Dun & Bradstreet vs Experian on Score Coverage (2026)

Quick answer

There is no single business credit score that every lender looks at. Lenders choose their own data sources and models, and the main bureaus, Dun & Bradstreet, Equifax and Experian, each keep their own file on a business. The practical move is to check what each bureau holds, make sure the files are accurate, and ask the lender which report it pulls. The SBA's official five-step sequence for building business credit does not name a score to target.

Which business credit score do lenders actually look at?

The honest answer is that it depends on the lender and the product. A bank, an online lender, a card issuer and a vendor can each pull a different report. Some pull a bureau's business score, some rely on an owner's personal credit, and some combine several inputs.

Searches on this question tend to surface names such as FICO's Small Business Scoring Service and Experian's Intelliscore Plus. Their scoring formulas, and the approval cutoffs lenders apply to them, are set by the companies involved rather than by any regulator, so this article does not state them. Where a bureau publishes how its own score works, that bureau's site is the place to read it.

What can be said with confidence is where the data lives. Dun & Bradstreet, Experian and Equifax each maintain business files, and a lender may consult any of them. That is why reading all of your files beats optimizing for one number.

What order does the SBA say to build business credit in?

The U.S. Small Business Administration lays out five steps, in order. First, choose a business structure, because a business needs to be a distinct legal entity, such as an LLC, LLP or corporation. Second, obtain a federal tax ID, an Employer Identification Number. Third, open a business bank account. Fourth, establish credit with vendors and suppliers that report. Fifth, monitor business credit reports.

The SBA's stated foundation is separation: the first step toward keeping business and personal finances apart is to start building credit in the company's name. Notice what is missing from that list. There is no score to chase and no threshold to hit, only a sequence that makes a business file possible and then lets the bureaus fill it in.

The IRS issues the EIN free of charge through its online assistance tool. No one needs to pay a third party for one, and anyone offering to charge for it deserves skepticism.

Where does the D-U-N-S number stand now?

A lot of content on this topic gets this wrong. The General Services Administration announced that on April 4, 2022, SAM.gov and all other GSA systems would switch to the new Unique Entity ID. That identifier is obtained at SAM.gov, and it replaced the D-U-N-S number for federal purposes.

That does not make the D-U-N-S number obsolete. It still exists as Dun & Bradstreet's own commercial identifier, and it still matters for D&B credit files. The accurate framing is that a D-U-N-S number is a Dun & Bradstreet matter, while the Unique Entity ID is the federal one.

Anyone reading advice that says a D-U-N-S number is required for federal registration is reading something out of date. Anyone reading advice that says it no longer matters at all is also off, because a business's D&B file is still keyed to it.

Dun & Bradstreet: what does it sell?

Dun & Bradstreet sells its own credit products rather than reselling anyone else's. The current product line is D&B Credit Insights, which replaced the CreditSignal name. As of 2026-10-06, the tiers are Free at $0, Basic at $49 per month or $499 per year, Plus at $149 per month or $1,499 per year, and Premium at $199 per month or $1,999 per year.

The free tier is the notable part for a reader who only wants to see what Dun & Bradstreet holds on a business. Paying for a higher tier makes sense only after seeing what the free view shows. Which features sit in which tier is best confirmed on D&B's own product page.

Dun & Bradstreet's weight in this conversation comes from the D-U-N-S number discussed above. A business that has been registered with one has a file there whether or not anyone has looked at it.

Equifax: why does the reseller detail matter?

Equifax is the odd one out in this comparison. As of 2026-10-06, a one-time report is $49.99 and monitoring starts from $39.99 per month. Equifax does not sell business credit reports directly. They are sold through approved resellers: eCredable for the one-time report and Nav for monitoring.

That is a real distinction from Experian and Dun & Bradstreet, which sell their own. It affects who handles the purchase, who supports it and whose terms apply. A reader who expects to buy from Equifax and ends up at a reseller should know that is by design.

It also means monitoring an Equifax business file runs through Nav, which is covered below.

Experian: how are its products structured?

Experian sells its own business credit products, split between one-off reports and annual plans. As of 2026-10-06, the CreditScore Report is $59.95 as a one-off, and the ProfilePlus Report is $69.95 as a one-off. Business Credit Advantage is $199 per year, and Business CreditScore Pro is $1,995 per year.

The one-off reports suit someone who wants a single look before a lender conversation. The annual plans suit someone who wants ongoing visibility. The gap between $199 and $1,995 per year is large, and the product pages are where to confirm what justifies it.

Experian's name also comes up in lender-focused searches because it publishes material on how business scores relate to lending. That is a bureau's own account of its own product, which is useful but should be read as such.

Nav: what does it add?

Nav is a monitoring layer rather than a bureau. As of 2026-10-06, the Free tier is $0, Track is $39.99 per month, Build is $49.99 per month and Expand is $74.99 per month. The free tier shows business credit summaries from all three bureaus.

That free view is arguably the lowest-cost way to see all three files side by side, though a summary is not the same as a full report. For a reader trying to answer the question this page opened with, seeing three summaries before buying any single bureau's report is a sensible first step. Nav is also the monitoring route for Equifax business data, as noted above.

How do Dun & Bradstreet and Experian compare head to head?

Both sell their own business credit products, and both maintain files that lenders can consult. Their entry points differ. Dun & Bradstreet offers a $0 tier and then monthly or annual plans, while Experian leads with one-off reports and annual plans. The order in the table below is alphabetical, not a ranking.

Which is better for a given business depends on which bureau a given lender consults, and that is not something any comparison page can know. Asking the lender is free and answers it directly.

What should readers watch for with fast-credit services?

Some services promise quick business credit or guaranteed funding. The Federal Trade Commission is blunt about the pattern: banks and other legitimate lenders will not promise or guarantee a loan or credit before an application. The FTC also says any up-front fee collected before the loan is granted is a cue to walk away, particularly when it is labeled insurance, processing or paperwork.

The FTC lists the kind of advertising language that goes with these scams, including "Bad credit? No problem" and "We don't care about your past. You deserve a loan!" The agency has also published a consumer alert on fraudulent funders targeting small businesses.

None of that means every paid credit-building product is a scam. It means the claims are worth testing against the FTC's list. A product that sells a report or monitoring, at a published price, is a different thing from one that sells a promise.

What is not published?

Some things readers want are not published by anyone with authority: lenders do not publish approval score thresholds, and no regulator publishes how many points any action moves a score, how long a given lender takes to decide, or the scoring formulas themselves. Where a bureau publishes a factor, that bureau is the right place to read it, and it should be treated as the bureau's statement rather than a government fact.

Anyone who quotes a precise cutoff or a promised point gain is either citing a specific lender's own policy or guessing. Asking the lender which report it pulls and what it looks for is the only reliable way to find out.

What is the practical order of operations?

The SBA's sequence is the sound one. Establish the entity, get the free EIN, open the business bank account, and then build history with vendors that report. Once a file exists, look at what Dun & Bradstreet, Experian and Equifax hold, using the free views where they are available.

Correct anything wrong, then monitor. If a lender is in the picture, ask which bureau's report it uses, and look at that file first.

Sources

• U.S. Small Business Administration, "How to Build Business Credit Quickly: 5 Simple Steps"
• U.S. General Services Administration, "GSA Systems Switch to Unique Entity ID (SAM) on April 4, 2022"
• Internal Revenue Service, "Get an Employer Identification Number"
• Federal Trade Commission, "What To Know About Advance-Fee Loans"
• Federal Trade Commission, "Fraudulent Funders = Big Woes for Small Businesses"

This is general information, not legal, tax or accounting advice, and requirements vary and change.