Contracts Finder vs Find a Tender: 2026 Table and Steps

By Aoba Works · Published October 21, 2026 · 16 min read

How this guide was made: drafted with AI assistance from the official sources linked below, then passed an automated editorial check before publishing. Our process

• Contracts Finder
• Find A Tender
• Procurement Act 2023
• Vcse

In 2026, check Find a Tender first. Since 24 February 2025, every new UK public procurement under the Procurement Act 2023 has been published on Find a Tender, whether it sits above or below threshold. Contracts Finder is now mainly for older procurements that started under the previous rules and for looking up past contract awards in England. Under the Act, Contracts Finder is no longer a required place to publish (PPN 019 guidance). Both sites are free. You can search either one without an account. To bid on Procurement Act tenders, though, you will need a Find a Tender supplier registration.

Which option is right for you?

Start with Find a Tender unless you have a specific reason to look at older or regional records.

Why it works this way: the government says that procurements "whether above or below threshold commenced from 24 February 2025 only require notices to be published on FTS" (PPN 019 guidance). Contracts Finder still matters for history and for older procurements, but new opportunities have to appear on Find a Tender.

What Is Contracts Finder?

Contracts Finder is the government's older search service for public contracts in England. Since February 2025 it has mainly held procurements that started under the old rules, plus past awards.

The GOV.UK Contracts Finder page says you can use it to "search for contract opportunities in different sectors" and "look up details of previous tenders and contracts". It covers contracts worth over £12,000 including VAT. Under the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 (PCR 2015), central government bodies had to publish there above £12,000, and sub-central bodies, NHS trusts and NHS foundation trusts above £30,000 (PPN 019 guidance). Bodies whose functions are wholly or mainly Scottish, Welsh or Northern Irish were exempt, which is why it is effectively an England service.

The rules for Contracts Finder are now different. PPN 019 was updated on 31 March 2025 (update note). It says no new procurements can be run under PCR 2015 after 24 February 2025. Procurements that started before then must keep following PCR 2015 until the contract ends, and their notices still go on Contracts Finder. So you will still see award notices and some later-stage activity there. Brand-new opportunities, however, are only required on Find a Tender.

Example (illustrative): A council started a cleaning contract under PCR 2015 in January 2025 and awards it in spring 2026. That award notice belongs on Contracts Finder. A new cleaning contract the same council advertises in 2026 is run under the Procurement Act 2023 and must go on Find a Tender.

Pitfalls:

• Out-of-date threshold on GOV.UK. The Contracts Finder start page still says high-value contracts are "usually above £139,688 including VAT" (GOV.UK). That was the old central government figure. Since 1 January 2026 it has been £135,018 (see the threshold section below).
• Treating Contracts Finder as complete. If Contracts Finder is the only place you search in 2026, you will miss new below-threshold tenders that buyers are only required to publish on Find a Tender.

What Is Find a Tender (Service)?

Find a Tender (sometimes called Find a Tender Service or FTS) is the UK's central digital platform for public procurement. All UK contracting authorities now publish their procurement notices there.

It replaced the EU's Tenders Electronic Daily (TED) for UK notices on 31 December 2020 (Find a Tender home page). An enhanced version went live on 24 February 2025 as the "central digital platform" required by the Procurement Act 2023. GOV.UK describes it as the place "where all UK contracting authorities publish information relating to procurement" (Central Digital Platform factsheet).

It does two jobs for suppliers:

1. Finding notices. Pipeline notices, tender notices, award notices, contract details notices, framework and dynamic market notices, and even payment compliance data.
2. Holding your supplier information. You enter your organisation's details once and then share them with buyers using a share code, so you don't retype the same core details for every bid.

The factsheet is clear on cost: "Find a Tender is free to use for everyone. There are no charges and you should not pay to view opportunities in the public sector."

Notice codes are worth learning because they appear on every listing (notice types page):

Pitfalls:

• Assuming FTS is only for big contracts. The Find a Tender home page still points smaller buyers towards Contracts Finder, but for Procurement Act procurements the below-threshold tender notice (UK4) has to be published on the central digital platform "before being published elsewhere" (below-threshold guidance).
• Expecting to submit your bid on FTS. You don't. You get your share code from FTS and then bid "in the way that was determined by the buyer in the tender notice", usually on the buyer's own e-tendering portal (factsheet).

Contracts Finder vs Find a Tender: Which One Should You Check First?

