# data.boston.gov, free, No API key, GET /api/3/action/datastore_search, Licensing Board Licenses: Company discovery API

> The Licensing Board issues a variety of licenses under MGL Chapter 138 and Chapter 140 including Billiards, Bowling, Common Victualler (Food Service), Alcoholic Beverages, Innholder, and Dormitories/Lodging houses. This dataset lists all licenses that are currently active.

data.boston.gov's No API key plan for the company discovery API costs $0.00 per 1,000 companies. We check each provider's docs for 13 fields. data.boston.gov's docs list 2: Headquarters, Locations.
data.boston.gov limits how many pages you get but gives no number.
We haven't run data.boston.gov through [our company discovery API benchmark](https://datacircle.dev/best-company-discovery-api.txt) yet.
We rank 1,326 plans for company discovery APIs by price. Half the plans cost $0.498 or less per 1,000 companies. This plan and 200 others tie for the lowest price per 1,000 companies of the 1,326 plans. [See the best free company discovery API plan.](https://datacircle.dev/best-company-discovery-api.txt)
[PeopleSearch.im's $5 pack](https://datacircle.dev/company-discovery-apis/peoplesearch-im/5-pack/llms.txt) covers any number of companies. PeopleSearch.im's $5 pack costs less up front than StackScan's $189 monthly plan.
[GetProspect](https://datacircle.dev/company-discovery-apis/getprospect/49-monthly/llms.txt), [Hunter](https://datacircle.dev/company-discovery-apis/hunter/49-monthly-starter-post-discover/llms.txt) and [PeopleSearch.im](https://datacircle.dev/company-discovery-apis/peoplesearch-im/5-pack/llms.txt) are the best company discovery API providers in the Datacircle benchmark.

- This page: https://datacircle.dev/company-discovery-apis/data-boston-gov/free-no-api-key-get-api-3-action-datastore-search-licensing-board-licenses
- [Company discovery API in 2026: the best of 100+ compared](https://datacircle.dev/best-company-discovery-api.txt)
- Get it: https://data.boston.gov?utm_source=datacircle.dev&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=company-discovery-api-pricing
- Request: `GET https://data.boston.gov/api/3/action/datastore_search`, Licensing Board Licenses
- API key: not needed
- Its API docs: https://docs.ckan.org/en/2.10/maintaining/datastore.html?utm_source=datacircle.dev&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=company-discovery-api-pricing#ckanext.datastore.logic.action.datastore_search
- Sold by: data.boston.gov (https://data.boston.gov?utm_source=datacircle.dev&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=company-discovery-api-pricing)
- Checked: 2026-11-09

## In the answer

- Completeness: 15%
- Headquarters: ✓
- Locations: ✓

## Price

- $ per 1,000 companies: $0.00
- Per: page of 32,000
- Billing: free

## Aggregators

- Aggregators: none

## Charges

- Most per search: no limit
- Also pays for: nothing else

## Not found

- $ per 1,000 calls that find nothing: $0.00

## In their words

- Their pitch: The Licensing Board issues a variety of licenses under MGL Chapter 138 and Chapter 140 including Billiards, Bowling, Common Victualler (Food Service), Alcoholic Beverages, Innholder, and Dormitories/Lodging houses. This dataset lists all licenses that are currently active.

## Data

- Countries: United States
- Keep data: no limit
- Use data: Open Data Commons Public Domain Dedication and Licence (PDDL), the datasets' licence: "[...] there are no restrictions or requirements placed on the recipient by this document. Recipients may use this work commercially, use technical protection measures, combine this data or database with other databases or data, and share their changes and additions or keep them secret. It is not a requirement that recipients provide further users with a copy of this licence or attribute the original creator of the data or database as a source. [...]"

