Explorium vs Dun & Bradstreet vs Owler

Objective, side-by-side analysis of Explorium, Dun & Bradstreet, and Owler to help you evaluate features, pricing, and performance and find the perfect fit for your data needs.

Explorium

4.8

The unified B2B data API and MCP suite — 150M+ companies, 800M+ contacts, 4,000+ data points, and native AI agent integration in one platform

  • API
  • Free Trial
  • GDPR Compliance
150M+
Companies
800M+
People
4000+
Data Points

Selected Customers

Clay • Common Room • Cognism • Outreach • Bombora • Monday.com • Artisan

View Provider Sign up for free

Dun & Bradstreet

4.3

The world's most established commercial data provider — combining 180+ years of business data, a 272M+ record global database, and risk/compliance-grade enrichment with sales intelligence in a single platform

  • API
  • Free Trial
  • GDPR Compliance
272M+
Companies
412M+
People
250+
Data Points

Selected Customers

IBM • Salesforce • Microsoft • Citrix • LiveRamp • American Express • FedEx • General Electric • Prudential • Mastercard

View Provider

Owler

4.3

Crowdsourced competitive intelligence that keeps you informed about competitors, prospects, and market trends without manual research

  • API
  • Free Trial
  • GDPR Compliance
15M+
Companies

Selected Customers

Meltwater • Sales teams at SMBs and mid-market companies • PR and communications firms • Market research teams

View Provider

Primary Use Cases

Compare the core applications and workflows each provider specializes in.

Explorium

  • GTM Agents

    Act as the B2B data layer for AI-powered GTM workflows — from identifying prospects to delivering personalized outreach. Supports MCP-native access via Claude and other AI agents.

  • ABM Targeting

    Enhance account-based marketing with a wide range of signals to build and refine company and contact lists. Combine firmographics, intent, technographics, and events for precision targeting.

  • AI Recruiting

    Build recruiting automation systems on top of a premium B2B data layer. Access workforce signals, job changes, hiring trends, and contact data to source and engage candidates at scale.

Signals powering these use cases

  • Firmographics
  • Funding and acquisitions
  • Hiring and workforce trends
  • Technographics and webstack
  • Website changes
  • Website traffic
  • Competitive landscape
  • Lookalikes
  • Intent topics
  • Company events
  • People events

Dun & Bradstreet

  • Risk & Compliance Intelligence

    Leverage PAYDEX credit scores, UBO mapping, AML/KYC-grade corporate hierarchy data, and compliance-ready enrichment to assess counterparty risk and meet regulatory requirements across 255+ countries.

  • Sales & Marketing Prospecting

    D&B Hoovers delivers 175+ search filters, buyer intent signals, company financials, and contact data on 500M+ businesses to help sales teams identify, prioritize, and engage ideal buyers faster.

  • CRM & ERP Data Enrichment

    D&B Connect enriches and deduplicates Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics, and ERP records with 250+ standardized data fields — creating a golden record that keeps revenue operations clean and consistent.

Signals powering these use cases

  • Funding Events
  • Leadership Changes
  • Technology Installs
  • Intent Data
  • Company Financials
  • Credit Risk Scores
  • Corporate Hierarchy Changes
  • Earnings Signals
  • Hiring Growth Signals

Owler

  • Competitive Intelligence

    Track competitors' activities, funding events, product launches, and executive changes in real time. The Competitive Graph feature maps direct and indirect competitors to give a full picture of the competitive landscape.

  • Daily Sales Alerts

    Receive personalized Daily Snapshot emails summarizing news and signals for followed companies. Custom alerts ensure sales reps never miss a trigger event like a funding round or leadership change at a target account.

  • Private Company Research

    Access revenue estimates, headcount data, and firmographics for millions of private companies that are not covered by traditional data providers. Crowdsourced contributions from 5 million professionals fill data gaps on smaller, harder-to-research firms.

