The one line difference
A dataset built from the whole web, against a list of leads checked live.
Exa (exa.ai) sells search and page retrieval to software, priced per request rather than per seat: Search at $7 per 1,000 requests and Contents at $1 per 1,000 pages, pay as you go with no subscription and no minimum, and new accounts starting with $20 in free credits plus $10 a month on the free tier. Websets sits on top of that. You give it a natural language query, and it builds a verified, enriched dataset from the web and delivers it asynchronously through the dashboard, the API or a webhook. Exa's own docs say the Websets API requires a paid Websets plan, and that Websets credits are separate from Search API credits.
That is a genuinely different product from this one, and the honest summary is that Exa is the stronger tool today for building a dataset of any company on the web. It searches the whole web, it was designed for exactly that job, and it is shipped.
LeadFindr is priced on the other side of the transaction. It charges 0.25 credits, about $0.025, per lead that comes back with contact details, and nothing at all for the rest of the rows. It has two live sources today: local businesses by niche and place, and decision makers by role, industry and location. Searching any company by description via web search is an early access source here, not something you can run this week. This page is not claiming otherwise.
Side by side
Published facts only, each with the date we read it.
| LeadFindr | Exa | |
|---|---|---|
| Billing | 0.25 credits a lead with contact details, about $0.025. Nothing for a lead without | Pay as you go per request: Search $7 per 1,000, Contents $1 per 1,000 pages |
| Subscription | None. No seats, no monthly minimum | None on the API. Its docs say the Websets API requires a paid Websets plan |
| Free entry | 100 credits on a new account, which is 400 leads | $20 in free credits for new accounts and $10 a month on the free tier |
| What comes back | Leads: name, website, phone, address, category, rating, review count, plus a verified email and the decision maker behind the business | A verified, enriched dataset built from a natural language query |
| Company search by description | Early access. Not available today | The product. Websets is built around exactly that |
| Delivery | Results stream into the app while the websites are checked, then export as CSV | Asynchronous, through the dashboard, the API or webhooks |
| Cost of a row with nothing on it | Nothing. A lead with no email, phone or social profile is free | A request is a request, whatever it returns |
When Exa Websets is the better buy
Any company on the web, and available today.
- You want a dataset of companies that are not places on a map: software vendors, marketplaces, manufacturers, anything whose defining trait is what it does rather than where it is.
- Your unit of work is a dataset rather than a call list, and you want it delivered to a pipeline through an API or a webhook.
- You want per request pricing you can model precisely against volume, rather than a price that depends on how contactable a market turns out to be.
- You need the company by description search working right now. Theirs is shipped and ours is early access, which is the plainest version of the difference.
- You are already paying for web search and page retrieval and would rather add an enrichment layer on top of a vendor you use.
When LeadFindr is the better buy
A call list of businesses that exist, billed only when it worked.
- Your targets are local: trades, clinics, restaurants, salons, gyms, studios. That is the live source here, and it is where a web wide index tends to return directory pages rather than the business itself.
- You want the decision maker attached to the business, with a LinkedIn profile and a verified work email where one is found, rather than a company record you then have to staff.
- You want every website opened and read at search time, so a closed business or a dead domain never reaches the list.
- You would rather pay for outcomes than attempts: a row with no email, no phone and no social profile costs nothing here.
- You want a spend cap set before the search runs, which matters more when an agent is the thing running it in a loop.
The caveat sits on our side and it is the same one all over this site: if the job is company search by description, Exa has it today and we do not.
Why we do not claim web wide company search today
The source is being built, and building is not selling.
It would be easy to describe the early access sources as available and sort the difference out later. The reason we do not is that the pricing model here only works if the promise behind it holds. Charging per lead that came back contactable means the check has to be real, run on every row, at the moment you asked. A company found by description still has to have its own website opened and read before it counts as a lead worth charging for, and that is the part being built.
So the two early access sources, any company by description via web search and your own list of domains or company names enriched with verified contacts, are requestable and not available. Same live check, same per lead price, no date promised. If your project needs that capability this quarter, Exa is the answer to your question, and saying so costs us less than a customer who found out later.
Questions People Actually Ask.
Is LeadFindr an Exa alternative?
For local businesses and the decision makers behind them, yes, and the bill only counts leads that came back with contact details. For building a dataset of any company on the web, no. That is what Websets does and our equivalent source is in early access.
What does Exa cost?
Its pricing page lists Search at $7 per 1,000 requests and Contents at $1 per 1,000 pages, pay as you go with no subscription or minimum, plus $20 in free credits for new accounts and $10 a month on the free tier. Read from exa.ai on 15 September 2026.
What does Exa Websets cost?
We do not quote a figure, because none was published on the pages we checked. Exa's docs state that the Websets API requires a paid Websets plan and that Websets credits are separate from Search API credits. Read from exa.ai on 15 September 2026.
Can LeadFindr search any company by description like Websets?
Not today. That source is in early access: requestable, not available, with no date promised. The sources live today are local businesses by niche and place, and decision makers by role, industry and location.
Which one is cheaper?
They are not billed on the same unit, so it depends on your hit rate. Exa charges per request whatever comes back. LeadFindr charges 0.25 credits, about $0.025, only for the rows that came back with contact details, and nothing for the rest.
Can I use both?
Sensibly, yes. A web wide dataset builder for company discovery and a per lead live search for the local half is a reasonable split, and neither of them wants a seat from you.