Give each site a different job: Find a Tender for live bids and early warnings (UK1, UK3 and UK4 notices), and Contracts Finder for award research and legacy PCR 2015 activity.

The plan for many SME guides written before 2025 was "Contracts Finder for small, Find a Tender for big". That split no longer matches the law. Here is the side-by-side comparison as of October 2026:

Sources: PPN 019 guidance, below-threshold guidance, GOV.UK Contracts Finder, Find a Tender search, Contracts Finder search.

A simple routine that covers both:

1. Daily or weekly: read your Find a Tender saved-search emails. Open any UK4 tender notice that matches your work.
2. Weekly: scan Find a Tender for UK1 pipeline and UK3 planned procurement notices from buyers you want to work with. They tell you what is coming months ahead.
3. Monthly: search Contracts Finder with Procurement stage set to Awarded contract for your keywords. This shows who won similar work and roughly at what value.
4. If you trade in Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland: also check the devolved portals listed on the GOV.UK Contracts Finder page.

Buyers can also skip advertising completely. There is no requirement to publish a below-threshold tender notice when the buyer invites quotes from a closed group of pre-selected suppliers and doesn't advertise in any other way (below-threshold guidance). Neither site will show you those. Getting onto frameworks and buyers' supplier lists is how you reach that work. Our guide on how to get on a framework agreement covers it.

Find a Tender and Contracts Finder: Do I Need to Register for Both?

No. They are separate systems with separate accounts. For most SMEs in 2026, the Find a Tender supplier registration is the one that matters.

Neither site makes you register just to search. GOV.UK says of Contracts Finder: "You can still search and apply for contracts without an account". An account gives you email updates and saved searches (GOV.UK). On Find a Tender, suppliers "only need to register at the point that they want to bid for a contract" (factsheet). That said, it's sensible to register before a deadline is close.

Registering on Find a Tender (three official steps)

These steps follow the GOV.UK guide Suppliers: how to register your organisation and first administrator on Find a Tender in three easy steps:

1. Create your sign-in. On Find a Tender, choose Sign in or register an account, then Create your GOV.UK One Login. Enter your work email and the 6-digit code sent to it. Then set a password and choose text message or an authenticator app for security codes (GOV.UK registration user guide).
2. Register the organisation. Select Register an organisation, then choose Supplier. Have your Companies House number or Charity Commission number and registered address ready. If you don't have either number, the platform generates a unique identifier for you.
3. Complete Supplier Information. On your organisation page, select Complete Supplier Information and fill in the sections: Basic Information, Connected Persons, Qualifications, Trade Assurances, Exclusions and Financial Information. In Basic Information you declare whether you are an SME, VCSE or public mutual.
4. Get your share code. Select Share my information, then Create a share code. Tick the declaration and enter your name, job title, work email and postal address. Then choose Confirm and get share code. You can also download your supplier information file.

You give that share code to the buyer inside their tendering portal, or attach the downloaded file if they ask for it. If you need help with the questionnaire stage that follows, see our Selection Questionnaire guide for the Procurement Act 2023.

Registering on Contracts Finder

This is optional. Create an account from the Contracts Finder header if you want saved searches and email updates (GOV.UK). Older PCR procurements will still direct you to the buyer's own portal to bid.

Common registration mistakes and fixes

• Using a personal email. The guide asks for your individual work email. If someone leaves, an admin linked to a personal Gmail account causes trouble. Fix: register with a work address and add a second administrator.
• Leaving Supplier Information half-finished. You can't create a share code until the questionnaire is complete. Fix: finish it during a quiet week, not the night before a deadline.
• Expecting old saved searches to vanish. If you used the old Find a Tender, saved searches carry over when you use the same email address (factsheet). Fix: sign in with the same email rather than making a new account.
• Sole traders worried they can't register. No Companies House number is needed. The platform issues a unique identifier when neither a Companies House nor a Charity Commission number applies.

What Are the Current Thresholds for Find a Tender vs Contracts Finder?

From 1 January 2026, contracts above £135,018 (central government) or £207,720 (other authorities) for goods and services are "above threshold". Below-threshold notices apply from £12,000 or £30,000. All figures include VAT.

The thresholds come from the Procurement Act 2023 (Threshold Amounts) (Amendment) Regulations 2025, announced in PPN 023 (published 27 November 2025). The GOV.UK thresholds guidance confirms values are estimated "including VAT".

