Company name search means finding the full identity of a B2B business (company number, address, executives, headcount, revenue) from its trade name or legal name. In B2B prospecting, this search is the entry point for account qualification, lead enrichment, or meeting preparation. Unlike a contact data search targeting a person, company name search targets the legal entity and its firmographic data. Seven complementary methods cover most cases: free public registries, paid enriched databases, LinkedIn Company Search, specialized engines, and automated enrichment via API. This article details each method, use cases, and a reproducible comparison protocol to choose the right tool for your volume.
For SDRs, account managers, RevOps leaders, consultants, or journalists qualifying or enriching a business database, this article covers the 7 methods, available data, and 3 FAQ.
On the agenda:
- What we’re really looking for (the 8 useful firmographic fields)
- Method 1: free public registries (Companies House, EDGAR, OpenCorporates)
- Method 2: aggregators (Crunchbase, Pappers, Owler)
- Method 3: LinkedIn Company Search
- Method 4: paid enriched databases (Zeliq, Cognism, ZoomInfo)
- Method 5: specialized search engines
- Method 6: automated enrichment via API
- Method 7: sector- or country-specific sources
- How to choose the method based on volume and precision required
- 3 FAQ (data accuracy, cost, foreign companies)
Key takeaways:
- Companies House UK covers all UK businesses free (company number, address, directors, filings)
- EDGAR (US) covers publicly traded US companies with SEC filings free
- OpenCorporates covers 200+ jurisdictions globally free for lookup
- Paid enriched databases add advanced commercial data: named contacts, tech stack, intent signals, news
- LinkedIn Company Search: ideal to verify team size and recent evolution, free with standard account
- Volume > 100 companies/month: move to a paid enriched tool or API
- Method choice: free for occasional research, paid for volume and automated enrichment
1. What we’re really looking for: 8 useful firmographic fields
Field 1: legal identity
- Full legal name
- Company registration number (Companies House number UK, EIN US, VAT number EU)
- Legal form (LLC, Corp, Ltd, GmbH, SA)
Field 2: location
- Registered address
- Secondary office addresses
- Country and region for geographic segmentation
Field 3: economic activity
- Industry code (NAICS US, SIC, NACE EU)
- Free-text sector
- Sub-sectors and niches
Field 4: size
- Exact headcount or range (0-9, 10-49, 50-249, 250+)
- Annual revenue
- Net income
Field 5: executives
- Legal representative (CEO, President, Director)
- Board members
- Appointment dates
Field 6: history
- Founding date
- Change history (merger, acquisition, name change)
- Bankruptcy or restructuring proceedings
Field 7: ownership
- Parent company / holding
- Subsidiaries and stakes
- Ownership chain
Field 8: business indicators
- Technology stack (technographies)
- Intent signals (funding round, hiring, expansion)
- News and press releases
The first 5 fields are free via public registries. The last 3 (complete executives, ownership chains, business indicators) require paid enriched tools.
2. Method 1: free public registries
Companies House (UK)
Official UK registry. find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk. Full free data: officers, annual accounts, history.
Data available: company number, name, address, industry, officers with appointment dates, filed accounts.
Free quota: unlimited individual lookups; API 600 requests/5min without key.
EDGAR (US)
SEC filing system covering publicly traded US companies. sec.gov/edgar. Full quarterly and annual filings free.
Limitation: only public companies. Private US companies need state-level Secretary of State registries.
OpenCorporates (global)
Aggregator of official registries from 200+ jurisdictions. Free lookup, paid API for bulk usage.
Coverage varies by country: excellent for UK/US/Australia/Canada, patchy for emerging markets.
Limits of public registries
Three structural gaps: - No commercial data (phone, email, prospect contacts) - Headcount often ranged, not exact - No behavioral signals (intent, technology stack)
For these enrichments, move to methods 2-6.
3. Method 2: aggregators (Crunchbase, Pappers, Owler)
Crunchbase (US tech-focused)
crunchbase.com. Reference for startups and tech companies. Data: funding rounds, investors, executive team, news.
Free plan: limited lookups. Paid: Basic $49/month, Pro $99/month with exports.
Owler
Competitor intelligence platform. Free profile per company + paid access to competitive analytics.
Pappers (France)
Reference for French businesses. Aggregates official French registries + commercial data. Free consultation, paid for bulk exports.
