Cresques vs the alternatives: an honest comparison table
Fairs, agencies, EEN, directories, trade-data tools, prospecting databases, AI assistants, consultants and Cresques on one table — and when not to use Cresques.
Tomasz Kowal · Data and public procurement
Updated 29 October 2026 · 8 min read
Every tool in this table answers a real question, most of them well. Putting them side by side shows which question each one answers — and where Cresques is the wrong choice.
Putting it simply: To learn who already sells your product category to real customers inside the EU, the contract award notice is the main EU-wide public document naming company, buyer, category and date, and Cresques is built on it. For contacts at companies you already know, a prospecting database is better. Shipment-level customs data is published only by some non-EU countries. If you sell to consumers or private buyers only, your market is outside TED's coverage, or you already have your distributor, Cresques is not the tool.
Disclosure: Cresques is our own product. We compare on criteria you can check yourself and link to each source.
What Cresques is, as of October 2026
Cresques is a web application for a manufacturer entering a new EU market through distributors. At its core it does three things. You create a market — a country plus the CPV categories your product falls under — and see the companies that have won public contracts in those categories, each tied to an award notice you can open. You see the route to market and the lawful first-contact channel for that country. And a materials reader takes your brochure or website and proposes the CPV categories to start from. Pricing is in credits; the price of an action is shown in the app before you pay.
On top of that, a company profile (4 credits, once per workspace) lists every award with its value and buyer and an AI-researched role — independent distributor, manufacturer, manufacturer's subsidiary, or both — backed by verbatim quotes checked on the source pages, or "unknown" when none can be confirmed. Cresques drafts a first message in the company's language with an English version, for the lawful channel of the country (1 credit), which you send from your own mailbox. E-mail alerts on new awards in followed markets come with the Starter plan and above. Cresques does not help you bid for tenders and does not sell contact lists.
The source is public. Every working day TED, the Supplement to the Official Journal of the EU, publishes more than 3,000 procurement notices from the EU, the EEA and beyond, free of charge. A public buyer concluding a contract above the EU thresholds must publish an award notice (call-offs under framework agreements excepted, and some details may be withheld) naming the winner, its address, whether it is an SME, the value and the CPV codes (Directive 2014/24/EU, Article 50 and Annex V Part D).
The comparison table
Criteria are the same for every row. "Evidence" means evidence that the company has sold your product category, not that it exists. Third-party descriptions are from each operator's own site in October 2026; unpublished prices are marked as such.
| Method or tool | Evidence of sales in your category | Intra-EU coverage | What you get | Cost model | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Trade fairs (e.g. A+A: 2,335 exhibitors from 69 countries in 2025, organiser's figures) | Strong — you see the range and meet the people | One or two leading fairs per sector, mostly in Germany; every one or two years | Names, conversations, catalogues; no document, no legal channel | Stand, travel, staff time | Meeting a shortlist in person; sensing a sector |
| Export agencies and chambers (e.g. AHK, 150 locations in over 90 countries) | Strong — a professional vets the match | Good via your own country's network; the target country's agency serves its own exporters | A vetted shortlist, introductions, local advice | Public service, free or subsidised; paid partner searches | A first market with time to invest; when you want a person to open the door |
| Enterprise Europe Network database | Medium — self-declared profiles handled by advisers | EU-wide and beyond | Companies asking for suppliers; contact through the Network | Free to search | Checking whether anyone in your niche is actively looking |
| B2B directories (Europages 2.2 million registered companies; wlw; Kompass EasyBusiness "more than 60 million companies") | Weak — categories chosen by the listed company (Europages, wlw) or assigned by the directory (Kompass); ranking can be bought | Good; strongest in Europe | Names, self-declared company type (Europages reviews new listings), contact forms; named contacts in Kompass; Kompass also sells a Public Tenders alert product aimed at bidders | Free search on marketplaces; Kompass pricing on request | Finding websites and contacts for companies you have identified elsewhere |
| Customs trade-data tools (Volza about 200 countries in tiers; Bilvio 225 countries) | Strong outside the EU; none for intra-EU trade — no customs declarations exist between member states | None at company level; Intrastat is aggregate-only | Shipments, buyer–seller pairs, volumes — where records are published | Subscription; some prices public, some on request | Importers in the US, Asia, Latin America; competitor export volumes |
