The 9 Best B2B Data Providers in Austria: Transparent, Behind a Clearing Agent (2026)

Austria is financially transparent in a way Switzerland next door is not. The Firmenbuch, the court-run commercial register, is comprehensive and it holds the filed annual accounts of capital companies, so the numbers exist and are retrievable. What sits between you and them is a toll booth of a particular Austrian kind: you cannot query the Firmenbuch as open data, you go through a licensed clearing agent, a Verrechnungsstelle, and pay per query.

That licence matters, and it is where a common assumption is wrong. The three big data names are KSV1870, CRIF and Compass, but only Compass, through its HF Data subsidiary, actually holds a Firmenbuch clearing licence. KSV1870 and CRIF are credit bureaus that aggregate register data into their own products, not court-authorised gateways. Getting that distinction right is the key to understanding who does what here.

This guide ranks {count} providers on merit. We sell Austrian business data ourselves, so our pitch sits in a marked box rather than at number one.

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1. KSV1870: the 1870 institution

Austria's largest and oldest business-information house, and the default for a domestic credit check.

Founded in 1870, KSV1870 is a member-based creditor-protection association with commercial subsidiaries for credit information, receivables management and insolvency representation. Its database is the largest in Austria, covering around 640,000 businesses and millions of personal records, and it is the name most Austrian finance teams reach for first. It aggregates Firmenbuch data into its own products but, importantly, it is not itself a licensed clearing agent, so it is a bureau rather than a register gateway.

Vienna, Austria · Membership and per-report · Built on: Firmenbuch, Payment-experience data, Own research

3. Compass: the register gateway

The one that is both a data house and, through HF Data, a licensed Firmenbuch clearing agent.

The Compass group traces back to 1867, and its subsidiary HF Data has been the leading Austrian Firmenbuch clearing agent since 2002, so Compass sits on both sides of the toll booth: it runs the licensed gateway to official extracts and it sells its own enriched company data through Wirtschafts-Compass, with an API. It also reaches the land register and trade register. Family-owned, with an internal ownership shift in 2024, it is the most register-centric of the big Austrian names.

Vienna, Austria · Per query and subscription · Built on: Firmenbuch, Grundbuch, GISA trade register

4. CRIF Austria: the Italian-owned bureau

A credible credit bureau built on the former Deltavista, strong on decisioning rather than register access.

CRIF Austria is the former Deltavista GmbH, renamed after the Italian CRIF group acquired it. It provides business and consumer credit information sourced from court publications, balance sheets and the Firmenbuch, plus payment-experience data drawn from dozens of Austrian debt-collection providers. Like KSV1870, it aggregates register data rather than holding a clearing licence, so it is a bureau for credit and decisioning, not an official-extract gateway.

Vienna, Austria · Quote only · Built on: Firmenbuch, Court publications, Payment-experience data

5. Dun & Bradstreet Austria: the global arm

The former Bisnode Austria, now the local route into the worldwide D&B file.

This is Bisnode Austria, rebranded after Dun & Bradstreet completed its acquisition of the Bisnode group in January 2021. It offers company data, the D-U-N-S number, global corporate linkage, credit and risk scores and financials, backed by the worldwide D&B file. For an Austrian business that needs to sit inside a global risk or master-data picture, this is the natural fit. The Bisnode brand is retired here.

Vienna, Austria · Quote only · Built on: Firmenbuch, D&B network, Own research

6. Creditreform Austria: the network arm

The Austrian arm of the Creditreform network, with its recognised index and debt-collection reach.

Creditreform Austria is the local member of the German-rooted Creditreform network, with eight Austrian offices. It offers business and credit reports carrying the Creditreform solvency index and a maximum-credit recommendation, twelve-month monitoring, marketing data and debt collection. For teams that already know the Creditreform index from Germany, the Austrian arm gives a familiar read on Austrian counterparties. Not a clearing agent, so a bureau rather than a gateway.

