If you are a freelancer, agency or contractor, you rarely need a lender's trade credit file. You need to know whether a new client is a real, active company that pays the people who work for it. ClientVetter checks that from the client's domain in about a minute, for a flat $49 a month with 25 checks included.
Checking public records
Done
Preliminary band
The preliminary band uses domain, website and mail signals only. The full score adds registry, reviews, disputes and sanctions.
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Dun and Bradstreet is built for lenders, suppliers that sell goods on trade credit and procurement teams. Its reports shine on established companies with many trade references. Service providers mostly vet small, young or online clients, where a bureau file is often thin or missing.
A client vetting tool reads the records nearly every business has: the state registry, domain age, website and mail setup, public disputes and sanctions lists, plus non-payment reports from other service providers. For checking a prospect before you send a proposal or agree to net-30, that is usually the cheaper and more useful report.
Prices below come from each vendor's own US product pages and change over time, so check the vendor before you buy. Where a bureau is the better tool, the table says so.
| What you compare | Dun and Bradstreet | Experian Business | ClientVetter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Built for | Lenders, suppliers on trade credit, procurement | Lenders, suppliers and small business owners | Freelancers, agencies, contractors, consultants |
| Price to check another company | Business Information Report from $139.99 (Snapshot) or $189.99 (On Demand) | CreditScore Report $59.95, ProfilePlus Report $69.95, Business CreditScore Pro $1,995 a year for up to 30 companies a month | $49 a month for 25 checks, or $24 a month billed yearly |
| Renewal | Renews automatically at the list price in effect at renewal | One time reports, or annual and monthly subscriptions | Monthly or yearly plan, cancel anytime |
| Trade payment data (PAYDEX style) | Yes, its main strength | Yes, its own trade data | No, uses public records and member reports instead |
| Young or online-only clients | Often a thin file or none | Often a thin file or none | Checks registry, domain age, website and mail records that almost every business has |
| How the client pays service vendors | Rarely visible | Rarely visible | Evidence-backed non-payment reports from other service providers |
| Sanctions screening | Separate compliance products | Not listed in these report products | OFAC SDN and other public lists in every check |
| Credit limit recommendation | Yes | Yes, on some reports | Suggested payment terms by risk band and project value |
| Global company coverage | Very broad, its clear advantage | Strong in the US | US companies |
Every check returns one report with a score from 0 to 100, a band and the reasons behind it.
Active, dissolved or forfeited status from the state registry, the formation date and the registered agent, matched with the name on your contract.
When the domain was registered, whether the site answers over HTTPS and whether mail records exist. A three week old domain behind a "ten years in business" claim shows up here.
Reports from other service providers with documents attached, the company's reply next to each one and a Resolved mark once the invoice is paid.
The company and its listed principals screened against the OFAC SDN list and other public government lists on every check, not as an add-on.
Terms matched to the risk band and your project value, from your standard net-30 to a deposit with milestones or payment up front.
Add the client to monitoring and get an alert when its registry status changes or a new report is filed, so you can tighten terms before the next invoice.
Type the client's website domain and, if you know it, the state of registration and the project value.
ClientVetter reads the registry, domain records, the website, public disputes, sanctions lists and member reports for that business.
You get a score, a band, the reasons with sources and suggested terms. Save it as a PDF for your files or your finance lead.
Solo freelancers who check a handful of leads a month, agencies that want a report on file before anyone gets net-30, and contractors carrying labor and materials until the progress payment. At 25 checks for $49, each check costs under $2, so you can run one on every lead above a set project value instead of saving reports for the big ones.
Keep a bureau report when you extend large trade credit to an established company, when a lender or factoring company asks for one, when you need corporate family data to see which parent stands behind a subsidiary, or when the client sits outside the US. Many finance teams run both: a client check on every prospect and a bureau file on the few large accounts.
Yes. Experian Business, Equifax business reports and Creditsafe sell bureau credit files, and client vetting tools such as ClientVetter check a company from public records and member reports. If you mostly need to know whether a new client is real and pays its vendors, a client check usually tells you more than a trade credit file.
The main US business credit competitors are Experian Business, Equifax and Creditsafe. Each keeps its own database of trade payment data, filings and company details. Client vetting tools compete on a narrower job: checking a prospective client before a freelancer, agency or contractor starts the work.
On dnb.com the Business Information Report Snapshot on another US or Canadian company starts at $139.99 and the On Demand version starts at $189.99. Both renew automatically at the list price in effect at renewal. Check the current price on dnb.com, and read our breakdown of business credit report cost across the bureaus.
No. A DUNS number is a free nine digit identifier that Dun and Bradstreet assigns to a business. Dun and Bradstreet is the company that issues it and sells reports built on that file. A client having a DUNS number does not mean its credit file has any payment history in it.
It is worth it when you sell on trade credit to established companies or a lender asks for a bureau file. For a small service business checking young, online clients a few times a month, per report pricing and thin files make a flat client check plan the better value.
No. ClientVetter reads public records and member reports and does not pull a bureau credit file. The client is not notified when you check them.
No. ClientVetter checks businesses, and people only in their role at a business. Reports may not be used for decisions about an individual's credit, insurance, employment or housing. See our FCRA page.
Compare a business credit report with a client risk report in more depth, see how a company credit check maps to payment terms, or go straight to ClientVetter pricing. If the client is a small LLC, start with an llc lookup.
Type the client's domain and see the first signals in the preview. The full report, monitoring and PDF export open with your plan, from $24 a month billed yearly.
Your full report for this client is saved to your account.