CoStar is the largest commercial real estate information provider, and its alternatives are divided by workflow: enterprise market research (Crexi, Reonomy), single-asset deed research (PropertyShark, LightBox), or a list of owners you can call. Brokers and investors buy CoStar for its unparalleled depth in institutional analytics, underwriting, and lease negotiations. It is sold on an enterprise contract. But if your business is commercial roofing, solar installation, or property services, paying for institutional analytics to find out who owns a warehouse is an expensive mismatch.
Disclosure: Scout Data is our product; treat that entry as a maker’s pitch and the rest as our honest read.
The alternatives by job
For a team that sells to buildings rather than buying them, the alternatives to CoStar group naturally by the job you actually need done:
| Job you were considering CoStar for | Where to look instead |
|---|---|
| Listing marketplaces and comps | Crexi. It is a direct competitor in the listings space, combining an active marketplace with a self-serve data tier for comps and owner research. |
| Unmasking LLCs for off-market deals | Reonomy. It specializes in entity resolution, piercing the LLC to find human principals and their contact details, typically on a self-serve monthly or annual subscription. |
| Per-address ownership and deed research | PropertyShark and LightBox. These are research seats optimized for pulling deeds, checking foreclosures, and running single-asset comparables in specific markets. |
| A list of buildings with the people who decide | Scout Data’s commercial data. Rather than a research seat where you look up one building at a time, you get a targeted list (e.g., aging flat roofs) and a complete owner dossier per building that names the decision-makers and their phone numbers. |
The enterprise seat versus the list
The core issue for service businesses looking at CoStar is that it is a research platform, not an outbound sales list. A CoStar seat is designed for a professional who will open an asset, read its deep history, evaluate the market comps, and decide if it is a sound investment.
An outbound sales representative calling on commercial roofs or solar arrays operates differently. They need to contact fifty building owners in a day. Asking them to run fifty manual lookups in an enterprise platform slows them down and misuses the tool. The solution for outbound volume is a list where the research—matching the building to the operating business, the owning entity, and the human decision-maker—is already done.
Where Scout Data fits
Commercial data from Scout Data delivers the list. You specify the territory and the building profile, such as flat roofs inside a recent hail path. Scout Data returns an owner dossier for each building.
Each dossier contains the business operating inside, the entity that owns the building, the named decision-makers with their mobile and office numbers, and every other parcel they hold. It is quoted per territory after you review five sample dossiers, avoiding the enterprise seat model entirely.
If your goal is to underwrite acquisitions or negotiate leases, CoStar remains the industry standard (see CoStar vs Reonomy for a comparison of the top research tools). But if you need to call the person who can say yes to a new roof, the dossier format is what you are missing.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best alternative to CoStar?
It depends on your workflow. For off-market deal sourcing and entity resolution, Reonomy is the standard alternative. For browsing active listings, Crexi is a direct competitor. If you need to run outbound sales campaigns to building owners, commercial data from Scout Data delivers actionable dossiers without an enterprise seat.
How much does CoStar cost per month?
CoStar does not publish a standard rate card. Pricing is quoted by sales and varies based on the number of users, specific modules accessed, and the products in the contract. See our CoStar pricing guide for what drives a quote.
Is there a free version of CoStar?
No, CoStar is exclusively an enterprise subscription product with no free tier. Crexi lets anyone browse its listings for free; its data tier is paid.