Is Preqin better than PitchBook for family office data? It depends on the job. Preqin centers on alternatives funds and investors, with investor profiles built around mandates, past commitments and allocations. PitchBook centers on companies, deals and investors, and lists family offices among its limited partner types. Both quote prices through sales. If your job is to contact family offices directly, a third option is a one-time Excel file of family offices with named decision-makers.
Full disclosure: we sell a family office database, so for some buyers we are that third option. Everything below about Preqin and PitchBook comes from their own pages, read on 1 November 2026, except one price estimate that is clearly labelled as a third-party figure. Sources are at the end.
What Preqin is, per its own pages
Preqin was founded in 2003, and its about page states that BlackRock acquired the company in 2025. Its data page describes details on 48,000 firms, 135,000+ funds and 20,000+ investors, collected by more than 500 multilingual researchers who verify data directly at the source.
Preqin Pro, its main platform, covers eight asset classes: private equity, venture capital, private credit, hedge funds, real estate, infrastructure, natural resources and secondaries. Its profiles page lists what an investor profile shows: asset class activity, active mandates, past commitments to similar funds and allocation breakdown. Preqin's private wealth page states that it has served private wealth managers and family offices globally for more than 20 years.
What Preqin does well
Preqin is a reference source for alternatives fund and investor data. If your work needs to know which allocators commit to funds like yours, what mandates are open, and how a strategy has performed against benchmarks, Preqin is built for exactly that. The research team behind it is large, and its investor profiles are designed around a fundraiser's workflow.
What PitchBook is, per its own pages
PitchBook presents itself as a Morningstar company. Its comparison pages describe data on companies, investors, funds and deals across private equity, credit, venture capital, real estate, real assets and infrastructure, with public and private market data integrated.
Its limited partners page lists family offices among the LP types it covers, alongside pensions, advisors and philanthropic organizations. LP profiles show commitments by fund type, investment preferences, past commitments and connections to the GPs, funds and professionals each LP works with, filterable by AUM, commitments and location. PitchBook's data page describes a data operations team of 1,800+ professionals and data updated multiple times a day.
What PitchBook does well
PitchBook is one of the deepest company and deal research platforms in private markets. If you want to trace which family offices invested in companies like yours, map co-investors, or follow a market's deal flow, it does that research job very well, and the frequent updates suit teams that live in the data every day.
How much do Preqin and PitchBook cost?
As of November 2026, we could not find published prices on preqin.com or pitchbook.com. Preqin's pages invite visitors to book a demo. PitchBook's pricing page states that pricing options vary depending on how many seats you need and your firm type, and on premium offerings such as Direct Data or CRM integration.
As a third-party estimate only: Vendr, a software purchasing platform, states on its PitchBook page (last updated February 2026) that the median buyer pays $30,000 per year, with a low of $20,000 and a high of $124,500. Actual pricing is quoted by PitchBook and varies. For Preqin, we list the named estimates in how much Preqin costs, and for PitchBook in how much PitchBook costs.
The third option: a family office file for direct outreach
Many buyers who price Preqin or PitchBook have a narrower job: reach family offices this quarter, with the right person's name and a working contact. For that job, a finished file you can load into your own tools is often enough.
Active Family Offices sells that file. Every listing is reviewed and verified by a team of humans and has a verified website or LinkedIn company page. Each row covers the office type, location, description and thesis, investment domains, and up to three top decision-makers. For the USA and other allowed countries, it adds each decision-maker's personal LinkedIn profile and verified work email. For Europe, Israel, Canada, Japan and Brazil, decision-makers are listed by name and position with company contact details. You pay once and keep the Excel file, and the whole team can use it.
Preqin vs PitchBook vs Active Family Offices: side by side
| Preqin (per its pages) | PitchBook (per its pages) | Active Family Offices | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Core job | Alternatives fund and investor data, benchmarks | Company, deal and investor research | Family office outreach list |
| Family offices | Served as clients and covered as investors | Listed among LP types | The whole product |
| Pricing | Quoted by sales | Quoted by sales; Vendr estimate median $30,000 per year | Full USA $2,500; Full Worldwide $5,000, one time |
| Format | Platform subscription | Platform subscription | Excel file you keep |
| Best for | Year-round institutional fundraising and allocation | Daily company and deal research | A defined family office campaign |
For each platform on its own, see our Preqin alternative for family office data and our PitchBook alternative for family office contacts.
Choose Preqin if
You raise or allocate across alternatives all year, you need mandates, past commitments and benchmarks, and you have an institutional budget.
Choose PitchBook if
Your work starts from companies and deals, you want to trace investors and co-investors through funding rounds, and your team uses the platform daily.
Choose Active Family Offices if
Your job is to contact family offices directly for a defined raise, you want the list in your own CRM and email tools, and you prefer paying once.
FAQ
Is Preqin better than PitchBook?
It depends on the job. Preqin centers on alternatives funds and investors, with mandates, past commitments, allocations and benchmarks. PitchBook centers on companies, deals and investors, with LP profiles alongside. For family office outreach, both treat family offices as one segment of a much larger universe.
Do Preqin and PitchBook cover family offices?
Yes. As of November 2026, Preqin's private wealth page states that it has served private wealth managers and family offices for more than 20 years, and PitchBook's limited partners page lists family offices among the LP types it covers. Neither page publishes a family office count that we could find.
How much do Preqin and PitchBook cost?
Both quote prices through sales, and as of November 2026 we could not find published prices on either site. Vendr, a software purchasing platform, estimates a median PitchBook contract of $30,000 per year. These are third-party estimates; actual pricing is quoted by each vendor and varies by seats and modules.
Who owns Preqin and PitchBook?
Preqin's about page states that BlackRock acquired the company in 2025. PitchBook presents itself on its website as a Morningstar company.
What is the alternative to Preqin and PitchBook for contacting family offices?
For a defined outreach campaign, a verified one-time Excel file of family offices fits the job. Active Family Offices lists each office's website, LinkedIn company page, investment domains and top decision-makers, with verified work emails for the USA and other allowed countries. The Full USA Database is $2,500 and the Full Worldwide Database is $5,000, paid once.
The bottom line for a capital raiser choosing now
If you need institutional research, Preqin and PitchBook are both excellent at their jobs. If you need family office contacts you can act on this week, we believe the strongest buy is a verified file you own: the Full USA Database or the Full Worldwide Database. Download the free sample first and hold us to the standard on our FAQ page.
Sources
Preqin about page (preqin.com/about/who-we-are), data page (preqin.com/data/our-data), Preqin Pro page (preqin.com/our-products/preqin-pro), profiles page (preqin.com/data/profiles) and private wealth page (preqin.com/our-clients/private-wealth-investors), read 1 November 2026. PitchBook limited partners page (pitchbook.com/platform-data/limited-partners), data page (pitchbook.com/data), PitchBook vs Preqin page (pitchbook.com/compare/pitchbook-vs-preqin) and pricing page (pitchbook.com/pricing), read 1 November 2026. Vendr PitchBook page (vendr.com/marketplace/pitchbook), a third-party estimate, read 1 November 2026. No published pricing was found on preqin.com or pitchbook.com on that date.
This article reflects publicly available information as of November 2026 and our own understanding of the market. It is not a review of data we have not tested. Offerings change; see each provider's site for current details. If you represent a company mentioned here and something is out of date, contact us and we will correct it promptly. All product names, logos, and brands are the property of their respective owners and are used for identification purposes only. Active Family Offices is not affiliated with, sponsored by, or endorsed by any company mentioned.