CB Insights vs Community Data

CB Insights provides market intelligence, analytics and data science predictions for businesses evaluating technology markets, companies and competitors. It tracks and compares more than 12 million companies across more than 1,600 technology markets, with extensive historical data on funding, acquisitions, hiring, financials, relationships, patents, news and other listed signals. Strategy Terminal uses predictive data science and AI agents to surface signals about private companies, markets and competitors. Browser Analyst examines webpages and can produce scouting reports and SWOT analyses, alongside company, executive, funding, customer, partner and competitor information. Access options include the web, browser extension, iOS and Android apps, APIs and data feeds. Integrations include Microsoft Copilot and Salesforce; data is also distributed through Snowflake Marketplace. CB Insights says its infrastructure is SOC 2 Type II certified and GDPR compliant, with encryption, audit trails, role-based access, SSO and MFA. Pricing is available on request, and a 10-day trial is listed; there is no free plan.

Community Data is a free, open database of more than 1 million people and companies, initially focused on the startup ecosystem. Its records are collaboratively maintained in an open-source repository as JSON documents that follow JSON Schema definitions. Schemas cover people, companies, locations, sectors, funding stages, and curated collections. A public GraphQL API lets developers query the data and build applications.

Anyone can contribute by creating or editing a JSON file. Commits are checked against the matching schema, and invalid documents cause a commit to be rejected. A proof-of-concept Next.js editor uses the GitHub API and requires contributors to authenticate with GitHub. Enhancer scripts can use public APIs or websites to structure information for the schemas and import it. Verified document owners are recorded by GitHub username, and their pull requests are automatically merged without review. Schema changes are proposed by pull request and reviewed by core contributors during monthly governance calls. The project uses the MIT License, copyright 2025.