European Alternatives to Dun & Bradstreet
Looking for a European alternative to Dun & Bradstreet? The terms of use on dnb.com are issued by Dun & Bradstreet, Inc., its corporate headquarters page gives 5335 Gate Parkway in Jacksonville, Florida, and its privacy policy states that it is registered as a data broker in California, Oregon and Vermont. European buyers who prefer a contract with a European entity and register-based data have several providers to compare.
The European providers below range from credit bureaus such as Creditsafe, KSV1870, CRIF and Creditreform to register search tools like North Data, OpenCorporates and Moneyhouse, and risk and data platforms such as Ellisphere and Companyweb.
How we rank these tools — 4-step process
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European ownership, verified
The company is headquartered and incorporated in the EU, EEA, the UK, Switzerland or Israel, and processes customer data in Europe or Israel. A US parent company disqualifies a tool from this page regardless of where its servers are.
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2
Category fit and hands-on review
What the tool actually does, who it suits, and where it falls short — checked against the vendor’s own documentation, changelog and pricing page rather than its marketing copy.
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Compliance and pricing check
GDPR posture, hosting location and the prices quoted on this page are verified against the vendor’s public pricing before publication, and re-checked when we revisit the category.
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Position on this page
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10 European Alternatives to Dun & Bradstreet
Creditsafe
Company credit reports, monitoring and AML checks from Cardiff
KSV1870
Austrian creditor association selling company reports with listed prices
North Data
Hamburg search engine over European registers and annual accounts
OpenCorporates
Open legal-entity database fed directly from official registers
Moneyhouse
Swiss commercial register data plus credit and payment reports
CRIF
Bologna-based credit bureau group with business information services
Ellisphere
French B2B data and risk platform with scoring and API
Companyweb
Belgian company information with monitoring and KYC checks
Creditreform
German credit information association with national and international reports
Cognism
London B2B contact and company data for sales teams
Key takeaways
- Dun & Bradstreet's website terms are issued by Dun & Bradstreet, Inc., with corporate headquarters at 5335 Gate Parkway, Jacksonville, Florida.
- The privacy policy states that Dun & Bradstreet, Inc. is registered as a data broker in California, Oregon and Vermont and is a data broker under Texas law.
- KSV1870 publishes report prices from €33.20 for members, while D&B quotes by contract.
- North Data in Hamburg and OpenCorporates in London cover company register research, which is only one slice of what D&B sells.
- Companies that key their systems on D-U-N-S Numbers need a mapping to national register numbers before they can switch.
Why people leave Dun & Bradstreet
Dun & Bradstreet sells company data: credit and risk files, a business directory and the D-U-N-S Number, the identifier its site offers as a lookup. The website terms are issued by Dun & Bradstreet, Inc., and the contact page gives the corporate headquarters as 5335 Gate Parkway, Jacksonville, Florida. For a credit controller in Lyon or a procurement team in Gdansk, that means a supplier file about a European company is compiled and sold by an American company.
The privacy policy is open about what kind of business this is. Dun & Bradstreet, Inc. states that it is registered as a data broker in California, Oregon and Vermont, and that the entity maintaining the website is a data broker under Texas law. Two group companies, Eyeota and NetWise Data, appear on the same list. Data about directors, owners and sole traders is personal data, so the identity of the seller decides which regulator you can write to.
Nobody leaves because the product is unknown. People look elsewhere when a contract is negotiated from a US template, when a budget request needs a published price, or when a legal team asks which law applies to a file on a German GmbH. Those are the questions the ten providers below answer differently.
- The contracting entity is American The terms of use name Dun & Bradstreet, Inc., and the headquarters listed for contact is in Jacksonville. The terms also say they sit on top of the product contract you sign, and that your rights are governed by that contract, so the answer to "which law applies" is found in the order form, not on the website. Creditsafe, KSV1870, North Data, CRIF, Ellisphere, Companyweb and Creditreform each name a legal entity in an EU country or the UK on their own pages.
