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Business registry change feed vs lookup APIs
A lookup API tells you what a company's state record says when you ask. A change feed tells you when that record changed: a formation, a new registered agent, a lapse in good standing. Recordwire is a change feed over official state data for twelve states; most other registry APIs are lookups, and several cover all 50 states.
| Vendor | What it is | U.S. state coverage | Change events or history | Pricing | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Recordwire | Change feed plus lookup: REST API, MCP server, webhooks | 12 states: seven from official bulk files and open data; Massachusetts, Idaho, Wyoming, and Missouri from the state's public search; Delaware from a licensed data partner | Yes. Six event types, append-only. Full change events in the seven file states; new formations only in the other five | Flat: $100 a month for 1 state, $200 for any 3, $500 for all. A weekly email digest is $19 a month per state | Agents and pipelines that need to know what changed, in the states covered |
| OpenCorporates | Global company lookup API, plus bulk data on an enterprise contract | U.S. states among many countries; per-state detail on its coverage page | Not published on its pricing page | API plans from £225 a month (500 calls) to £1,200 a month (5,000 calls); enterprise by quote | Lookups across many countries, with a long track record |
| Middesk | KYB verification platform with monitoring, webhooks, and an MCP server | All 50 states and DC, searched for every business it verifies | A timeline of changes per verified business, with monitoring alerts | Not published; sold by demo | Teams that want verification decisions made for them, not raw records |
| Cobalt Intelligence | Live Secretary of State lookup API | All 50 states and DC | Filing history per lookup; scheduled monitoring of businesses you enroll, with webhooks | Credits; no dollar prices published | Point-in-time checks of the current record, in any state, for lending |
| OpenSOSData | Secretary of State lookup API, cached or live | All 50 states, DC, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands | Recent filing history per lookup; weekly monitors on cached plans; change lists sold as CSV | Pay as you go: live lookups $0.10 down to $0.0314, cached $0.01 down to $0.00314 | Cheap one-off lookups in any state |
| Formations Feed | Daily CSV of new business formations by email; API and webhooks planned | All 50 states and DC offered; exact states confirmed at checkout | New formations only | $149 per state a month (feed), $249 with API; all states $4,000 or $6,500 a month | Lead lists of new formations in states Recordwire does not cover |
| GovFiles | Entity search and lookup API, plus bulk Parquet exports | All 50 states | Name and status history where the registry provides it; no change feed or webhooks published | $0.01 per returned result; 1,000 free credits; bulk by quote | Broad, cheap search and enrichment across every state |
One vendor at a time
- Cobalt Intelligence vs Recordwire
- OpenCorporates vs Recordwire
- Middesk vs Recordwire
- OpenSOSData vs Recordwire
- GovFiles vs Recordwire
- Formations Feed vs Recordwire
Head to head
- Cobalt Intelligence vs OpenCorporates
- Middesk vs Cobalt Intelligence
- OpenSOSData vs Cobalt Intelligence
- Cobalt Intelligence vs Formations Feed
- Formations Feed vs Middesk
- Formations Feed vs OpenCorporates
- Formations Feed vs OpenSOSData
- Middesk vs OpenCorporates
- Middesk vs OpenSOSData
- OpenCorporates vs OpenSOSData
Lookup or feed: which do you need?
If you check a company once, at onboarding or before a deal, a lookup is enough. If you need to know when something changes across many companies, a lookup means re-checking every record on a schedule and diffing the answers yourself. A feed does that diff once, upstream, and hands you the differences as dated events.
When a lookup API is the better pick
When you need a state Recordwire does not cover. Cobalt Intelligence, OpenSOSData, and GovFiles all claim every state, and OpenCorporates covers many countries. Recordwire covers twelve states today. For a one-off check in Texas, use one of them.
When a verification platform is the better pick
Middesk sells a decision, not just data: it verifies a business against many sources and monitors it after onboarding. If you want KYB done for you, that is the job it is built for. Recordwire is the registry layer such a product sits on, not a replacement for it.
When a formations list is enough
Formations Feed sells new formations as a daily CSV, with all 50 states and DC offered. If you only want new companies, in states Recordwire does not cover, it is the simpler buy. Recordwire also records what happens after formation in its seven file states: status, name, address, registered-agent, and officer changes, where each state publishes those fields.
What Recordwire does not do
It covers twelve states, not 50. In Massachusetts, Idaho, Wyoming, Missouri, and Delaware it records new formations only, because those states publish no free file to compare. It adds no phone numbers, emails, or revenue. It reports what the state published and when, through coverage pages and MCP.