Sources: PPN 023, Blake Morgan summary of old and new values, below-threshold guidance.

How to use these numbers when choosing what to bid for:

• £12,000/£30,000 to the upper threshold: "regulated below-threshold" territory. Buyers here "cannot restrict the submission of tenders by reference to suppliers' suitability". In other words, no pre-tender test of your legal status, financial capacity or technical ability (below-threshold guidance). For a new SME this is often the most realistic band.
• Above threshold: fuller procedures and conditions of participation. The minimum tendering period is normally 25 days with electronic submission, or as few as 10 days if a UK3 notice went out 40 days to a year earlier (notice types). Below-threshold contracts have no set minimum.

Example (illustrative): A district council wants a £60,000 (incl. VAT) website rebuild. That is above £30,000 but below £207,720, so it should appear on Find a Tender as a below-threshold UK4 tender notice, with no pass/fail financial checks before tendering.

How to Search for Contracts on Contracts Finder (Step-by-Step)

Open Contracts Finder, enter keywords, set Contract location and Procurement stage, then save the search through your account to get email updates.

The search form at contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Search is simpler than Find a Tender's. These are the labels as they appear on the page:

1. In Keywords, type your service in plain words, e.g. "grounds maintenance" or "translation". The field searches contract title, description and buyer.
2. Under Contract location, choose a Region or enter a Postcode.
3. Under Procurement stage, tick what you need: Early engagement, Future opportunity, Opportunity or Awarded contract.
4. Select Search. Use Reset to start again.
5. If you have an account, save the search to get email updates (GOV.UK).

The most useful search in 2026 is Awarded contract. For example: if you run a small catering business in Yorkshire, search "catering" with the Yorkshire and the Humber region and Awarded contract ticked. You'll see which schools, councils or NHS bodies bought catering, roughly what they paid, when the contracts run until and, under PPN 019, often whether the winner was an SME or VCSE. A contract ending next year is an opportunity you can prepare for now.

Common mistakes and fixes:

• Ticking only Opportunity and finding very little. That is expected for new work, which now goes to Find a Tender. Fix: run the same keywords on Find a Tender.
• Ignoring Early engagement. These notices invite market engagement before a tender. Fix: answer them. Buyers often use the replies to shape lot sizes, which can make contracts easier for SMEs to win.

How to Search for Contracts on Find a Tender (Step-by-Step)

Open Find a Tender's search, filter by Industry CPV code, Contract location, Value and Suitability, then select Save search to get emails.

Go to Find a Tender search results. The filter labels below match the live page:

1. Keywords: searches titles, descriptions, identifiers and organisation names. Start broad, e.g. "cleaning".
2. Procurement stage: choose Open opportunities only for live bids. Add Pipeline and Planning if you want early warning of future tenders.
3. Notice type: narrow down to the codes you care about, such as UK4 tender notices.
4. Industry CPV code: pick the Common Procurement Vocabulary codes for your trade. Buyers tag notices with these, so they catch listings your keywords miss.
5. Contract location: use Select regions for where you can actually deliver.
6. Value: set a minimum and maximum. For example, £10,000 to £150,000 if you are a small firm that can't carry a large contract.
7. Suitability: tick SME and/or VCSE. Buyers mark notices they consider suitable for smaller suppliers.
8. Date range: filter by Publication date or Closing date.
9. Select Update results, then use Sort results → Closing (first) so urgent deadlines come first.
10. Select Save search (you'll be asked to sign in). Name the search and choose how often you want notification emails (GOV.UK how-to guide).

If you want to browse rather than filter, the home page also offers Opportunities, Contracts and Commercial tools. Commercial tools covers frameworks and dynamic markets, and it is worth checking because many buyers order from these instead of running new tenders (Find a Tender home).

Common mistakes and fixes:

• Relying on the SME filter alone. It depends on how the buyer filled in the notice, so some suitable contracts won't carry the flag. Fix: run a second saved search without it.
• One CPV code only. Fix: add the parent code and two or three related codes.
• Missing the window. Some above-threshold tenders can run for only 10 days. Fix: set alerts to the most frequent option you can handle and have your share code ready in advance.
• Starting the bid too late on scoring. Above-threshold tenders usually weight quality and social value. See our guide to social value in tenders under PPN 002.