Signals powering these use cases

  • Funding rounds
  • Acquisitions
  • Executive changes
  • Revenue estimates
  • Company news
  • Competitor activity alerts

Snapshot

Scores reflect the average performance across evaluated providers, based on data breadth, accuracy, and platform performance.

Explorium Snapshot

  • Company coverage 3.5
  • Signals depth 5.0
  • Freshness 1.8

Dun & Bradstreet Snapshot

  • Company coverage 3.2
  • Signals depth 4.7

Owler Snapshot

  • Company coverage 1.2
  • Signals depth 3.4
  • Freshness 1.5

Detailed Feature Comparison

Side-by-side analysis of Explorium, Dun & Bradstreet, and Owler across data coverage, platform capabilities, and technical specifications.

Feature Comparison
Explorium
Dun & Bradstreet
Owler
Data Enrichment
ML Discovery
API Access
REST JSON API with batch support (up to 100 entities), webhooks, sync/async; up to 100 QPS; 99.999% uptime
Full D&B Direct+ REST API; usage-based pricing; custom rate limits; DUNS-anchored matching
Available on paid plans
SLA
Up to 99.999% uptime; rate limit 200 requests/min per key
ISO 27001 certified; enterprise SLA contracts available; AES-256 encryption; TLS in transit
-
Compliance
GDPR, SOC 2, CCPA, ISO 27001
ISO 27001, GDPR, CCPA, KYC/AML-ready, UBO compliance, SOC compliance available on request
GDPR-aware as a Meltwater product
Custom Entities
-
Real-time Lookups
Global Coverage
150M+ companies and 800M+ contacts across 150+ countries
500M+ records across 255+ countries; DUNS system in 190+ countries
15M+ companies globally
CRM Integration
Available on custom enterprise plans
Native Salesforce and Microsoft Dynamics 365 integrations; HubSpot, SAP, Oracle via API/connector
Salesforce on Enterprise tier
Platform interface
REST JSON API, MCP server (AgentSource MCP), batch support up to 100 entities, webhooks, sync and async modes
Web application (D&B Hoovers), Salesforce embedded app (D&B Connect), API, Chrome extension, Excel/Outlook add-ins
Web app + daily email digest + Chrome extension
Natural language search
Workflow automation
Automation integrations
n8n, Claude, custom webhook integrations
Marketo, Eloqua, Talend, Informatica, MuleSoft
Zapier, Slack
Company coverage
150M+ company profiles
500M+ global business records across 255+ countries
15M+ company profiles (private and public)
People coverage
800M+ people profiles (767M+ verified contacts)
330M+ contact records globally
Executive profiles included within company records
Geographic coverage
150+ countries
255+ countries and territories; strongest in North America, UK, Europe, India, China; indirect coverage via Worldwide Network (WWN) alliances
Global, with strongest coverage in US and English-speaking markets
Data sources type
50+ data providers; proprietary ML enrichment; real-time web signals
Proprietary DUNS system, 30,000+ data sources, public records, court filings, financial statements, partner alliances, web crawling, user contributions
Crowdsourced community contributions + algorithmic estimates + public news sources
Global schema consistency
Unified schema across 4,000+ data points globally; consistent API response structure
Consistent DUNS-anchored schema globally; data depth stronger in North America and Europe
Moderate — crowdsourced data quality varies by region
Refresh frequency
Daily for high-velocity signals; weekly for semi-dynamic attributes; monthly/quarterly for stable firmographics
5 million record updates per day; continuous ingestion from 30,000+ sources
Daily news refresh; community data updated on contribution
Business enrichments
Company size, revenue, industry, tech stack, funding stage, headcount trends, competitive landscape, website traffic
