6 Best Commercial Real Estate Databases for 2023
Kaylee specializes in real estate, B2B, and SaaS companies. You can find her expertise in sales and real estate content on Fit Small Business.
The best commercial real estate databases offer deal-predictive intelligence, robust lead filtering, and niche tools and services to help you grow your business. Real estate professionals who deal specifically with commercial can use this data to learn about the market and generate client and listing leads.
We evaluated and narrowed down the list of the six best commercial real estate databases based on pricing, quality of data sources, research features, customer reviews, and functionality.
- Reonomy: Best for predictive analytics to gather the most accurate data for potential deals
- CRE Collaborative: Top choice for commercial real estate pros wanting a range of research, marketing, and networking options
- ProspectNow: Ideal option for those wanting to focus on property ownership details for residential and commercial properties
- Catylist: Great choice for promoting and marketing commercial real estate listings
- CIMLS: Best public and free commercial database to assist with promoting their listings and services
- CoStar: Best reporting tools and the ability to create financial models and projections
Best Commercial Real Estate Databases at a Glance
Database | Starting Monthly Price | Free Trial | Occupant/Tenant Data | CRM Integration |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | $49 | 7 days | ✓ | ✓ |
 | $14.99 per user | ✕ | ✕ | ✓ |
 | $119 per user | 3 days | ✓ | ✓ |
 | $99 | ✕ | ✓ | ✕ |
 | Free plan | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ |
 | $466 | ✕ | ✓ | ✓ |
Reonomy: Best for Predictive Analytics
Overall Score:
4.92 / 5
What We Like
- Artificial intelligence (AI) tools accurately predict deals
- 200+ search filters
- Easy-to-use interface
What's Missing
- No mobile app
- No free plan
- Costs can add up for teams
Reonomy Monthly Pricing
- Free trial: 7 days
- Individual accounts: $49
- Team and enterprise packages: Customized
Reonomy is a robust commercial property database with proprietary technology to obtain property details. In addition, you can find information about a property’s mortgage, lender, tenants and occupants, and contact information like names, phone numbers, emails, and addresses. This data is useful for pinpointing new potential clients and showing listings to buyers. Plus, Reonomy integrates with client relationship management (CRM) software to help you approach and nurture new clients most efficiently.
Reonomy uses artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to determine the likelihood of deals throughout entire markets. It receives data from exclusive partners, including more than 3,100 local county assessors, census data, secretaries of state, title companies, and geospatial providers. The combination of data and technology is key for finding investment properties for sale and making well-informed decisions to maximize profit.
Reonomy property search filters (Source: Reonomy)
- Detailed search filters: Search properties and owners by important filters like origination date, loan amount, and owner portfolio
- Custom data feeds: Receive customized data and reports to stay up to date on commercial transactions in your local market
- Outreach tools: Ownership details and contact information help you contact potential leads efficiently
- Customer support: Available via phone, email, and live chat during business hours
Reonomy is one of the best commercial real estate data companies with some of the most advanced tools and technology on the market. The vast majority of Reonomy users are extremely satisfied with the tool, giving it an overall customer review rating of 4.2 out of 5. Reviews love the user-friendly platform and note that it’s easy to find details about properties.
However, some users complained about frustrating functionality gaps, like search filters not working accurately or the wrong contact information on properties. For an alternative commercial real estate ownership database, consider CoStar, which provides highly accurate data and extensive analytics.
CRE Collaborative: Most Versatile Commercial Database
Overall Score:
4.56 / 5
What We Like
- Single dashboard for all commercial real estate data
- Concierge service for setup
- Social media tools and integrations
What's Missing
- No transaction history
- Lacks data details and technologies
- No mobile app
CRE Collaborative Monthly Pricing
- Starter plan: $14.99 per user
- Premium: $59.99 per user
- Enterprise: Contact CRE Collaborative for a quote
CRE Collaborative is a database that connects commercial real estate (CRE) pros with real estate data, professional networks, and real estate technology. It acts as a commercial real estate data aggregator to ensure you have accurate information. You can then use the data in your marketing efforts when servicing commercial clients and connecting with other professionals.
Because of its collaborative nature, this is the commercial property database with the highest number of services and solutions. For example, services include marketing and technology advisers, property searches and data, and the ability to post and advertise properties, send messages, grow your network, and connect to social media.
Visual map of how CREC works (Source: CREC)
- Free review for professionals: Receive a no-obligation review of your company technology and data
- All-in-one tools: Facilitates branding, social media marketing, networking with professionals, and finding and analyzing properties
- Additional partnerships: With the premium membership, you receive access to QuantumListing, Zip Analyser, and Landchecks, which extends your data and your ability to manage it by providing data-mapping systems and information on zoning, environment, and foreclosures
- Customer support: Available by phone or email, and includes a detailed FAQ (frequently asked questions) section with tutorials for new and existing users
Unfortunately, there are very few third-party CRE Collaborative customer reviews available. However, the existing reviews are extremely positive, giving the platform a customer review rating of 5 out of 5. Users love the efficiency that comes with having a single platform to organize all data and promote properties.
