LightSource vs. TealBook
TealBook is a supplier data platform: it collects, verifies, and enriches supplier company records, then feeds the clean data into ERP and source-to-pay systems. LightSource is the Direct Materials Operating System, spec through scale, PLM through ERP, where parts get quoted, analyzed, and awarded.
Where each system actually works
Keep PLM for product definition and ERP for transactions. LightSource connects the direct-material decisions between them, from spec through scale.
At a glance
Capability comparison, in detail
Twenty capabilities in six groups. The LightSource column is identical on all six comparison pages, including the ones we don’t win.
Where TealBook is strong
TealBook earned its reputation on one hard problem: keeping supplier data clean at scale. Its engine resolves supplier records to verified legal entities across a claimed 225 million global supplier profiles, maps corporate parent-child hierarchies, and continuously enriches more than 30 attributes such as tax IDs, industry codes, diversity certifications, and firm size. A flagship customer publicly credited it with roughly a million dollars a year in saved supplier data maintenance and a 25% jump in enriched records after one release. That is a real, differentiated data asset, and it is not something LightSource has or claims.
Three jobs sit squarely in TealBook's wheelhouse. First, vendor master data cleansing, which matters most ahead of an ERP or source-to-pay migration, when a company needs to deduplicate and validate thousands of supplier records before they move. Second, supplier diversity and Tier 2 reporting, which is now inside Supplier.io, the diversity-data specialist that acquired TealBook in April 2026 and folded the technology into a vendor master data product called Atlas. Third, breadth-first discovery research across every spend category, including indirect services and long-tail vendors that fall well outside any quoting network. TealBook also collects its data autonomously, so suppliers carry zero onboarding burden, which is a genuine design advantage for company-wide data coverage.
One note on maturity: TealBook is no longer sold as a standalone product. tealbook.com now redirects to supplier.io, and the roadmap belongs to Atlas. For a buyer evaluating supplier data infrastructure, that is a reasonable place to look. For a buyer evaluating how to source engineered parts, it points away from sourcing execution, not toward it.
Where LightSource wins for direct materials
The difference shows up the moment a discovered supplier needs to quote a part. In TealBook, discovery produces a record: a company profile with legal entity, hierarchy, certifications, and industry codes. It can tell you that a machining house exists and who its corporate parent is. It cannot tell you what the shop can actually make against your drawing, and it cannot get you a price.
LightSource is built around the part, not the company record. Discovery is capability-based and matched from your specs, drawings, and commodity, against a network of 20,000 suppliers who are quoting-ready. A supplier surfaced in LightSource can receive a part-level RFQ with drawings attached and return a structured cost breakdown inside the same system, often the same week. Qualification happens through real bids rather than database attributes: flexible cost breakdowns, AI-normalized quote comparison across suppliers and rounds, and per-part, per-supplier price history that survives buyer turnover.
Everything after discovery lives in one system. An RFQ becomes a quote analysis, which becomes an AI-drafted award scenario, which becomes a tracked contract with a cost record. Item edits during an active project create revisions, so you keep a forensic record of who quoted what on which revision. LightSource is the only sourcing solution with true flexible cost breakdowns, meaning category-specific bid sheets built per event rather than a single fixed template, which is what makes an apples-to-apples comparison possible on engineered parts. None of this exists in a supplier data platform, because a supplier data platform stops at the record.
The structural story: a data layer versus an operating system
The cleanest way to understand the two products is to look at the unit of data each one is built around. TealBook's unit is the supplier company record. Its whole architecture, from legal entity resolution to hierarchy mapping to attribute enrichment, exists to make that record accurate and trustworthy, then to sit outside your procurement systems as a clean foundation the rest of your stack can rely on. Its marquee outcomes reflect that: a large food company saving on data maintenance, a mortgage-finance company cleaning its vendor master ahead of an ERP migration, a financial exchange building a procurement data foundation. These are data-operations wins, and they are valuable.