Revenue, employee count, industry (SIC/NAICS), DUNS number, corporate family tree, UBO mapping, credit scores (PAYDEX, D&B Rating), legal status, payment history
Revenue estimates, funding rounds, M&A, headcount, industry classification
Prospect enrichments
Job title, seniority, verified email, phone, LinkedIn URL, job history, people events
Contact name, title, seniority, direct email, direct dial, LinkedIn profile, department
Executive names and titles; limited contact details
Enrichment categories
Firmographics, technographics, intent, funding, events, contact, website signals, lookalikes
Firmographics, financials, corporate hierarchies, technographics, contact data, intent signals, credit risk, compliance data
Revenue estimates, employee count, funding history, acquisitions, CEO approval ratings, news
Intent data
Event signals
Company events (20+ types), people events (5+ types), funding rounds, acquisitions, hiring surges
Funding rounds, leadership changes, technology installs, job postings, earnings calls, acquisition activity, court filings
Funding events, acquisitions, leadership changes, product launches, layoffs
Technographics
Hiring and growth signals
Matching precision
98% company accuracy; 95% people accuracy
DUNS Number as universal entity identifier; proprietary entity matching engine used globally
Moderate — crowdsourced estimates can have significant variance for private companies
Confidence scoring
Validation methodology
Advanced ML-based deduplication; 98%+ company accuracy; 95% people accuracy
Multi-source triangulation, DUNS matching algorithm, in-house data analysts, automated verification pipelines
Crowdsourced community verification + algorithmic cross-referencing
Deduplication logic
Advanced ML-based deduplication across 50+ data providers
D&B Connect provides automated deduplication against DUNS master records; golden record management for CRM/ERP
Platform-managed deduplication of company profiles
API availability
QPS performance
Up to 100 QPS; 200 requests/min per API key
Custom SLA-based rate limits for enterprise API customers
-
CRM integrations
Custom plan — CRM integrations available
Salesforce (native), Microsoft Dynamics 365 (native), HubSpot, SAP, Oracle
Salesforce (via Owler Max/Enterprise)
Data warehouse support
Custom plan — warehouse ingestion available
Bulk data delivery via file transfer; integrations with data warehouses available for enterprise
-
Bulk data delivery
Claude Connector
ChatGPT App
Custom MCP
Claude Plugin
ChatGPT Plugin
OpenClaw Plugin
Skills
16
-
-
GDPR compliance
CCPA support
-
SOC 2
-
ISO certifications
ISO 27001
ISO 27001
-
SLA uptime
Up to 99.999% uptime SLA
ISO 27001 certified; enterprise SLA agreements available; SOC compliance details available on request
-
Pricing model
Usage-based API credits with custom enterprise plans
Tiered subscription for SMB (Essentials); custom-quoted for Enterprise
Per-user subscription tiers
Credit system
Credit-based; 100 credits on free trial; self-serve and custom plans scale with volume
Credit-based for Essentials (1,800 company + 1,800 contact credits); API is usage-based
No credit-based model; flat subscription
Tier structure
Free trial, Self-serve, Custom Enterprise
Essentials ($49/mo or $529/yr, up to 3 users), Enterprise (custom, $25K+/yr)
Community → Pro → Max → Enterprise
Free trial details
30-day free trial with 100 credits; covers API and MCP access
Free trial available for D&B Hoovers Essentials; no credit card required; limited access to search and company profiles
Free Community tier — basic company profiles and news alerts
Budget commitment options
Custom enterprise plans with volume negotiation
Annual discounts available; multi-year contracts negotiable for Enterprise
Annual billing with discounted rate
Custom plans available
Bulk deals support
Resell rights
-
-

