HeroHunt People Search vs Upwork

HeroHunt's People Search API lets a caller describe an ideal candidate in natural language and returns matching, enrichable profiles sourced from LinkedIn, GitHub, and Stack Overflow, the same engine behind its dashboard, SDKs, and hosted MCP server. Every call authenticates with an x-api-key header; a free trial grants 50 search credits before paid Starter/Pro plans.

Upwork's public API is now a single GraphQL endpoint covering the freelance marketplace it once exposed as separate REST resources — job postings, proposals, contracts, time tracking, and messaging — authenticated via OAuth 2.0 (Authorization Code Grant with PKCE). A live probe confirmed the stored docs URL still redirects to the current GraphQL reference and that the gateway itself returns a genuine 401 challenge to unauthenticated calls, with no Access-Control-Allow-Origin header on either that request or a follow-up preflight. Registering an application is free, gated only by Upwork's own review and a 300-request-per-minute-per-IP rate limit.