A consumer credit report in the United States is governed by a 1970 federal statute. A business credit report is governed by none. The Fair Credit Reporting Act gives individuals the right to see and dispute what a bureau holds on them, but it generally does not reach reports on a company’s business history. When the Federal Trade Commission opened its 6(b) inquiry into small business credit reports in March 2023, it said so directly, then sent orders to five firms: Dun & Bradstreet, Experian, Equifax, Ansonia Credit Data and Creditsafe USA.
The catch, for anyone extending trade credit, is that these providers do not measure the same thing. A business credit report (in the UK more often called a company credit report) is a different product at each of them, built from different data and scored on a different number line. A PAYDEX of 80 means a company pays on time. An Intelliscore Plus of 80 means low risk. An Equifax Credit Risk Score of 80 does not exist; that scale starts at 101.
This guide ranks the five best business credit report vendors by what a credit decision actually needs, especially when the counterparty sits outside the US, and answers the questions buyers search for most along the way.
How is business credit reported?
Nobody files a business credit report. Providers assemble one from four kinds of reporters, and no reporter is obliged to tell every provider:
- Suppliers send accounts-receivable files showing how each customer pays. Dun & Bradstreet’s Trade Exchange takes these from participants in 35 markets, monthly or quarterly, on a “free, confidential and voluntary” basis.
- Lenders report loans, cards and leases. Equifax keeps these financial trades in a separate column from supplier trades.
- Courts and filing offices publish judgments, liens, bankruptcies and secured-lending charges.
- Company registries publish legal identity, status, officers and, in most countries outside the US, annual accounts.
Because reporting is voluntary, a company that pays every invoice early can still have a thin file at a provider its suppliers never report to. Business credit is not one record. It is five or more records that happen to share a company name.
Do businesses have credit scores?
Yes, but not one. Each provider calculates its own, and some calculate several: Equifax’s standard report alone carries three. There is no single business credit score the way there is a single consumer report regime, and no published conversion between providers.
The 5 best business credit report vendors at a glance
| # | Provider | Primary data base | Headline score | Published coverage | Single report, list price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Global Database | 400+ government registries | Credit score 1–100, 12-month horizon | 600M+ companies, 200+ countries | Per verification, volume tiers |
| 2 | Dun & Bradstreet | Trade Exchange + Data Cloud | PAYDEX 1–100 | 640M+ entities | $139.99 |
| 3 | Experian Business | US commercial credit file | Intelliscore Plus 1–100 | International data from 225 countries and territories | $59.95 |
| 4 | Equifax Business | US financial + supplier trades | Credit Risk Score 101–992 | 76M US businesses | $49.99 (via eCredable) |
| 5 | Creditsafe | Multi-source global database | International score A–E | 430M+ companies | Quote-based |
Coverage figures are each provider’s own, and they count different things. Dun & Bradstreet counts entities in its Data Cloud. Global Database counts company profiles drawn from registries. Equifax counts US businesses only. Experian’s pages reviewed for this guide state international reach in countries, not a company total.
Chart 1 — published company coverage by provider
1. Global Database: best for international company credit reports
Global Database builds its business credit report from the source of record rather than from what suppliers choose to report. Its platform connects to more than 400 government registries across 200+ countries and holds 600M+ company profiles, with up to 20 years of filing history where the jurisdiction publishes it. For a counterparty registered in Poland, Mexico or Singapore, that is the difference between a report built on the official filing and a report built on whatever trade data happens to exist.
The report runs in eight sections: identity, score and limit, payment behaviour, court judgments, registered security, financials, ownership and group structure. The credit score runs from 1 to 100 against a 12-month horizon, in three bands: 71–100 low risk, 41–70 moderate, 1–40 high. The recommended credit limit is framed as a maximum supported exposure, derived from filed accounts, payment behaviour, registered security and group position.
Two features earn the first-place ranking. Ownership and group structure sit inside the same report as the score, so an analyst sees the parent company and its jurisdiction before approving a limit. And alerts follow filing events: a new charge, a registered judgment, a director change, an overdue account or an insolvency notice triggers a review without waiting for a model to recalculate. Delivery runs through the web platform, a REST API, bulk feeds, Salesforce and HubSpot integrations and an MCP connector for AI agents. The platform is ISO 27001 certified and GDPR compliant.