- Transfers rest on a framework, not on geography The privacy policy lists the EU-U.S., Swiss-U.S. and UK Extension Data Privacy Framework (all 2023) and still shows the Privacy Shield entries from 2016 and 2017 that the framework replaced. A data framework is a political arrangement that has been struck down once before. A buyer whose files never leave an EU provider has no such dependency to track.
- Liability is disclaimed for the data itself The website terms say Dun & Bradstreet and its related parties are not liable for any loss arising from its conduct in procuring, compiling, collecting, interpreting, reporting or delivering services, to the extent the law allows. That is a website clause, and your master agreement may say something different, but it shows what the starting position is. Check the liability cap in the order form before you rely on a score to extend credit.
- Price is a conversation D&B sells through enterprise, small business and public sector routes, and the pages we read do not give a price list. Against that, KSV1870 prints €33.20, €66.90 and €99.20 for member reports, North Data prints €49 per month, and OpenCorporates prints £2,250 per year for its API. A finance team that has to put a number in a budget can start from a table instead of a call.
What you have to replace, not just match
Dun & Bradstreet is several products wearing one name, and no European provider matches all of them. The credit file for one customer maps to Creditsafe, CRIF, Creditreform, KSV1870, Companyweb or Ellisphere, depending on the country. Register research on who owns a company and what its accounts show maps to North Data. Machine-readable legal-entity records to match against your CRM map to OpenCorporates.
The one thing to replace rather than copy is the identifier. If your ERP, your onboarding flow or your customers use D-U-N-S Numbers as the key for a company, none of the ten providers issues a number that plays the same role across countries. You will end up keying on national register numbers (Firmenbuch, KBO, RCS, Companies House, UID) plus a provider ID. Plan that mapping table before you cancel anything.
Most European providers are national. Of the ten, only Creditsafe, OpenCorporates and CRIF make a point of covering many countries, and North Data covers about 27 listed on its country filter. A company that checks customers in twelve countries will probably combine two providers, which is a cost to weigh against the single D&B contract.
The alternatives compared
| Position | Tool | Headquarters | Pricing | Jurisdiction |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| #1 | Creditsafe | Cardiff, United Kingdom | Packages (Worldwide, Europe, UK and Ireland) on request via 'Get Quote'; free trial offered | United Kingdom (adequacy decision, outside the EEA) |
| #2 | KSV1870 | Vienna, Austria | Members from €33.20 (Compact), €66.90 (Standard), €99.20 (Professional); guests via Business Search €60, €85, €105; excl. 20% VAT | EU (Austria) |
| #3 | North Data | Hamburg, Germany | Basic €49 per month or €490 per year; Plus €1,250, Pro €2,250, Max €3,950 per year; Enterprise on request; excl. VAT | EU (Germany) |
| #4 | OpenCorporates | London, United Kingdom | API plans: Essentials £2,250 per year, Starter £6,600, Basic £12,000; Enterprise bulk delivery on request | United Kingdom (adequacy decision, outside the EEA) |
| #5 | Moneyhouse | Zurich, Switzerland | Credit report valued at CHF 19.00 (one included in Premium membership); report packs of 10 to 500 queries; membership price not seen | Switzerland (adequacy decision, outside the EEA) |
| #6 | CRIF | Bologna, Italy | Not published, contact CRIF | EU (Italy) |
| #7 | Ellisphere | Paris La Défense, France | Not published, demo on request | EU (France) |
| #8 | Companyweb | Vilvoorde, Belgium | 7-day trial without credit card; prices not seen in the pages reviewed | EU (Belgium) |
| #9 | Creditreform | Neuss, Germany | Not published, see website | EU (Germany) |
| #10 | Cognism | London, United Kingdom | Quote-based: Standard and Pro plans with 5 seats included, credits per seat | United Kingdom (adequacy decision, outside the EEA) |
How each alternative compares to Dun & Bradstreet
Best for: Finance teams that check customers in many countries and accept a negotiated quote
Creditsafe Business Solutions Limited in Cardiff sells the same shape of product as D&B: a credit report with a score and limit, monitoring, and AML screening. Its packages page splits the offer into Worldwide (over 200 countries and territories), Europe (the UK, Ireland and 40 European countries) and UK and Ireland. The Companies House record shows Safe Information Group Cyprus Limited holding 75% or more.
