Brown dwarfs are the bridge between low-mass stars and giant planets. One way of shedding light on their dominant formation mechanism is to study them at the earliest stages of their evolution, when they are deeply embedded in their parental clouds. Several works have identified pre- and proto-brown dwarf candidates using different observational approaches. The aim of this work is to create a database of all the objects classified as very young substellar candidates in the literature in order to study them homogeneously. We gathered all the information about very young substellar candidates available in the literature until 2020. We retrieved their published photometry from the optical to the centimetre regime, and we wrote our own codes to derive their bolometric temperatures and luminosities, and their internal luminosities. We also populated the database with other parameters extracted from the literature, such as the envelope masses, their detection in some molecular species, and the presence of outflows. The result of our search is the SUbstellar CANdidates at the Earliest Stages (SUCANES) database, containing 174 objects classified as potential very young substellar candidates in the literature. We present an analysis of the main properties of the retrieved objects. Since we updated the distances to several star forming regions, we were able to reject some candidates based on their internal luminosities. We also discuss the derived physical parameters and envelope masses for the best substellar candidates isolated in SUCANES. As an example of a scientific exploitation of this database, we present a feasibility study for the detection of radio jets with upcoming facilities: the next generation Very Large Array and the Square Kilometer Array interferometers. The SUCANES database is accessible through a graphical user interface, and it is open to any potential user.

Cone search capability for table J/A+A/695/A13/tableb1 (The targets included in the SUCANES data base)