VertData API Quickstart: Your First Call in Under 5 Minutes

The VertData API is designed to be the fastest data API you've ever integrated. This quickstart will have you making authenticated calls and parsing results in under 5 minutes. No enterprise contracts, no sandbox approval process — just your API key and a terminal.

Step 1: Get Your API Key

Sign up at vertdata.com/signup.html. Your account includes a free sandbox key with 500 API credits — no credit card needed. From your dashboard, navigate to API Keys and copy your key. It starts with vd_test_sk_ for sandbox or vd_live_sk_ for production.

Step 2: Make Your First Call

Open your terminal and run this cURL command:

curl -X GET   'https://vertdata.com/api/v1/b2b/companies?industry=saas&state=CA&per_page=5' \
  -H 'Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY'

You should receive a JSON response with 5 SaaS company records from California, along with pagination metadata showing the total available records.

Step 3: Understand the Response

Every VertData API response follows the same structure: success (boolean), data (array of records), and pagination (page, per_page, total, total_pages). This consistency makes it easy to build generic pagination logic that works across all 10 endpoints.

Step 4: Try All Three Verticals

Real estate: GET /api/v1/realestate/properties?min_equity=65&state=TX
Legal: GET /api/v1/legal/attorneys?practice_area=personal+injury&state=CA
B2B contacts: GET /api/v1/b2b/contacts?state=NY

Step 5: Install an SDK

For production integrations, use an official SDK. Node.js: npm install vertdata. Python: pip install vertdata. Ruby: gem install vertdata. Each SDK handles authentication, retry logic, and response pagination automatically.

Common Integration Patterns

Webhook enrichment: When a new lead enters your CRM, trigger a VertData API call to enrich the record with firmographic data. Scheduled exports: Use cron to query new records matching your criteria daily and push to your database. Real-time scoring: On form submission, call the AI scoring endpoint to instantly classify and route the lead.