PitchBook vs CB Insights: Which Should You Use?
PitchBook fits investment teams researching private capital markets: funds, deals, investors and valuations. CB Insights fits corporate strategy, M&A and corporate venture teams that want market rankings and analyst research. The pricing pages we reviewed in October 2026 show no price for either. A founder who needs to reach investors, not research them, should start with Round Funded.
PitchBook vs CB Insights at a Glance
| PitchBook | CB Insights | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Private capital market data on companies, investors, funds, deals and people; founded 2007 | Market intelligence on private and public companies and tech markets, with a strategy LLM (ChatCBI); founded 2009 |
| Best for | Deal, fund and valuation research | Market, competitor and technology research for corporate strategy, M&A and corporate venture teams (The Geeks Club) |
| Pricing (pages reviewed October 2026) | No price on the pricing page we reviewed; LPbacked reports about $20,000 to $30,000 a year for one seat (not an official price) | "Request Pricing" for its seat-based Terminal and consumption-based Data Solutions; older official pages listed $5,000 a year per user |
| Free plan or trial | No free plan (LPbacked, Prospeo); free trial by application | 10-day free trial on its 2024 and 2025 pages; sources differ on a free plan |
| Data focus | Companies, investors, funds, deals and people, plus daily Valuation Estimates | 13M+ company profiles, 1,700+ ranked tech markets, 1.5 million deals (homepage claims) |
How PitchBook and CB Insights Differ
Data focus
PitchBook describes its products as covering companies, investors, funds, deals and people. Its February 2026 Valuation Estimates, a daily model for VC-backed companies, is billed by PitchBook as the industry's first, and 49% of reviewers in TrustRadius's summary of 53 recent reviews praise its company and deal data. CB Insights centers on markets: it claims 1,700+ ranked tech markets, 1.5 million deals with cited origins and a Mosaic score for spotting high-momentum companies. These are vendor claims, and its own pages give different company counts: 10M+, 12M+ and 13M+.
Research and AI features
Both layer AI on the data. PitchBook announced Navigator, a plain-language chat assistant, in November 2025, then an agentic assistant and PitchBook Data MCP on 14 October 2026. CB Insights has ChatCBI, a strategy LLM powered by its data, Company Analysis agents and an individual MCP connector with every Terminal seat. It also bundles research: a library of 9,000+ reports plus customer transcripts and analyst briefings it calls "Only in CB Insights" (both per a November 2024 page).
Pricing model
PitchBook quotes each contract individually by seats, data modules and firm type (LPbacked); its pricing page lists a desktop platform, mobile app, Excel and PowerPoint plugins and a Chrome extension as included at no extra charge. CB Insights splits pricing into a seat-based Terminal (web terminal, mobile app, browser extension, individual MCP) and consumption-based Data Solutions (MCP, API, data feeds).
Users
Both draw high ratings on unequal evidence. PitchBook holds 4.5 out of 5 on G2 from 261 reviews (November 2025) and 4.4 on Capterra from 38; CB Insights holds 4.4 on G2 from 16 reviews and 4.7 on Capterra from 3. On G2, outdated information is PitchBook's top complaint (36 mentions) and price draws 20. A 2022 Capterra reviewer called CB Insights pricing "QUITE salty". Both draw doubts on smaller or early-stage companies: a TrustRadius summary of 31 PitchBook reviews flags accuracy "particularly for valuations and smaller firms", and G2 says CB Insights has less comprehensive early-stage data.
Pricing Compared
| PitchBook | CB Insights | |
|---|---|---|
| Published by the vendor | No price found on the pricing page we reviewed (8 October 2026), which asks you to request pricing | "Request Pricing" on the current page we reviewed; older official pages listed $5,000 a year per user and $20,400 a year for up to 10 licenses |
| Third-party reports | LPbacked (October 2026): one seat about $20,000 to $30,000 a year, 2 to 5 seats $30,000 to $50,000, larger teams $70,000 or more; Prospeo (undated): from about $12,000 for one seat | Prospeo (undated): about $40,000 a year or more |
| Contract | Annual commitment; multi-year terms often earn a discount; renewal increases frequently reported (LPbacked) | Annual, paid in full upfront (November 2024 page) |
| Smaller companies | No startup or founder price found in the pages we reviewed | Startup Access Program (November 2024): $2,400 to $5,000 a year per user for companies under 1,000 employees |
The only vendor-published prices we found are CB Insights' older ones from 2024 and 2025, and they are absent from the pricing page we reviewed, though The Geeks Club says it read $5,000 a year per user there on 1 October 2026. LPbacked and Prospeo each promote their own products, and Prospeo's CB Insights figure is far above CB Insights' older list prices. No source prices the same package for both, so ask each vendor for a written quote. Full breakdowns sit on our PitchBook and CB Insights pages.
