Free company reliability report: what is really free

Updated to 01/11/2026

In short: a reliability report with rating, credit line and protests on any company, for free, we did not find in the sources we checked. For free you can verify that the VAT number is active (Agenzia delle Entrate) and valid for EU trade (VIES), check the basic data (Companies Register) and see whether the person writing to you really is the company, with the free anti-scam check of Veryfy.

Veryfy is not affiliated with Cerved Group S.p.A. and does not sell Cerved reports: this guide describes Cerved's services as presented on their public pages, consulted on 01/11/2026.

What “free” means when it comes to reliability

It is worth separating two things. The first is the basic public data: whether the VAT number exists, whether it is active, what the company is called, where it is registered. Many of these data are made available free of charge by public administrations. The second is the assessments: a score, a rating, a credit line. These are not data that someone files; they are processing. As Cerved explains in an article from 2022, a score is a quantitative and automatic analysis based on statistical models that use historical information such as financial statements, sector and payment habits; the rating adds the assessment of specialised analysts. Processing costs those who produce it, and for any company it is paid.

This is why a “free reliability report” on a company of your choice, in the sources we checked on 1 November 2026, does not exist. There are, however, very useful free checks, if you know what they tell you and what they do not.

What you can check for free: the table

What you can check for free	Where	What it tells you	What it does not tell you
Whether the VAT number exists and is active	Verifica partita IVA, Agenzia delle Entrate	Status (active, suspended or ceased), company name, start date of activity, dates of suspension or cessation, membership of a VAT group	Whether the company pays, what it invoices, whether it has protests
Whether the VAT number is valid for EU trade	VIES, European Commission	A “valid” or “invalid” result for intra-EU trade	An “invalid” result does not necessarily mean fraud: the VAT number may not be enabled for EU trade, or the registration may not be complete yet
The company's basic data	Free company search, registroimprese.it	You find the company by searching by province and name	Company searches (visura), financial statements and protests of another company are separate documents
Your own company's search and financial statements	impresa italia, with SPID or CNS	The official document for your company	Only available to the owner or legal representative, not for a client
How banks see you	Centrale dei rischi, Bank of Italy	The data recorded in your name, free for the person concerned	You cannot request another company's data unless you are an authorised party, for example a delegate
Whether a company has an agency rating	“Rating assegnati” (assigned ratings) list of Cerved Rating Agency	Rating, VAT number and date, for companies rated by the agency	If the company is not on the list, you know nothing about its reliability
Whether the person writing to you really is the company	Veryfy free anti-scam check, with a free account	Signals on VAT number, email, domain, website and IBAN	Rating, credit line, protests, financial statements and shareholders

For companies from which you already receive invoices there is also the Free plan of Powerbiz, Cerved's solution for small businesses: its prices page lists it as “Free forever”, with a credit-reliability traffic light limited to some customers and suppliers present in your tax drawer (cassetto fiscale). The details are in the guide free Cerved reports: what you can see without paying.

What you cannot find for free on an arbitrary company

In the sources checked on 1 November 2026, none gives you the following for free, for a company that is not yours:

a rating or a score, except for companies on the public list of a rating agency;
a credit line, that is, how much credit it makes sense to extend;
financial statements and company searches: on registroimprese.it these are documents to be purchased. For example, the ordinary company search of a joint-stock company is priced at 5.00€.

Protests are a special case: the Companies Register explains that they are consulted through the protests search (visura protesti), via the Telemaco service or at the Chamber of Commerce, but its page does not state the cost. In any case they are not among the information provided by the free checks in the table.

To understand what protests, adverse records (pregiudizievoli) and insolvency proceedings are, and why they matter, see the guide protests, adverse records and insolvency proceedings.

The first check, the one on identity, you can do for free: the free anti-scam check verifies the VAT number, email, website and IBAN of the person who wrote to you. You only need an account with your email: no password and no card. If you then need an estimated credit line and protests, the Verification report costs 19€ VAT included.

What the free anti-scam check controls

Commercial fraud may come not from an unreliable company but from someone pretending to be a reliable one: an email similar to the real one, or an IBAN changed at the last minute. Veryfy's check looks precisely at this. You create a free account with your email (you receive a sign-in link, no password, no card), enter the VAT number and, if you have them, the email or website and the IBAN you received. The check verifies:

the VAT number in the European VIES register, with the name it is registered under;
whether the email is disposable or a free webmail address instead of the company's domain;
the age of the domain and whether it is reported for malware or phishing;
whether the domain is protected against forged emails (SPF and DMARC);
whether the VAT number appears on the domain's website;
whether the website has suffered known data breaches (Have I Been Pwned);
whether the IBAN is written correctly and belongs to a consistent country.

