Dun & Bradstreet review

Dun & Bradstreet (D&B) sells business data for decisions across sales, marketing, compliance, procurement, finance and data management. Its core identity layer is the D‑U‑N‑S Number, a persistent identifier intended to help distinguish one business from another. The Commercial Graph adds verified identity and continuously updated business context, according to the product description.

The product range goes beyond company records. Sales features include buying signals and account insights to help teams prioritize prospects. Risk monitoring supports third-party onboarding and monitoring, with auditable verification. AI connectors and an MCP Server are designed to bring governed business information into systems and AI agents teams already use.

There is no single D&B price. The listed options range from free credit checks and D‑U‑N‑S registration to subscriptions for sales research and credit monitoring, plus custom-priced data and enterprise products. That makes D&B a data provider with several distinct products, not one flat-rate business intelligence tool.

D&B’s clearest advantage is joining business records to a persistent identifier. The D‑U‑N‑S Number and Commercial Graph are meant to give teams a governed base for matching business identities and keeping context current. That matters when sales, risk and operations teams need to work from the same company record rather than disconnected lists.

The feature set also covers several practical jobs:

• Sales teams can use buying signals and account insights to prioritize likely-to-convert accounts.
• Risk teams can monitor third parties during onboarding and afterward, with auditable verification.
• Data teams can use AI connectors and the MCP Server to bring business insight into existing systems and AI agents.
• Businesses can check basic risk information through the free D&B Credit Insights plan, which lists PAYDEX, Delinquency and Failure Score overviews, plus Supplier Evaluation Risk Rating monitoring.

Standard D‑U‑N‑S Number registration is listed as free and includes a nine-digit number. The listed delivery time is within 30 business days, with an expedited eight-day option available. D&B also offers a free first month of Hoovers Essentials, which may give small teams a way to assess its company and contact research before committing to a paid month.

The pricing is split across products, and the limits are not consistently clear. Hoovers Essentials is listed at $49 monthly or $44.08 per month with annual billing. It includes 150 company credits and 150 contact credits monthly, or 1,800 of each annually. Extra-credit and pay-per-contact prices are not published. The separate $41.58 annual-equivalent starting price applies to Credit Insights Basic, not Hoovers, so D&B’s products do not have one simple entry price.

The larger sales plan, Hoovers Enterprise, requires a custom quote. Its seat and usage limits are not published, and the listed add-on prices for Bombora Intent data, website visitor tracking and CRM/API integrations are also not published. Credit Insights Basic, Plus and Premium do not publish seat limits either. Direct+ subscriptions, Risk Analytics and Master Data are quote-based.

Registration may also take planning: standard D‑U‑N‑S delivery is listed as up to 30 business days, while the expedited option’s price is not published. In one Reddit thread, a business owner raised concerns about getting a number without a conventional physical address; commenters disagreed about registered-agent and virtual-office addresses. That discussion is anecdotal, but it signals that address eligibility may need confirmation before applying.

D&B has a free Credit Insights plan and several paid options, but they cover different jobs. Credit Insights starts at $49 monthly for Basic, or $41.58 per month billed annually. Plus is $149 monthly ($124.92 annual equivalent), and Premium is $199 monthly ($166.58 annual equivalent). The jump from Basic to Plus is $100 a month on monthly billing; Plus to Premium adds another $50. Free includes score overviews and supplier-risk monitoring, while paid plans add features such as alerts, peer comparisons or profile management.

For prospecting, Hoovers Essentials is $49 monthly or $44.08 per month with annual billing. It includes 150 company and 150 contact credits monthly; the first month is free, and the plan can be canceled anytime. Enterprise pricing is quoted, with seat and usage limits not published. Extra credits, pay-per-contact data, intent data, visitor tracking and integrations may cost extra, but prices are not published. Annual prices are monthly equivalents, and some contracts require a sales quote, so confirm billing terms and credit limits before committing.

D&B’s D-U-N-S Number gives a business a persistent identifier, and its Commercial Graph provides verified identity and updated business context. That may help teams match company records across systems, but the available published material does not specify migration steps, export formats, API limits or what happens to data after cancellation. Get those terms in writing before moving prospect lists, risk records or integrations.

D&B says its AI connectors and MCP Server bring governed business insight into existing systems; the published material does not detail setup effort or compatibility requirements. Hoovers Enterprise can include CRM/API integrations, but availability and pricing are not published. Credit Insights seat limits are also not published. Those gaps make switching effort and ongoing costs harder to estimate.

We don’t have sourced Reddit reports here, so we can’t attribute reasons for leaving to users. The clearest reasons to investigate alternatives are opaque enterprise pricing, unpublished usage limits and unclear export terms—not evidence that customers commonly leave for a specific cause.