LightSource's unit of data is the part. The object model is engineered components: revision-managed items, drawings, nested BOMs, tooling and engineering-development costs, should-costs, and HTS codes. Because the part is the atom, sourcing can be part-level all the way through: the RFQ carries the drawing, the quote breaks down cost by category, the award splits volume across suppliers, and the BOM rolls up assembly cost and tracks it across revisions over time. That is what LightSource means by the Direct Materials Operating System, spec through scale, PLM through ERP: a system of record and a working environment for direct-materials sourcing, not a data layer feeding one.
Both positions are legitimate. A company that mostly needs its supplier records to be clean across all spend is describing TealBook's job. A manufacturer that needs to get engineered parts quoted, compared, and awarded quickly is describing LightSource's job. The mistake would be to expect either one to do the other's.
Running both: clean records and part-level sourcing
These tools are genuinely complementary, and the overlap is narrow. TealBook, now inside Supplier.io Atlas, is a data layer that cleans and enriches the supplier records inside a company's ERP and source-to-pay estate: vendor master hygiene, corporate hierarchies, and diversity and ESG reporting across all spend. LightSource is the direct-materials sourcing system where parts get quoted, analyzed, and awarded. A manufacturer could run Atlas to keep its company-wide vendor master clean while LightSource owns spec-through-scale sourcing for engineered parts, and the two never contend for the same workflow.
The only moment they touch is discovery. Ask both tools to find a supplier and they answer different questions. TealBook answers who exists, drawing on enriched company records across a very large profile universe. LightSource answers who can quote this part now, returning capability-matched suppliers who can receive the RFQ and return a cost breakdown in the same system. For direct-materials discovery, the practical difference is whether the search result is a record you still have to act on, or a quote you can act on immediately. Neither replaces the other; a data foundation and a sourcing system solve different halves of the problem.
What public reviewers say
On G2, LightSource holds a 4.9 out of 5 rating across 11 reviews (g2.com/products/lightsource/reviews), while TealBook has no G2 reviews at all (g2.com/products/tealbook/reviews). Both counts are small, so treat them as directional rather than statistically settled; the difference is one of public review volume, not a definitive quality verdict. Because no archive of TealBook's G2 pages exists, we take its verbatim quotes from its Capterra profile, where it holds a 5.0 rating across 2 reviews, rather than reproduce anything we cannot verify.
On the competitor side, the positive is thoughtful and specific. A Director of Global Procurement in biotechnology wrote: "I have been a user for less than six months, so while we haven't yet recognized firm impact, I see tremendous promise in the Tealbook tools driven by two things... flexibility and their collaborative approach." (Capterra reviewer (Biotechnology, 2021)). A Senior Category Specialist in the same industry praised the core research use case: "Extremely easy to use product, great at quick finding the spend information for companies and getting a quick background on them." (Capterra reviewer (Biotechnology, 2021)).
The same first reviewer was candid about limits: "Some of the integration activities have been a little difficult as some capabilities are not where they need to be from a data accuracy/reliability perspective. And some of the analytics capabilities are not what we had hoped." (Capterra reviewer (Biotechnology, 2021)). Data accuracy during integration and analytics depth are the recurring themes; the reviewer also credited the vendor with committing to fixes. Verified enterprise reviewers describe the same pattern: praise for centralized supplier data and a responsive team, with data reliability and analytics as the soft spots.
LightSource reviewers describe the part of the workflow TealBook does not reach. A Vice President of Supply Chain wrote: "We are centralizing information about our supply base in a single location that is accessible for all departments... This helps breakdown silos internally and ensure that we are making decisions based off 'apples to apples' comparisons." (G2 reviewer (Mid-Market, 2024)). An enterprise reviewer pointed at the same cross-functional thread: "LightSource is improving communication between engineering, buyers and suppliers." (G2 reviewer (Enterprise, 2024)). LightSource's own reviewers name occasional bugs as the main downside, which is worth weighing against its small, recent review base.
