What’s the Best Database for Company Information?

There are plenty of company databases on the market, each varying in accessibility and depth of coverage. Some focus on international reach, while others stand out for the quality of their proprietary data.

And depending on the industry you work in, or your role in an organisation, some options will be more relevant to your use cases than others. For example:

• Some databases focus on specific geographies. Some only hold information on particular regions, like the USA or APAC, or have granular data on smaller localities, such as towns in southwest England.
• They have different levels of data. One may provide detailed information on a company’s whole lifecycle, including past directors and funding rounds, while others offer an overview of a region’s broad business trends.
• They use different sources of data. For instance, some are just registries of legal entities, while others compile data from multiple sources to create a richer picture of businesses and their operating environments.
• They’re better-suited to different types of research. Some business databases are built for journalists or civil society groups. Others provide sales teams with professional contact information. As a result, the information itself differs.
• They differ in pricing, too. Most government registries are free. But the more premium services with deeper business profiles charge for access.

As such, there’s no “best database for company information” that will fit every single use case. Let’s look at a few examples as to why some organisations would seek high-quality company data.

Local authorities

If you’re working in a local authority or inward investment team then the ability to find reliable information on local companies — or fast-growing companies that could be looking to expand into your region — is vital.

Likewise, having the means of measuring the impact of policy interventions would be equally important.

Investors

As an investor, you likely want a company database that can help find early-stage companies with desirable attributes including strong growth rates, patents, or a healthy P&L (profit and loss) line.

Business development teams

If you’re a BDM (Business Development Managers) or Sales Executive, you may be looking for company information and contact details for businesses that could use your company’s services, such as those that have recently secured funding, expanded their team, or appointed new leadership.

Knowing which companies are growing quickly or entering new markets can help you time your outreach effectively.

Whatever your use case, the most important factor when you’re choosing a database is the quality of data it provides. After all, if you’re going to base your organisation’s critical decisions on this information, you need to have trust that the data is up-to-date, complete, and accurate. Sadly, that’s not always a given.

In this guide, we’ll introduce you to more than 20 of the best databases for company information. We’ll cover everything from government registries to startup platforms, and databases for general research.

You can access our data via one of our four platforms built with different users in mind: universities and governments, investors, financial and professional services, and sales teams.

Read on to find out more or book a demo to see how Beauhurst works for you.

1. Beauhurst: The best database for private company information in the UK and Germany

Beauhurst is the ultimate private company database for UK and Germany companies. Through our data, you can access insights on every single business in these countries, from disruptive startups launched last week, through to centuries-old stalwarts of industry. What’s more, you can search for and compare these businesses across hundreds of criteria.

But you’re not limited to searching by specific companies. With Beauhurst, you can also examine broader regional trends, search for companies across industries, and even find influential business leaders in particular fields.

That’s why we’re trusted by banks, law firms, universities, local and national governments, sales teams, and investors.

For example, we’ve helped a leading Scottish law firm expedite their due diligence and AML checks, plus assisted a major UK-based angel network find and support early-stage startups.

We also support a number of councils, including Northern Ireland-based Ards & Northdown Borough Council and Lancashire County Council, gain a richer understanding of their business ecosystems and better support growing companies.

We also support companies in the banking and investment industries to find and win new clients, including Coutts and Yeo Ventures.

Get up-to-date, in-depth data on all UK and German companies

With Beauhurst data, you can find the latest information on every single company across the UK and Germany.

We bring together thousands of data points from a huge range of different data sources, including government offices such as HMRC and Companies House, censuses and patent registries, the media, and companies themselves. All of this is made possible with our team of 60+ data analysts and machine learning, enriching and standardising that data so it’s searchable, comparable, and easy to navigate.

Thanks to this, whenever you search for a company through Beauhurst, you’ll get a rich, complete profile of that business. Whatever information you’re looking for — whether organisation structures, spinout status, patent activity, grants and funding rounds —it’s all designed with accuracy and depth in mind.

For instance, you can find key information on each company profile including:

• Key events in a business, such as whether it has received funding, any news associated with the company, key person changes, and acquisitions.
• Its operating headquarters and other trading addresses. On many other databases, you’ll only find its legal registered address, which is often different to where they actually operate.
• Industry classifications (replacing SIC codes), fit for the modern business landscape, enabling you to find companies in any industry — from fintech and AI to agriculture and manufacturing, including the IS-8 sectors outlined in the UK Government’s Modern Industrial Strategy.
• Signals, including growth, risk, innovation, and ESG — you can read more about these here.
• Financial information, including annual reports with key data points such as turnover, total assets, GVA, and EBITDA.
• Influential people, including founders, directors, executives, and investors.
• And lots more. You can find out more about our company data here.

You can use this data to uncover the exact kind of businesses you’re looking for. For example, you can easily see what the company does, how it is growing, who works there, and how they contribute to the local economy.

For example, the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) uses Beauhurst to support its work in forging links between the science community and businesses. One task to which Beauhurst’s data is central is in identifying and supporting early-stage space tech startups to innovate and scale.

“The ability to create very specific custom searches on almost any company characteristic lets me target businesses with a really high level of granularity,” says Sue O’Hare, Operations Manager at the STFC. “If you need timely and comprehensive information about early-stage high-tech startups, you should be looking at Beauhurst.”