The check gives signals, never certainty that something is or is not a fraud. It does not tell you whether the client will pay: for that you need a report.

A practical example, step by step

Invented example: a new client asks you for a supply of 6,000€ with payment at 60 days. It writes to you from a free webmail address and sends you its VAT number.

Step	Where	Cost	What you find out
1. Is the VAT number active?	Agenzia delle Entrate	Free	Status and company name
2. Is the person writing really the company?	Veryfy anti-scam check	Free, with account	Signals on email, domain, website and IBAN
3. Can I grant 60 days?	Veryfy Verification report	19€ VAT included	Estimated operating credit line, protests and insolvency signals, beneficial owner, shareholders and directors

If step 1 or step 2 shows something that does not add up, you stop there and have spent nothing. Step 3 is only needed when you grant payment terms. Remember that the operating credit line is an estimate, not a payment guarantee, and that Veryfy reports do not show whether the company is active, ceased or in liquidation: that is why step 1 must be done in any case. To decide quickly there is also the guide deciding a client's credit line in 10 minutes.

When to pay, and how much

If you need the full picture, the Verification report at 19€ VAT included contains a full check, beneficial owner, shareholders and directors, estimated operating credit line, protests and insolvency signals, and comparison with companies in the sector. Anyone who buys a report receives the anti-scam check as a gift, in sentinel version: the same check repeated every 7 days for 12 months, with an email if anything changes.

If you need just one piece of data, the quick checks cost less:

Negative records and insolvency proceedings, 5.90€: for companies it shows protests and proceedings, not adverse records;
Beneficial owner, 9.90€;
Rating and operating credit line, 9.90€;
Essential, 14.90€: negative records and beneficial owner together.

Want to see what a report looks like before buying it? Read example of a company reliability report and how to read it. And if your aim is not to register anywhere, the right guide is how to check a company online without a subscription or registration.

Sources

Agenzia delle Entrate, Verifica partita IVA (VAT number check) (accessed 2026-11-01)
Your Europe, Checking a VAT number (VIES) (accessed 2026-11-01)
European Commission, VIES (accessed 2026-11-01)
Companies Register, free company search (accessed 2026-11-01)
Companies Register, Company search (visura camerale) (accessed 2026-11-01)
Companies Register, Annual accounts (accessed 2026-11-01)
Companies Register, Protests (accessed 2026-11-01)
Bank of Italy, Access to Centrale dei rischi data (accessed 2026-11-01)
Cerved Rating Agency, Credit Rating Actions (accessed 2026-11-01)
Cerved, Ratings and scores: what they are and what they are for (accessed 2026-11-01)
Powerbiz, prices page (accessed 2026-11-01)

Veryfy is not affiliated with Cerved Group S.p.A.; Cerved, Cerved Group Score and Credit Direct are trademarks of their respective owners.

Frequently asked questions

Is there a free company reliability report?

A report with rating, credit line and protests on any company, free of charge, is not something we found in any of the sources checked on 1 November 2026. For free you can verify that the VAT number is active on the Revenue Agency (Agenzia delle Entrate) website, that it is valid for EU trade on VIES, and check the basic data on the Companies Register.

How do I check for free whether a company is active?

With the Revenue Agency's VAT number check service (Verifica partita IVA): you enter the VAT number and a security code and see whether it is active, suspended or ceased, the company name and the start date of activity.

Can I see a client's Centrale dei rischi for free?

No. Access to the data of the Bank of Italy's Centrale dei rischi (central credit register) is free only for the person concerned or an authorised party, such as a delegate. You can see your own company's data for free, not a client's.

What does Veryfy's free anti-scam check control?

The VAT number in the VIES register with its registered name, whether the email is disposable or a free webmail address, the age of the domain and any reports against it, SPF and DMARC, whether the VAT number is on the website, data breaches suffered by the website, and whether the IBAN is correct. You only need an account with your email. It gives signals, not certainties, and does not contain ratings, credit lines or protests.

Want to check a specific company?

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