When to choose what
Choose TealBook if
You need to clean, deduplicate, and enrich a large vendor master, especially ahead of an ERP or source-to-pay migration
Your priority is supplier diversity and Tier 2 reporting across all spend, now delivered through Supplier.io Atlas
You want breadth-first discovery research across indirect categories, services, and long-tail vendors far outside any quoting network
You want a clean supplier data foundation to sit under existing tools like SAP Ariba, Coupa, or Oracle
You value autonomous data collection with zero onboarding burden on suppliers
Choose LightSource if
You source engineered parts and need discovery that ends in a quote, not a record
You run part-level RFQs with drawings and need structured cost breakdowns to compare bids apples to apples
You work from BOMs and revisions and want cost roll-ups and revision diffs at the part level
You want the whole flow, RFQ through award to a tracked contract, in one system
You have a lean team that needs to be live in days and sourcing in about 30 days, without a data-cleansing project as a precondition
RUNNING BOTH
Running both is a clean fit with almost no overlap. Use TealBook, now Supplier.io Atlas, as the data layer that keeps your company-wide vendor master clean and enriched, including diversity and ESG reporting across all spend, and let it feed your ERP and source-to-pay estate. Use LightSource as the direct-materials sourcing system where engineered parts get discovered by capability, quoted with drawings, compared with flexible cost breakdowns, and awarded into tracked contracts. The only place the two meet is discovery, where TealBook tells you which suppliers exist and LightSource tells you which can quote your part now; together they cover both halves without contending for the same workflow.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between LightSource and TealBook?
TealBook is a supplier data platform: it collects, verifies, and enriches supplier company records and feeds the clean data into ERP and source-to-pay systems. LightSource is the Direct Materials Operating System, spec through scale, where engineered parts get quoted, analyzed, and awarded. TealBook answers which suppliers exist and whether your vendor master is clean; LightSource answers who should make this part and at what price.
Does TealBook do part-level sourcing or RFQs?
No. TealBook has no sourcing events, no part-level RFQs, no cost breakdowns, and no awards. Its unit of work is the supplier company record, not the part. Discovery in TealBook produces a record to research; it does not produce a quote. LightSource is built for part-level RFQs with drawings, flexible cost breakdowns, and award scenarios inside one system.
Is TealBook still available after the Supplier.io acquisition?
TealBook was acquired by Supplier.io in April 2026, and its technology now ships inside a vendor master data management product called Atlas. There is no standalone TealBook product marketed today, and tealbook.com redirects to supplier.io. The data engine is very much alive; it just lives inside Supplier.io's roadmap now, which is oriented toward supplier data and diversity rather than sourcing execution.
Can LightSource and TealBook be used together?
Yes, and they fit together cleanly with almost no overlap. TealBook, now Supplier.io Atlas, keeps a company-wide vendor master clean and enriched and feeds ERP and source-to-pay systems. LightSource owns direct-materials sourcing, from part-level RFQ through award. The only shared moment is discovery, where TealBook tells you which suppliers exist and LightSource tells you which can quote your part now.
How large is each supplier network?
TealBook claims roughly 225 million enriched global supplier profiles, which is far larger than any quoting network, including LightSource's, but those are records for research rather than suppliers ready to quote. LightSource has 20,000 suppliers live on the platform who are quoting-ready, free to use, and able to receive a part-level RFQ and return a cost breakdown in the same system. The two networks are built for different jobs: breadth of records versus depth of quoting.
Which is better for a manufacturer sourcing direct materials?
For sourcing engineered parts, LightSource fits the job because discovery ends in a quote and the full flow, RFQ through award, happens around the part. TealBook is the better fit if the goal is a clean, enriched vendor master or diversity reporting across all spend. Many manufacturers can use both: TealBook as the data foundation, LightSource as the sourcing system.
Sources
Supplier.io acquires TealBook (Atlas, 225M profiles, Kraft Heinz)
Supplier data cleanup isn't enough: how TealBook evolved (legal entity model, 145 countries)
LightSource emerges from stealth with $33M (Lightspeed, Bain Capital Ventures)
This comparison is based on publicly available information as of September 2026 and our understanding of both products. Products evolve; if you spot something out of date, tell us and we will fix it.
All product names and trademarks are the property of their respective owners and are used for identification only.
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