| Prospecting databases (Apollo "240M contacts & 30M companies"; Clay from US$167/month billed annually, with a free plan; Sales Navigator from US$119.99/month per licence) | None about category — firmographics and people | Good for contacts; uneven for small firms | Named contacts, e-mails, sequences | Per seat or per credit; free tiers exist | Reaching people at companies you already know |
| General AI assistants (ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini) | None — names may be confabulated (NIST AI 600-1) | Not applicable | Drafts, translations, summaries of documents you supply | Free tier; paid subscriptions | Drafting and translating once the names are verified |
| Consultants and commercial agents | Varies with the person; ask how they know | Varies | Judgement, introductions; an agent is a route to market in itself | Fees; commission | Complex products; markets where relationships decide |
| Cresques | Strong — a public award notice names the company, buyer, CPV category, value and date; you can open it | EU and EEA, where TED publishes; public buyers only | Names tied to notices, route to market, lawful first-contact channel per country; CPV proposals from your materials; profiles with role and quotes; first message in the local language; alerts (Starter and above) | Credits: free plan with one market map, then plans from €49 a month (pricing) | A first list of distributors with documentary evidence, in hours, for public-sector-facing categories |
Reading the table honestly
In Cresques's favour: a directory profile is written by the company, an award notice by the buyer under a legal duty, so it is dated and verifiable. Trade data is excellent evidence, but by the Commission's own description "no customs duties are levied at the borders between EU countries" and no customs checks are conducted, so no shipment record exists between two EU companies; Eurostat's Intrastat figures are collected from traders for statistics and published in aggregate. A model given a notice can mislabel a company but cannot invent one.
Against: a fair or an agency gives you a relationship, which a document never does. A prospecting database gives you a named person and an e-mail address, which Cresques does not today. And the award notice exists only for public buyers above the EU thresholds — a blind spot software cannot remove.
When not to use Cresques
- Your distributors sell to consumers or private buyers only. A reseller that supplies retail chains, private clinics or house builders and never bids for public contracts appears in no award notice. Cresques will not find it; a fair, a directory or an agency might.
- Your market is outside TED's coverage. TED carries notices from the EU, the EEA and some other participating countries. The United Kingdom has published its high-value notices on Find a Tender, not TED, since 1 January 2021; markets outside Europe are not covered. Our UK page describes that route for context, but the evidence in the app comes from TED.
- Your category is bought below the EU thresholds. Smaller contracts may appear only on national portals or not at all; if public buyers purchase your product in small lots, the notice trail will be thin.
- You already know your distributor. To reach the right person at a known partner, a prospecting database or a chamber introduction is the better spend.
- You need named contact details. Cresques shows the company, the notice and the lawful channel, and drafts a first message, but it does not supply named people; finding the right person is still yours.
- You want to bid for tenders. Cresques reads award notices as evidence of who sells a category; it is not a tender-alert or bidding tool.
- You want a human to open the door. An agency introduction or a fair meeting does something a document cannot. Use Cresques to decide whom to ask for.
Where it fits: a manufacturer of a product public buyers purchase — furniture, building materials, medical supplies, workwear and PPE first — entering an EU or EEA country with no partner yet, who wants a first list in hours, a document behind every name and a clear statement of what first contact that country allows. Everything else in the table is a legitimate next step from that list.
What this means for a manufacturer
- Match the tool to the question: evidence of category sales, contacts, shipments, relationships and drafting are five different jobs.
- Inside the EU, the award notice is the public document naming who sold your category to whom; outside the EU, customs data does that job.
- Cresques is for public-sector-facing categories in TED-covered markets — not for consumer-only channels, the UK or non-European markets, or when you already have a partner.
- Whatever you use, confirm each company in the business register and settle the lawful channel before the first message.
- Compare on criteria you can check: open the notice, open the profile, read the vendor's own coverage page.
