Lodestone vs IRBsearch
IRBsearch is the long-standing investigator-focused platform, sold on breadth of report types and a licensed-professional user base. Where we differ on pricing and purpose handling.
Comparisons
An alternative to TLO, IRBsearch, IDI and Tracers.
The investigative search market runs on a small number of wholesale data sources. Most platforms resell the same underlying files. What actually differs is what you pay, what you commit to, and what happens when someone asks why a search was run.
The honest version
The data is largely the same. The terms are not.
Skip tracing platforms are assembled from credit header files, utility and telecom records, public records, property and vehicle registries, and court filings. Those sources are licensed from a handful of wholesalers. When a vendor tells you their data is uniquely better, ask which source is unique and how they license it — the answer is usually that it is the same file with a different interface on top.
Our locates draw on premium credit header data from all three nationwide credit bureaus, plus alternative bureaus and public record files — billions of records. That is the same wholesale tier TLOxp, IRBsearch and IDI are built on, which is exactly the point: if the data is comparable, the decision comes down to terms.
So we do not claim to have data nobody else has. We compete on the things a buyer can actually verify before signing: the price per search, whether there is a minimum, whether seats cost money, and whether the compliance story is real or a checkbox at signup.
Four questions worth asking any vendor
- What does a single search cost, in writing, before I sign? If the rate card is behind a sales call, the price is negotiable — which means someone is paying more than you.
- What is the monthly minimum? A minimum is a bill you pay in slow months for searches you never ran.
- What does each additional user cost? Per-seat pricing quietly punishes you for adding the paralegal who does the actual searching.
- Is permissible purpose captured per search, or once at signup? Only one of those produces a defensible record when a subject complains.
Side by side
How we differ, on the terms you can check.
| Lodestone Data | Typical incumbent platform | |
|---|---|---|
| Rate card | Published on the website | Usually quote-on-request |
| Fixed monthly cost | $5 account maintenance | Minimums commonly in the hundreds |
| User seats | Free and unlimited | Frequently priced per seat |
| Contract | Access agreement, no term or volume commitment | Often annual with a commitment |
| Permissible purpose | Captured per search, never inherited | Typically set at account level |
| Blocked searches | Logged and never billed | Varies |
| Audit export | Self-serve CSV, any time | Often a support request |
| No-hit on employment locate | Free | Usually billed |
| Bank & brokerage location | Not offered at any price | Sometimes sold self-serve |
The right-hand column describes patterns common across the category, not any single named vendor — terms change, and vendors negotiate. Ask for the specifics in writing and compare them to our published rates.
By vendor
Detailed comparisons
Lodestone vs Tracers
Tracers sells heavily into collections, legal and process serving, with an emphasis on volume plans and batch. How our per-search model and batch pricing compare.
Lodestone vs TLOxp
TLOxp is the enterprise incumbent, sold into large collections and investigative operations. Same data tier, very different commercial shape.
Lodestone vs IDI
IDI (idiCORE) competes on match logic and speed for investigators and collections. How the data tier, pricing and purpose handling line up.
Published rates. $5 a month. Free seats.
Credentialing usually takes two business days.