Context.dev if
Developers and AI agent builders who want scraping, search, brand data and people search behind one API and one credit balance.
- One credit pool covers scraping, search, brand and people data
- Free tier with 1,000 monthly credits and no credit card
- Strong agent tooling: MCP server, Claude, ChatGPT and Cursor guides
Look elsewhere if: Sales teams that want a ready-made prospecting app with sequences rather than an API (Apollo), or pure neural web search (Exa).
Census vs Context.dev pricing
Census
- Free$03,500 MAR for activations, 500,000 MAR for connections
- StandardUsage-basedPriced on monthly active rows; unlimited users
- EnterpriseUsage-based1-minute syncs, Audience Hub
- Business CriticalUsage-basedCustomer-managed keys, PCI DSS, private networking
Context.dev
- Free$0/mo1,000 credits/mo, no overage, no credit card required
- Developer$20/mo10,000 credits, $3 per 1,000 overage; 2 months free yearly
- Pro$90/mo100K credits; tiers up to 2.5M cost up to $950/mo; $2/1K overage
- EnterpriseCustomCustom credits, dedicated Slack, 99.9% uptime SLA
Census · Key features
- Reverse ETL
- Audience Hub
- Entity resolution
- Observability
- 200+ destinations
- dbt integration
Cons
- Pricing grows
- Requires warehouse
- Overlap with Hightouch
Context.dev · Key features
- Scrape any URL to Markdown, HTML, screenshots or JSON with JS rendering
- Crawl and Map endpoints for whole-site content and URL discovery
- Web Search and Answers that return source-backed JSON in your shape
- Brand, Styleguide and Logo Link endpoints for logos, colors and fonts
- People Search in fast or ultra mode with country and experience filters
- Company search, person enrichment and news search endpoints
Cons
- Credit cost per call ranges from 1 to 100, which complicates budgeting
- Larger credit tiers cost $300 to $950 a month before Enterprise
- 99.9% uptime SLA only on the custom Enterprise plan
Census vs Context.dev: FAQ
Do Census and Context.dev have a free plan?
Yes, both Census and Context.dev have a free plan; paid plans add more usage and features.
Which is better for small businesses, Census or Context.dev?
Context.dev lists small businesses as a core audience, while Census is aimed more at enterprise.