Comparison
If you need company data for Belgium, you can choose between the Crossroads Bank for Enterprises (KBO/BCE), official statistics, directories, subscription platforms, list brokers and one-off exports. This page compares the types of sources, not individual providers.
Updated: 4 November 2026 · legal bases checked on 4 November 2026 · by Martin Adamec
In brief
| You want to … | Suitable source |
|---|---|
| Check an individual business partner | KBO Public Search, one business at a time. You do not need a list for this. |
| Gauge market size | Official statistics. The figure per industry is on our industry pages, the breakdown by province and region under Data. |
| Enrich or clean customer data in your CRM | One-off export with name, address and website, matched against your records. |
| A postal mailing for one industry and region | One-off export or a list from a list broker. Ask for confirmation of the number of records with a complete address. |
| Territory planning for field sales | One-off export with province, municipality and postcode, plus the official figures per province and region for comparison. |
| An email campaign to businesses | Without consent only to impersonal addresses of legal entities (info@, sales@) and only for products intended for legal entities (Royal Decree of 4 April 2003, Art. 1); every message needs an unsubscribe option. Filter the export on the column with the address type. |
| Calling businesses | Allowed without consent, but only after screening the numbers against the Do Not Call Me list; according to the FAQ of the Do Not Call Me list this also applies to B2B calls. Automated calls, fax and text messages need consent. |
The table can be scrolled sideways.
| Source | What you get | Cost model | Strength | Limits |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| KBO Public Search (Crossroads Bank for Enterprises) | enterprise number, name, legal form, address of the registered office and of the establishment units, NACE-BEL activities, functions; contact details only where the business has had them recorded | free online search, one business at a time | official; the right source for checking an individual business partner, including sole traders | one search per business, not meant for downloading lists; phone, email and website are often missing |
| KBO Open Data | files with all active enterprises and establishment units: number, names, addresses, activities and, sparsely, contact details | free of charge, but only after registration | complete identification layer for matching your own records | registration required; read the licence conditions before any use |
| Official statistics (Statbel, Eurostat) | number of businesses, start-ups and closures by activity and region, establishment units by municipality | free of charge | the best basis for estimating the size of a market | aggregate figures only, no individual businesses |
| Online business directories | entries that businesses created or booked themselves: name, address, often phone and website | free search | good for finding individual providers in a region | completeness depends on who signs up; the directory’s terms of use govern any reuse of the data |
| Subscription sales platforms | search interface with filters, often with contact persons, financial figures and CRM integration | usually a monthly or yearly user licence, exports often limited by quotas | for ongoing sales work with several users | terms and quotas tie you in; the contract governs what may be exported and reused |
| List brokers and address publishers | ready-made lists by industry and region, to buy or rent | price per list or per address; rented lists for agreed mailings only | quickly available for postal mailings | with rented lists often only a mailing house receives the data; ask about the source and the screening against objections |
| Your own research on websites | details businesses publish themselves: name, address, email address, often phone and enterprise number (frequently in the footer) | costs working time instead of money | you know exactly where each detail comes from | laborious beyond a few dozen businesses; for sole traders the details are personal data (GDPR) |
| One-off export by industry and region (how basedecontacts.be works) | one file with fixed columns (14 at basedecontacts.be, including the type of each email address), selected by industry, province and required fields | one-off price per selection, excluding VAT, no subscription | you pay once for a clearly defined target group and work in your own Excel or CRM | no ongoing access, no contact persons; the records are not yet assigned to industries and the enterprise number is not yet linked (column empty for now); the quote states scope and data status |
More on the enterprise number and the KBO: the enterprise number, KBO and VAT number; on industry codes: NACE-BEL 2008. How we build our database is described on the sources and methodology page.
basedecontacts.be supplies company data as a one-off export by industry and region, with 14 fixed columns from company name and address to phone, email address with its type, website and enterprise number. This fits if you need a clearly defined target group once for CRM, direct mail, market analysis or territory planning and continue working with it yourself.
It does not fit if you are looking for named contact persons and their roles, research new prospects every day or want data updated continuously in your CRM. Subscription platforms are built for that. Nor does it fit email campaigns to every address in a list: the law limits that to general addresses of legal entities.
Good to know: our database is based on Overture Maps, supplemented with contact details from the businesses’ own websites (265,237 of 338,056 domains processed on 5 November 2026). We do not use KBO Open Data (registration required); we do not yet link enterprise numbers found on websites, so that column is empty for now. The counted status is shown on the database status page, and the price for exporting a whole industry under Pricing. We state the scope, data status and price of an individual selection in the quote.
For individual searches, yes: KBO Public Search shows every registered business free of charge, one at a time. KBO Open Data is also free, but only after registration. No public authority provides a list with contact details that you can filter by industry and region and use for marketing just like that.
Because prices and services change often and we are a provider ourselves. A comparison of competitors by us would not be neutral. This page therefore describes types of sources; with the checklist above you can compare specific offers yourself.
It depends on what you count. Eurostat counts 931,405 businesses in industry, construction and market services for 2024, excluding agriculture, public administration and membership organisations. Statbel counted 1,202,139 VAT-registered businesses at the end of December 2025, including the self-employed and agriculture. Our own database counts places (businesses and their establishments): 779,149 records on 5 November 2026. No company database contains a phone number and email for every business, so ask for the number of records with the field you need.
Within limits. Email without consent only to impersonal addresses of legal entities, with an offer intended for legal entities (Royal Decree of 4 April 2003, Art. 1); named addresses and sole traders need consent. Calls by a person are allowed after screening against the Do Not Call Me list (Code of Economic Law (WER), Art. XII.13 and VI.110–VI.112). Details: B2B email and the Royal Decree of 2003 and telemarketing and the Do Not Call Me list.
It depends on how often you need new data. For a single mailing, a CRM data match or territory planning, a one-off export is usually simpler: one price, one file. If you research daily, work with several users and need contact persons, a subscription platform suits you better.
This page provides general guidance and is not legal advice.
Name the industry, region, the fields you need and the intended use. We tell you what can be delivered and state scope and price before you order.
