Volza vs ImportGenius vs Panjiva: which should I use to find buyers?
Reevi team · Updated
Choose ImportGenius if your target buyers are in the United States and you need their shipment history: its Essentials plan for United States data costs $229 a month and you can cancel anytime. For a market outside the United States, ask Panjiva and Volza to quote the exact countries and record types you need. Before paying anyone, check United States importers free on ImportYeti, check what HMRC publishes on United Kingdom traders, and compare any buyer-finding agent's price and contact allowance with your database quotes.
Reevi returns named companies that already import your product, each with a reason it fits; searching is free and needs no account.
Pick by the job: shipment history, a contact, or a buyer you can reach
Need, tool type, output and one pick per need
| Your need | Tool type | What it returns | Pick |
|---|---|---|---|
| Volumes, prices and current supplier of United States importers | Customs database, United States focus | Bill of lading rows: buyer, supplier, product, weight, ports, dates | ImportGenius Essentials, monthly, cancel anytime |
| Shipment history for a market outside the United States, with company profiles and contacts in one tool | Customs database, multi-country, quote-based | Shipment records linked to company profiles and decision-maker contacts | Panjiva (request a demo) |
| Shipment data for emerging markets on one annual plan | Customs database, multi-country, download credits | Shipment records, decision-maker contacts, per-call API | Volza (ask for the country list in your quote) |
| A free check on United States or United Kingdom companies before you pay for a database | Government data, or a free site built on it | United States: bill of lading rows, searched by company legal name. United Kingdom: see the United Kingdom importer guide | ImportYeti (United States, free); for the United Kingdom, HMRC (confirm on GOV.UK what it publishes) |
| A short list of companies that buy your product, and a person to write to | Buyer-finding agent | Named companies with a reason each fits; verified contacts after free signup | Reevi free search; Grow plan adds customs import records on those buyers |
For a wider field of tools, including contact databases, see the side-by-side guide. This page goes inside the three databases.
What a plan allows: searches, rows and contact requests
Bellingcat lists the fields a United States bill of lading carries: purchaser and supplier names, supplier country, weight, ports shipped to and from, and the HS code. Dupple, a review site, says each Volza record also carries quantity, price and shipment date. Contacts are a separate layer in every vendor, so the contact allowance matters as much as the search limit.
ImportGenius plans for United States trade data, from its pricing page (the vendor adds a country prefix to the Essentials and Pro names)
| Plan | Price | United States import data | Limits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Essentials | $229 a month, cancel anytime; or $183 a month billed yearly ($2,198) | Most recent 12 months | 25 searches a day; 1,000 download rows a month on the monthly plan |
| Pro | $449 a month; or $359 a month billed yearly ($4,310) | From 2006 | 50 searches a day; AI HS code search and company profiler |
| Global Enterprise | From $1,999 a month | From 2006 | Unlimited searches; custom downloads |
ImportGenius. Its comparison page says the entry plan includes up to 25 verified contact requests a month, and that United States data updates daily. Every plan includes United States export data from January 2014. That data helps if you compete with United States exporters in a third market. On Essentials and Pro, records from other countries are an optional upgrade. The pricing page says "25+ countries" and lists each dataset with a date range. Examples are Mexico, India (January 2018 to February 2026), Indonesia, several Latin American markets, and Turkey (historical data, June 2022 to September 2024). The pricing page as read does not list a Vietnam dataset. If you sell from or to Vietnam, ask whether your quote includes it and for which dates.
Panjiva (owned by S&P Global since February 2018). The vendor states 9 million companies and over 2 billion shipment records. It also says its transactional data covers 35% of global trade flows. That is a global figure and does not tell you whether your market is covered. Wikipedia lists company-level shipment data for the United States, China, Mexico, Brazil and several Latin American countries. That is an encyclopedia list, not a vendor coverage statement, so ask Panjiva which years it holds for your market. You can search by commodity name, HS or HTS code, D-U-N-S number and location. You can export results and set email alerts on saved searches. The vendor also offers contacts for key decision makers at over 1 million companies.
Volza. These figures come from Dupple, a third-party review that says it has not had a dated price check. Viewing shipments is unlimited under a fair-use policy, while downloads use credits that roll over. Decision-maker contacts sit next to the shipment data, and APIs are priced per call. Subscriptions are tiered and annual.
Ask which record type the vendor holds for your market
"Countries covered" mixes two different things. Some markets publish company-level import records, so a database can list who imported, from any supplier. Other markets publish no importer names. For those, a database can only show buyers that appear in exporting countries' records. These are mirror records (methodology). For example, a German company shows up because an exporter in India or Vietnam declared a shipment to it. Shipments from exporting countries outside the data are missing. In the provider behind Reevi's importer pages, the European Union countries, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore and the Gulf states are mirror markets, and no records from China are included.