Against D&B the difference is the buying route. Creditsafe publishes no package price either, since each plan has a Get Quote button, so the saving is jurisdiction and not budget transparency. It also publishes comparison pages against D&B and Experian, which tells you who it expects to meet in a tender. Its coverage figures are its own claims.
What Creditsafe does better than Dun & Bradstreet
- UK entity with a company number in a public register, where D&B names a US corporation
- Regional packages let a European-only buyer skip worldwide coverage
- PEP, sanctions, ID verification and right-to-work checks on the same platform
- Salesforce, Sage 50 and HubSpot connections listed
Where Creditsafe is a step down from Dun & Bradstreet
- No published prices, same as D&B
- UK is outside the EU, so transfers lean on the adequacy decision
- Hosting location not stated on the pages reviewed
Standout against Dun & Bradstreet. It is the only provider here whose Worldwide package matches D&B on country count.
Best for: Credit teams in Austria and neighbouring markets who want to know the cost per report
KSV1870 Holding AG, based at Wagenseilgasse 7 in Vienna, is an Aktiengesellschaft in the Firmenbuch under number 303439. Its Compact, Standard and Professional company reports cost €33.20, €66.90 and €99.20 for members, and €60, €85 and €105 for guests through Business Search, excluding 20% VAT. The higher tiers add payment behaviour, collection data and a maximum single credit, according to the product page.
Compared with D&B, KSV1870 trades breadth for clarity. Business Search lists nine countries (Austria, Germany, Croatia, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, the Czech Republic and Hungary), and a one-off buyer needs no contract. The member price depends on joining the association, and the pages are German-first.
What KSV1870 does better than Dun & Bradstreet
- Prices for each report level are on the page
- Austrian registered entity with the Firmenbuch number in the imprint
- Guests can buy a single report without a contract
- Insolvency, beneficial owner and compliance checks priced as separate products
Where KSV1870 is a step down from Dun & Bradstreet
- Coverage ends in Central Europe
- Site and sample reports are mostly in German
- Member rates require joining the association
Standout against Dun & Bradstreet. It is the one provider here that tells a first-time buyer the exact euro price before any sales call.
Best for: Analysts and due-diligence staff who need who-owns-what and published accounts
North Data GmbH in Hamburg started in 2011 as Biz-Q UG and runs a search engine over European company registers and published annual accounts. The country filter lists 27 places, from Austria, Belgium and Cyprus to Israel, Norway, Switzerland and Ukraine. Quick Search and Power Search take names, places, radius and legal-form families, and a separate tax-haven filter covers Cyprus, Guernsey, Jersey, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Malta and Monaco.
It will not give you a credit limit or payment behaviour, which is what D&B customers most often buy. What it gives is balance sheets, ownership links, watchlists and CSV export from €49 per month, with an API and quarterly data exports sold separately. If your use is research, a €490 annual plan is a different order of spend than an enterprise D&B file.
What North Data does better than Dun & Bradstreet
- Public plans from €49 per month or €490 per year
- German GmbH with a named responsible person in the imprint
- Annual accounts and ownership shown in the same search
- Watchlists and CSV export built into the plans
Where North Data is a step down from Dun & Bradstreet
- No credit scores, limits or payment behaviour
- Depth depends on what each national register publishes
- The ownership and flags module costs extra
Standout against Dun & Bradstreet. It lets a researcher trace a company across about 27 jurisdictions for the price of one monthly subscription.
