Swiss company data: free registers, bought files or a platform?

Swiss company data comes from three kinds of source. The public registers (Zefix, the SHAB and the UID register) are free and official: their websites answer one company at a time, and their APIs and open data give the raw records in bulk. Company files from vendors such as business-monitor.ch or Firmenhai cost between CHF 0.29 and CHF 0.90 a company and arrive as an Excel or CSV snapshot. Platforms such as Moneyhouse, firmenwatch.ch and Prospex charge a subscription, from CHF 29 a month, and keep a list current. Choose by the task: a register to confirm one company, a file for a one-off mailing, a platform when the list has to stay current.

Which Swiss company data source fits your task?

Prices as published on 20 October 2026, excluding VAT. For names, email addresses and phone numbers of the people in a company, see our comparison of B2B lead generation tools and data providers for Switzerland, which covers Apollo, Cognism, Dun & Bradstreet, CRIF and the other contact databases.

Zefix vs Moneyhouse

Zefix is the federal index of the 26 cantonal commercial registers, run by the Federal Office of Justice. It is free, updated daily and holds the legally binding facts: name, legal form, UID, seat, purpose and the link to the cantonal entry with the people who may sign. It answers one search at a time, and it holds no turnover, headcount, phone number or credit information.

Moneyhouse republishes the same register data and adds its own: contact details, employee numbers, turnover, a network of people and companies, shareholdings and credit ratings. Without an account you see names, addresses and the register status. A free registration adds full management details and email alerts for two companies or people. Premium, advertised from CHF 79 excluding VAT for a term of 6, 12 or 24 months, adds key figures, filtered search by turnover, employees, location and sector, unlimited follows and one credit query worth CHF 19.

Use Zefix to confirm that a company exists and who represents it, and Moneyhouse when you need its figures, its people's other mandates or a credit check. For prospecting, our Moneyhouse alternative guide compares prospecting in Moneyhouse and in Prospex step by step.

Free public registers: Zefix, the SHAB and the UID register

The registers are the source every other provider starts from. Zefix and the SHAB both have free machine access: the Zefix REST API needs credentials, which the Federal Office of Justice sends on request to zefix@bj.admin.ch, and the SHAB's API on amtsblattportal.ch needs no login. The core data of active companies is also published as open data on opendata.swiss. The UID register of the Federal Statistical Office adds entities outside the commercial register and their VAT status.

The registers leave selection and interpretation to you. A list of "machine builders in the canton of Bern" means reading purpose clauses, written in German, French or Italian. SHAB notices are legal text, and each change has to be read before it means anything for sales. Our guide to Swiss company data sources covers what each register, job board and website can confirm, and how current each one is.

Bought company files: pay per address

A purchased file suits a one-off campaign: you pay once, download a spreadsheet and use it as you like. On 20 October 2026:

• business-monitor.ch sells B2B addresses without a subscription at CHF 0.90 a company for the first 500, CHF 0.70 for the next 500 and CHF 0.40 from 1,001, with name, UID, address, sector, legal form, size, registration date and, where available, a general email address and phone number. The addresses are bought outright, for unlimited use.
• Firmenhai charges CHF 0.29 an address for its standard package (name, address, canton and business category), plus CHF 0.03 for each extra field such as phone, email or website, and CHF 0.05 for owner names. The file comes as Excel or CSV.
• Moneyhouse sells two subscriptions to Excel lists by email: newly registered companies for CHF 480 a year, and bankruptcies and liquidations for CHF 360 a year.

A file starts ageing on the day you download it, and a row may be a registered office at a fiduciary's address. Before buying, ask for a sample from your own segment and check it as our guide to buying Swiss company addresses describes. Our Firmenhai comparison sets a file purchase against a list you keep current.

Platforms: search, follow and export on subscription

A platform makes sense once you search the same market every month or need to hear when a company changes. All six start from the Swiss register.

Each of the other five has its own comparison with Prospex: Moneyhouse, business-monitor.ch, firmenwatch.ch, Lixt (easyMonitoring) and Pappers.

Prospex reads the commercial register from the SHAB every day, along with Swissreg trademark filings, job boards, the press and company websites. You describe the companies you sell to, and it returns the ones that match, with the reason for each and the facts it could not confirm. Every paid plan includes CSV exports, list monitoring, feeds, the API and sync to HubSpot, Attio or Pipedrive. To watch a single company, the free company watch needs no account.

Put the same questions to every provider

Product pages describe features in each vendor's own terms, which makes two offers hard to compare. Send each shortlisted provider the same brief, for example "the 500 companies in our territory that fit our customer profile, with the fields our CRM needs, kept current for a year", and ask:

1. What is one row? A legal entity, a branch, a workplace and a person are four different counts. Ask how many of the provider's Swiss companies are active: our copy of the commercial register held 739,919 active entries on 26 September 2026.
2. Where does each field come from, and when was it last checked? A daily register refresh says nothing about the age of a turnover estimate or a phone number.
3. How do changes reach you? A new download, an email, an API call or an update in your CRM, and how often.
4. What may you do with the data? Import into a CRM, share with a partner, keep it after the contract ends.

Then compare the cost per usable company: the price divided by the rows left after you remove closed companies, duplicates and businesses outside your market. A random sample of 20 rows from your own segment gives you that number. The review step of our target-account list guide gives the checks for each row.

Build a free list to see the first ten Swiss companies that fit what you sell, with no card required.