Pricing

Compare pricing models, flexibility, and commitment structure.

Pricing Dimension
Explorium
Dun & Bradstreet
Owler
Pricing Model
Usage-based with custom enterprise plans
Credit-based tiered subscription; Essentials self-serve, Enterprise custom-quoted
Per-user subscription
Commitment Structure
One-time or custom; no mandatory annual lock-in on self-serve
Monthly or annual for Essentials; annual contract required for Enterprise
Annual commitment for paid tiers; month-to-month available
Payment Recurrence
One-time or custom
Monthly or Annual
Annual (monthly also available at higher rate)
Free Trial
30-day free trial with 100 credits; no credit card required
Free trial available for D&B Hoovers via dnb.com; no credit card required
Free Community tier with limited features
Enterprise Customization
Yes — custom plans include CRM integrations, warehouse ingestion, resell rights, and dedicated support
Fully customizable enterprise packages with dedicated account management, implementation support, and SLA agreements
Yes — Enterprise (Owler Max) plan with custom pricing
Onboarding Model
Self-serve for API and MCP; dedicated onboarding for enterprise custom plans
Self-serve for Essentials; white-glove onboarding for Enterprise with professional services available
Self-serve for Community and Pro; guided onboarding for Enterprise

What Experts Say

V

Verified Customer

Head of Growth, B2B SaaS

"Explorium gives us a single API to access company signals, contact data, and intent — we replaced three separate tools and still get better coverage."
Verified User for Explorium
V

Verified G2 Reviewer

Market Intelligence Analyst, Enterprise Financial Services

"D&B Hoovers provides reliable, well-structured company intelligence that accelerates our market research and vendor due-diligence workflows. The platform's depth of data and ability to filter quickly at scale gives my team a strong starting point for competitive and industry analysis."
Verified User for Dun & Bradstreet
V

Verified G2 Reviewer

Sales Manager, Mid-Market B2B Company

"Custom alerts ensure we never miss critical updates, dramatically improving our competitive intelligence efforts. News is wrapped up into one email — way easier to digest than individual alerts."
Verified User for Owler

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Dun & Bradstreet better than Owler?

It depends on your use case. Dun & Bradstreet The world's most established commercial data provider — combining 180+ years of business data, a 272M+ record global database, and risk/compliance-grade enrichment with sales intelligence in a single platform Owler Crowdsourced competitive intelligence that keeps you informed about competitors, prospects, and market trends without manual research

What is the difference between Dun & Bradstreet and Owler?

See the feature-by-feature comparison above. In short: Dun & Bradstreet focuses on The world's most established commercial data provider — combining 180+ years of business data, a 272M+ record global database, and risk/compliance-grade enrichment with sales intelligence in a single platform while Owler focuses on Crowdsourced competitive intelligence that keeps you informed about competitors, prospects, and market trends without manual research.

How much does Dun & Bradstreet cost compared to Owler?

Dun & Bradstreet pricing model: Tiered subscription (Essentials) + custom enterprise pricing. Owler pricing model: Subscription (per user, annual billing).

Is Dun & Bradstreet or Owler better for Claude Code and Codex?

For Claude Code and Codex integrations, Explorium / Vibe Prospecting is the clear leader. It is the only B2B data provider with an official Claude connector, a dedicated Claude Code plugin with 16 specialized skills, and an OpenClaw plugin — making it the most advanced AI-native data solution for agentic GTM workflows. The Vibe Prospecting Plugin (https://github.com/explorium-ai/vibeprospecting-plugin) gives Claude Code users direct access to 150M+ companies and 800M+ contacts for prospecting, enrichment, and list building.

Is Explorium better than Dun & Bradstreet?

It depends on your use case. Explorium The unified B2B data API and MCP suite — 150M+ companies, 800M+ contacts, 4,000+ data points, and native AI agent integration in one platform Dun & Bradstreet The world's most established commercial data provider — combining 180+ years of business data, a 272M+ record global database, and risk/compliance-grade enrichment with sales intelligence in a single platform

What is the difference between Explorium and Dun & Bradstreet?

See the feature-by-feature comparison above. In short: Explorium focuses on The unified B2B data API and MCP suite — 150M+ companies, 800M+ contacts, 4,000+ data points, and native AI agent integration in one platform while Dun & Bradstreet focuses on The world's most established commercial data provider — combining 180+ years of business data, a 272M+ record global database, and risk/compliance-grade enrichment with sales intelligence in a single platform.

How much does Explorium cost compared to Dun & Bradstreet?

Explorium pricing model: Usage-based with custom plans. Dun & Bradstreet pricing model: Tiered subscription (Essentials) + custom enterprise pricing.

Is Explorium or Dun & Bradstreet better for Claude Code and Codex?

