Kodo Leads vs. North Data:
Reference work or finished list
North Data answers the question: what does the register know about this company? Kodo answers the question before that: which companies should I call at all, and why right now? One is a reference work for companies you already know. The other is the list you start with on Monday.
The short answer
You already know the company and want to know what the register knows about it
→ North Data
North Data makes commercial register announcements and annual accounts from the Federal Gazette searchable in seconds, with a visible source. If you want to look up a company's history before a meeting, this is the fastest tool, and the basic research costs nothing.
You want to see connections: who owns what, who sits where
→ North Data
The network graph of people and shareholdings is the core of North Data. If you want to understand whether the supplier belongs to a group or whether the managing director runs three other companies, you get that here at a glance. Kodo does not draw this network.
You do not yet know which companies to call
→ Kodo Leads
North Data is a reference work: you enter a company name and get the register situation. Kodo is a research: you describe who you are looking for and get the list of companies that fit. That is the question before, and a register does not answer it.
Your qualification does not fit in any register field
→ Kodo Leads
For the market overviews on this website we captured 2,276 manufacturing and trade businesses and profiled 1,001 of them in depth. 119 of these businesses state an ISO 9001 verbatim, 15 an ISO 14001, 5 an IATF 16949, on their website, not in a register. Industrial sales buys by these criteria, and no register knows them.
TL;DR, The Direct Comparison
All key differences at a glance
| Feature | North Data | Kodo Leads |
|---|---|---|
| Commercial register announcements with history | Only as evidence per company | |
| Annual accounts from the Federal Gazette | With year and source per company | |
| Shareholding and people network | ||
| Free basic research | Ten companies free | |
| Machine park, processes, certifications from the website | ||
| Dated buying signals with clickable source | Register events only | |
| Contact persons with contact route | Names from the register only | |
| Search by manufacturing profile instead of company name |
When is which tool the right choice?
Both tools have their strengths, the question is what your sales team really needs.
When is North Data the right choice?
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You already know the company and want to know what the register knows about it
North Data makes commercial register announcements and annual accounts from the Federal Gazette searchable in seconds, with a visible source. If you want to look up a company's history before a meeting, this is the fastest tool, and the basic research costs nothing.
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You want to see connections: who owns what, who sits where
The network graph of people and shareholdings is the core of North Data. If you want to understand whether the supplier belongs to a group or whether the managing director runs three other companies, you get that here at a glance. Kodo does not draw this network.
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You need the financial history over years, not just the last year
North Data keeps annual accounts as a time series, for Germany, Austria, Switzerland and further countries. Kodo shows the figures per company with year and source, but not the development over a decade.
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You want to pull register data into your own system via API
Alongside Premium, North Data offers an API. If you want to feed register events into a CRM or a risk system automatically, that is the right place. Kodo delivers lists, not a data interface on registers.
When is Kodo the right choice?
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You do not yet know which companies to call
North Data is a reference work: you enter a company name and get the register situation. Kodo is a research: you describe who you are looking for and get the list of companies that fit. That is the question before, and a register does not answer it.
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Your qualification does not fit in any register field
For the market overviews on this website we captured 2,276 manufacturing and trade businesses and profiled 1,001 of them in depth. 119 of these businesses state an ISO 9001 verbatim, 15 an ISO 14001, 5 an IATF 16949, on their website, not in a register. Industrial sales buys by these criteria, and no register knows them.
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You need the reason, and it is rarely in the register
A capital increase or a change of managing director are register events, and North Data shows them. The new hall, the open position for a production manager, the KfW grant, the fresh IATF certification are on the company website or in the local press. Kodo reads both and delivers every signal with a date and a link to the source.
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You need someone you can call
The register names the management, but without a contact route. Kodo delivers managing directors and authorised officers from the imprint and team page, with role and contact route, separated by whether it is evidenced or derived.
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You still want the register figures, with year and source
Kodo reads the company register and the Federal Gazette itself and writes the financial figures with year and source on every card. So you get the order of magnitude with it, without looking the company up a second time. If you need the history, you click on to North Data.
