8 Top Data Collection Companies (2024)

Data collection is a delicate process. You need the right data points (and enough of them) to know what your target audience or market wants

But with over 300 TB of data generated every day, it's difficult to sift through raw streams of information in-house—while remaining mindful of privacy at the same time.

This is why outsourcing work to a data provider is beneficial and often cost-effective—and the eight data collection companies on this list are a great place to start your search.

1. Acxiom

Acxiom is a data collection and audience identification company.

The firm’s Real Identity™ service collects key consumer data points, including:

• Employment status
• Home addresses
• Relationship status
• Device preferences
• Digital and real-world brand interactions
• Purchase habits
• Consumer interests

This high-quality data comes from several sources, including:

• First-party data collected through online surveys and interactions with other companies or service providers
• Public records
• Existing mailing lists
• Other commercial databases

Acxiom says that their data collection measures are a “privacy-first” alternative to other methods of consumer behavior tracking (such as cookies).

If you need information about consumers in California, Europe, or another region with strict data privacy laws, then Acxiom might be a good place to start.

How Much Does Acxiom Cost?

All Acxiom pricing is customized based on your needs, so you’ll have to contact the company for a consultation and price quote.

2. Experian Data Quality (EDQ)

Experian is a consumer credit bureau that offers a data matching and enrichment service.

The company’s role as a credit reporting agency gives them considerable insight into consumer lending, purchasing, employment, and location data.

With the help of the firm’s Data Quality service, companies can leverage Experian data to:

• Enhance existing customer records with new data
• Verify the accuracy of phone numbers, home addresses, and email addresses
• Match and combine consumer data from multiple sources
• Analyze and clean consumer records

You can get different data through EDQ, including information about your audience's:

• Financial habits
• Car preferences
• Mailing addresses
• Email addresses

And, if you don’t need to enhance specific individuals’ profiles with EDQ data, you can still get demographic information based on ZIP Codes by using EDQ Mosaic®.

Mosaic profiles split households in the USA into 71 different groups based on habits and purchasing preferences. This service is useful when you’re interested in targeting a new region or consumer segment.

How Much Does EDQ Cost?

All EDQ data access is priced based on your company’s specific needs. You’ll need to get in touch with Experian to discuss pricing and data options.

3. Comscore

Comscore is a cross-platform media measurement company.

The company collects data about the people interacting with and viewing media via:

• Broadcast television
• Streaming platforms
• Movie theaters
• Social media platforms
• Other digital media consumption channels

Comscore gathers this data from several sources, including:

• Return-path data (RPD) collected automatically through cable TV providers
• Automatic content recognition (ACR) data collected by smart TVs
• Social media applications

Plus, Comscore tracks website visits as well—meaning that you can use one service to gather data and understand how your audiences respond on different mediums.

How Much Does Comscore Cost?

Comscore doesn’t have set pricing plans. You’ll need to talk to the company about what you want to achieve and request a price quote.

4. BlueOcean

BlueOcean is a market research company that collects data on both consumers and corporate competitors.

The company collects data from over 1,200 different sources, including:

• Online advertising sources
• Media analytics firms
• Social platforms
• The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
• Amazon
• Mobile app stores
• Review websites

BlueOcean then uses machine learning and artificial intelligence to evaluate data and produce insights about different audience groups and brands. You can use the platform to evaluate:

• What your competitors are focusing their marketing efforts (and budgets) on
• How your audience may respond to brand messages
• Which channels may be best for your brand to use when connecting with customers
• Whether certain elements of your marketing strategies resonate better with audiences than others

If you’re specifically interested in data collection for competitive intelligence purposes, then BlueOcean is a solid choice.

How Much Does BlueOcean Cost?

The company doesn’t publish their pricing options publicly, so you’ll need to request a customized quote from a BlueOcean strategist.

5. Nielsen

Nielsen is a media programming and advertising data collection company.