The catch: a registry-sourced report is only as deep as what the jurisdiction makes companies file. US states generally do not collect private-company accounts, so for a privately held US company the trade-payment bureaus below hold more behavioural data. Our guide to private company financials maps where filed accounts exist and where they do not. Pricing is per verification with volume tiers; no single-report list price is published.
Chart 2 — same 1–100 scale, different risk cut-offs
2. Dun & Bradstreet: the D&B credit report and the PAYDEX score
Dun & Bradstreet’s Data Cloud covers 640M+ entities, roughly 200M trade payment experiences and 65M+ mapped corporate family-tree relationships. The D&B credit report sold to small businesses is the Business Information Report: company details and operations, the PAYDEX score plus five other D&B scores and ratings, a trade payments summary with industry comparison, public filings, financial data and a credit recommendation with a maximum credit limit.
What is a Dun and Bradstreet number?
The D-U-N-S Number is a nine-digit identifier that Dun & Bradstreet assigns to each business in its Data Cloud, and has done for more than 50 years. It costs nothing to request one; D&B says most arrive within 30 business days, and a paid expedited request delivers within eight business days. The number identifies the file. It is not a score.
What is a PAYDEX score?
PAYDEX is a dollar-weighted 1–100 indicator of how a firm paid its bills, built from trade experiences reported through the Trade Exchange. A score of 80 means payments were generally made within terms. Above 80 means earlier than terms. Below 80 maps to specific days beyond terms.
Chart 3 — what each PAYDEX value means in days
What is a good PAYDEX score? Is 76 good?
80 is the line that matters: it means the company pays on terms, and every point above it means paying early. A 76 sits between 80 (prompt) and 70 (15 days beyond terms), so it describes a company that pays a few days late on a dollar-weighted basis. Lenders and suppliers set their own cut-offs; D&B publishes the payment-habit table, not a pass mark.
How do you get a PAYDEX score?
A business needs reported trade, not an application. Dun & Bradstreet’s supplier documentation is precise: a PAYDEX is not calculated with fewer than three trade experiences, and at least two suppliers must report. Each experience must have been reported in the last 24 months, with a last sale in the last 36. Building one means trading on credit terms with suppliers that report to D&B, then paying on or before terms. Company details can be corrected free through D&B’s D-U-N-S Manager; seeing the score itself requires a paid monitoring product.
The catch: PAYDEX sees only the suppliers that report, and dollar weighting means one large supplier can move the score more than ten small ones. The D&B credit report is also the most expensive single report in this list: the BIR Snapshot lists at $139.99 and BIR On Demand at $189.99, both annual list prices that auto-renew.
3. Experian Business: Intelliscore Plus and the cheapest volume plan
What is Intelliscore?
Intelliscore Plus is Experian’s headline business score. It predicts serious delinquent payment behaviour on a 1–100 scale, in five published risk bands: 1–10 high, 11–25 medium to high, 26–50 medium, 51–75 low to medium and 76–100 low. Every Experian report tier also carries a Financial Stability Risk score. For non-US counterparties, Experian’s international reports draw on data from 225 countries, dependencies and territories.
Experian is also the most transparent on price. Its product comparison chart lists the CreditScore Report at $59.95, the ProfilePlus Report at $69.95, Business Credit Advantage at $199 a year for monitoring one business, and Business CreditScore Pro at $1,995 a year for 30 businesses a month. Used in full, that plan works out to $1,995 ÷ 360 reports = $5.54 per report.
The catch: the $59.95 CreditScore Report omits both the credit limit recommendation and corporate financial information. A credit team that needs a limit buys ProfilePlus or the Pro plan.
4. Equifax Business: three scores on three scales
Equifax reports on 76 million US businesses and separates financial trades reported by lenders from supplier trades. Its official sample report shows three scores side by side: the Credit Risk Score on 101–992, the Payment Index on 0–100 and the Business Failure Score on 1,000–1,880.
