CoStarvs
Reonomy
Reonomy: A CRE data alternative, now under Altus Group, worth comparing on coverage and pricing model
CoStar
Commercial real estate data subscription with strict per-seat licensing, sold on multi-year contracts and enforced through active anti-piracy litigation against password sharing
As of 1 September 2026, CoStar's pricing is not published; the vendor quotes on request. The dominant commercial real estate data platform, covering property records, sales comps, tenant data and market analytics. Softwr lists it under Real Estate. CoStar is made by CoStar Group, available on Web.
Overview
What CoStar does
CoStar aggregates commercial property data: ownership, lease comparables, sales history, tenant rosters, space availability and market analytics across office, industrial, retail and multifamily. It is the primary data source most US commercial brokers, lenders and institutional investors use for underwriting and market research, built through decades of proprietary data collection alongside acquisitions including LoopNet, Apartments.com and STR. The fact that changes how a buyer should think about the contract is enforcement. CoStar terms explicitly prohibit sharing a login, and the company has pursued lawsuits against individuals and firms it identifies as unauthorised users, with its CEO stating publicly the company believes tens of thousands of people access the platform illegally through shared or obtained credentials. CoStar and major CRE brokerages including CBRE, JLL, Cushman & Wakefield, Colliers and Newmark were also named in a June 2026 antitrust lawsuit alleging a price-fixing conspiracy through a hub-and-spoke arrangement, which is a live legal exposure worth tracking for any large institutional buyer with a long-term contract. Buyers are commercial brokerages, lenders, appraisers, institutional investors and corporate real estate teams. Pricing is not published and contracts are multi-year with per-seat licensing; the practical implication is that a firm must budget headcount growth carefully, since adding users mid-contract typically means a negotiation, not a self-service upgrade, and any informal credential sharing to avoid that cost is the exact behaviour CoStar actively litigates against.
What people use it for
- A commercial brokerage needing lease and sales comparables to support underwriting and pitch materials
- An institutional investor or lender wanting standardised market analytics across submarkets for portfolio decisions
- A corporate real estate team needing lease administration through CoStar Real Estate Manager
- An appraiser needing sourced, defensible comparable transaction data for valuation reports
Related searches
The honest half
Where it falls short
Concrete and checkable, so you can decide whether any of them matter to you. This is the half of a review a vendor will not write about CoStar.
- Per-seat licensing with no published rate makes budgeting for headcount growth unpredictable, since adding users typically requires a new negotiation rather than a self-service upgrade.
- CoStar actively pursues legal action against password sharing and unauthorised access, which is a genuine compliance and litigation risk for a firm that is loose about login discipline, intentionally or not.
- A June 2026 antitrust lawsuit names CoStar alongside major brokerages over an alleged price-fixing scheme, a live legal matter that could affect the company standing or practices during a long-term contract.
- Multi-year contract structures reduce a buyer flexibility to switch providers even if a cheaper or better data source emerges during the term.
- The breadth of the platform (property, hospitality via STR, lease admin) means a firm often pays for modules it does not use just to access the specific data set it needs.
Cross-shopped
What people choose instead of CoStar
Each pairing was judged by two reviewers asking whether a buyer would genuinely weigh the two against each other. The ones that failed were deleted rather than published.
- CoStarvsLoopNet
LoopNet: CoStar own free-to-list marketplace side, useful context since it is owned by the same company
- CoStarvsARGUS Enterprise
ARGUS Enterprise: If your need is valuation and cash flow modelling rather than raw comparable and ownership data
Pricing
What CoStar costs
Taken from the vendor's own pricing page. Prices move, so check before you buy.
CoStar
On request
- Per named user licensing, no published rate
- Multi-year contracts standard
- Terms explicitly prohibit password or login sharing
- Anti-piracy enforcement includes litigation against unauthorised users
Capabilities
Features
Property and ownership records
Ownership, sales history and tax data across commercial property types
Lease and sales comparables
Comparable transaction data used for underwriting and valuation
Tenant and space data
Tenant rosters and available space listings by market
Market analytics
Submarket trend reporting on rents, vacancy and absorption
STR hospitality data
Hotel performance benchmarking, from the STR acquisition
CoStar Real Estate Manager
Lease administration and portfolio accounting module for corporate occupiers
Answered, with sources
Questions people ask
Each answer names the page it came from, so you can check it rather than take our word for it.
Can multiple people share one CoStar login to save cost?
No. Terms explicitly prohibit this, and CoStar has an active pattern of suing individuals and firms for unauthorised access under shared credentials.
Is CoStar pricing published anywhere?
No. It is quote-only, licensed per named user, on multi-year contracts.
Is there a current legal risk in signing with CoStar?
A June 2026 antitrust lawsuit names CoStar and several major brokerages over an alleged price-fixing conspiracy; buyers with long-term contracts should track that litigation.
Keep looking
Where to go from CoStar
- CoStar alternativesEvery product people weigh against it
- CoStar pricingPlans, floors and what the tiers exclude
- CoStar badgesWhich rules it meets, and the figure behind each
- All Real Estate softwareThe full category
- Best Real Estate softwareThe shortlist, and how it was cut
Best Real Estate software for
Compare CoStar with
- CREXi
- Reonomy
- VTS
- Hemlane
- Placester
- DoorLoop
- Yardi Voyager
- TenantCloud
- Rentec Direct
- Zillow
- BoldTrail
- Entrata
- Lofty
- MRI Software
- ARGUS Enterprise
- TenantCloud
- Rentec Direct
- Zillow
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Softwr does not host reviews and shows no star rating for CoStar, because a rating we did not collect is not ours to publish. What is here is the pricing and platform detail from the vendor’s own pages, limitations we could state concretely, and alternatives a reviewer confirmed people weigh against it. Tell us if any of it is wrong.
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Best Real Estate software alternatives
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quoteLeasing and asset management platform for commercial landlords, centralising deal pipeline, stacking plans and tenant activity with no published pricing
quoteReal estate CRM and lead conversion platform from Inside Real Estate, rebranded from kvCORE in 2024
quoteCommercial property ownership and contact data platform, acquired by Altus Group for roughly $202 million and now sold on unpublished, increasingly enterprise-focused pricing
quoteCash flow forecasting and valuation software for commercial real estate, the industry-standard modelling tool now sold by Altus Group with no published price
quote