Both products have a free tier at $0 as of 2026-10-06, so either can answer the question at no cost. Nav's free tier shows business credit summaries from all three bureaus, while Dun & Bradstreet's free D&B Credit Insights tier covers the D&B file only. For an owner who has not yet formed the business or opened a separate account, there is little to see, and the SBA's sequence puts the entity, a free EIN and a business bank account first, and ZenBusiness covers the entity and EIN steps.
How do I check my business credit score for free?
Use either free tier, or both. Nav's free tier shows business credit summaries from all three bureaus at no charge, and Dun & Bradstreet offers a free D&B Credit Insights tier at $0. Both prices come from each provider's own pricing page as of 2026-10-06.
The difference is scope. Nav is a view across bureaus, while D&B Credit Insights is Dun & Bradstreet's own product for its own file. Each provider's own pricing page sets out which fields, scores or alerts its free tier omits.
The SBA lists monitoring as the fifth and last step in building business credit. A report checked before the earlier steps have produced any data shows very little.
What should be in place before there is anything to check?
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 Dun & Bradstreet Credit Insights offer?
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, as of 2026-10-06. 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.
The D-U-N-S number is Dun & Bradstreet's own commercial identifier. 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. So the D-U-N-S number is no longer the federal identifier, though it still matters for D&B credit files, which is a point most online content gets wrong.
What does Nav offer?
Nav lists Free at $0, Track at $39.99 a month, Build at $49.99 a month and Expand at $74.99 a month, as of 2026-10-06. The free tier shows business credit summaries from all three bureaus, which makes it the broadest free view. It suits an owner who wants to see what is on file at each bureau before paying for anything.
Nav is also the reseller through which Equifax monitoring is sold, from $39.99 a month. Equifax does not sell business credit reports directly, and its $49.99 one-time report is sold through eCredable. That does not mean Nav's paid tiers show the same data as Equifax's monitoring, and Nav's own plan page is where to compare them.
How do Nav and D&B Credit Insights compare?
The two are listed alphabetically, which is not a ranking. Figures are as of 2026-10-06.
| Dun & Bradstreet | Nav | |
|---|---|---|
| Free tier | D&B Credit Insights Free, $0 | Free, $0 |
| What the free tier covers | See Dun & Bradstreet's pricing page | Business credit summaries from all three bureaus |
| Lowest paid tier | Basic, $49 a month or $499 a year | Track, $39.99 a month |
| Middle tiers | Plus, $149 a month or $1,499 a year | Build, $49.99 a month |
| Top tier | Premium, $199 a month or $1,999 a year | Expand, $74.99 a month |
| Annual pricing | Published for every paid tier | See Nav's pricing page |
The honest reading is that the free tiers do different jobs. Nav spreads across bureaus, and D&B goes deeper on one file. D&B publishes annual pricing for each paid tier, while Nav's tiers are listed by the month.
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 can take both free tiers: Nav for the cross-bureau view, then D&B for the D&B file. Neither covers a full report from Experian, which lists CreditScore Report at $59.95 one-off, ProfilePlus Report at $69.95 one-off, Business Credit Advantage at $199 a year and Business CreditScore Pro at $1,995 a year. The one honest concession is that for the bureau's own full report, the bureau is the better answer than either tool.
What do the other bureaus charge?
The providers below are listed alphabetically, with prices as of 2026-10-06.
Equifax lists a one-time report at $49.99 and monitoring from $39.99 a month, sold through eCredable and Nav rather than directly. Equifax lists no free tier.
Experian sells its own reports at the prices above, and its published price list has no free tier. 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.
How can a free-score 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 either?
Confirm which bureau a lender actually pulls, since that decides which report is worth buying. 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.