The Payment Index is the easiest to read. A value of 90 or more means paid as agreed; 80–89 means 1–30 days past due; 60–79 means 31–60 days; 40–59 means 61–90 days; 20–39 means 91–120 days; and 1–19 means more than 120 days. A one-time report costs $49.99 through eCredable, Equifax’s approved reseller, and monitoring subscriptions start at $39.99 a month.
The catch: Equifax is the cheapest single report here and the most US-centric. And its Payment Index grades lateness far more gently than PAYDEX does, as the next chart shows.
Chart 4 — the same lateness, two very different numbers
5. Creditsafe: A–E for cross-border comparison
Creditsafe’s international credit reports cover more than 430 million companies. Each carries a 0–100 risk score predicting insolvency within 12 months, plus an international A–E score designed for cross-country comparison: A is the lowest risk, D the highest, and E is unrated. Creditsafe states that 99.9% of reports are delivered instantly; a fresh investigation takes 2–10 working days. Ongoing monitoring covers 49 countries.
The catch: A–E compresses risk into four rated grades, so two counterparties with very different profiles can share a letter. Pricing is quote-based. For a wider field of vendors in this segment, see our Creditsafe alternatives guide.
What is a good business credit score?
There is no universal answer, only a good score on each scale. These are the thresholds each provider itself publishes:
| Score | Scale | Best band, as published |
|---|---|---|
| Global Database credit score | 1–100 | 71–100, low risk |
| D&B PAYDEX | 1–100 | 80 = on terms; above 80 = early |
| Experian Intelliscore Plus | 1–100 | 76–100, low risk |
| Equifax Payment Index | 0–100 | 90+, paid as agreed |
| Creditsafe international | A–E | A, lowest risk |
The bands are not interchangeable even where the scales look alike. A score of 72 is low risk at Global Database and low-to-medium risk at Experian, because the two models predict different events with different cut-offs.
How to check a business credit score, including for free
The route depends on whose score it is.
Your own business. Dun & Bradstreet advertises a free business credit report with several score types through D&B Credit Insights Basic. Nav’s free account shows summary grades and ranges from Dun & Bradstreet, Experian and Equifax, though not full scores; its Nav Prime plan, from $39.99 a month, adds detailed business scores and report data from all three. Experian sells monitoring of your own file through Business Credit Advantage at $199 a year.
Another company. A free score on someone else’s business is rare; checking a counterparty means buying a report. For a US company, that is $49.99 at Equifax, $59.95 at Experian or $139.99 at D&B for one report. For a company registered abroad, an international company credit report from Global Database or Creditsafe starts from the foreign registry record rather than from US trade data.
Chart 5 — list price of one business credit report
Worked example: one counterparty, two reports
A US distributor is asked for $150,000 on 60-day terms by Example Fixings Ltd, a buyer registered in England. The company, the reports and every figure below are illustrative; they show how the signals combine, not real data on a real business.
| Signal | Source | Illustrative reading |
|---|---|---|
| Registry status | Global Database (Companies House record) | Active, incorporated 2014 |
| Filed accounts | Global Database | Balance sheet only (no public profit and loss); net assets £410,000 |
| Credit score and limit | Global Database | 56, moderate band (41–70); recommended limit £75,000 |
| Registered security | Global Database | Outstanding charge in favour of a bank |
| Group structure | Global Database | 100% owned by a holding company registered in Cyprus |
| Payment behaviour | D&B PAYDEX | 70, about 15 days beyond terms on reported trades |
Read together, the two reports say something neither says alone. The PAYDEX shows a payer that runs late but pays. The registry report shows why the requested line is too large: the recommended limit is half the request, the bank holds security ahead of unsecured trade creditors, and the real counterparty for a guarantee sits in another jurisdiction. A defensible decision approves a lower limit, asks for a parent-company guarantee, traces the Cyprus holding company to its beneficial owners and sets alerts on new charges and director changes. The UK side of that file is explained in our Companies House data guide.
Does a business credit report show who owns the company?