Vienna, Austria · Quote only · Built on: Firmenbuch, Court publications, Payment data

7. kompany: the compliance API

Moody's audit-proof register access, the API-first choice for KYB and AML rather than prospecting.

kompany, acquired by Moody's in 2022, is a licensed Firmenbuch clearing agent that delivers real-time, audit-proof official register documents, including beneficial-ownership data, across 200-plus jurisdictions through an API. Its whole point is compliance-grade sourcing: documents you can put in front of a regulator. If your need is KYB, KYC and AML with an audit trail rather than a prospect list, this is the Austrian-born tool built for it.

Vienna, Austria · API, quoted · Built on: Firmenbuch, 200+ registers, Beneficial-ownership data

8. WKO Firmen A-Z: the free directory

The chamber directory: free, near-total coverage of registered trades, and a fine starting point.

Run by the Austrian Federal Economic Chamber, WKO Firmen A-Z lists around 625,000 businesses, and because chamber membership is compulsory for registered trades, coverage is close to complete for them. It is a free directory search by trade, location and sector, with no financials or filings. As a free starting point for a prospecting list or a quick lookup, it is genuinely useful; as a data feed, it is limited.

Vienna, Austria · Free · Built on: Austrian Federal Economic Chamber

9. FirmenABC: the SME directory

Austria's largest online business directory, aimed at SME marketing rather than risk or register.

Founded in 2005, FirmenABC runs Austria's largest online business directory, with around 800,000 listings, and sells cross-media marketing to SMEs on top. It was acquired in 2023 by a Raiffeisen-linked holding. It is a directory and marketing business, not a credit or register source, so shortlist it for SME visibility and prospecting reach, and look elsewhere for financials or verification.

Eugendorf, Austria · Marketing packages, quoted · Built on: Own directory research, Public sources

How the Austrian market lined up

Austria's data houses are old, and the recent story is one of foreign groups buying in around the venerable local institutions:

So who is still actually Austrian?

The old institutions stayed Austrian, while the bureaus and the compliance API passed to foreign groups:

Filed but gated: how Austrian data works

Austria is genuinely transparent at the entity level. Capital companies file their annual accounts, the Jahresabschluss, and the court-run Firmenbuch holds them alongside the registration facts, so the financials exist for incorporated businesses. The friction is access. Firmenbuch queries are fee-based and routed through court-commissioned clearing agents, the Verrechnungsstellen, where you hold an account and pay per query. Basic queries are also available through the justice portal.

Two things are genuinely free. Basic company facts can be found in the chamber directory, and the Ediktsdatei, the insolvency and edict database, is free to search, which makes it the go-to for bankruptcy signals. Everything richer, the extracts and the filed accounts, goes through a paid clearing agent, and among the big data names only Compass and kompany hold that licence. Check the free layers here:

• Firmenbuch via Justizonline : The court register with filed accounts. Basic queries via the justice portal; full extracts through a paid clearing agent.
• Ediktsdatei : The insolvency and edict database, free to search. The go-to source for Austrian bankruptcy signals.
• WKO Firmen A-Z : The Federal Economic Chamber directory, free, with near-total coverage of registered trades but no financials.

Four questions before you sign anything

1. Do you need an official extract, or a judgement? For an audit-proof Firmenbuch extract you need a licensed clearing agent, which among the big names means Compass or kompany. For a credit judgement you want a bureau like KSV1870, CRIF or Creditreform. They are different products, and the licence distinction is easy to miss.

2. Is this for compliance or for sales? KYB and AML with an audit trail point to kompany's API-first, document-grade sourcing. Prospecting and reach point to WKO, FirmenABC or a platform like ours. Buying a compliance tool for a marketing job, or the reverse, is the common mistake.

3. Do you already use the Creditreform index elsewhere? If your German or wider-European workflow runs on the Creditreform solvency index, the Austrian arm gives you a consistent read on Austrian counterparties. If not, KSV1870's domestic depth may serve you better.

4. Have you checked the free sources first? The chamber directory covers registered trades for nothing, and the Ediktsdatei gives you insolvency signals free. For basic facts and bankruptcy monitoring you can get a long way before paying a clearing agent or a bureau.

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