Match vs. Search Comparison
Feature | Standard Match API | Advanced Match API | Search API |
---|---|---|---|
Required Fields | (5) legalName, address (street), locality (city), postalCode (zip), country (ISO 2 character) | (5) legalName, address (street), locality (city), postalCode (zip), country (ISO 2 character) | (3) legalName, locality (city), country (ISO 2 character) |
Returns Field Grade metadata | 🚫 | ✅ - Optionally, the flag showGrades may be used to show how well the input payload values matched with the values in the Directory. Field Grade Definitions | ✅ - always returned |
Able to show non-matches (e.g. below the global match confidence threshold) | 🚫 If a match is found, where the score is above the Match Confidence Threshold, only the 1st, best match is returned. | ✅ - Optionally, the flag to showNonMatches may be set at runtime to also include entities falling below the Match Confidence Threshold. | N/A - there is no scoring threshold / filter applied to the search results. Changing the Match Confidence Threshold has no effect on the results returned using Search. |
Number of Business Entities Returned | Returns Best Match, Maximum of 1 - not an API parameter. | Returns Best Match First, API parameter, matchCount (values 1 to max 10) | Returns Active First, Maximum of 10 - not an API parameter. |
Pre-sorted | matchConfidenceScore descending | matchConfidenceScore descending | companyStatus (active first), searchConfidenceScore decending |
Returns companyStatus(Active / Inactive) | 🚫 (available via Firmographic API) | 🚫 (available via Firmographic API) | ✅ (required for sorting, also available via Firmographic API) |
Optional input fields if the data can be provided | epInternalId, region (state), dba (doing business as), phoneNo, website, taxId, nationalId, names (primary contact) | epInternalId, region (state), dba (doing business as), phoneNo, website, taxId, nationalId, names (primary contact) | dba (doing business as), address (street), region (state), postalCode, phoneNo, website, taxId, nationalId, names (primary contact) |
If only the required data elements are passed, Search will generally be less-precise than Matching because there are fewer data points for comparison. If the optional data inputs are available, they should be passed when the API is called.
Updated 8 days ago