However, if you’re looking for a platform with more property details and market data, CoStar provides the most in-depth analytics and reporting.
ProspectNow: Best Database for Property Ownership Details
Overall Score:
4.40 / 5
What We Like
- Predictive analytics identify potential deals
- Detailed owner contact information
- Includes sales comps and multiple listing service (MLS) data
What's Missing
- Customer service only available during business hours
- Not as many types of property details as other platforms
ProspectNow Monthly Pricing
- Free trial: 3 days
- Residential: $119 per user
- Commercial: Custom priced
Although ProspectNow provides property details, it is designed primarily to pinpoint ownership information for both residential and commercial properties. It provides accurate and detailed ownership information for single-family homes, multi-family homes, apartment buildings, industrial properties, and other types of commercial properties. This makes it easy for agents and investors to connect with owners and generate new high-quality leads.
Like other commercial building databases, it uses artificial intelligence (AI) and predictive analytics to help you identify properties that are most likely to sell in the next 12 months. Because its primary focus is ownership data, you can efficiently reach owners and generate clients for both residential and commercial properties.
ProspectNow interface (Source: ProspectNow)
- Residential and commercial property data: Over 42 million commercial real estate properties
- ROI calculator: Return on investment (ROI) calculator shows how much money ProspectNow can generate in your business
- Property and financial details: Includes information on property use, purchase date and price, assessed value, and loan provider
- Task management tools: Track appointments, tasks, and add notes to properties and owners within the platform
- Customer support: Available by phone, email, and live chat
With a limited number of ratings, ProspectNow has a good customer review rating of 4.3 out of 5. Customers note the platform’s interface is easy to use and presents all the most important information on one screen, making their tasks more efficient. They also stated that it is a great, affordable option compared to other commercial property owner databases, like CoStar.
However, some customer reviews indicated they don’t love the credit system that limits the number of monthly searches, and said the pipeline to track leads is difficult to manage. For a commercial real estate database that easily integrates with other CRMs, try Reonomy.
Catylist: Best for Marketing Real Estate Listings
Overall Score:
3.90 / 5
What We Like
- Products for a wide range of commercial real estate professionals
- Unlimited listings and analytics
- Customizes technology for each market
What's Missing
- Lacks the ability to generate and track leads within platform
- Unclear pricing structure
- No customer service outside of business hours
Catylist Monthly Pricing
- Subscription: $99
Catylist is a commercial real estate technology platform that provides products designed for a range of professional audiences, such as investors, owners, and commercial real estate realtors, associations, brokerages, and economic development groups.
Although it can be used to generate real estate leads as a listing service, its products are designed for different purposes. For example, you can use Catylist to position your business or association as an authority in a specific market and give you ownership over your own listing system. It provides a commercial listing system with your brokerage or association’s branding and logo, and all listings are automatically uploaded to the national database for more exposure.
Catylist property search interface (Source: Catylist)
- Free demo: Get a free demo of Catylist and the products offered by Moody’s Analytics
- Advanced data and technology: Combine search areas, access street-level property views, and search with detailed filers
- Commercial real estate market research: Access every listing and CRE contact in your market as well as off-market properties
- Listing marketing tools: Listing traffic analytics, presentations, built-in listing emails, and exposure on Commercial Exchange
Like the other commercial building information databases, there are a limited number of online reviews for Catylist. However, existing reviews have a good customer review rating of 4.3 out of 5. Users love the ability to easily post listings and get maximum exposure on the platform.
However, they do note that Catylist isn’t designed to generate leads, so you’ll likely need another tool to grow your business. One user noted that they used Catylist in combination with CoStar for great results.
CIMLS: Best Free Commercial Real Estate Database
Overall Score:
3.73 / 5
What We Like
- Free to access
- Search commercial properties across the country
- Search for commercial real estate professionals
What's Missing
- Limited property owner data
- Limited market data
- Lacks built-in CRM
CIMLS Monthly Pricing
- Basic plan: Free
- Gold membership: $20
The Commercial Investment Multiple Listing Service (CIMLS) is one of the only free commercial real estate databases available online. You can search for commercial properties for sale or for lease anywhere in the U.S., as well as sales comps based on a specific property. On the other hand, investors, tenants, and owners can search for a real estate professional to work with.
CIMLS is an effective place to add your listings and be discovered by potential clients in your area who are searching for your type of expertise since it’s free and available to the public. There are also extensive search features, like city, property type, keywords, price range, and square footage, making this a great commercial real estate comps database. You can even use it as a home base for your data, and combine it with a more highly technical database to retrieve more in-depth details on properties.
Sample property listing from CIMLS (Source: CIMLS)
- Easy-to-use interface: Simple database with clear menus for property searches, locations, professionals, and comps
- Extensive search features: Use search filters to find properties, professionals, and comps easily
- Free property listings: Easy and free to post a commercial real estate property with an account
- Customer support: Available during business hours by phone and email
There are no reliable online reviews for CIMLS, but the platform is simple and easy to use, and customer service is efficient and helpful. Since the platform is free, there is no risk to signing up, and you can browse properties and professionals before adding any of your own information.
