Alternatives
SBIR.gov & SAM.gov alternative for defense tech founders
The raw government award and registration data is public on SBIR.gov, SAM.gov, and FPDS — it's just not connected to anything. Founders sizing up competitors or investors end up doing that stitching by hand, one lookup at a time.
The data's public. The connections aren't.
This is the same underlying public data Atlas cites — the difference is Atlas has already linked each award to the awardee's funders and cap table, rather than leaving that as a separate manual step across three different government portals with three different formats.
| Dimension | Digging through SBIR.gov and SAM.gov | Defense Tech Atlas |
|---|---|---|
| Scope | Raw award/registration records, no narrative or cross-linking | Same public data, pre-linked to founders, funds, and cap tables |
| DoD contracts | Searchable one contract at a time | Linked automatically to the awardee's funding history |
| EU programs | Separate EU portals, different formats entirely | Normalized alongside US data |
| Cap tables | Not available from government sources | Tracked separately, cross-linked to awards |
| Sourcing/Verification | You're stitching the sources together yourself | Already stitched, still fully cited |
| Price | Free, but hours of your time per lookup | Free tier available; Pro at $49/month |
Same public data, already connected
If you're comfortable spending an afternoon per lookup across three government portals, that data is free. Atlas has already done that stitching, so you spend the time on the decision instead of the research.