Whether you're onboarding a new vendor, evaluating an acquisition target, or running KYC checks, you're probably paying too much for data that's publicly available.
Corporate intelligence platforms charge $300-500/month for access to the same government databases you can query directly. Here are 9 free tools I use for company due diligence -- most have APIs.
1. Secretary of State Business Filings
Every US state maintains a public registry of corporations, LLCs, and nonprofits. You can verify if a company is actually incorporated, when it was formed, and who the officers are.
What you get: Entity name, status (active/dissolved), formation date, registered agent, officer and director names.
Why it matters for due diligence: Verify the company exists. Check if it's in good standing. Cross-reference officer names with other entities they control.
States have separate portals, which makes multi-state searches painful. I built scrapers for New York, Texas, California, and Florida -- or use the US Business Entity Search to query multiple states at once.
2. SEC EDGAR Company Filings
The SEC's EDGAR database contains every filing from publicly traded companies -- 10-Ks, 10-Qs, proxy statements, insider transactions, and more.
What you get: Annual and quarterly financials, insider ownership changes, material event disclosures (8-K), beneficial ownership (Schedule 13D).
Why it matters: If you're vetting a public company or its subsidiaries, EDGAR is the authoritative source. Insider selling patterns, related-party transactions, and risk factor disclosures are all here.
The EDGAR full-text search API is free but poorly documented. This tool wraps it with clean JSON output.
3. IRS 990 Nonprofit Filings
Every tax-exempt organization files a Form 990 with the IRS. These are public records that disclose revenue, expenses, executive compensation, and major donors.
What you get: Total revenue, program expenses, officer compensation, top contractors, grants received and made.
Why it matters: If you're vetting a nonprofit partner, donor, or grantee, the 990 tells you whether the money goes where they say it does. Executive comp relative to program spend is a red flag detector.
Search 990s here without ProPublica's rate limits.
4. FEC Campaign Finance Records
The Federal Election Commission publishes every campaign contribution and expenditure. You can search by donor name, employer, or recipient committee.
What you get: Individual contributions (name, employer, amount, date), committee expenditures, PAC affiliations.
Why it matters: Political exposure is a real due diligence factor. Know who your counterparty is funding -- especially relevant for regulated industries.
Search FEC records programmatically.
5. FDIC BankFind
FDIC BankFind lets you look up any FDIC-insured bank or branch. You can verify a bank's insurance status, check its financial health indicators, and find branch locations.
What you get: Bank name, CERT number, insurance status, total assets, total deposits, number of branches, holding company.
Why it matters: If a deal involves a financial institution, verify it's actually FDIC-insured and check its asset-to-deposit ratios. Also useful for finding acquisition targets in community banking.
6. CFPB Consumer Complaints
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau publishes every consumer complaint filed against financial companies -- banks, lenders, debt collectors, credit bureaus.
What you get: Company name, product type, issue description, company response, whether the consumer disputed the response.
Why it matters: A spike in complaints against a company you're vetting is a leading indicator of regulatory trouble. The complaint narrative (when available) reveals systemic issues that financial statements won't show.
7. USASpending Federal Contracts
USASpending.gov tracks every federal contract, grant, loan, and direct payment. If a company claims government contracts as revenue, you can verify it here.
What you get: Award amount, awarding agency, recipient, period of performance, contract description, NAICS code.
Why it matters: Verify government contract revenue claims. Identify concentration risk (one agency = one customer). Check if contracts are being renewed or winding down.
8. FDA Drug Recalls and Adverse Events
The FDA publishes drug recalls, enforcement actions, and adverse event reports through the openFDA API.
What you get: Recall classification, reason for recall, product description, adverse event outcomes, reporting dates.
Why it matters: If you're vetting a pharmaceutical company or healthcare supplier, recall history and adverse event volume are material risk factors that public filings may understate.
9. CMS Open Payments (Sunshine Act)
CMS publishes every payment from pharmaceutical and medical device companies to physicians and teaching hospitals. This is Sunshine Act data.
What you get: Paying company, physician name, payment amount, nature of payment (consulting, royalties, meals), associated drugs/devices.
Why it matters: If you're vetting healthcare companies, physician conflicts of interest, or pharmaceutical marketing practices, this data reveals relationships that no one advertises.
The Real Problem: Searching These One at a Time
Each of these databases is free. The catch is they all have different interfaces, different APIs, and different output formats. Running a proper due diligence check means querying 5-6 of them for the same company name.
That's why I built API wrappers for all of them -- same JSON format, same pagination, same interface. Run one query across all sources instead of opening 9 browser tabs.
All the tools linked above are on Apify and can be called via API or run in the browser.
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