It can list a shareholder. A shareholder is not a beneficial owner. When the shareholder is a holding company in a second jurisdiction, the report stops at the edge of its own data. Zephira resolves ownership chains across 640M companies in 220 countries and territories (coverage, Q3 2026 snapshot), so the person behind the Cyprus holding company is identified from registry filings rather than taken from a declaration. The distinction is set out in our guide to UBO, PSC and shareholders.
How to dispute a business credit report
Because the FCRA does not cover business reports, there is no statutory dispute deadline and no single process. Each provider runs its own. Dun & Bradstreet takes corrections to company details through the free D-U-N-S Manager. Experian’s Business Credit Advantage subscription includes dispute-status alerts. Equifax’s small business portal has a dedicated Disputes tab. A company wrongly marked late at one provider corrects it there, then repeats the exercise at every other provider holding the same error. The fastest evidence in any of those disputes is the official record: a filing, a satisfied charge or a court document.
How to choose: price the decision, not the report
List price per report misleads at volume. Twenty-five D&B BIR Snapshots cost $2,799.99, or $112.00 each; twenty-five On Demand reports cost $3,799.99, or $152.00 each. Experian’s Pro plan, used in full, is $5.54 a report. The cheaper question is which report answers the decision in front of you:
- Counterparty registered outside the US? Start with a registry-sourced international company credit report; it is the one source that exists in every jurisdiction.
- US supplier extending trade terms? A trade-payment score (PAYDEX or the Equifax Payment Index) answers “will they pay on time” directly.
- US small-business lending? A delinquency or failure score (Intelliscore Plus, Equifax Credit Risk) answers “will they default”.
- More than 30 checks a month? A subscription or per-verification plan beats single reports on arithmetic alone.
- Ongoing exposure? Pay for alerts on filing events, not for a fresh report every quarter.
For the wider vendor questions (licensing, API limits, coverage proof), use our eight questions for evaluating a company data provider.
Frequently asked questions
1. Is a company credit report the same as a business credit report?
Yes. “Company credit report” is the more common term in the UK and Europe, “business credit report” in the US. Both describe a provider’s file on a company’s identity, payment behaviour, public records and risk score.
2. What are the business credit reporting companies?
In the US, the FTC’s 2023 inquiry named five: Dun & Bradstreet, Experian, Equifax, Ansonia Credit Data and Creditsafe USA. For international company credit reports, Global Database and Creditsafe cover the widest set of countries.
3. How do I get a business credit report on another company?
Buy one from a provider that covers the company’s country. US single reports list at $49.99 (Equifax, via eCredable), $59.95 (Experian) and $139.99 (D&B). For a company registered abroad, use a registry-sourced international report.
4. Can I get a free business credit report?
For your own business, partly: D&B advertises a free report through Credit Insights Basic, and Nav’s free account shows summary grades from D&B, Experian and Equifax. Full reports on other companies are paid.
5. How long does it take to get a PAYDEX score?
As long as it takes for at least three trade experiences from at least two suppliers to reach D&B. Suppliers report monthly or quarterly, so the timing depends on who you buy from and how often they report.
6. How do I find my Dun and Bradstreet number?
Use D&B’s D-U-N-S lookup. If the business has no number yet, requesting one is free and usually takes up to 30 business days, or eight business days with a paid expedited request.
7. Where can I get international company credit reports?
Global Database builds them from 400+ government registries in 200+ countries. Creditsafe, Experian and Dun & Bradstreet also sell international reports, built mainly from their own data networks and partners.
8. Why don’t I have one business credit score?
Because each provider receives different trade data, runs a different model and reports on a different scale. Equifax alone produces three scores on one report.
9. Are business credit reports covered by the FCRA?
Generally, no. The FTC noted in March 2023 that no federal law specifically sets out processes and protections for businesses in credit reporting.
10. How much does a business credit report cost?
Published single-report list prices run from $49.99 to $189.99. Volume plans cut that sharply: Experian’s Pro plan works out to $5.54 a report if fully used. Global Database prices per verification and Creditsafe quotes per contract.
Need the ownership behind the credit report? Explore Zephira’s corporate linkages, digitised financials and company monitoring.