## Plan

- Pay: $0

## Rate limit

- Batch: 1

## Speed

- Answer: in the call

## The call

- You send: resource_id "04dc653b-1789-4374-9669-b07df7233344". Optional: q, filters, full_text, distinct, plain, language, limit, offset, fields, sort, include_total, total_estimation_threshold, records_format
- Method: GET
- Path: /api/3/action/datastore_search

## About the plan

- Plan: No API key
- Who can get it: anyone

## The 27 fields the plan's answer can hold

license number, historical license number, license status, license category, license type, issue date, expiration date, business name, DBA name, comments, location comments, opening time, closing time, patrons out time, capacity, premises description, applicant, manager, day phone, evening phone, street address, city, state, ZIP code, GPS X coordinate, GPS Y coordinate, total results

## data.boston.gov's plans (1)

- [data.boston.gov, free, No API key, GET /api/3/action/datastore_search, Licensing Board Licenses](https://datacircle.dev/company-discovery-apis/data-boston-gov/free-no-api-key-get-api-3-action-datastore-search-licensing-board-licenses/llms.txt): $0.00 per 1,000, 15% complete

## data.boston.gov's calls (2)

- `GET /api/3/action/datastore_search`, Active Food Establishment Licenses: [data.boston.gov, free, No API key, GET /api/3/action/datastore_search, Active Food Establishment Licenses](https://datacircle.dev/company-discovery-apis/data-boston-gov/free-no-api-key-get-api-3-action-datastore-search-active-food-establishment-licenses/llms.txt)
- `GET /api/3/action/datastore_search`, Licensing Board Licenses: [data.boston.gov, free, No API key, GET /api/3/action/datastore_search, Licensing Board Licenses](https://datacircle.dev/company-discovery-apis/data-boston-gov/free-no-api-key-get-api-3-action-datastore-search-licensing-board-licenses/llms.txt)

## data.boston.gov's APIs (2)

- [data.boston.gov: business verification API pricing, 1 plan, GET /api/3/action/datastore_search, Active Food Establishment Licenses](https://datacircle.dev/business-verification-apis/data-boston-gov/free-no-api-key-get-api-3-action-datastore-search-active-food-establishment-licenses/llms.txt)
- [data.boston.gov: business verification API pricing, 1 plan, GET /api/3/action/datastore_search, Licensing Board Licenses](https://datacircle.dev/business-verification-apis/data-boston-gov/free-no-api-key-get-api-3-action-datastore-search-licensing-board-licenses/llms.txt)
- [data.boston.gov: company discovery API pricing, 1 plan, GET /api/3/action/datastore_search, Licensing Board Licenses](https://datacircle.dev/company-discovery-apis/data-boston-gov/free-no-api-key-get-api-3-action-datastore-search-licensing-board-licenses/llms.txt)

## data.boston.gov: company discovery API alternatives

- [GetProspect, free](https://datacircle.dev/company-discovery-apis/getprospect/free/llms.txt): $0.00 per 1,000, 62% complete, stored
- [Hunter, free, POST /discover](https://datacircle.dev/company-discovery-apis/hunter/free-post-discover/llms.txt): $0.00 per 1,000, 54% complete, stored
- [PeopleSearch.im, free](https://datacircle.dev/company-discovery-apis/peoplesearch-im/free/llms.txt): $0.00 per 1,000, 38% complete, stored
- [AnVendor, free, POST /v1/leads/search](https://datacircle.dev/company-discovery-apis/anvendor/free-post-v1-leads-search/llms.txt): $0.00 per 1,000, 23% complete, stored
- [Creditsafe, free](https://datacircle.dev/company-discovery-apis/creditsafe/free/llms.txt): $0.00 per 1,000, 8% complete

## Sources

From each provider's own pricing page and docs, and from what providers tell us. We read this row from these pages on 2026-11-09.

- https://data.boston.gov?utm_source=datacircle.dev&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=company-discovery-api-pricing
- https://data.boston.gov/api/3/action/datastore_search?resource_id=04dc653b-1789-4374-9669-b07df7233344&limit=2&utm_source=datacircle.dev&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=company-discovery-api-pricing
- https://data.boston.gov/api/3/action/package_search?q=business%20license&rows=10&utm_source=datacircle.dev&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=company-discovery-api-pricing
- https://data.boston.gov/api/3/action/package_show?id=licensing-board-licenses&utm_source=datacircle.dev&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=company-discovery-api-pricing
- https://docs.ckan.org/en/2.10/maintaining/datastore.html?utm_source=datacircle.dev&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=company-discovery-api-pricing
- https://docs.ckan.org/en/latest/api/index.html?utm_source=datacircle.dev&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=company-discovery-api-pricing
- https://opendatacommons.org/licenses/pddl/1-0/?utm_source=datacircle.dev&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=company-discovery-api-pricing