How to Choose the Best Way to Access TheirStack Data

TL;DR

• If you're not a developer, use the App.
• If you need more than 1M records / month, use Datasets.
• If you want to get notified when (1) new jobs are posted or (2) new companies start using a new technology, use Webhooks.
• If you want to enrich an external system on demand, use the API.
• If you want your AI assistant to query TheirStack data directly, use the MCP server.

Basics

• Same data for all methods: Every delivery method accesses the same underlying dataset and quality.
• Filtering: All filters are available in the App, API, and Webhooks. Datasets are exported as flat files (CSV/Parquet) without server-side filtering.

Delivery methods

App (UI)

Use the App when you want to explore, iterate, and export data without writing code.

• What it’s best for
  • Target companies with active job openings
  • Find companies by tech stack or discover a company’s tech stack
  • Source candidates with niche technology experience
  • Ad-hoc searches, validating data quality, and exporting to CSV/Excel
• Pricing
  • Uses company credits
• Learn more

Datasets (bulk + historical)

Use Datasets when you need large-scale access for warehouses, analytics, or ML.

• What it’s best for
  • Expand your job board with fresh listings (backfilling)
  • Power sales intelligence platforms at scale
  • Convert competitors’ paying advertisers into your customers
  • Loading into a data warehouse or data lake (S3, BigQuery, Snowflake, etc.)
  • Historical analysis, model training, and high-volume consumption (>1M records/month)
• Pricing
  • Flat subscription; more cost‑efficient above ~1M records/month
• Learn more
  • Overview: Datasets
  • Jobs schema and coverage: Job data
  • Access steps: Obtaining access to your datasets

Webhooks (real-time)

Use Webhooks when you need to ingest fresh data continuously without polling.

• What it’s best for
  • Monitor past customers that are hiring again
  • Spot your competitors’ next moves
  • Expand your job board with fresh listings (backfilling)
  • Match job seekers with relevant opportunities (academies, bootcamps, career services)
  • Triggering workflows in Zapier, Make, n8n, or your own services via saved searches
• Pricing
  • Consumes API credits; pay per record returned
• Learn more
  • How to set up a webhook
  • Monitor your webhooks

API (on-demand)

Use the API when you need programmatic, on-demand access for enrichment or user-triggered actions.

• What it’s best for
  • Enrich companies with technographic data on demand (CRM, product records)
  • Power sales intelligence platforms with server-to-server lookups
  • Identify companies with problems your software solves
  • Synchronous product features that fetch data on demand
• Pricing
  • Consumes API credits; pay per record returned
• When not to use
  • If you’re polling or batching requests on a schedule, prefer Webhooks for push delivery, retries, and lower operational overhead
• Learn more

MCP (AI assistants)

Use the MCP server when you want your AI assistant to search TheirStack data conversationally.

• What it's best for
  • Asking natural-language questions about jobs, companies, and tech stacks from Claude, Cursor, ChatGPT, or any MCP client
  • Quick ad-hoc research without writing code or learning the API
  • Create niche job newsletters with AI-assisted curation
• Pricing
  • Consumes API credits at the same rate as the REST API
• Learn more

Examples

• Sales or RevOps team wants to test a new ICP and export a CSV for outreach → App (UI)
• Product team needs new US tech jobs streamed into an internal DB every hour → Webhooks
• Data team wants multi-year job postings for trend analysis and modeling → Datasets