Perigon vs Diffbot: full comparison for 2026
Quick verdict
Perigon (4.5/5) edges ahead of Diffbot (3.7/5) overall. Perigon is the better choice for indie developers and startups wanting enriched data at a known price. Diffbot is the stronger option for developers collecting news from a fixed list of sites. The right pick depends on your budget, how much history you need and whether you need full text.
Perigon vs Diffbot: head-to-head summary
| Criterion | Perigon | Diffbot |
|---|---|---|
| Founded | 2022 | 2008 |
| HQ | Austin, Texas, USA | Menlo Park, California, USA |
| Team size | 11–50 | 11–50 |
| Rating | 4.5 / 5 | 3.7 / 5 |
| Primary differentiator | Entity, topic and cluster data from the $25 plan up, with all tiers priced publicly | Parser-free extraction from any article URL, linked to a Knowledge Graph |
| Pricing model | Monthly plans; add-ons for real-time and volume | Monthly credit plans |
| Entry price | $25/mo | $299/mo |
| Formats & SDKs | REST API, JSON, Python SDK | REST API, JSON, Python SDK |
| Typical uses | AI & LLM apps, Media monitoring, Risk & compliance, Marketing & PR | AI & LLM apps, Research & academia, Marketing & PR, Financial services |
Perigon vs Diffbot: overview
Perigon
Perigon is an Austin, Texas startup founded in 2022 by Joshua Dziabiak and Josh Rickel, backed by a $5 million seed round that LiveOak Ventures led in February 2024. For developers its main draw is that the pricing page tells you what you will pay: Individual at $25 a month for personal use, Startup at $250 with limited commercial rights, and Commercial at $1,250 with real-time data, an SLA and SSO. Every tier returns enriched articles with entities, topics, summaries and story clusters from 230,000+ sources (per company website; independently unverifiable), and Monitors let you save a query and get matches on a schedule. Plan for the delay: below Commercial, data lags by an hour unless you pay for the real-time add-on.
Diffbot
Diffbot, founded by Mike Tung in 2008 and based in Menlo Park, California, has an estimated 30–40 staff. Point its Article API at any news URL and it returns title, author, date and clean text without a site-specific parser, and Crawlbot can follow a list of publishers you choose. Its Knowledge Graph links articles to companies, people and topics, so it can also be queried as a news source. The free plan includes 10,000 credits at five calls a minute, Startup costs $299 a month for 250,000 credits, and each exported Knowledge Graph entity costs 25 credits. It works best when you want to build your own news collection from chosen sites.
Features: Perigon vs Diffbot
| Capability | Perigon | Diffbot |
|---|---|---|
| Full article text | ✓ | ✓ |
| Historical archive | ✓ | ✓ |
| NLP enrichment | ✓ | ✓ |
| Story/event clustering | ✓ | ✗ |
| Official SDK | ✓ | ✓ |
| Streaming or webhooks | ✓ | ✗ |
| Free access | ✓ | ✓ |
Formats and SDKs: Perigon vs Diffbot
| Format / SDK | Perigon | Diffbot |
|---|---|---|
| REST API | ✓ | ✓ |
| Python SDK | ✓ | ✓ |
| Node.js SDK | ✓ | N/A |
| Webhooks | ✓ | N/A |
| WebSocket | N/A | N/A |
| MCP server | N/A | N/A |
| S3/bulk delivery | N/A | N/A |
| BigQuery | N/A | N/A |
Pricing comparison: Perigon vs Diffbot
| Criterion | Perigon | Diffbot |
|---|---|---|
| Entry price | $25/mo | $299/mo |
| Pricing model | Monthly plans; add-ons for real-time and volume | Monthly credit plans |
| Access models | Free trial, Monthly plans, Enterprise contract | Free tier, Monthly plans, Enterprise contract |
| Price transparency | Public price | Public price |
| Price tier | Budget | Mid-market |
Who each API suits: Perigon vs Diffbot
| Dimension | Perigon | Diffbot |
|---|---|---|
| Buyer type | Individuals to enterprise | Individuals to enterprise |
| Typical uses | AI & LLM apps, Media monitoring, Risk & compliance | AI & LLM apps, Research & academia, Marketing & PR |
| Example use cases | A startup MVP that needs commercial rights from the first month. Alerting on a brand or topic without building a scheduler. | Monitoring niche trade publications. Clean article text for an LLM from known URLs. |
