SaharaIndex Trade Intelligence
SaharaIndex vs Kompass
Kompass is one of the longest-established B2B company directories in Europe. If you are evaluating it against SaharaIndex, the useful question isn't which is bigger — it's where each one's company data comes from, and what it costs you to reach a supplier.
The short version
| Dimension | SaharaIndex | Kompass |
|---|---|---|
| Company identity data | A large share sourced from official business registers | Directory listings, long-established |
| Supplier contact details | Visible without an account | Account-based access |
| Languages | 34 across the EU sourcing hub, with reciprocal hreflang | Multiple, market-dependent |
| Index freshness | Rebuilt continuously from the live database | Directory-managed |
| Cost to browse | Free | Tiered |
Where our company data actually comes from
This is the difference we'd point at first, because it's checkable.
A large share of SaharaIndex company records are built from official government business registers rather than self-submitted listings:
- the GLEIF Global LEI Index — the international standard for legal entity identification
- the Norwegian Brønnøysund Register Centre
- the French Annuaire des Entreprises
- the Estonian e-Business Register
- the Finnish PRH / YTJ open data
That matters for a specific reason. A directory built from listings tells you what a company said about itself. A directory built from registers tells you the company legally exists, under that name, at that registration. When you are about to send a first enquiry to a supplier you have never dealt with, those are not the same signal.
Contact details without a gate
On SaharaIndex, a supplier's contact information is on the supplier's page. No account, no credit, no "unlock this contact" step.
We think the gate is the wrong trade. If you're sourcing, you don't want one supplier — you want to contact eleven and see who answers. A directory that charges per unlock is optimised against the thing you're actually trying to do.
34 languages across the EU sourcing hub
Our EU sourcing hub — the country, category and product routes under /{language}/eu/ — is served in 34 languages with reciprocal hreflang and an x-default. That is not a translate widget bolted on top: each language version is server-rendered and independently indexable.
Being exact about the boundary, because it is checkable: individual company profile pages are currently served in English. The multilingual layer covers the sourcing and discovery routes buyers search through, not yet every company record.
A live index, not a periodic export
SaharaIndex's index is generated from the live database on request. A supplier added or corrected today appears in the sitemap the same day.
This is worth checking on any directory you evaluate, and it's easy to check yourself: open the directory's sitemap.xml and look at the lastmod dates. It tells you how recently anything actually changed. Some long-running directories carry lastmod values years out of date.
Where Kompass is the better answer
Being straight about this, because you'll find out anyway:
- Depth of trading history. Kompass has been compiling company data for decades. For established European industrial firms, its records often carry more historical and financial detail than ours.
- Brand recognition with procurement teams. In some organisations Kompass is already an approved vendor. That's a real advantage and it isn't about features.
- Classification depth. Its industry taxonomy is very granular in traditional manufacturing categories.
Where SaharaIndex is the better answer
- You want to reach suppliers without a per-contact paywall
- You care that company identity is traceable to an official register
- Your buyers or suppliers don't work in English
- You want an index that reflects this week, not last year