However, property data and analytics are extremely limited compared to other commercial lease databases, like ProspectNow and Reonomy. Consider using CIMLS along with another commercial real estate data source as a supplement.
CoStar: Database With the Most In-depth Reporting Tools
Overall Score:
3.71 / 5
What We Like
- Products customized for different types of commercial real estate professionals
- Advisory services
- Easy-to-use platform
What's Missing
- Most expensive database
- No free plan or trial
CoStar Monthly Pricing
- CoStar membership starts at $466, and varies based on your level of access
CoStar is a commercial real estate information and analytics provider built to empower industry pros with the most detailed and accurate data available. Similar to Catylist, CoStar provides different tools for an array of different audiences, including owners, appraisers, lenders, retailers, multi-family owners, investors, agents, and brokers. Its tools make it easy to build financial models, generate customized reports, and search in-depth data around the world.
Not only does CoStar provide some of the most detailed and accurate information, but they also make it easy to find and generate easy-to-digest analytics and reports. It provides aerial and map overlays to see a geographic view of properties, forecasts generated by local commercial experts, and graphs of market and submarket trends. You can create custom reports based on geography, building class, or sales activity.
Real estate manager website (Source: CoStar)
- Variety of products: Solutions for commercial properties, comps, tenants, risk analysis, analytics, news, and advanced reporting
- Real Estate Manager: Combination of market data, analytics, and management software for real estate teams
- Reporting and analytics: Extensive reporting tools for leasing, construction, loan and financials, and real estate market data
- Advisory services: Consulting to help you communicate with investors, allocate resources, analyze locations, and get support during deals
CoStar has a positive customer review rating of 4.41 out of 5, but some reviews are mixed. Users note it’s an easy-to-use platform that makes it easy to generate and understand in-depth data. They also note the customer service is extremely responsive, helpful, and friendly.
However, some reviewers have had trouble with sporadic inaccurate data and can’t justify the cost of the software. For a similar, more affordable database, try ProspectNow.
How We Evaluated the Best Commercial Real Estate Databases
The needs of commercial real estate professionals vary widely, but there are a few factors that are essential to have in a commercial database. For example, they must provide accurate and up-to-date data and analytical tools to help you make decisions.
Learning to invest in real estate requires detailed information about properties and finances to make profitable choices. Therefore, we evaluated each platform based on the core features necessary for the widest range of professionals, like detailed property data, ease of use, customer relationship management (CRM) integration, and customer reviews.
After all of our research, Reonomy emerged as the best commercial property database because of its advanced technology, predictive analytics, data accuracy, and easy-to-use interface. Plus, with over 50 million commercial properties in the database, Reonomy gives you the maximum amount of data with a high level of accuracy. All professionals looking for the best way to prospect real estate leads will undeniably find value in this platform.
These are the criteria we used to establish the best commercial real estate data sources:
25%
Pricing
20%
General Features
15%
Ease of Use
15%
Customer Reviews
15%
Expert Score
10%
Help & Support
25% of Overall Score
To accurately evaluate the price of each database, we took both cost and value into consideration. We searched for commercial real estate data sources with free trials, free plans, and extensive tools that offer a good return on investment (ROI) for users.
20% of Overall Score
General features include components essential in commercial real estate research, such as property details (asset type, location, building size, and zoning), transaction history, mortgage and lender data, occupant and tenant data, customized reporting, ownership data, and contact information.
15% of Overall Score
Users should be able to understand the functionality of the database (with some or little technical support) and have access to a CRM to track contacts and data, either built-in or through integrations. In addition, we researched platforms available on a mobile app.
15% of Overall Score
Based on customer feedback for each platform, with particular attention given to reviews of the product and popularity of the provider, and to certify the data and customer care provided meets user expectations.
15% of Overall Score
Expertise in the field and firsthand experience with the providers allow us to evaluate the standout features, value for the money, and ease of use for each of these real estate data sources.
10% of Overall Score
We looked into the convenience and attainability of customer service for technical and customer support.
*Percentages of overall score
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
The CoStar group owns various real estate brands, including LoopNet, Showcase, Ten-X, Apartments.com, Apartment Finder, and Homesnap, making it the largest and most well-known commercial real estate database. However, Reonomy is another wide-reaching platform with extensive data and tools for investors.
Data is extremely important in commercial real estate, and the most common types of data include property data, transaction, financial, ownership, and demographic data. Property data includes the asset type, location, size, and zoning. Transaction and ownership data includes information about the loan, lender, owner, and tenant. Finally, demographic data refers to information about the local market, including household age, income, ownership rates, and migration.
Commercial real estate can include a wide variety of property types, so the evaluation process will vary. In every case, however, analyzing commercial properties should include an evaluation of:
- Comparable properties
- Type of investment
- Acquisition expenses
- Property cash flow
- Local real estate market and economics
- Demographics
With this information in hand, real estate professionals can make a wiser decision. Without gathering the necessary data, you will risk the success of your investments.
