Grata vs BizBuySell
Side by Side
| Attribute | Grata | BizBuySell |
|---|---|---|
| What It Is | Searchable database of 22M+ private companies with revenue/employee estimates, website-keyword search, and verified executive contacts, used to build off-market target lists, assemble comparable sets and market maps, and run outreach with CRM integrations. Owned by Datasite since June 2025, which is merging competitor Sourcescrub's data into the platform. | The largest US online business-for-sale marketplace (CoStar-owned, ~65,000 listings a year, mostly main-street and lower-middle-market), where buyers search listings and contact sellers or brokers for free. It also publishes sold-business comps, paid valuation reports, and free quarterly Insight Reports on transaction volume and multiples. |
| Category | Off-Market Data & Outreach | Listing Marketplaces |
| Pricing Model | Custom Pricing | Freemium |
| What It Costs | Pricing not published. grata.com/pricing shows three demo-gated tiers with no dollar figures: Growth (aimed at family offices and independent sponsors), Scale (buy/sell-side advisors, mid-market PE, corp dev), and Alpha (investment banks and mega funds), plus API and data-warehouse add-ons; all sales-quoted subscription contracts via "Book a demo" / "Talk to a specialist", contract term length is not stated on the site. The only numbers on Grata's own site are on its referral page, whose worked examples use $20,000 and $30,000 contract values, a signal of typical deal size. No free trial or self-serve option. | Free for buyers: registration, search, saved-search alerts, and inquiries cost nothing. Optional buyer membership "BizBuySell Edge" (buyer badge, listing popularity stats, benchmarks, up to 4 valuation reports/year) advertised "as low as $20/month"; the full rate card is only shown at signup. Seller listings (6-month term): Basic $74.95/mo, Showcase $99.95/mo, Diamond $199.95/mo; 3-month terms cost more per month, 12-month less; listings auto-renew month-to-month after the term; no commission or success fee (per vendor FAQ, July 2026, up from $65.95/$89.95 in Sept 2025). Standalone valuation report $179.95, included free with any listing. Broker multi-listing subscriptions (BrokerWorks) are monthly memberships with early-termination fees; rates not published. |
| Best For | Funded searchers, or self-funded searchers whose investors/sponsor cover a five-figure data budget, running proprietary outreach in a definable niche toward the upper end of the SMB range; lean self-funded buyers of sub-$2M Main Street businesses will find a DIY stack (Clay/Apollo/scraping) more proportionate. | Self-funded searchers who want the widest on-market view of $500k–$5M main-street businesses, for building saved-search deal flow, calibrating asking multiples, and meeting active brokers. Not for searchers wanting curated or verified deal flow, or those targeting businesses above roughly $1M SDE, where inventory thins out fast. |
| Where It Fits | Define & Test Your Thesis, Source & Screen Deals | Source & Screen Deals |
| Our Verdict | The best off-market company data for thesis-driven sourcing if someone else is paying its ~$20k+ sales-quoted contracts. Most self-funded searchers under $5M get better ROI from a cheap DIY stack; Grata's estimates and contacts are weakest at exactly Main Street size. | Set up free saved searches here on day one: it is the deepest on-market pool of SBA-size deals and costs buyers nothing. Treat listed financials as unverified marketing, expect competition on anything clean, and plan to supplement it once you target above ~$1M SDE. |
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Our take
Choose Grata when your thesis is a definable niche and someone else is paying for the data: 22M private companies with revenue estimates, website-keyword search, verified executive contacts and CRM integrations, which is the machinery proprietary outreach actually needs. Three things decide it against you if you are self-funded. Pricing is quote-only and the vendor's own referral examples use $20,000 and $30,000 contract values. Accuracy is the top user complaint, so you verify in a spreadsheet anyway. And coverage is thinnest on low-web-presence $500k to $5M businesses, which is precisely the universe an SBA buyer is hunting.
Work BizBuySell first if you are buying in the range this site is written around, because free beats five figures when the free one covers your target universe better: the widest on-market view of main-street businesses, and the brokers who list them. Outreach is still worth running alongside it, just not necessarily on purchased data. The limits are the ones every on-market buyer accepts, that listings are barely vetted and the good ones are swarmed within days, plus the one that matters strategically here, that everyone else can see the same listing you are looking at.