Crunchbase vs. PitchBook

Looking to create lists of target companies through the advanced search feature or the query builder if one is planning to reach out to the individuals listed in the profile. Looking for investment and company history information to inform sourcing or competitive landscape research.

Incentivized

Less suited for run-of-the-mill information on clients(LinkedIn is great for that), however, it is great for tracking company information. I wouldn't go anywhere else. The breadth of information given to me is extremely helpful. Sometimes it can be a pain point to acknowledge that when I am researching older companies that have been merged, it is difficult to find information about them, leading me to look to sources like Wikipedia for even the most basic description.

Incentivized

• Crunchbase has an easy-to-navigate user interface. The bar at the top of the screen that shows the different data points available on companies is particularly helpful for quick navigating.
• The ability to make and import lists and save searches is helpful for customizing the software to your particular needs.
• The web and mobile app data that Crunchbase offers is very helpful to gauge trends and interest in companies for diligence purposes.

Incentivized

• Historical deal dynamics detailing pricing and financing as well as which parties worked on the transaction
• Initial screenign on public and private comparables
• Breadth of private companie details including descriptions, financials, etc.
• Ability to filter / sort and eventually export details on private companies

Incentivized

• Notifications - Something similar to TweetDeck would be nice, so that when news breaks it could be an immediate fact.
• Honestly dont add too much because you don't want it to become more of a social tool with cluttered info, keep it straight to the point.

Incentivized

• The price is insane. Most of their competitors are free, and those that aren't are less than 5% the price of PitchBook.
• The excel plugin is incredibly complicated and the formula builder function is awful. You cannot search easily to find formulas for things you don't already know (unless you ask support)
• The UI is old, and they are slow to innovate. They need to add in a new incredible feature in the next year or two or my firm might move on, as it's getting harder to justify the price when competitors get better every year (signalnfx!) and PitchBook doesn't.

Incentivized

In our experience, the customer service is horrible to non existent. If we were a fortune 100 company with a staff of computer people I am sure this would be a valuable service as they would "speak the language" but that is not us. Not being able to reach customer service when we are thinking about upgrading is, in my opinion, a crazy business model.

I think its a great platform as is. Its usable and we get most of the information as and when we need. I don't like the landing page after login, so I don't like to go to PitchBook every day to review daily updates on the industry. It's way too cluttered and requires MFA every time

Incentivized

They give standard answers. They are not a customer first business. I tried to cancel my subscription after using it for only 1 week as we found the information was outdated and not at all useful. But they would not cancel the year long subscription I mistakenly signed up for

The overall support for PitchBook is about average. It is not excellent for two primary reasons. First, PitchBook can run slow from time to time, and I cannot copy and paste from the Chrome extension. I have found neither of those issues to be a function of the computer I am using. However, the PitchBook support team has proved helpful on several occasions.

Incentivized

did not participate

Incentivized

Crunchbase is definitely bottom of the barrel in this space. At similar pricing models, all competitors I have tried have significantly bigger and more updated databases. Crunchbase may have been great sometime in the past, but they are not worth engaging now.

CB Insights have a better market research functionality, offering pre-defined market definitions and proprietary framework for market analysis. They list all the significant players within a market and classify them into categories, which gives you a sense of who is doing well in the market. Also, it has a nice AI functionality where you can ask for a quick summary.

Incentivized

we can give access to anyone interested

Incentivized

• Crunchbase has been great and given us a lot of new companies to go after that have received funding and turned into great meetings. We do not pay a ton, so the ROI is great.
• We have nothing but positive results using Crunchbase and rely on it heavily for prospecting.
• It might add more value if we get a more expensive or advanced version.

Incentivized

• It has allowed us to be more targeted in our sales campaigns.
• Great headhunting and market mapping data.
• We have been in a very difficult hiring market so it hasn't given me the ROI I would have hoped, but that isn't PitchBook's fault!

Incentivized