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OpenSOSData vs Cobalt Intelligence

Both read Secretary of State sites. OpenSOSData publishes per-lookup prices from $0.0314 live and $0.00314 cached, with no subscription.[1] Cobalt Intelligence defaults to live lookups, adds TIN, UCC, and screenshots, and sells to lenders by credits.[2][3][4] Pick OpenSOSData for price. Pick Cobalt for lending workflows. For every change in a state as an event, see Recordwire.[5]

Vendor facts from each vendor's own public pages, read 2026-10-16. Sources are listed below.

OpenSOSData vs Cobalt Intelligence, side by side
OpenSOSDataCobalt IntelligenceRecordwire
ModelSecretary of State lookup API, live or cached, plus bulk lookups and CSV datasets.[1][6][7]Live Secretary of State lookup API with a cache as fallback, CSV bulk runs, and scheduled monitoring of businesses you enroll.[2][3][8]Change feed plus lookup. Each new state file is compared with the last, and every difference is stored as a dated event. REST API, MCP server, and webhooks.[9]
U.S. state coverageClaims 53: all 50 states, D.C., Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Its states page lists 51.[1][10]All 50 states plus Washington, D.C.[3]12 states. Florida, New York, Colorado, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Connecticut, and Oregon from official bulk files and open data. Massachusetts, Idaho, Wyoming, and Missouri from the state's public search, new formations only. Delaware from a licensed data partner, new formations only.[11]
FreshnessLive scrape on demand, with a median of 58 seconds; cached results otherwise. Its pages give the cache window as 7 days and as 30 days.[12][1][13]Read from the state site at request time by default; slow states can take up to 5 minutes.[2][14]As often as each state publishes: daily in Florida, New York, Colorado, and Oregon, monthly in Pennsylvania, weekly in Virginia, nightly in Connecticut, every 3 hours in Massachusetts and Missouri, every 6 hours in Idaho, continuously in Wyoming, and several times a day in Delaware.[11]
Change events and historyRecent filing history per lookup. Weekly monitors on cached plans; new-formation and status-change lists sold as CSV.[15][6][7]Filing history in each lookup. Monitoring re-checks 44 state-record fields every 1 to 30 days and reports changes by severity.[3][8]Six event types: formed, renamed, status, address, registered agent, officers. Full change events in the seven file states; new formations only in the other five. Virginia and Florida include state-published history.[5][11]
WebhooksYes, for bulk jobs and for monitors.[15][6]Yes, through callbackUrl for async lookups and for monitoring results.[16][8]Yes. Signed webhooks per subscription, filtered by state, event type, or up to 10,000 company IDs.[9]
MCP serverAn npm package, @opensosdata/mcp-server; not mentioned on its site.[17]None found on its site or in its API docs, and none in the official MCP Registry.[3][18][19]Yes. Remote server at api.recordwirehq.com/mcp: five read tools and three for webhook subscriptions, one bearer key.[20]
OfficersWhere available, plus registered agent.[1]Officers in 28 states; registered agent in 49.[3]Where the state publishes them: Florida, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Wyoming; partly in New York, Virginia, Oregon. None in Colorado, Idaho, Missouri.[11]
Published pricingPay as you go: live lookups $0.10 down to $0.0314, cached $0.01 down to $0.00314. Cached plans $100 to $1,000 a month. 10 free lookups.[1][12]Credits, no dollar prices published. Most lookups cost 1 credit; tiers commonly include 1,000, 3,000, or 5,000 lookups a month. Free credits on signup.[3][21][22]$100 a month for one state, $200 for any three, $500 for all. No free trial.[23]

When to pick OpenSOSData

You need many cheap lookups and can accept cached data or long live scrapes.[1][12]

When to pick Cobalt Intelligence

You underwrite businesses and want TIN checks, UCC data in 11 states, a name-match confidence score, and monitoring with webhooks.[3][4][8]

When to pick Recordwire

You need to know what changed, not just what a record says today. Recordwire compares each state file with the last, so formations, status changes, and new registered agents arrive as dated events through webhooks, REST, or MCP, with no lookup per company. Prices are flat and published. It covers twelve states, so check the coverage page first.[5][23][11]

Questions

Which covers more jurisdictions?

OpenSOSData claims 53, adding Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands; its states page lists 51.[1][10] Cobalt covers all 50 states and D.C.[3]

Which is faster?

OpenSOSData publishes a median of 58 seconds for live lookups; cached ones return from its index.[12] Cobalt says slow states can take up to 5 minutes and does not publish a median.[14]

Do they publish prices?

OpenSOSData does, per lookup and per plan.[1][12] Cobalt publishes credits but no dollar amounts.[21]

Do they monitor for changes?

Both offer monitors that post to a webhook: Cobalt every 1 to 30 days, OpenSOSData weekly on cached plans.[8][6] Recordwire sends every change in a covered state, with no monitor list.[5]

More comparisons

Sources

  1. OpenSOSData home page. https://opensosdata.com/. Accessed 2026-10-16.
  2. Cobalt help: real-time vs cached data. https://help.cobaltintelligence.com/article/real-time-vs-cached-data. Accessed 2026-10-16.
  3. Cobalt Intelligence home page. https://cobaltintelligence.com/. Accessed 2026-10-16.
  4. Cobalt help: court and UCC data. https://help.cobaltintelligence.com/article/court-ucc-data-availability. Accessed 2026-10-16.
  5. Recordwire change events. https://recordwirehq.com/change-events. Accessed 2026-10-16.
  6. OpenSOSData llms.txt. https://opensosdata.com/llms.txt. Accessed 2026-10-16.
  7. OpenSOSData datasets. https://opensosdata.com/datasets/. Accessed 2026-10-16.
  8. Cobalt blog: Business Monitoring. https://blog.cobaltintelligence.com/post/business-monitoring-secretary-of-state-change-detection. Accessed 2026-10-16.
  9. Recordwire API docs. https://recordwirehq.com/docs. Accessed 2026-10-16.
  10. OpenSOSData state coverage. https://opensosdata.com/states/. Accessed 2026-10-16.
  11. Recordwire coverage by state. https://recordwirehq.com/states. Accessed 2026-10-16.
  12. OpenSOSData docs. https://opensosdata.com/docs/. Accessed 2026-10-16.
  13. OpenSOSData changelog. https://opensosdata.com/docs/changelog.html. Accessed 2026-10-16.
  14. Cobalt help: live data in all states. https://help.cobaltintelligence.com/article/live-data-all-states. Accessed 2026-10-16.
  15. OpenSOSData OpenAPI spec. https://opensosdata.com/openapi.yaml. Accessed 2026-10-16.
  16. Cobalt help: retryId and callbackUrl. https://help.cobaltintelligence.com/article/retryid-callbackurl-behavior. Accessed 2026-10-16.
  17. @opensosdata/mcp-server on npm. https://www.npmjs.com/package/@opensosdata/mcp-server. Accessed 2026-10-16.
  18. Cobalt Intelligence API documentation. https://documentation.cobaltintelligence.com/. Accessed 2026-10-16.
  19. Official MCP Registry. https://registry.modelcontextprotocol.io/. Accessed 2026-10-16.
  20. Recordwire MCP server. https://recordwirehq.com/mcp. Accessed 2026-10-16.
  21. Cobalt help: pricing structure. https://help.cobaltintelligence.com/article/pricing-structure-overview. Accessed 2026-10-16.
  22. Cobalt help: trial and pilot options. https://help.cobaltintelligence.com/article/trial-and-pilot-options. Accessed 2026-10-16.
  23. Recordwire pricing. https://recordwirehq.com/#pricing. Accessed 2026-10-16.

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