| How you get access | Free trial | Free tier |
Perigon vs Diffbot: pros and cons
| Perigon | |
|---|---|
| + | The cheapest plan already includes enrichment, which most rivals reserve for higher tiers |
| + | Monitors replace a cron job and a diffing script with a saved query |
| + | Python and Node SDKs, plus webhooks for pushed results |
| + | The license explains what you may do with the structured data, which saves a round of legal questions |
| - | Data lags by an hour below the $1,250 plan unless you buy real-time |
| - | The Startup tier caps you at 10,000 requests a month |
| - | Republishing full article text is outside the license |
| Diffbot | |
|---|---|
| + | No custom scrapers to maintain when a site changes layout |
| + | 10,000 free credits with no card |
| + | Knowledge Graph links coverage to companies and people |
| + | Crawlbot handles crawling the publishers you pick |
| - | Five calls a minute on the free plan |
| - | Knowledge Graph exports cost 25 credits each |
| - | You assemble the feed yourself |
Who should choose Perigon?
A typical fit: a startup MVP that needs commercial rights from the first month.
Entity, topic and cluster data from the $25 plan up, with all tiers priced publicly. Paid access starts at $25/mo. Typical uses: AI & LLM apps, Media monitoring, Risk & compliance, Marketing & PR.
Who should choose Diffbot?
A typical fit: monitoring niche trade publications.
Parser-free extraction from any article URL, linked to a Knowledge Graph. Paid access starts at $299/mo. Typical uses: AI & LLM apps, Research & academia, Marketing & PR, Financial services.
Decision matrix: Perigon vs Diffbot
| Your situation | Recommended choice |
|---|---|
| You want to start free before paying | Both |
| Your budget is at the lower end | Perigon |
| You need full article text in the response | Both |
| You need years of historical news | Both |
| You want an official SDK | Both |
| You are wiring news into an LLM agent | Perigon |
Use case fit: Perigon vs Diffbot
| Use case | Perigon fit | Diffbot fit | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|
| AI & LLM apps | Strong | Strong | Both equally |
| Media monitoring | Strong | Limited | Perigon |
| Risk & compliance | Strong | Limited | Perigon |
| Marketing & PR | Strong | Strong | Both equally |
| Research & academia | Limited | Strong | Diffbot |
| Financial services | Limited | Strong | Diffbot |
Verdict: Perigon vs Diffbot
Perigon (4.5/5) is the stronger overall choice as a news data source. Entity, topic and cluster data from the $25 plan up, with all tiers priced publicly.
Diffbot (3.7/5) is worth a look if you need clean article text for an LLM from known URLs. If your situation matches that, Diffbot is a competitive option.
Related comparisons
Perigon vs Diffbot FAQ
Is Perigon better than Diffbot?
Perigon (4.5/5) scores higher overall, but "better" depends on your use case. Perigon's strongest advantage: the cheapest plan already includes enrichment, which most rivals reserve for higher tiers. Diffbot's strongest advantage: no custom scrapers to maintain when a site changes layout.
How do Perigon and Diffbot differ in pricing?
Perigon: monthly plans; add-ons for real-time and volume, with paid access from $25/mo. Diffbot: monthly credit plans, with paid access from $299/mo. Both offer some free access for testing.
Which is better for enterprise: Perigon or Diffbot?
Both sell enterprise contracts. Neither carries licensed publisher content, so check copyright terms before republishing anything.
What are the main differences between Perigon and Diffbot?
What sets Perigon apart: Entity, topic and cluster data from the $25 plan up, with all tiers priced publicly. What sets Diffbot apart: parser-free extraction from any article URL, linked to a Knowledge Graph. They also differ on entry price ($25/mo vs $299/mo) and typical uses (AI & LLM apps, Media monitoring vs AI & LLM apps, Research & academia).
Verify all details directly with each API before making a decision.