Best for: Developers and compliance teams who want structured legal-entity data inside their own systems
OpenCorporates Ltd, registered in England under number 07444723 at Aston House in London, publishes a database drawn from official registers in more than 140 jurisdictions, according to the vendor. It sells three API tiers: Essentials at £2,250 per year for 500 calls a month, Starter at £6,600 for 2,500 and Basic at £12,000 for 5,000, plus Enterprise with bulk delivery by SFTP.
For a team that uses D&B mainly to match and verify company records, this is the nearest European counterpart. It holds no credit scores, so it does not replace a risk file. Call quotas are modest, and the terms footer lists US federal identifiers, so read the order form for the contracting entity. Journalists, NGOs and universities can ask for free access.
What OpenCorporates does better than Dun & Bradstreet
- API prices are on the website, where D&B quotes by contract
- Bulk delivery with chosen jurisdictions and update frequency
- Free at-scale access for public-benefit projects
- Data comes straight from official registers, with sources described
Where OpenCorporates is a step down from Dun & Bradstreet
- No credit scoring or payment data
- Call quotas are small for large onboarding volumes
- The UK is outside the EU
Standout against Dun & Bradstreet. It is the only provider here with a free access route for journalists and anti-corruption researchers.
Best for: Swiss SMEs and accountants checking Swiss customers, suppliers and board members
Moneyhouse belongs to Neue Zürcher Zeitung AG in Zurich (UID CHE-106.838.812) and began in 2001 as Credita Management AG. Its menu separates a credit report, payment behaviour, an economic report, a participations report and a debt enforcement report. The membership page values a credit report at CHF 19.00, with one included in Premium, and packs run from 10 to 500 queries.
Against D&B the appeal is local depth at a stated price: the directory follows the cantonal registers, and a Public API plus company lists are on offer. It covers Switzerland only, and Switzerland sits outside the EU under an adequacy decision. The Premium fee and API prices were not visible to us.
What Moneyhouse does better than Dun & Bradstreet
- Per-report value (CHF 19.00) is stated openly
- Debt enforcement and participations reports for Swiss companies
- Publisher with a long track record as a newspaper group
- Public API and company lists listed on the site
Where Moneyhouse is a step down from Dun & Bradstreet
- Switzerland only
- Premium membership fee and API prices not seen
- Outside the EU, relying on the Swiss adequacy decision
Standout against Dun & Bradstreet. It combines cantonal register data and debt enforcement records in a service run by a newspaper group.
Best for: Banks, insurers and large corporates with credit processes in several countries
CRIF S.p.A. in Bologna has operated since 1988 and describes a mix of proprietary, public and alternative data, such as geospatial and digital footprint data. The group page counts more than 10k financial institutions, 450 insurance companies and 90k business clients, as stated by the vendor. The footer states a management system certified by DNV to ISO 9001, ISO 45001, ISO/IEC 27001 and ISO 14001.
CRIF resembles D&B in scale and in its pricing habit: the price is not published, so contact the company. It also has operations in Asia and the Americas, so confirm which national CRIF entity signs your contract. The ORCHESTRA and CRESCENDO platforms suit lenders more than a firm that wants a single report.
What CRIF does better than Dun & Bradstreet
- Italian S.p.A. with an address in the imprint, where D&B is a US corporation
- ISO 27001 certification stated in the footer
- Credit lifecycle platforms for lenders beyond company data
- Country menu covers many European markets, including Austria, Germany, Spain and Poland
Where CRIF is a step down from Dun & Bradstreet
- No published prices
- Operations outside Europe, so contracting entity needs checking
- Little self-serve option for a small business
Standout against Dun & Bradstreet. It is the only provider here that pairs company information with a platform for running the whole credit lifecycle.
Best for: French finance and sales teams who need scores and prospect data in French
Ellisphere S.A.S. sits in Tour Franklin at Paris La Défense (RCS Nanterre 482755741, share capital €2,519,229). ELLIPRO covers client risk, with a separate supplier risk version, and credit analysts run investigations for cases the data cannot settle. TARGET exports companies and contacts, CONNECT enriches CRM records and SHARE is an API feed.
