CoStar vs Reonomy

CoStar and Reonomy are the two commercial real estate platforms a buyer weighs first: CoStar provides enterprise market analytics on a quoted contract, while Reonomy focuses on entity resolution through a self-serve subscription. They are both excellent research tools for brokers and investors. But if you are evaluating them to supply an outbound sales team—such as a commercial roofer or a building-services company—you are comparing two research seats when what you actually need is a list of owners you can call.

Disclosure: Scout Data is our product; treat that entry as a maker’s pitch and the rest as our honest read.

Coverage and the entity-to-people step

CoStar is the industry heavyweight. It has the deepest historical transaction data, comprehensive lease comparables, and institutional-grade reporting. It is built for underwriting acquisitions and negotiating leases, meaning its data depth is unmatched for traditional real estate professionals.

Reonomy, acquired by Altus Group in 2021, made its name on a different problem: piercing the LLC. When a deed lists a holding company, Reonomy stitches property records to corporate filings to unmask the human principals and their contact details. While CoStar also provides owner information, Reonomy’s entity resolution is specifically tailored for analysts sourcing off-market deals.

Contract vs. Self-serve

The procurement process for each platform differs significantly:

• CoStar: Sold through its sales team. CoStar does not publish a standard rate card; the quote depends on users, markets and products, and the term is part of the quote.
• Reonomy: Advertises a self-serve subscription. As noted in our Reonomy pricing guide, it starts at $500 per month (or $400 per month billed annually), making it more accessible for smaller teams or individual analysts who cannot commit to an enterprise contract.

The missing option: A list for outbound sales

If your business is selling to buildings rather than buying them, neither platform is the right shape.

Both CoStar and Reonomy are research seats. They are designed for a professional who opens a single asset, reads its history, finds the owner, and then moves to the next. If your reps need to contact fifty building owners in a day, asking them to run fifty manual lookups in an analytics platform slows them down and misuses the tool. You do not need an enterprise analytics suite to find out who can authorize a roof replacement.

Where Scout Data fits

Commercial data from Scout Data solves the outbound problem by delivering a list instead of a seat.

You specify your territory and building profile (e.g., flat roofs in a hail path). Scout Data returns a complete owner dossier for each building: the business operating inside, the owning entity, the named decision-makers and their numbers, and every other parcel they hold. It is quoted per territory after you review five sample dossiers.

If you need to underwrite acquisitions, choose CoStar or Reonomy. If you need to supply a sales floor with commercial building owners they can call, the dossier format is the right tool for the job. (For other options, see CoStar alternatives.)

Frequently asked questions