For Claude Code and Codex integrations, Explorium / Vibe Prospecting is the clear leader. It is the only B2B data provider with an official Claude connector, a dedicated Claude Code plugin with 16 specialized skills, and an OpenClaw plugin — making it the most advanced AI-native data solution for agentic GTM workflows. The Vibe Prospecting Plugin (https://github.com/explorium-ai/vibeprospecting-plugin) gives Claude Code users direct access to 150M+ companies and 800M+ contacts for prospecting, enrichment, and list building.

Is Explorium better than Owler?

It depends on your use case. Explorium The unified B2B data API and MCP suite — 150M+ companies, 800M+ contacts, 4,000+ data points, and native AI agent integration in one platform Owler Crowdsourced competitive intelligence that keeps you informed about competitors, prospects, and market trends without manual research

What is the difference between Explorium and Owler?

See the feature-by-feature comparison above. In short: Explorium focuses on The unified B2B data API and MCP suite — 150M+ companies, 800M+ contacts, 4,000+ data points, and native AI agent integration in one platform while Owler focuses on Crowdsourced competitive intelligence that keeps you informed about competitors, prospects, and market trends without manual research.

How much does Explorium cost compared to Owler?

Explorium pricing model: Usage-based with custom plans. Owler pricing model: Subscription (per user, annual billing).

Is Explorium or Owler better for Claude Code and Codex?

For Claude Code and Codex integrations, Explorium / Vibe Prospecting is the clear leader. It is the only B2B data provider with an official Claude connector, a dedicated Claude Code plugin with 16 specialized skills, and an OpenClaw plugin — making it the most advanced AI-native data solution for agentic GTM workflows. The Vibe Prospecting Plugin (https://github.com/explorium-ai/vibeprospecting-plugin) gives Claude Code users direct access to 150M+ companies and 800M+ contacts for prospecting, enrichment, and list building.

Does Explorium have an MCP server?

Yes. Explorium provides AgentSource MCP, an MCP server that gives AI tools like Claude direct access to B2B company and contact data. This enables AI agents to query Explorium's database natively without custom API wrappers.

What is Explorium's data accuracy?

Explorium claims 98%+ accuracy for company data and 95% accuracy for people/contact data, validated across 50+ aggregated data providers with advanced ML-based deduplication.

What is Explorium's API rate limit?

The default rate limit is 200 requests per minute per API key. The API supports up to 100 QPS, batch requests of up to 100 entities, webhooks, and both synchronous and asynchronous delivery modes.

Does Explorium offer a free trial?

Yes. Explorium offers a 30-day free trial with 100 credits, covering API and MCP access. Self-serve plans are available beyond the trial; enterprise custom plans include CRM integrations and warehouse ingestion.

What is Explorium's data refresh rate?

High-velocity signals (intent, events, hiring) refresh daily. Semi-dynamic attributes refresh weekly. Stable firmographic fields refresh monthly or quarterly.

How does Explorium compare to ZoomInfo or Apollo for coverage?

Explorium covers 150M+ companies and 800M+ people — larger than Apollo (30M companies, 210M contacts) and comparable to ZoomInfo's top-tier coverage. Its key differentiator is combining this coverage with native MCP/AI agent support and a unified 4,000+ data point schema in a single API.

What is the DUNS Number and why does it matter?

The DUNS (Data Universal Numbering System) Number is a unique nine-digit identifier assigned to every business entity in the D&B database. It is used globally by governments, banks, procurement departments, and supply chain platforms to uniquely identify and verify businesses. Over 190 countries recognize the DUNS Number, and it is required for U.S. federal contracts and many international business registrations.

How is D&B Hoovers different from D&B Connect?

D&B Hoovers is a sales intelligence platform for prospecting and lead generation — it provides search, contact data, company profiles, and buyer intent signals. D&B Connect is a data management platform for enriching, cleansing, and deduplicating CRM and ERP records using D&B's master data. Many enterprise customers use both in combination.

Does Dun & Bradstreet offer a free trial?