The same question, two record types. Period not stated by the data provider.
| Product and market | Record type | Companies on record | Shipments | What it shows |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wooden furniture, United States | Import records filed in the market | 8,948 | 538,671 | About 72% of shipments from Vietnam |
| Cotton T-shirts, United Kingdom | Import records filed in the market | 1,306 | 29,241 | About 41% of shipments from India |
| Turmeric, Germany | Exporting countries' records (mirror) | 48 | 115 | About 85% of value from India |
| Black pepper, United Arab Emirates | Exporting countries' records (mirror) | 235 | 1,103 | About 97% of value from Vietnam |
Read the mirror rows with care. The German turmeric count includes only German companies that an exporter in the data named on a shipment. A small mirror number does not mean a small market. Never set it next to a United States import-record number. The provider does not state the period either, so a count is not a measure of current demand.
- Is my target market in this plan as import records, mirror records, or statistics only?
- What date range does that market cover, and when was it last updated?
- Can I search my own product and market in a trial or demo before I pay?
- How many contact requests or contact records does this plan include each month or year?
- How many rows can I download a month, what is the fair-use limit in rows, and do unused downloads carry over?
Two gaps that are in the records by design
- Hidden United States importers. Under 19 CFR 103.31, an importer or consignee can ask United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to keep its name and address confidential on inward manifests. Each certification is valid for two years and can be renewed. A missing name is not proof that a company does not import.
- Forwarders in the consignee field. Dupple notes that freight forwarders can appear as the record holder. The name on the record may be the logistics company, not the buyer who places your order. Before you spend a contact request on a consignee, check that it is not a logistics company.
Five questions before you pay anyone
Answer in order. Each answer points to a customs database, a government list, or a buyer-finding agent.
| Question | If yes | If no |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Do you already know which companies you want? | Check them first: ImportYeti by legal name (United States, free), HMRC (United Kingdom, see the United Kingdom importer guide), or a free named-company search. No database yet. | Go to question 2. |
| 2. Do you need volumes, prices or a buyer's current supplier? | You need a customs database. Go to question 3 to choose which. | A buyer-finding agent or a government list is enough. |
| 3. Does your market publish importer names (for example the United States or the United Kingdom)? | United States: start with ImportYeti and pay ImportGenius only if it falls short. United Kingdom: start with what HMRC publishes, then ask Panjiva and Volza whether they hold United Kingdom import records. | Every database shows mirror records here. Ask Panjiva or Volza which exporting countries feed that market. |
| 4. Do you need a person's email or phone? | Count the contact allowance in each quote (ImportGenius: up to 25 requests a month on the entry plan), or use a buyer-finding agent. | Company names and shipment rows will do. |
| 5. Will you need the data for ten months or more? | United States data: annual Essentials ($2,198) costs less than ten monthly payments of $229 ($2,290). Other markets: an annual quote can make sense if your project runs the full year. | United States data: pay monthly and cancel when done (nine months cost $2,061). Other markets: Dupple describes Volza tiers as annual, so compare the quoted commitment with your project length, or stay on free tools. |
1. Knows the companies? No. 2. Needs a buyer's current supplier? Yes, to pitch against it. 3. Does Germany publish importer names? Germany is a mirror market in the importer data above, so expect mirror records from any vendor unless the quote says otherwise. 4. Needs an email? Yes. 5. Ten months or more? No, a one-off push before a trade fair. Result: an annual database contract is hard to justify. The exporter starts with the free mirror count for turmeric in Germany (48 companies on record) and a buyer-finding agent. Any vendor quote must state which exporting countries' records cover Germany.
Lower-cost paths for each answer
- 1
United States: ImportYeti, free
Bellingcat reports that ImportYeti holds United States sea shipment bills of lading from January 2015. ImportYeti got them through a Freedom of Information Act request to United States Customs. The data includes Mexican shipments. The free search works by company legal name only. Sign up free, because ImportYeti asks for a login after 25 page views.
- 2
United Kingdom: check with HMRC
The importer data above lists the United Kingdom as an import-record market, so importer names exist at the source. HMRC is the place to check. The United Kingdom importer guide explains what HMRC publishes and what it returns. Confirm current terms on GOV.UK.
- 3
Named buyers with a reason each fits: Reevi
Reevi is a buyer-finding agent, not a shipment-history database for market research. Its free search takes your product and target countries. It returns named companies that already import the product, each with a short reason it fits. No account is needed to search. The free plan covers 5 buyers a month, with company, contacts, research and outreach. The Grow plan ($9.90 a month) covers 25 buyers a month and adds customs import records on your buyers: shipments, value and who supplies them today. Reevi will not rank every importer of an HS code or size a market. For that, you need one of the three databases above.
For finding importers by product code, see the HS code guide. To read a bill of lading line by line, see customs and bill of lading data explained.
Questions exporters ask
Can a United States importer also hide who its suppliers are?
Yes. Under 19 CFR 103.31, an importer or consignee can also request confidential treatment of the name and address of its shippers. One certification can cover all of them. So a United States record can show a buyer with no supplier named.
Can I test Volza before paying?
Dupple's review mentions a 7-day free trial with no credit card and a stated money-back guarantee. Dupple says its review has not had a dated price check, so confirm current terms with Volza.
Two vendors give different importer counts for my product and country. Which one is right?
Neither count is wrong by default. Vendors can hold different date ranges and group company name spellings differently. One vendor may also hold import records for your market where the other holds mirror records. Before you compare two counts, ask both vendors for the record type and the date range behind their number.