---
title: "Moving off Koala: what WhoLayer covers and what it doesn't"
description: "What happened to Koala, a feature-by-feature map to WhoLayer endpoints and MCP tools, honest gaps, and the steps to switch."
url: https://wholayer.com/switch/koala
---

Switch guide

# Moving off Koala?

If you used Koala to see which accounts and known users were on your site and to alert your sales team, WhoLayer's Visitor ID covers that job with one tag: company-level identification worldwide, person-level for US traffic, and alerts to Slack, HubSpot, webhooks, or an email digest.

Checked November 4, 2026.

## What happened

Shut down

Koala's website says it has been acquired by Cursor and was shutting down on September 30. The banner doesn't give a year. [\[1\], November 4, 2026](https://wholayer.com/switch/koala#source-1)

## What maps across

Every WhoLayer endpoint and MCP tool below exists today. Where there's no equivalent, we say so.

Koala jobs mapped to WhoLayer
| What you used Koala for | WhoLayer | REST endpoint | MCP tool | Status |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| See which companies visit your site | Company-level visitor ID, free and unlimited on every plan | `GET /v1/visitors?level=company` | `list_visitors`<br>Free. | Available |
| Recognize known, logged-in users | Call wholayer("identify", email) in the tag; the email is hashed in the browser | — | — | Available |
| Identify anonymous people | Person-level visitor ID with name, title, LinkedIn, and work email | `GET /v1/visitors?level=person` | `list_visitors`<br>Free. | Available (US only) |
| Alerts when target accounts hit key pages | Key-page signals and Slack alerts, filtered by title, company size, and page | — | — | Available |
| Daily or weekly summaries | Email digest destination, daily or weekly | — | — | Available |
| CRM sync | One-way sync to HubSpot, Pipedrive, Attio, and Salesforce; signed webhooks for anything else | — | — | Partial |
| Product-usage signals from your app | No equivalent | — | — | Not offered |

REST base URL: `https://api.wholayer.com/v1`. MCP server: `https://mcp.wholayer.com/mcp`. Full reference in the [API docs](https://wholayer.com/docs/api) and [OpenAPI spec](https://wholayer.com/openapi.json).

## What you'll lose

WhoLayer isn't a complete replacement. Plainly:

- WhoLayer doesn't ingest product-usage events from your app or from tools like Segment. It identifies website visits.
- Person-level identification of anonymous visitors is US-only. Elsewhere you get the company, after consent.
- CRM sync is one-way: WhoLayer writes people to HubSpot, Pipedrive, Attio, or Salesforce, and doesn't read deals or opportunity stages back.

## How to switch

1. Step 1

    ### Create a free account

    Sign up with your work email. The Free plan needs no card.

2. Step 2

    ### Create an API key

    Under Settings, API keys. Use a wl\_test\_... key first: every endpoint and MCP tool returns sandbox data and never spends credits.

3. Step 3

    ### Install the tag

    Paste one async script in your site header, or install through Google Tag Manager, Webflow, WordPress, or Framer.

4. Step 4

    ### Identify known users

    After login, call wholayer("identify", email) so known visitors match more reliably.

5. Step 5

    ### Connect alerts

    Add Slack, HubSpot, a signed webhook, or an email digest under Destinations, and set the key pages that should trigger alerts.

[Start free](https://wholayer.com/signup) [Install the MCP server](https://wholayer.com/docs/mcp)

## Questions

### Is WhoLayer a drop-in replacement for Koala?

For website visitor and account signals, it covers the main jobs. It doesn't take product-usage events from your app, and person-level identification is US-only.

### Do I need a cookie banner?

For US traffic, your privacy policy must disclose that you use a visitor identification service. Outside the US you need a consent banner, and the tag waits for consent before it runs.

## Sources

- \[1\] [getkoala.com (banner)](https://getkoala.com/) (vendor's own page, checked November 4, 2026)

Competitor information is from public sources as of November 4, 2026 and may have changed. Trademarks belong to their owners. WhoLayer wrote this page; if something here is wrong, [tell us](https://wholayer.com/contact?topic=sales) and we'll fix it.

[All switch guides](https://wholayer.com/switch) · [Koala alternatives](https://wholayer.com/alternatives/koala)

Ready when you are

## Try WhoLayer before you move off Koala

The Free plan includes 100 credits a month for visitor ID, the Data API, and the MCP server. No card needed.

[Start free](https://wholayer.com/signup) [Talk to sales](https://wholayer.com/contact?topic=sales)