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Developer Guide

BrandQL Brand API: The Comprehensive Guide for Developers After Clearbit

Christian on February 3, 2026 · 12 min read

Diagram showing migration path from Clearbit Logo API to BrandQL

In the wake of Clearbit Logo API alternative discussions, many developers and businesses find themselves seeking new solutions. This guide provides a technical overview of BrandQL's logo service, offering insights into migration, integration, and practical applications for those affected by the HubSpot Clearbit shutdown.

Introduction to BrandQL as a Clearbit Replacement

The landscape of company data and logo APIs has shifted dramatically. With Clearbit's acquisition and service changes, developers across industries—from indie founders to enterprise specialists—need reliable alternatives. BrandQL's company logo API emerges as a robust solution, designed specifically for those requiring consistent access to brand assets.

As a logo data provider, we've built our service with developers' needs in mind. This guide explains how BrandQL works, why it matters, and how to implement it effectively in your tech stack.

Understanding the Post-Clearbit Landscape

The Impact of the HubSpot Clearbit Shutdown

When HubSpot acquired Clearbit in 2023, many developers witnessed significant changes to their data access. The ensuing transition created several challenges:

  1. Unexpected API deprecations
  2. Pricing structure changes
  3. Feature limitations
  4. Integration disruptions
  5. Documentation gaps

These changes have affected multiple stakeholder groups:

  • Indie developers who relied on affordable logo access
  • Startups that built workflows around Clearbit's infrastructure
  • Freelancers managing client systems using Clearbit integrations
  • Enterprise teams with deep Clearbit implementation

Key Considerations in Choosing a Clearbit API Migration Path

When evaluating a Logo API for developers, several factors deserve careful consideration:

  1. API reliability and uptime
    • Historical performance metrics
    • SLA guarantees
    • Geographic distribution
  2. Data coverage and freshness
    • Number of companies in database
    • Update frequency
    • Quality control processes
  3. Technical implementation
    • Authentication methods
    • Rate limiting
    • Response format consistency
  4. Pricing and scalability
    • Cost structure alignment with usage patterns
    • Growth accommodation
    • Enterprise options

BrandQL has been designed with these considerations as foundational principles.

BrandQL: Technical Overview

Core Capabilities of the BrandQL Logo Service

At its foundation, BrandQL provides a RESTful API focused on delivering consistent, high-quality company logos and brand assets. The service offers:

  • Vector (SVG) and raster (PNG) logo formats
  • Multiple size options with consistent quality
  • Transparent backgrounds by default
  • Dark/light mode variations where applicable
  • Brand color information in hex, RGB, and HSL
  • Extensive metadata about logo characteristics

Our API is designed for speed and reliability, with global CDN distribution ensuring consistent performance regardless of your users' location.

Logo API Comparison: BrandQL vs. Legacy Solutions

FeatureBrandQLClearbitOther Alternatives
Vector logos✅⚠️ Limited⚠️ Varies
Multiple sizes✅✅⚠️ Often single size
Brand colors✅❌❌
Dark mode variants✅❌❌
Update frequencyWeeklyUnknownVaries
Developer-first docs✅✅⚠️ Often limited
Custom integrations✅⚠️ Limited⚠️ Varies

The primary technical advantage of BrandQL lies in its purpose-built architecture. Rather than treating logos as an add-on feature, our entire system is optimized for brand asset delivery.

Logo API Pricing Structure

BrandQL offers transparent, usage-based pricing with no hidden fees:

  • Free: Perfect for side projects and prototyping
    • 10,000 requests/month
    • Basic formats (PNG, JPG)
    • JIT fetching included
  • Starter: For production apps with growing traffic
    • 1,000,000 requests/month
    • All formats (SVG, WebP, etc.)
    • All logo variants and transformations
    • Email support (48h SLA)
  • Pro: For high-traffic apps needing more power
    • 5,000,000 requests/month
    • JSON endpoint with brand colors and company data
    • Company classification API
    • Priority support (24h SLA)

No enrichment credits, no per-lookup charges. Pricing scales with request volume, and every plan includes a 14-day free trial on paid tiers.

Technical Implementation Guide

Logo API Integration: Getting Started

Implementing BrandQL in your existing systems follows a straightforward process:

  1. Account creation and API key generation
  2. Basic authentication setup
    const headers = {
  'Authorization': 'Bearer YOUR_API_KEY'
};
  3. Initial API test
    // Example fetch request
fetch('https://api.brandql.com/logo/example.com', {
  method: 'GET',
  headers: headers
})
.then(response => response.json())
.then(data => console.log(data));

The response returns the primary logo URL along with metadata (subject to change as the API evolves):

{
  "domain": "example.com",
  "url": "https://...",
  "format": "svg",
  "width": 400,
  "height": 100,
  "cached": true
}

You can request specific variants or sizes with query parameters:

# Dark mode variant
GET /logo/example.com?variant=dark

# Specific size
GET /logo/example.com?size=64

# Variant without fallback (returns 404 if unavailable)
GET /logo/example.com?variant=dark&fallback=false

Logo API Documentation Highlights

Our comprehensive documentation covers all API endpoints and options, but key functionality includes:

  1. Domain-based lookup
    GET /logo/example.com
  2. Logo variants
    GET /logo/example.com?variant=dark
  3. Image sizing
    GET /logo/example.com?size=64
  4. All discovered sources
    GET /logo/example.com/sources
  5. Force a fresh scrape
    POST /logo/example.com/refresh
  6. Batch processing (coming soon)
    POST /logos/batch

    With request body:
    {
  "domains": [
    "example.com",
    "another-company.com",
    "third-example.org"
  ]
}

Each endpoint includes appropriate rate limiting headers and cache control directives to optimize your implementation.