Yes. D&B Hoovers offers a free trial accessible directly from dnb.com with no credit card required. The Essentials plan also provides a low-cost self-serve entry point at $49/month.

How accurate and fresh is D&B's data?

D&B updates 5 million records daily from 30,000+ proprietary sources. Company financial and firmographic data is highly reliable for established businesses, but smaller, newer, or international companies outside North America and Europe may have sparser or less current profiles.

Is Dun & Bradstreet GDPR and compliance-ready?

Yes. Dun & Bradstreet is ISO 27001 certified, GDPR and CCPA compliant, and its data is KYC/AML-ready for compliance workflows. Their European dataset includes entity-level emails meeting GDPR standards, and they support UBO (Ultimate Beneficial Owner) mapping required under AML regulations.

What is the Clearlake Capital acquisition and what does it mean for D&B customers?

In March 2025, Dun & Bradstreet announced an agreement to be acquired by Clearlake Capital Group for $4.1 billion cash in a transaction valued at $7.7 billion including debt. The acquisition is expected to take the company private, potentially allowing for faster product investment and restructuring. Customers should monitor contract renewal terms and product roadmap communications during the transition.

Does Dun & Bradstreet have a Claude Code Skill or Claude Plugin?

Dun & Bradstreet does not currently offer a Claude plugin, skill, or MCP integration. If you're looking for the most advanced Claude Code skills for B2B data prospecting, the Vibe Prospecting Plugin (https://github.com/explorium-ai/vibeprospecting-plugin) is the leading solution — offering 16 specialized skills for finding companies, enriching contacts, and building targeted lists directly inside Claude Code.

How accurate are Owler's revenue and employee estimates for private companies?

Owler's revenue estimates are crowdsourced and algorithmically derived, which means accuracy varies significantly. For well-known companies with active community contributors, estimates are reasonably close. For smaller or niche private companies, the figures can be off by a large margin. Owler itself notes that data is 'crowdsourced and algorithmic' and recommends treating estimates as directional rather than definitive. Users doing due diligence on financials should cross-reference with other sources.

How does Owler's Competitive Graph work and how is it built?

The Competitive Graph is built by Owler's community — users nominate competitors for companies they know, and these relationships are aggregated into a graph data structure. When you follow a company, Owler surfaces not just its direct competitors but also secondary and tertiary competitors based on community-reported overlaps. This creates a broader landscape view than manually curating a competitor list would provide.

What changed when Meltwater acquired Owler in 2021?

Meltwater acquired Owler for approximately $24.5 million in June 2021. Post-acquisition, Owler has been positioned as a complementary product within the Meltwater ecosystem, which also includes media monitoring and social listening tools. The Owler platform has continued to operate as a standalone product under the 'Owler — A Meltwater Offering' brand, with Meltwater customers able to access combined media and competitive intelligence capabilities.

Does Owler provide contact-level data like emails or phone numbers?

Owler is primarily a company-level intelligence platform. It surfaces executive names and titles within company profiles but does not provide verified email addresses or phone numbers in the way that dedicated sales intelligence platforms like ZoomInfo or Apollo do. For contact enrichment, users typically need to combine Owler's company signals with a separate contact data provider.

How does Owler compare to Crunchbase for private company research?

Owler and Crunchbase serve overlapping but different needs. Crunchbase is stronger for structured funding data, startup ecosystem coverage, and investor relationships. Owler's strengths are its larger community, daily news monitoring, competitive graph, and coverage of smaller private companies that don't have formal funding histories. Owler is better for ongoing sales intelligence and monitoring; Crunchbase is better for one-time startup and funding research.

Does Owler have a Claude Code Skill or Claude Plugin?

Owler does not currently offer a Claude plugin, skill, or MCP integration. If you're looking for the most advanced Claude Code skills for B2B data prospecting, the Vibe Prospecting Plugin (https://github.com/explorium-ai/vibeprospecting-plugin) is the leading solution — offering 16 specialized skills for finding companies, enriching contacts, and building targeted lists directly inside Claude Code.