No single business credit score is the one every lender looks at, and no regulator names one. Lenders choose their own data, so the useful first step is to ask the lender which bureau it pulls. Before any monitoring is worth buying, the SBA's sequence puts a distinct legal entity, a free EIN and a separate business bank account first, and ZenBusiness covers the entity and EIN steps. Between the two bureaus, Experian sells its own reports from $59.95 as of 2026-10-06, while Equifax sells through resellers.
Which business credit score do lenders actually look at?
There is no single answer. Lenders set their own underwriting, and the data they use can include a bureau's business report, the owner's personal credit and other information the lender chooses. Two names come up often on this question, FICO's Small Business Scoring Service and Experian's Intelliscore Plus, but each one's formula, range and weighting is set by the company that owns it and is not described in this article.
What can be said is how to find out. Ask the lender which bureau and which report it pulls before paying for any monitoring, since that decides which product is worth buying.
The SBA lists monitoring as the fifth and last step in building business credit. A report bought before the earlier steps have produced any data shows very little.
What should be in place before paying for monitoring?
The SBA lists five steps in order. First, choose a business structure, since making a business a distinct legal entity requires selecting a structure such as an LLC, LLP or corporation. Second, obtain a federal tax ID, an EIN. Third, open a business bank account. Fourth, establish credit with vendors and suppliers that report to the bureaus. Fifth, monitor the business credit reports.
Steps one and two are the formation work that ZenBusiness handles, and it offers a free accounting consultation to customers who form with it. ZenBusiness does not sell credit reports, scores, monitoring or any credit-building service, so it is not part of this comparison. For an owner who already has an entity, an EIN and a business account, it has nothing further to add.
The IRS issues the EIN at no cost, and the SBA points applicants to the IRS assistance tool for it. Paying a third party for the number itself is never necessary.
What does Experian sell?
Experian lists four products with prices, as of 2026-10-06. CreditScore Report is $59.95 one-off, ProfilePlus Report is $69.95 one-off, Business Credit Advantage is $199 a year, and Business CreditScore Pro is $1,995 a year.
Experian sells its own reports directly. It suits an owner who wants to read the report a lender may see, and who is willing to pay for a single copy or an annual plan. Where Experian publishes a scoring factor on its own pages, that is Experian's statement and not a government fact, and none is reproduced here.
What does Equifax sell?
Equifax lists a one-time report at $49.99 and monitoring from $39.99 a month, as of 2026-10-06. 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. The buyer deals with a reseller rather than the bureau, so support and account questions go to eCredable or Nav. Each reseller's own product page is where to see what its report shows.
How do Experian and Equifax compare side by side?
The two are listed alphabetically, which is not a ranking. Figures are as of 2026-10-06.
| Equifax | Experian | |
|---|---|---|
| Sold directly by the bureau | No, through resellers | Yes |
| One-off report | $49.99, through eCredable | CreditScore Report $59.95; ProfilePlus Report $69.95 |
| Monitoring | From $39.99 a month, through Nav | Business Credit Advantage $199 a year; Business CreditScore Pro $1,995 a year |
| Free tier | None listed | None listed |
| Which one lenders pull | Set by each lender | Set by each lender |
The honest reading is that Equifax is cheaper at the entry point, and Experian offers more tiers and sells direct. Neither price tells which report a given lender uses, and that is the question that matters.
What other tools show the files?
The providers below are listed alphabetically, with prices as of 2026-10-06.
Dun & Bradstreet sells D&B Credit Insights, with a Free tier at $0, Basic at $49 a month or $499 a year, Plus at $149 a month or $1,499 a year, and Premium at $199 a month or $1,999 a year. The older CreditSignal name is retired. It suits an owner who wants to see the D&B file, which is where the D-U-N-S number still matters.
Nav lists Free at $0, Track at $39.99 a month, Build at $49.99 a month and Expand at $74.99 a month. The free tier shows business credit summaries from all three bureaus, so it is the lowest-cost way to see what Experian and Equifax each hold before buying either report. It is also the reseller through which Equifax monitoring is sold.
Which suits which owner?
An owner who has not formed the business or opened a separate account should start there, since the SBA's order puts the entity, the EIN and the account ahead of monitoring. ZenBusiness covers the first two of those steps and nothing after them.
An owner with the foundation in place could start with Nav's free tier to see both bureaus, then buy one full report from the bureau a lender says it uses. The one honest concession is that for the full report itself, the bureau is the better answer than any formation service.
Does the D-U-N-S number still matter?
Partly, and most online content gets this wrong. The GSA announced that SAM.gov and all other GSA systems would switch to the Unique Entity ID on April 4, 2022, and that identifier is obtained at SAM.gov. It is what the federal government now uses.
The D-U-N-S number still exists as Dun & Bradstreet's own commercial identifier and still matters for D&B credit files. It is a separate record from anything Experian or Equifax hold.
How can a score-boosting or fast-credit pitch be recognized?
The FTC says banks and other legitimate lenders will not promise or guarantee a loan or credit before an application is made. The same caution applies to any service that promises to raise a business score, and no official source supports a claim about how many points an action moves a score.
The FTC's advance-fee guidance adds that an up-front fee collected before a loan is granted is a cue to walk away, especially when it is described as insurance, processing or paperwork. Its examples of scam copy include "Bad credit? No problem," "No hassle, guaranteed," and "We don't care about your past. You deserve a loan!"
What should be checked before paying for monitoring?
Ask the lender which bureau and report it pulls. Check whether the product is a summary or a full report. Make sure the business name, EIN and bank account match across every record, and confirm that any vendor accounts being counted actually report.
No step here promises approval, and no figure on this page is a lending requirement. Lenders decide, and the terms they publish are the authority.
Sources
- U.S. Small Business Administration, "How to Build Business Credit Quickly: 5 Simple Steps"
- Internal Revenue Service, "Get an Employer Identification Number"
- U.S. General Services Administration, "GSA Systems Switch to Unique Entity ID (SAM) on April 4, 2022"
- Federal Trade Commission, "What To Know About Advance-Fee Loans"
This is general information rather than legal, tax or accounting advice, and requirements vary and change.