Common Integration Patterns

Based on our work with customers across different segments, we've identified several effective integration approaches:

  1. Pre-fetching and caching
    • Ideal for known company sets
    • Reduces API dependency during critical user flows
    • Recommended implementation: Background jobs with local storage
  2. On-demand with fallback
    • Suits dynamic company discovery
    • Provides resilience against network issues
    • Implementation: Client-side request with cached fallback
  3. Webhook-driven updates
    • Perfect for maintaining fresh data
    • Minimizes unnecessary API calls
    • Implementation: Register endpoints for logo updates

API Migration Guide: Transitioning from Clearbit

Technical Migration Steps

Moving from Clearbit to BrandQL requires several key actions:

  1. Audit current Clearbit usage
    • Document all integration points
    • Identify request volumes and patterns
    • Note any custom implementations
  2. Map endpoints to BrandQL equivalents
    • Clearbit Logo API → GET /logo/:domain
    • Clearbit Logo sizes → GET /logo/:domain?size=64
    • Clearbit Logo variants → GET /logo/:domain?variant=dark
  3. Update authentication mechanisms
    - Authorization: Bearer sk_clearbit_123abc
+ Authorization: Bearer bql_api_xyz789
  4. Adjust response handling
    // Clearbit — the URL *is* the image
const clearbitUrl = `https://logo.clearbit.com/${domain}`;

// BrandQL — fetch the JSON, then use the URL
const res = await fetch(`https://api.brandql.com/logo/${domain}`, {
  headers: { 'Authorization': 'Bearer YOUR_API_KEY' }
});
const { url } = await res.json();
  5. Test thoroughly in staging environment
    • Compare response times
    • Validate logo quality
    • Check edge cases (missing logos, etc.)
  6. Implement gradual rollout
    • Consider running both systems in parallel
    • Monitor for any issues
    • Gather metrics on performance differences

Migration Case Studies

Several organizations have successfully migrated from Clearbit to BrandQL:

FinTech SaaS Platform

  • Challenge: 2M+ monthly logo requests with strict uptime requirements
  • Solution: Parallel implementation with gradual traffic shifting
  • Result: 99.99% success rate, 23% faster average response time

Marketing Agency Software

  • Challenge: Complex client implementations with custom Clearbit integrations
  • Solution: Custom mapping layer with API translation
  • Result: Seamless transition with zero client disruption

E-commerce Analytics Tool

  • Challenge: Heavy reliance on company data beyond logos
  • Solution: Phased migration with interim hybrid approach
  • Result: Successful transition with expanded brand data access

Advanced Implementation Techniques

Optimizing Performance with the Company Logo Database

For high-volume implementations, consider these optimization strategies:

  1. Intelligent caching
    // Example caching implementation
const logoCache = new Map();

async function getLogo(domain) {
  if (logoCache.has(domain)) {
    const cached = logoCache.get(domain);
    if (Date.now() - cached.timestamp < 7 * 24 * 60 * 60 * 1000) {
      return cached.data;
    }
  }

  const response = await fetch(`https://api.brandql.com/logo/${domain}`, {
    headers: { 'Authorization': 'Bearer YOUR_API_KEY' }
  });

  const data = await response.json();
  logoCache.set(domain, {
    data,
    timestamp: Date.now()
  });

  return data;
}
  2. Predictive prefetching Analyze user patterns to prefetch likely-needed logos before they're requested.
  3. Background synchronization Implement a job that keeps your local database synchronized with BrandQL's updates.

Leveraging BrandQL Beyond Basic Logos

BrandQL is expanding beyond simple logo delivery. Here's what's available today and what's on the roadmap:

  1. Multiple logo variants — serve the right logo for any context
    // Dark mode support with automatic fallback
const darkLogo = await fetch('https://api.brandql.com/logo/example.com?variant=dark', {
  headers: { 'Authorization': 'Bearer YOUR_API_KEY' }
}).then(r => r.json());
  2. All discovered sources — see every logo source we found for a domain
    // Get all logo sources ranked by quality
const sources = await fetch('https://api.brandql.com/logo/example.com/sources', {
  headers: { 'Authorization': 'Bearer YOUR_API_KEY' }
}).then(r => r.json());
  3. Brand colors and company data (Pro plan) — extracted colors, sector classification, and company metadata are available as part of the JSON response on the Pro tier.

Conclusion: Building with BrandQL

As the technical landscape evolves post-Clearbit, developers need reliable, specialized solutions. BrandQL offers a dedicated Logo API for developers with the features and reliability required for modern applications.

Whether you're an indie developer building a side project, a startup engineer integrating logos into your product, or an enterprise specialist maintaining complex systems, our API provides the consistency and performance you need.

The migration from Clearbit presents an opportunity to not just replace functionality but to enhance it. BrandQL's focused approach to brand assets delivers more comprehensive data, better performance, and a more developer-friendly experience.

We're continuously expanding our company logo database and refining our API based on developer feedback. As we grow, we remain committed to our core principles of reliability, quality, and developer experience.

To get started with BrandQL:

  1. Create an account at https://brandql.com
  2. Generate your API key
  3. Explore our documentation
  4. Start building with better brand data

For migration support or custom integration assistance, our team is available to help make your transition smooth and successful.

BrandQL: The definitive Clearbit Logo API alternative built for developers.

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