Search for businesses by industry, people, and many other criteria

Beauhurst makes it easy to search across the entire UK and German business environment. Rather than trawling through thousands of profiles individually, Beauhurst lets you immediately identify companies that match the specific criteria you need.

For instance, if you’re an investor looking for German companies to fund, you’ll have particular industry, location, or size criteria they need to match. The same if you’re a local authority looking for business directors, or a university seeking local knowledge partners.

Searching for these manually is a huge drain on time. With Beauhurst’s ‘Advanced Search’ functionality, you can find precisely what you need, in just a few clicks.

You can find companies by highly specific, overlapping criteria, including:

Company size of growth trajectory Based on employee count, turnover, funding received, or any other metric.

What the company does Industries and Buzzwords enable you to drill down right into a company’s activities far more effectively than SIC codes.

From renewable energy and precision medicine through to retail and accounting. This now includes the eight high-growth sectors (IS-8) as outlined in the UK Government’s Modern Industrial Strategy.

And if you need to get really specific, you can also search over company descriptions.

People Look for serial founders, phoenix founders, directors, shareholders, secretaries, or angel investors by age, gender, location, or activity — it’s all there.

Significant events Such as whether the company has spun out of a university, received a grant or funding, IPO’d, made an acquisition, or has been acquired.

Financials For example, you can refine your search to companies that have a turnover above/below a specific threshold — or have grown their headcount or turnover by a value or percentage.

All of these criteria can be layered on top of one another so that you can drill down to the precise list of companies that match your business needs.

For instance, say you’re looking for robotics companies based in London with pre-tax profits of £5m and female-founded. With Beauhurst, those companies are simple to find in just a couple of clicks.

You don’t have to only search for companies with Beauhurst either.

You can also search for funds, fundraisings, grants, MBO/MBIs, M&A activity, corporate spinouts, IPOs, accelerators, high-growth lists, and more.

See a picture of live, local trends

You can also use our company database to get an up-to-date picture of the business landscape in a particular area.

For example, if you search Beauhurst for businesses in Edinburgh, you’ll be shown in-depth and up-to-the-minute information about what’s happening in the city. The below graphs show the amounts raised through fundraisings and the latest turnover of some of the bigger businesses based in the city.

Plus, you can also see other data on:

• The number of newly incorporated businesses — or those that ceased operating
• A breakdown of industries by number of businesses or highest growth
• Employee numbers in each company, including by gender
• Media stories about specific businesses
• Overall trends

Just as you would if you were searching for individual businesses with Beauhurst, you can also layer these criteria.

For example, you can limit your search to companies that are at seed, venture, or growth stages in Edinburgh, to get a closer look at local growth trends.

The table below shows the proportion of these growth companies by the industries they work in.

If you’re particularly interested in a local area — or in companies that meet any criteria — you can create dynamic company lists by saving your search to the “My Collections” tab in your Beauhurst dashboard.

This means that you don’t need to start a new search to be alerted to changes in your area. Simply set up a Collection, and you’ll be notified whenever a new business has entered the market, there has been a merger, or a company has received a round of funding (and more). You’ll be alerted in real time, or whenever you choose to receive the notification.

Lancashire County Council uses Beauhurst’s Collections feature to track specific businesses in the local area.

“With Beauhurst, we have access to real-time information, with a level of detail that we wouldn’t get anywhere else. And it’s very, very easy to use,” says Amin Vepari, Business Finance and Scaleup Lead at Lancashire County Council

Government databases of business information

Alongside Beauhurst, another potentially useful source of company information is government business registries. It’s often obligatory for businesses to provide some basic information, which is then listed publicly by various government offices.

As such, government registries are a great starting point for business information.
However, they won’t give you the depth of information you’d get from any of the Beauhurst platforms. Plus, every locality will have different requirements for the information they include.

That said, here are five government business sources that can be useful.

• Company status and legal form
• Directors and shareholders
• Annual financial statements
• Insolvency filings and legal notices

You can search by company name or SIREN number (France’s company registration number). While summaries are freely available, full documents (such as balance sheets or statutes) often require payment.

Most of the site is in French and not particularly user-friendly for non-fluent users. However, for compliance or company verification in France, Infogreffe is the go-to source.

• Company registration details
• Directors and secretaries
• Annual returns and financial statements
• Mortgage and charge filings

The CRO’s online portal is relatively accessible and includes both company and document searches. While many filings require payment to download, summaries and registration data are free to access.

Business databases for international research

Some of the best business databases aggregate data from different regions across the world. The right choice for you will depend on the specific region you are interested in, as well as the type of research you are performing.

Company information databases for lead generation (only)

One common reason why professionals look for databases of company information is for lead generation. Some databases are built only with this use case in mind, but the data quality is hit-and-miss.

(Note: You can find contact details for key personnel on any of Beauhurst’s platforms, too).

Beauhurst: The database for company information in the UK and Germany that you can trust

In this guide, we’ve covered 25 databases of company information, for different use cases, regions, and industries. Depending on your needs, you’ll find the perfect fit.

If you’re looking for a premium database of rich, comprehensive, searchable, and comparable UK and German company information, Beauhurst is your best choice. With a Beauhurst subscription, you can:

• Access the deepest information available on all UK and German companies
• Search for companies and people by region, industry, fundraising, and many other overlapping criteria
• Track the performance of regions or companies in real-time

To see the platform in action, take a two minute tour of the data — or to speak to a member of the team, simply book a demo to find out how Beauhurst can work for your organisation.