Quick answer
Two of the four providers covered here have a $0 tier. As of 2026-10-06, Dun & Bradstreet's D&B Credit Insights has a Free plan, and Nav has a Free plan that shows business credit summaries from all three bureaus. Experian and Equifax publish prices for paid products only, so a free look at those files is most easily had through Nav's summaries. Paid plans make sense once a free summary shows something worth acting on, or once ongoing monitoring matters more than a one-time look.
How can a business credit score be checked for free?
There are two practical routes. The first is the free tier of a bureau's own product, which at the time of writing means Dun & Bradstreet. The second is a monitoring service whose free tier pulls summaries from more than one bureau, which means Nav.
Neither route involves paying a third party for access to a business's own file. If a site asks for money before showing anything, compare it against the free options below first.
One caution applies throughout. Business credit scores are not one universal number, so a free view of one bureau's file says little about what another bureau holds. Seeing all three summaries side by side is more informative than going deep on one.
What does a free tier show, and what does it leave out?
A free tier is a window, not a full audit. It tells a business owner that a file exists, gives a headline view of what the bureau holds, and points toward the paid products for more depth.
Which fields appear in a free summary and which are held back is set out on each provider's own product page, which is the place to confirm it before relying on a free view for a lending decision.
What can be said is that free summaries suit a first check. They answer the question "is there a file, and does it look roughly right?" Whether the details are accurate enough to hand a lender is a separate question that a summary may not settle.
Provider by provider: what is free and what is paid?
The order below is alphabetical, not a ranking.
Dun & Bradstreet
Dun & Bradstreet sells its own credit products. The current product is D&B Credit Insights, which replaced the CreditSignal name. As of 2026-10-06, the Free tier is $0, Basic is $49 per month or $499 per year, Plus is $149 per month or $1,499 per year, and Premium is $199 per month or $1,999 per year.
The free tier is the cleanest answer to the question this page opened with when the goal is a look at Dun & Bradstreet's own file. Moving up the ladder is a decision to make after seeing what the free tier shows. Which features sit in which tier is best confirmed on D&B's own product page.
Equifax
Equifax does not sell business credit reports directly. They are sold through approved resellers: eCredable for the one-time report and Nav for monitoring. As of 2026-10-06, a one-time report is $49.99 and monitoring starts from $39.99 per month.
Equifax lists no free tier. A reader who wants a free look at Equifax business data is better served by Nav's free summaries than by buying a report first. That distinction from Experian and Dun & Bradstreet, which sell their own, also affects who handles the purchase and who provides support.
Experian
Experian sells its own reports, split between one-off purchases and annual plans. As of 2026-10-06, the CreditScore Report is $59.95 one-off and the ProfilePlus Report is $69.95 one-off. Business Credit Advantage is $199 per year, and Business CreditScore Pro is $1,995 per year.
Experian's published pricing has no $0 option, so a free look at its file is not on offer there. For someone who wants one report before a lender conversation, the one-off products are the lower-commitment way in. The annual plans suit ongoing visibility, and the gap between $199 and $1,995 per year is large enough that confirming what each includes is worth the time.
Nav
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 makes it the broadest free view in this comparison. It is also the monitoring route for Equifax business data. Paid tiers add ongoing monitoring, and the detailed split between what each tier includes is worth confirming on Nav's pricing page.
How do free and paid compare side by side?
| Provider | Free option (as of 2026-10-06) | Cheapest paid entry | Higher paid options |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dun & Bradstreet | Yes, D&B Credit Insights Free at $0 | Basic $49/mo or $499/yr | Plus $149/mo or $1,499/yr; Premium $199/mo or $1,999/yr |
| Equifax | None listed | $49.99 one-time report (via eCredable) | Monitoring from $39.99/mo (via Nav) |
| Experian | None listed | $59.95 CreditScore Report | ProfilePlus $69.95; Business Credit Advantage $199/yr; Business CreditScore Pro $1,995/yr |
| Nav | Yes, Free at $0, summaries from all three bureaus | Track $39.99/mo | Build $49.99/mo; Expand $74.99/mo |
The practical read is that free access is concentrated in two places. Paying becomes worthwhile when a free summary shows a problem that needs the deeper report, or when continuous monitoring is the goal. One honest concession: for ongoing monitoring across several bureaus, a paid Nav tier is a more direct fit than assembling the same view from separate bureau purchases.
Does a business need to exist on paper before any of this works?
Yes, and this is where many first-time owners lose time. The SBA's own five steps to build business credit begin with choosing a business structure so the business is a distinct legal entity, such as an LLC, LLP or corporation. The second step is obtaining an Employer Identification Number, which the IRS issues free through its online assistance tool.
Checking a score for free assumes there is something to check. For a reader who has not yet formed an entity or separated business and personal finances, a formation provider such as ZenBusiness sits at the start of that sequence, ahead of any monitoring tool. ZenBusiness does not sell credit monitoring or credit-building products, so it is not an alternative to anything in the table above.
The SBA also names the separation of business and personal finances as the foundation. Its stated first step toward that is to start building credit in the company's name.
What should readers watch for when something is advertised as free?
Some offers use "free" as bait. The Federal Trade Commission says banks and other legitimate lenders will not promise or guarantee a loan or credit before an application. It also says any 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.
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 about fraudulent funders aimed at small businesses.
A report or a monitoring plan at a published price is a different thing from a promise of credit. The test is simple: a product that shows a file is selling information, and a product that guarantees an outcome is selling a story.
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. Each provider's own product page is the place to see what its free summary contains.
Where a bureau publishes how one of its own scores works, that bureau is the right place to read it, and it should be treated as the bureau's statement, not a government fact. Anyone quoting a precise cutoff or a promised point gain is either citing one lender's own policy or guessing.
What is a sensible order for checking?
Start with the free views: Nav's summaries from all three bureaus and Dun & Bradstreet's Free tier. Note anything that looks wrong or missing, such as a file that does not exist or details that do not match the business. Only then consider a paid report or plan, choosing the bureau a lender actually uses.
If a lender is part of the picture, ask which bureau's report it pulls and look at that file first. Paying for monitoring makes sense when the file will be watched over time, not when a single look would do.
Sources
- U.S. Small Business Administration, "How to Build Business Credit Quickly: 5 Simple Steps"
- 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.