Sector aggregators
Depending on your target, sector-specific aggregators may exist: PitchBook for private equity data, ZoomInfo for US B2B, D&B Hoovers for enterprise financial data.
4. Method 3: LinkedIn Company Search
Basic free usage
LinkedIn search engine finds company pages by name. Free data: - Company description - LinkedIn headcount estimate (often > registry headcount as includes freelancers/alumni) - Location - Website - Visible employees
LinkedIn Sales Navigator
Advanced Company Search: filters on size, industry, growth (%), recent funding, active decision makers. $100-160/month depending on plan.
Main use case: identify companies matching a precise ICP, then extract list of decision makers.
LinkedIn vs public registries
LinkedIn is richer in behavioral signals (team growth, new leadership, publications). Public registries are richer in legal and financial data. Using both together gives the complete view.
5. Method 4: paid enriched databases
Vendor positioning
| Tool | Announced base | Indicative price | Strong on |
|---|---|---|---|
| Zeliq | 450M contacts + associated companies | $80-100/user/month | Balanced Europe + NA |
| Cognism | 400M contacts | Platform fee + seat, quote | Europe + Diamond Data |
| ZoomInfo | 400M+ contacts | $15-30K platform + $10-15K/user annually | USA enterprise |
| Apollo | 275M contacts | $49-79/user/month | USA mid-market |
| Dun & Bradstreet | 500M+ businesses | Custom | Financial data enterprise |
Difference vs public registries
Enriched databases add: - Named contacts with phone/email - Technographies (SaaS tools used by the company) - Intent signals (site visits, whitepaper downloads) - Structured news (funding, hiring, expansion)
When to switch to paid
Three signals: - Volume > 100 companies/month to qualify - Need for direct named contacts - Need for API automation for CRM sync
Below 50 lookups/month, free tools (Companies House + Crunchbase + LinkedIn) cover most cases.
6. Method 5: specialized search engines
Advanced Google
Query type: "company name" site:linkedin.com/company to find the official LinkedIn page. Or "company name" filetype:pdf to find public documents (annual reports, investor presentations).
Bing and DuckDuckGo
Alternatives to Google with sometimes complementary indexes for less-referenced international businesses.
Wappalyzer and BuiltWith (technographies)
Extensions or platforms detecting technologies used by a website (CMS, analytics, CRM, marketing automation). Useful to qualify product fit.
7. Method 6: automated enrichment via API
The principle
Rather than manual per-company search, an API takes a list as input (CSV file or CRM base) and returns enriched firmographic data. Typical volume: 500-50,000 lines in batch.
Reference APIs
- Companies House API (UK): free
- Pappers API (FR): €30-500/month depending on volume
- Zeliq API: included in paid plans, multi-provider waterfall
- Clearbit API (acquired by HubSpot): native HubSpot integration
- People Data Labs: business and person API, $100/month basic
Typical use case
Clean a CRM database of 5,000 accounts: send each name to API, retrieve company number + address + headcount + industry, overwrite obsolete existing data. Takes 2-4 hours with API vs 40-80 hours manually.
Zeliq and automated company name search
Zeliq combines a 450 million B2B contact database with waterfall enrichment that automatically searches firmographic data by company name across 40+ providers. Cleaning a CRM database of 5,000 accounts goes from 60-80 manual hours to 2-4 hours via Zeliq API.
8. Method 7: sector- or country-specific sources
Sector-specific sources
- Healthcare registries (NPI US, RPPS France)
- Construction industry associations
- Chambers of commerce
- Professional orders (lawyers, accountants, architects)
Country-specific sources
- Companies House (UK): free, very complete
- Handelsregister (DE): freemium
- Registro Mercantil (ES): paid after basic extract
- Nordics: official registries per country, often free in English
- US: state-by-state registries (Secretary of State), OpenCorporates federates
- APAC: ACRA Singapore, MCA India
Use case
A company name search in South Korea will go through a local registry in Korean. Paid enriched tools typically cover the visible international part, but for geographic niche cases, going through the country’s official registry is unavoidable.