Which One Should You Choose?
- Choose PitchBook if your work runs on funds, deals, investors and valuations and your firm can sign an individually quoted annual contract.
- Choose CB Insights if you work in corporate strategy, M&A or corporate venture and want market rankings, Mosaic momentum scores and analyst research.
- Compare prices first if budget decides it; see Crunchbase vs PitchBook.
- Look elsewhere first if you are a founder raising a round and need to reach investors; the next section explains why.
Raising a Round Is a Different Job
Studying a market and getting an investor to reply are different jobs, and both vendors sell market intelligence. A 2024 review by LeadLoft, which sells outreach tools, found no built-in outreach in PitchBook (unconfirmed for 2026). We found none in the CB Insights pages we reviewed, and G2's alternatives summary says CB Insights has limited contact information compared to PitchBook. One r/startups founder, per Prospeo, could not justify about $20,000 for PitchBook just to build a one-off fundraising list.
Round Funded is built for the second job. Its database holds 60,000+ active VCs, angels, family offices and accelerators, filtered to a check in the last 6 months, in 12 languages. You draft outreach with AI and send it from your own Gmail, and a built-in pipeline tracks the investors you contact. Investor Match picks the 10 best-fit active investors for your startup, and Find Investors gives free matches, with the full database unlocked on Round+.
Round Funded publishes its prices instead of asking you to request them. Round+ costs $99 a month, Round Pro $249 a month and Lifetime is $899 one-time, as of October 2026 (pricing). A 3-day free trial comes with Round+ and Round Pro for first-time accounts (card required); there is no free tier.
Where the job is research, they win: PitchBook with deal, fund and valuation data, CB Insights with market rankings and analyst research. Round Funded offers no market research, company financials or valuations, so size a market or benchmark a valuation with one of them.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which is better, PitchBook or CB Insights?
It depends on the job. PitchBook fits investment teams researching funds, deals, investors and valuations. CB Insights fits corporate strategy, M&A and corporate venture teams that want market rankings and analyst research. Their G2 ratings, 4.5 from 261 reviews and 4.4 from 16, do not separate them. Founders raising a round need a different tool, covered above.
PitchBook vs CB Insights pricing: which costs more?
The sources do not settle it. The pricing pages we reviewed in October 2026 show no price for either. LPbacked reports about $20,000 to $30,000 a year for one PitchBook seat; Prospeo (undated) puts CB Insights at $40,000 or more, though CB Insights' older official pages listed $5,000 a year per user. Ask both for a written quote.
Do PitchBook and CB Insights offer a free trial?
PitchBook's pricing page asks you to fill out a form so it can "see if a free trial might be right for you", and a trial length is not stated in the pages we reviewed. CB Insights' own 2024 and 2025 pages describe a 10-day free trial, though sources differ on whether it has a free plan.
Can a founder use PitchBook or CB Insights to find investors?
Partly. LeadLoft lists fundraising research among PitchBook's features, and a November 2024 CB Insights page pitches its database as a way to "Find the right investors or partners". But LeadLoft's 2024 review found no built-in outreach in PitchBook, and G2 says CB Insights has limited contact information and less early-stage data. Our comparison of investor database tools covers options built for the raise.
Which has more accurate data, PitchBook or CB Insights?
None of the sources we reviewed compares them directly. G2's November 2025 PitchBook summary lists outdated information as the top complaint (36 mentions), and TrustRadius says 25% of recent reviewers raised accuracy or completeness concerns. G2's summary says users praise CB Insights for timely, relevant data, but it rests on 16 reviews.
Is Round Funded affiliated with PitchBook or CB Insights?
No. Round Funded is not affiliated with PitchBook, CB Insights or Morningstar, which owns PitchBook according to third-party sources. We built this page from the vendors' public pages and published third-party sources, dated where the source gave a date; confirm current prices and terms with each vendor before you buy.
Final Word
PitchBook and CB Insights are research platforms, and the pricing pages we reviewed show no price for either. If you are raising a round, the job is different: reaching active investors.