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You have no hours between export and first call
If you start with a register, you still have everything ahead of you: reading the website, finding certifications, looking for contacts, phrasing the opener. At Kodo that is included in the price: from 0.70 euros per researched company, ten companies free to check, no subscription.
Comparing North Data directly with Creditreform? Then our head-to-head North Data vs. Creditreform (2026) is the page you want.
The difference in one sentence
North Data is a reference work. Kodo Leads is a research service with a result. At North Data you enter a company name and get what the official registers know about that company. At Kodo you describe your target profile and get the companies you do not know yet, with contact person, phone number and the evidenced reason why they are interesting right now.
Those are two different questions. One is: what is this company? The other: which companies should I call this week? A tool that answers the first question well does not automatically answer the second.
What North Data does well, stated honestly
North Data from Hamburg aggregates commercial register announcements, annual accounts from the Federal Gazette and the shareholding and people networks behind them, for Germany, Austria, Switzerland and further countries. There are three things the tool can do that Kodo cannot. First: the history. If you want to know how a company's revenue and result have developed over years, you get the time series here. Second: the network. The graph of shareholders, managing directors and shareholdings shows at a glance who belongs to whom. Third: the transparency. Every statement visibly traces back to the official source, and the basic research costs nothing.
For checking a single company you already know, that is hard to beat. If you want to look up the register situation before a meeting or need to understand whether the supplier is part of a group, this is the fastest tool.
Where a register structurally ends
The point at which North Data hits a limit for industrial sales has nothing to do with the quality of the provider. It lies in the source. A register knows what a company formally is: legal form, capital, management, registered office, balance sheet. It does not know what it can do. And industrial sales qualifies by what a company can do.
An example that can be quantified. For the market overviews on this website we captured 2,276 manufacturing and trade businesses and profiled 1,001 of them in depth, meaning we machine-read their websites, brochures, imprints and register data. Result: 119 of these businesses state an ISO 9001 verbatim, 15 an ISO 14001, 5 an IATF 16949, on their website, not in a register. These statements sit in the footer, on a quality page or in a PDF, where the company wrote them itself.
The same applies to the machine park, the materials, the manufacturing processes and the industries served. Whether a business does five-axis milling, welds stainless steel or manufactures for medical technology is in no announcement. Anyone looking for these things has to have the websites read. That is exactly our work.
A register event is not a reason
North Data shows events from the register: new registration, capital increase, change of managing director, relocation of the registered office. These are real, dated events with an official source, and a change of managing director is a good opener for sales. Kodo shows it too.
But the larger part of the reasons that justify a call never reaches the register. The new hall is on the company's own news page. The position for the production manager is on the careers page. The grant approval is in the local press, the new certification on the quality page. Kodo reads these sources and delivers every signal with a date and a link to the source. What we count as a reason and what we do not is explained in our glossary under buyer signals.
On top comes a practical difference: the register names the management, but without a contact route. Kodo delivers managing directors and authorised officers from the imprint and team page, with role and contact route, and cleanly separates what is evidenced from what is derived.
The honest calculation
North Data is free for basic research, and if you use it as a reference work, you should keep doing so. Kodo reads the company register and the Federal Gazette itself and writes the financial figures with year and source on every card, but we are not building a second reference work. We are building the list that comes before it.
The calculation you can do yourself: how many hours a week does your team spend finding companies, reading their websites, looking for certifications and identifying contacts before the first call goes out? Multiply that by your internal hourly rate. At Kodo those hours are included in the price: from 0.70 euros per researched company, as a single list without subscription, ten companies free to check, details on the pricing page. If, on the other hand, you only want to check individual companies you already know anyway, North Data is the right tool for you, and that sentence is here on purpose.
Frequently asked questions about the comparison
Answers to the most important questions about Kodo vs. North Data
What is the main difference between Kodo and North Data?
Does Kodo use the same sources as North Data?
Does North Data show buying signals?
Is North Data free?
Can I use Kodo and North Data together?
Who is which tool right for?
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