Is Finder.com Legit? (And How It Differs From Contracts Finder/Find a Tender)

Finder.com is a real, FCA-regulated consumer comparison site, but it has nothing to do with Contracts Finder or Find a Tender.

According to its About page, Finder was founded in Australia in 2006, is owned by Hive Empire Pty Ltd, and its UK arm (Finder.com Comparison UK Ltd) launched in February 2017. It compares products such as mortgages, credit cards, energy and share trading. It is "authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FRN 786446)" and earns commission from featured providers. It does not list public sector contracts.

How to tell the services apart:

• The official tender services live on service.gov.uk domains: find-tender.service.gov.uk and contractsfinder.service.gov.uk. The starting pages are on gov.uk.
• The official services never charge you to view opportunities. Find a Tender's factsheet says "you should not pay to view opportunities in the public sector" (factsheet).
• Commercial "tender finder" or "deal finder" sites with similar names are separate businesses. Some repackage the free government data and charge for alerts or analysis. That is legal. Just know you're paying for convenience, not for access.

Pitfall: searching "contracts finder" and clicking an ad or a lookalike site. Fix: bookmark the two service.gov.uk addresses above and go to them directly.

Next steps

You can set up both services in under an hour today, and you don't need to spend anything.

Do it yourself today:

1. Open Find a Tender, set Keywords, Contract location and Suitability: SME (or VCSE), and select Save search with email notifications.
2. Start your Find a Tender supplier registration (three-step guide) and get as far as you can on Complete Supplier Information.
3. On Contracts Finder, search your keywords with Awarded contract and note three buyers whose contracts end in the next 12–18 months.

If you'd rather not do it yourself: commercial tender-alert and bid-writing services exist. Check each provider's own page for what is included and what it costs. They suit firms bidding several times a month that would rather pay than filter alerts themselves. They suit very small or occasional bidders less well. The data comes from the same free government sources, and no paid service can make a buyer publish a contract or improve your odds of winning on its own. Before you pay anyone, compare what they offer with what the free saved searches already give you.

Related guides on this site:

• How to win government contracts in the UK: 7 steps for SMEs
• Selection Questionnaire under the Procurement Act 2023
• How to get on a framework agreement
• Social value in tenders: PPN 002 steps and examples

FAQ

Is finder.com legit?

Yes. Finder is a genuine comparison website, and its UK company is authorised and regulated by the FCA under FRN 786446 (Finder About page). It compares consumer financial products and has no connection to the government's Contracts Finder. For public contracts, use only the service.gov.uk sites.

Is deal finder legit?

"Deal finder" is a generic name used by various unrelated shopping and tender-alert businesses, so judge each one on its own. None of them is an official government procurement service. If a "finder" site asks you to pay just to see public sector opportunities, remember that Find a Tender is free and the government says you should not pay to view them (factsheet).

What is Find a Tender used for if I'm a sole trader?

You use it to find opportunities, especially below-threshold ones from £12,000 or £30,000 including VAT, and to hold the supplier information buyers need when you bid. You don't need a Companies House number, because the platform generates a unique identifier if you have none (GOV.UK registration guide). Regulated below-threshold tenders can't screen you out on financial or technical capacity before you tender, which helps small traders.

Can charities and social enterprises bid through Contracts Finder?

Yes. Contracts Finder is open to any supplier, and award notices there show whether the winner was an SME or VCSE (PPN 019 guidance). For new opportunities in 2026, though, search Find a Tender and use the VCSE suitability filter. Register there with your Charity Commission number.

Sources

• GOV.UK: Contracts Finder
• Contracts Finder search
• Find a Tender home page
• Find a Tender search results and filters
• Find a Tender: Notice types and sequences
• PPN 019: Guidance on transparency requirements for publishing on Contracts Finder
• PPN 019: Update to legal requirements (31 March 2025)
• Guidance: Below-Threshold Contracts
• PPN 023: 2026 Threshold Amounts
• Guidance: Thresholds
• Blake Morgan: New public procurement thresholds from 1 January 2026
• Central Digital Platform factsheet
• Suppliers: How to register on Find a Tender in three easy steps
• Suppliers' user guide: How to register your organisation (PDF)
• How to use the Central Digital Platform (buyers and suppliers)
• Finder UK: About us

Spotted something out of date or wrong? Tell us at shigoto.ai.note@gmail.com. Guides are re-checked against official sources on a rolling schedule.