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.
Where we win
The one thing none of them will do: publish the price.
Every platform in this category starts from premium credit header, utility and telecom records, public records, property and vehicle registries, and court filings. We start there too — all three nationwide credit bureaus, billions of records. The difference is what sits on top of that base, and what you pay to reach it.
We add alternative credit bureaus that the incumbent platforms treat as optional. That matters on precisely the subjects that decide a file: thin-file and no-file people, recent immigrants, young debtors, the cash-economy subject who barely touches the big three. A platform resolving the easy 80% is not what you are paying for. It is the last 20% that closes a matter, and that is where broader bureau coverage separates a hit from a no-hit.
And we corroborate rather than merge. Most platforms hand you one confident identity assembled from several sources, with no way to see which record came from where. We show source attribution on every material field and mark a result single or corroborated depending on how many independent sources agree. Same depth of data, far more signal about which parts of it you can act on.
And the files are continually updated. Bureaus, registries and courts report on their own schedules, and every search here queries the current file rather than a snapshot taken when it suited us. A locate is only as good as the day it was last refreshed.
Do not take our word for it. Run twenty subjects you already know the answers to through us and through whatever you use now — and count not just hit rates but wrong answers. That test settles it faster than any sales call, which is why we would rather you run it.
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? Ask for the number. Seat pricing that runs to three figures per user quietly punishes you for giving the paralegal who does the actual searching their own login — which is exactly who should have one.
- 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 per active seat | Minimums commonly in the hundreds |
| User seats | $5 per seat, per month | Frequently priced per seat, often far higher |
| 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.
The arithmetic
Where we are cheaper, and where we are not.
Every comparison page on the internet is written by whoever wins it. So here is the whole calculation, including the part that loses. TLOxp’s transactional plan carries a $75 monthly minimum — you pay it in a slow month whether you search or not. Ours is $5 a seat, and nothing else.
| Searches in a month | Lodestone | TLOxp1 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 | $12.50 | $75.00 | we save you $62.50 |
| 25 | $23.75 | $75.00 | we save you $51.25 |
| 50 | $42.50 | $75.00 | we save you $32.50 |
| 75 | $61.25 | $75.00 | we save you $13.75 |
| 100 | $80.00 | $75.00 | they win by $5.00 |
| 250 | $192.50 | $100.00 | they win by $92.50 |
| 500 | $380.00 | $200.00 | they win by $180.00 |
1. TransUnion, TLOxp Transactional Pricing Schedule: Law Enforcement, revised December 2021, released under FOIA and published by the Brennan Center for Justice. Modelled at their $0.40 flat search rate against our $0.75 person search plus one $5 seat.
The crossover is about 94 searches a month
Below that, the minimum dominates and we are materially cheaper. Above it, TransUnion sells their own file for less than we can license it — they own the data, we do not, and no amount of marketing changes that arithmetic. If you run hundreds of searches a month and nothing else here matters to you, they are the cheaper platform and you should use them.
Two things make the comparison better than it looks. Those are TLOxp’s law enforcement rates — the cheapest tier they publish anywhere. Commercial rates for investigators are higher and are not disclosed, so a private firm is comparing against a number nobody will show them. And a $75 minimum is a floor, not a ceiling: it is what you pay in the month a case settles early and you run nothing.
Who this is actually for
Investigators, sworn agencies and intelligence teams who need a locate when a case calls for one — not every day. That work is real, and every incumbent prices it as an afterthought behind a minimum designed for someone else. If your volume is steady and high, you are not our customer yet, and we would rather say so than sell you a worse deal.
By vendor
Detailed comparisons
Lodestone vs Tracers
Tracers sells heavily into collections, legal and process serving, with an emphasis on volume plans and volume commitments. How our per-search model and published rates 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.
Common questions
Does Lodestone Data publish its prices?
Yes. Every per-search rate, no-hit rate and bundled report price is published on the pricing page, and the platform bills from the same table. TLOxp, IRBsearch, idiCORE and Tracers all quote on request instead.
Is Lodestone Data cheaper than TLOxp?
Below roughly 94 searches a month, yes, because TLOxp transactional plans carry a $75 monthly minimum. Above that, TLOxp is cheaper: TransUnion owns the underlying file and sells it for less than we can license it. We publish the full arithmetic including the part we lose.
Is there a monthly minimum or contract?
No search minimum, no term and no termination fee. Pricing is $5 per active user seat per month plus published per-search rates. An access agreement is signed because of the data involved, but it carries no commitment.
Which platform suits a solo investigator or small firm?
Lodestone Data is built for intermittent use. Incumbent minimums are priced for steady high volume, so a firm running a handful of locates a month pays for capacity it never uses. If your volume is steady and high, an incumbent is likely cheaper per search.
Published rates. $5 a seat. No minimum.
Credentialing usually takes two business days.