Best Data & Analytics Software for Commercial Real Estate (2026)

TL;DR

CoStar is still the 800-pound gorilla for property data, but it's expensive and you may not need the whole suite. CompStak wins on transaction comps if you're willing to contribute your own. Reonomy and LightBox cover property intelligence and due diligence. Placer.ai is the leader in foot traffic analytics. Cherre is the enterprise choice for firms that need to unify data from dozens of sources. Pick based on what data gap is actually costing you deals.

Product	Best For	Starting Price	Free Tier
CompStak	Transaction comps & lease comps	Free (exchange model)	Yes
Reonomy	Property intelligence & owner lookup	Contact for pricing	Trial
Placer.ai	Foot traffic & location analytics	Free	Yes
Cherre	Enterprise data integration & unification	Enterprise pricing	No
LightBox	Environmental & property due diligence	Contact for pricing	No
CoreLogic	Property records & risk analytics	Quote-based	No

CompStak solved a real problem: getting accurate lease comps without paying CoStar prices. The model is simple — contribute your own comps, get access to everyone else's. It works because brokers and appraisers who trade comps informally already do this over email and drinks. CompStak just formalized it.

The Exchange tier is free and genuinely useful for individual brokers. Enterprise customers get full database access, API integration, and bulk downloads. The data quality is strong because each comp is verified and standardized. The limitation is coverage: CompStak is strongest in major metros and thinner in secondary markets. If you work in top-25 MSAs, it's a no-brainer addition to your data stack.

Reonomy aggregates property data from public records, tax assessments, mortgage filings, and corporate registrations to give you a comprehensive view of any commercial property. The killer feature is entity resolution: figuring out who actually owns a property when it's buried under three layers of LLCs. For brokers prospecting off-market deals, this is essential.

The platform also handles debt information, permit history, and property characteristics. The search and filtering tools are solid. Where Reonomy falls short is in transaction data and market analytics — it's more of a property-level research tool than a market-level analytics platform. Pair it with CompStak or CoStar for a complete picture.

Placer.ai turned foot traffic data into a mainstream CRE analytics tool. Before Placer, understanding how many people visited a location required expensive hardware or educated guessing. Placer uses mobile device data to estimate visits, dwell times, visitor demographics, and trade areas for virtually any commercial property in the country.

The free tier gives you basic traffic data and community reports, which is enough for casual research. Paid tiers unlock the full analytics platform — custom reports, demographic breakdowns, competitive benchmarking, and trade area analysis. Retail brokers, restaurant operators, and site selection teams use it daily. The main caveat is that it's modeled data based on mobile device panels, not exact counts. It's directionally accurate and great for comparisons, but don't treat the numbers as ground truth.

Cherre solves a problem that gets worse the larger you get: data fragmentation. Most institutional CRE firms pull data from 10-30 different sources — CoStar, assessor records, internal databases, third-party research, ESG providers. Cherre's platform connects all of it into a unified data layer with a single schema and API.

This is an enterprise product. If you're an individual broker or small shop, it's overkill. If you're a REIT, institutional investor, or large brokerage with data scattered across dozens of systems, Cherre can save your data team hundreds of hours per year on integration and reconciliation. The AI-powered entity matching handles the messy work of linking records across different sources where the same property has different IDs, addresses, or owner names.

LightBox came together through acquisitions of EDR, Digital Map Products, and other data companies. The result is a platform that combines property data, environmental records, and geospatial information — a combination that's particularly useful during due diligence. If you're acquiring properties and need Phase I environmental reports, title data, and property characteristics in one place, LightBox has you covered.

The environmental data is the standout. Environmental screening is something many CRE professionals still handle through fragmented processes and third-party reports. LightBox integrates it directly into the property research workflow. For appraisers and lenders who need environmental risk data on every deal, it's a significant efficiency gain. Less useful for firms whose data needs are primarily market-level or transaction-focused.

CoreLogic is the infrastructure layer of property data. With records on virtually every US property, they power a huge number of the analytics tools and lenders you already use. Their direct products include property search, AVM (automated valuation models), tax and assessment data, and risk analytics for natural hazards and climate exposure.

Most CRE professionals interact with CoreLogic data indirectly, through other platforms that license it. Going direct makes sense for larger firms that want raw data feeds, custom analytics, or API access. The climate and natural hazard risk data is increasingly important as insurance costs and disclosure requirements grow. The trade-off is that CoreLogic is more of a data provider than a polished end-user tool — expect to do some work making the data useful for your specific workflows.

Do I need CoStar?

Maybe. CoStar is the most comprehensive single CRE data source, but it's also the most expensive — typically $300-500+/user/month for full access. If you work in major metros and need listing data, comps, and market analytics in one place, CoStar is hard to avoid. But many firms build a stack of specialized tools (CompStak for comps, Reonomy for property intel, Placer for traffic) that together cost less and serve them better.

How much should I spend on CRE data?

A reasonable data budget for a mid-size CRE firm is $500-2,000/user/month when you add up all subscriptions. Individual brokers can get started with free tools (CompStak Exchange, Placer.ai free tier, public records) and add paid subscriptions as revenue justifies them. The right question isn't "what does it cost" but "how many deals does it help me find or close?"

What's alternative data in CRE?

Alternative data refers to non-traditional sources that provide investment signals — foot traffic (Placer.ai), satellite imagery, permit filings, job postings, migration patterns, and credit card spending. Institutional investors increasingly use these signals to identify market trends before they show up in traditional property data. It's becoming mainstream, not alternative.

How accurate is mobile-based foot traffic data?

Mobile-based foot traffic data from providers like Placer.ai is directionally accurate and excellent for comparisons (is Store A busier than Store B?). Absolute visit counts are modeled estimates with typical error rates of 10-20%. The data is most reliable for high-traffic locations (retail centers, malls) and less accurate for smaller or office-only properties. Use it for trends and comparisons, not exact counts.

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