9. How to choose method based on volume and precision
Decision grid
| Monthly volume | Precision required | Recommended method |
|---|---|---|
| < 20 companies | Basic legal identity | Public registry (free) |
| < 20 companies | + executives and financials | Pappers/Crunchbase free |
| 20-100 companies | + named contacts | LinkedIn Sales Nav + enriched sourcing tool |
| 100-1,000 companies | + technographies + intent | Paid enriched base (Zeliq, Cognism, Apollo) |
| > 1,000 companies | + CRM automation | API + CRM integration |
Classic mistake
Using LinkedIn Sales Navigator alone for company search without completing with an official registry gives LinkedIn headcount (often overestimated 20-40% vs registry) and misses legal data. Combining LinkedIn + official registry is the standard for qualitative research.
10. Frequently asked questions
What’s the real accuracy of data obtained free vs paid?
Legal data (identity, address, industry, executives) is identical between free and paid as sourced from same official registries; commercial data (phone, email, technographies, intent) differs significantly. Companies House and free registries expose 100% of official data, updated regularly. No paid tool improves this accuracy, it only provides a more ergonomic interface or API. However, on commercial data, paid tools (Zeliq, Cognism, Apollo) add verified named contacts with direct phone (impossible to obtain free), technologies used by the company (via automated crawl), intent signals based on behavioral data aggregation. Accuracy of these data varies: direct phones 70-90% reachable depending on provider and geography, technographies 80-90% correct, intent signals qualitative by nature. Recommendation: don’t pay for legal data that Companies House provides free. Pay for commercial data and automation. A team buying Cognism to get office addresses wastes the subscription — same data available on Pappers free.
How much does a company search solution really cost at volume?
Count from $0 (free public registries up to 30-50 searches/month) to $15-50K/year for a mid-market commercial team with automated enrichment and contacts needs. Typical cost grid: (1) volume < 20 searches/month with basic needs: $0 via Companies House + Crunchbase free. (2) 20-100 searches/month with executives and financial data: Crunchbase Pro $99/month. (3) 100-500 searches/month with commercial contacts: Zeliq Starter $59/user/month. (4) 500-3,000 searches/month multi-user: Zeliq Business or Cognism Standard between $5-15K/year. (5) Volume > 3,000 with automated CRM sync and intent signals: Cognism Diamond or Zeliq Enterprise between $20-50K/year, or ZoomInfo for US-first teams at $30-60K/year. Watch for hidden costs: (a) off-package credit add-ons, (b) CRM integrations sometimes billed separately, (c) SDR onboarding time (2-4 weeks). Recommendation: start with 1-2 months on free tools (Companies House + LinkedIn) to understand real needs before switching to paid. Early over-subscription is the first source of waste in commercial stacks.
How to find a foreign company when you only have its name?
Use the official country registry as primary source, complemented by OpenCorporates for multi-jurisdiction coverage and LinkedIn Company Search for real headcount. Each country has its official registry: Companies House (UK), Handelsregister (DE), Registro Mercantil (ES), KBO/BCE (BE), Bolagsverket (SE), etc. Three strategies by context: (1) if you know the target country: go directly to the national registry, often free and up-to-date. (2) if searching multi-country: use OpenCorporates aggregating 200+ jurisdictions free with more or less complete coverage by country. (3) if the name is ambiguous (e.g., “Delta” existing in dozens of countries): LinkedIn Company Search filtered by country is the best entry point to disambiguate, then return to official registry for precise legal data. For international volume, paid enriched bases (Zeliq, Cognism, ZoomInfo) typically cover Europe + NA + APAC with variable depth. Warning: non-European and non-North American data quality is often lower than Europe + US. Recommendation for international volume: test the paid tool on 30-50 companies representative of your target geography before signing an annual contract.
11. Conclusion: 3 actions to run
Test Companies House and Crunchbase within 7 days on 10 companies from your current pipeline. These free tools cover most legal needs. Paying for what they already provide = waste.
Model your monthly search volume within 15 days to choose the appropriate paid tier (Crunchbase Pro, Zeliq, Cognism based on volume and geography).
Automate CRM enrichment via API within 30 days if you exceed 200 searches/month. Moving from manual to API divides time by 20-40× and improves CRM data freshness.
Enrich your company name searches at volume
Zeliq combines 450 million B2B contacts, multi-provider waterfall enrichment and API to automate CRM base enrichment. From 60-80 manual hours to 2-4 hours on 5,000 accounts. Account created in 2 minutes.
Try for freeAnd if you want to automate company name search on your CRM databases, try Zeliq for free: sourcing 450 million contacts, waterfall enrichment, and API in one interface, no credit card required.