Compared with D&B, this is a French-language, French-source product, which is a strength for a company whose customers are French and a limit for anyone else. No prices are published and shareholders are not stated on the pages we read, so ask who owns the company during the demo.
What Ellisphere does better than Dun & Bradstreet
- French S.A.S. with the RCS number and share capital in the legal notice
- Supplier risk and client risk offered as separate products
- Analysts available for case-by-case investigations
- Open data themes such as building permits and patents included
Where Ellisphere is a step down from Dun & Bradstreet
- Site and legal notice only in French
- Coverage outside France not documented
- No published prices
Standout against Dun & Bradstreet. It pairs risk scoring with prospecting lists and CRM enrichment on French data.
Best for: Belgian SMEs and advisers who trade mostly with Belgian companies
Companyweb BV in Vilvoorde (KBO 0869.703.978) offers monitoring, a credit check, payment experience, prospect lists, KYC reports and PEP and sanction checks. The homepage promises a 7-day trial with no credit card, which is a lower barrier than a D&B sales call. The terms describe the solvency and liquidity figures as a subjective interpretation produced by a statistical model.
Treat it as a Belgian specialist. International search exists, but its depth is not stated, the ultimate owner is not named on the pages reviewed, and the prices page could not be read. If most of your counterparties are in Belgium, a trial costs nothing.
What Companyweb does better than Dun & Bradstreet
- A 7-day trial without a credit card
- Belgian BV registered in the KBO with its number published
- Alerts on followed companies and mobile apps
- Terms say plainly that solvency scores are statistical interpretations
Where Companyweb is a step down from Dun & Bradstreet
- Focus on Belgium
- Prices not visible to us
- Ultimate owner not named on the pages reviewed
Standout against Dun & Bradstreet. It is the only provider here that offers a trial with no payment card.
Best for: German SMEs and credit managers who prefer a domestic bureau with personal advice
Verband der Vereine Creditreform e.V. in Neuss (Vereinsregister Neuss 57 VR 506) provides credit information on companies and persons, an address and marketing data business, debt collection and the MyCrefo app. Its homepage points to a locations page and personal consultation, which fits an association with local offices.
Our review of Creditreform is thinner than for the others: the server refused automated requests for part of it, so monitoring, API, group structure and prices are unconfirmed. The privacy notice allows transfers outside the EU under standard contractual clauses, so ask where files are stored. If you want a German counterpart for D&B, this is the long-established name.
What Creditreform does better than Dun & Bradstreet
- German association with a register number and Neuss address in the imprint
- Local offices and personal consultation
- Collection services alongside credit information
- MyCrefo app and a self-disclosure option for companies
Where Creditreform is a step down from Dun & Bradstreet
- No published prices
- Monitoring and API access unconfirmed
- Transfers outside the EU allowed under standard contractual clauses
Standout against Dun & Bradstreet. It combines credit reports and debt collection in one German association with local advisers.
Best for: Outbound sales teams that used D&B contact and firmographic data to find leads
Cognism Limited in London (company number 09392705, incorporated 2015) is a sales intelligence product, not a credit bureau. Its database holds contacts and companies with firmographic, technographic and signal filters. Phone data is screened against Do Not Call lists in several countries, and the site states ISO 27001, ISO 27701 and SOC 2 Type II.
Choose it only for the marketing side of D&B. It issues no credit score or payment behaviour. The privacy policy names Cognism d.o.o. in Croatia as joint controller, a Boston office is listed next to the UK entity, and pricing is quote-only with five seats on Standard and Pro.
What Cognism does better than Dun & Bradstreet
- Do Not Call screening across several countries
- ISO 27701 and SOC 2 Type II stated
- Documented opt-out through a Privacy Centre
- CRM enrichment and API access
Where Cognism is a step down from Dun & Bradstreet
- No credit or risk data
- British, not EU-established, with a US office
- Quote-only pricing sized for larger teams
Standout against Dun & Bradstreet. It is the only entry here built for sales prospecting, with Do Not Call screening built in.