The company has over 70 years of experience with research services, survey programming, and data processing. Like Comscore, Nielsen collects cross-platform data about how households:

• Listen to radio, podcasts, and streaming audio
• Stream video content
• Consume digital content across different devices and services
• Tune in to broadcast TV programs
• Watch sporting events
• Spend money on entertainment

This data is all connected and shared with Nielsen customers through the company’s Nielsen ONE platform. When subscribed to the service, you can see information like:

• The popularity of programming across different channels or streaming services
• Total viewer impressions by channel
• Rates of media consumption by device

Nielsen collects much of its data analytics from devices, focus groups, and survey respondents. The company relies on third-party auditors for data validation purposes, and its level of accuracy has made Nielsen a trusted source for media ratings since 1950.

How Much Does Nielsen Cost?

Nielsen makes a number of its data sets—including how Americans watched TV each month, and how popular large sporting events are globally—available for free.

If you’re interested in becoming a Nielsen client, though, you’ll need to get in touch with the company to discuss options and pricing.

6. Exploding Topics

Exploding Topics is a trend spotting platform.

While we don’t directly collect data from consumers or their hardware—like Comscore or Experian—we do collect data gathered from online discussions.

Using a mix of efficient AI and expert human data analysis, we evaluate conversations happening all across the internet. We look at blogs, social media content, forum posts, news releases, and more to understand what consumers are discussing—and at what frequency.

We then use this data to track:

• Which topics people are talking about the most online
• What channels are seeing the most conversations around a topic
• How interest in a topic has changed over the past 15 years
• Whether interest in a topic is holding steady, about to decline, or about to grow rapidly

We’re even able to forecast how a topic’s popularity may change in the near future.

Like BlueOcean, our data sets can be useful for keeping track of how your competitors are growing in popularity. You can also glean great insights about:

• Consumer product price fluctuations
• New technology growing in popularity with customers or competitors
• Social trends that may be relevant for your next marketing campaign

We also publish meta trends reports, which show you how different trends intersect—important for understanding the broader impact of one trend across a larger market.

How Much Does Exploding Topics Cost?

You can begin browsing Exploding Topics data for free; no login is required. If you’re interested in unlocking our full data sets and additional features, you’ll need an Exploding Topics Pro plan.

Plan options start at $39 per month, billed annually. Plus, you can start with a 14-day trial for just $1—perfect for making sure that our data is what you need.

7. Equifax

Equifax is another consumer credit bureau that offers data solutions for businesses.

Like Experian, Equifax’s status as a credit reporting agency gives them access to large troves of data on over 245 million individuals. This includes information related to:

• Credit card spending
• Financing and loans
• Income levels
• Employment verification statuses
• Telecommunications and utility use

While Experian’s data service mostly focuses on helping businesses make sure they have up-to-date information in their files, Equifax data can help with:

• Price strategies
• Unpaid debt collection
• Hiring selections
• Business decisions
• Consumer credit approvals
• Audience segmentation for marketing

Equifax makes their data sets available through an API, so you can integrate the metrics into your business operations in a variety of ways.

How Much Does Equifax Cost?

Equifax offers customizable data solutions, so you’ll need to get in touch with the company to request a price quote based on your needs.

8. Nielsen IQ (NIQ)

Nielsen IQ is a consumer and retail data collection firm. It's a separate business from the Nielsen company that collects media data—though the two used to be one entity.

NIQ relies on a group of panelists to collect data. Using a barcode scanner or their phone, each participant scans every single item that they purchase. They may also have to upload receipts related to each purchase.

The company then uses this data to develop business intelligence insights related to:

• Consumer purchasing trends
• Purchase habits based on demographic factors
• Consumer preferences across in-store and e-commerce channels
• The popularity of stores and products in different regions

Retailers can then use this information to:

• Plan new product launches by region
• Redirect stock through the supply chain to meet growing demand
• Improve multichannel marketing campaigns
• Offer better personalization and customer experiences
• Tweak merchandising displays to attract more buyers
• Adjust pricing based on region and channel
• Improve customer satisfaction

NIQ also offers data collection services to support alcohol sales, bars, restaurants, financial services, wellness industries, and more.

How Much Does NIQ Cost?

Like many data collection firms, NIQ doesn’t publish its pricing publicly. Each price quote depends on the customer’s needs and goals, so you’ll need to request more information directly from the company.

Conclusion

Getting access to data that applies to your business is an essential step toward making informed business decisions—if you know how to use the data, that is.

For more information on how to best leverage a data collection company's insights as part of your business and marketing planning, check out our regularly updated guides to key big data trends and conducting trend research.