Unipile alternative: LinkedIn profiles by URL, without a LinkedIn account
Unipile's LinkedIn API works through LinkedIn accounts: your users connect theirs, and the API sends their messages and invitations and reads profiles as each account sees them. It's billed per connected account, and its docs recommend about 100 profiles per account per day.
Through Datacircle, a LinkedIn profile is one call with its URL: $1.25 per 1,000 through Up2Data, and a profile it can't find is free; $3.70 through HarvestAPI. No. You send the profile's URL with your Datacircle key: no LinkedIn login, no cookies, no browser. You send the provider's own request to api.datacircle.dev, with your Datacircle key. That's the only change.
Its prices, per connected account
Unipile bills each connected account by the month, whatever the channel, with no cost per request. Its pricing page in October 2026, in dollars:
| Connected accounts | Price |
|---|---|
| Up to 10 | $55 a month |
| 11 to 50 | $5.50 an account a month |
| 51 to 200 | $5.00 an account a month |
| 201 to 1,000 | $4.50 an account a month |
| 1,001 to 5,000 | $4.00 an account a month |
| 5,001+ | $3.50 an account a month |
Its pricing page says "Unlimited usage": "Only provider limits apply." On LinkedIn, its docs recommend about 100 profiles retrieved per account per day, and say Unipile doesn't enforce it. So a LinkedIn profile at Unipile costs an account's month spread over its days, and every 100 profiles a day is one more LinkedIn account.
What a month of profiles costs
Unipile with one LinkedIn account for each 100 profiles a day, its recommendation, and Datacircle at its least: Up2Data for 800 profiles a day, HarvestAPI past them, over a 30-day month.
| Profiles a day | LinkedIn accounts | Unipile a month | Unipile per 1,000 | Datacircle a month |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 100 | 1 | $55.00 | $18.33 | $3.75 |
| 800 | 8 | $55.00 | $2.29 | $30.00 |
| 1,000 | 10 | $55.00 | $1.83 | $52.20 |
| 2,000 | 20 | $110.00 | $1.83 | $163.20 |
| 5,000 | 50 | $275.00 | $1.83 | $496.20 |
| 10,000 | 100 | $500.00 | $1.67 | $1,051.20 |
Up to about 1,000 profiles a day, Datacircle costs less, with no account to connect. Past that, Unipile does, at $1.67 to $1.83 per 1,000 in this table, as long as you have one LinkedIn account for every 100 profiles a day, connected and in use: 100 of them for 10,000 a day. Through Datacircle, past Up2Data's 800 a day, each profile is HarvestAPI's $3.70 per 1,000, with no daily limit.
Through a LinkedIn account, or not
Unipile's LinkedIn page says it gives the profile details "visible to the authenticated account", keeps no database of LinkedIn profiles of its own, and leaves its customers responsible for using it in line with LinkedIn's terms. Its docs add that a LinkedIn search returns at most 1,000 profiles, 2,500 on Sales Navigator and Recruiter, and that an account with either can retrieve more profiles a day.
Through Datacircle, there is no account in the call: No. You send the profile's URL with your Datacircle key: no LinkedIn login, no cookies, no browser. Live. Each request goes to the provider and gets the profile as it is today. Up2Data's own request, with your Datacircle key:
curl -X POST "https://api.datacircle.dev/v1/profiles/enrich" \
-H "Authorization: Token $DATACIRCLE_API_KEY" \
-H "X-Data-Provider: up2data" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{"url": "https://www.linkedin.com/in/williamhgates"}'One profile a call, its answer in the response, with its job history and schools; every answer carries datacircle_meta: which provider answered, what the call cost, your balance after it. Every field: LinkedIn Profile API in the docs. The same call for a whole CSV: in Python or in Node.js.
What Unipile does that Datacircle doesn't
- Acting on LinkedIn as your users: messages, invitations, InMail, their inbox synced, webhooks on new connections.
- LinkedIn search as the account sees it, with Sales Navigator and Recruiter.
- WhatsApp, Instagram, Telegram, Gmail, Outlook and calendars in the same API, for the same price per account.
If your product lets its users work LinkedIn from their own accounts, that's Unipile. If you need profiles by URL, any number a day, with no account to connect, that's Datacircle. Is there a subscription? No. You add funds to your balance and pay per call; funds never expire.
Free: 10M+ U.S. B2B leads, as a flat file. Download it at datacircle.dev. Add $50 to your account: you get $50 of API PLUS the flat file. Or invite 3 people who sign up. Every LinkedIn profile API's price: LinkedIn profile API pricing compared.
Questions
How much does Unipile cost?
Its pricing page, in October 2026: $55 a month for up to 10 connected accounts, then $5.50 an account a month from 11, down to $3.50 past 5,000, whatever the channel: LinkedIn, WhatsApp, Instagram, Telegram or email. No cost per request or per message, and a 7-day free trial with no credit card.
How many LinkedIn profiles can Unipile retrieve a day?
Its docs recommend about 100 profiles per LinkedIn account per day; Unipile doesn't enforce it. An account with Sales Navigator or Recruiter can do more. A search returns at most 1,000 profiles, 2,500 on Sales Navigator and Recruiter.
Do I need a LinkedIn account?
No. You send the profile's URL with your Datacircle key: no LinkedIn login, no cookies, no browser.
Is each request live, or cached?
Live. Each request goes to the provider and gets the profile as it is today.
Is there a daily limit?
Up2Data takes $1 a day per account (800 profiles), with a shared daily limit for all customers, then answers 429 until 00:00 UTC; HarvestAPI has no daily limit.
What's free?
Sign up at datacircle.dev with your work email: a $5 credit, that's 4,000 LinkedIn profiles at $1.25 per 1,000.
Sign up at datacircle.dev with your work email: a $5 credit, that's 4,000 LinkedIn profiles at $1.25 per 1,000. Free: 10M+ U.S. B2B leads, as a flat file. Download it at datacircle.dev.
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