What actually breaks when you switch
The first thing to break is the key. Systems that store a D-U-N-S Number against each customer need a second identifier before you move, and a national provider will return its own ID. Export your current customer list with D-U-N-S Numbers, add the register number and country, and run a match against the new provider before the old contract ends. Expect gaps for sole traders and foreign branches.
The second is the score. A Creditsafe score, a KSV1870 rating and a Creditreform index are not the same scale, so credit limits and approval rules that were tuned to D&B ratings need re-tuning on a sample of known good and bad payers. Contracts are the third: ask when your D&B agreement renews and whether it auto-renews, because most of the European providers will give a trial or a single report to test against your own customers first.
Can a European provider replace the D-U-N-S Number?
Not with one identifier. The D-U-N-S Number is Dun & Bradstreet's own key, and the ten providers here use national registers as their backbone: Companies House for the UK, Firmenbuch for Austria, KBO for Belgium, RCS for France, the UID for Switzerland. OpenCorporates comes closest to a cross-border key because it publishes one legal-entity database drawn from more than 140 jurisdictions, according to the vendor.
In practice, add the register number and country to every company record before you migrate. That is a data-cleaning job of a few weeks for a mid-size customer base, and it also makes the next provider switch easier.
Which provider fits a company that mainly trades in one country?
A national specialist usually beats a global file. Austrian and Central European counterparties suit KSV1870, Belgian ones Companyweb, French ones Ellisphere, German ones Creditreform or North Data, and Swiss ones Moneyhouse. Each reads the local register and local payment behaviour first.
The trade-off is language and reach. KSV1870 and Creditreform are German-first, Ellisphere's site and legal notice are in French, and none of these will cover your customer in Brazil. If one in ten of your counterparties is outside the home country, price a second source or look at Creditsafe's Europe package.
Which one to pick
If you check customers in many countries and want a credit file with scores and monitoring, shortlist Creditsafe and CRIF, and negotiate both from the quote stage. If your counterparties sit in one market, choose the national provider: KSV1870 for Austria and its neighbours, Creditreform for Germany, Moneyhouse for Switzerland, Ellisphere for France, Companyweb for Belgium.
If your use is research or onboarding rather than credit, North Data and OpenCorporates cost far less and cover registers directly. Treat Cognism as a separate decision about prospecting data. If D-U-N-S Numbers sit deep in your systems and you rely on D&B for a single global file, the migration cost may outweigh the jurisdiction benefit, and a pilot with one country is the sensible first step.
Frequently Asked Questions
For credit reports across many countries, Creditsafe in Cardiff and CRIF in Bologna. For one market, KSV1870 (Austria), Creditreform (Germany), Moneyhouse (Switzerland), Ellisphere (France) or Companyweb (Belgium). For register and accounts research, North Data in Hamburg, and for legal-entity data through an API, OpenCorporates in London.
The contact page lists the corporate headquarters as 5335 Gate Parkway, Jacksonville, Florida, and the website terms are issued by Dun & Bradstreet, Inc. The privacy policy states registrations as a data broker in California, Oregon and Vermont and under Texas law.
Not on the pages we read. The site routes visitors to enterprise, small business and public sector offers and to sales contact. Among the European alternatives, KSV1870, North Data, OpenCorporates and Moneyhouse show at least some prices, while Creditsafe, CRIF, Ellisphere and Creditreform ask you to get in touch.
Not all of them. Creditsafe is a UK entity with a parent in Cyprus per the Companies House persons-with-significant-control page. CRIF operates in Asia and the Americas as well as Europe. OpenCorporates' terms footer mentions US federal identifiers, and Cognism lists a Boston office next to its UK entity. Read the order form for the contracting entity.
Partly. Companyweb offers a 7-day trial without a credit card, Creditsafe lists a free trial, and OpenCorporates grants free at-scale access to journalists, NGOs, universities and anti-corruption researchers. North Data and Moneyhouse sell paid plans and reports.
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