Free UK company search

What is free here, and what is not

Plenty of company search sites advertise a free search and then ask for payment before showing anything useful. It is worth being precise about the line on this site, so you know before you type.

Searching the register and viewing the company summary is free and unlimited. The only paid item on the whole site is an optional PDF report, which you never have to buy in order to use the free search.

• Free: searching by company name or registration number
• Free: the company summary page for any company you find
• Free: repeat searches, with no daily limit and no account
• Paid and entirely optional: a downloadable PDF report for a single company

What the free company summary shows

Selecting a search result opens a company summary drawn from the Companies House public register. Every item below costs nothing to view.

• Registered company name
• Company registration number
• Company status, such as active or dissolved
• Incorporation date
• Company type
• Jurisdiction
• Registered office address
• Previous company names
• Nature of business and SIC codes

Why the data is free in the first place

UK company information is public by law. Companies House publishes the register so that anyone dealing with a company can find out who they are dealing with, and the underlying data is available at no charge through the official public data service.

Company Search UK is an independent service. It is not Companies House, it is not part of the UK Government, and it is not affiliated with or endorsed by either. The same underlying public data is available directly from Companies House free of charge. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

How to run a free search well

• Start with the registration number if you have one — numbers are unique and never reused
• If you only have a name, type the first distinctive word rather than the full legal name
• Ignore suffixes like Ltd, Limited or PLC when the spelling is uncertain
• Compare the registered office and incorporation date before assuming you have the right company
• Check previous names if an old invoice names a company you cannot find

What a free search will not tell you

The register records what companies have filed. Companies House does not verify most of it, so a search confirms what is recorded, not that a business is solvent, honest or safe to trade with.

• No credit score, credit limit or payment history
• No county court judgment search
• No confirmation that a company is trading, or trading well
• No verification that filed details are accurate or current
• No identity or anti-money-laundering check

When people move beyond the free search

Most people never need to. If you are confirming a name, number or status before sending an invoice, the free summary is the whole job.

The optional UK Company Information Report exists for the times a screen is not enough: when company details have to be attached to a tender, filed with a client record, or produced months later with a date on them. It gathers the wider register sections into one dated PDF, and you are paying for retrieval, formatting and a permanent copy rather than for access to hidden information.

• Everything in the free company summary
• Current and former officers, with appointment and resignation dates where recorded
• Persons with significant control recorded on the register
• Accounts and confirmation statement dates and filing position
• Registered charges, and whether they are outstanding or satisfied
• Insolvency information where it exists
• A filing history summary
• A dated, formatted A4 PDF you can download, print, email and keep

Free website search compared with the paid PDF report

Searching this site and viewing a company summary is free. The optional PDF report is paid, and what you are paying for is convenience: retrieval, formatting, a dated snapshot and a document you can download and keep. The underlying information is public and is also available directly from Companies House at no charge.

Frequently asked questions

Related pages

• UK Company SearchFree UK company search by name or company number. View company status, registered office, incorporation date, company type and SIC codes from the Companies House public register.
• Search by Company NameSearch UK companies by name. Handle partial names, similar names, changed names and trading names, and confirm you have the right registered entity before you deal with it.
• Company Number LookupLook up a UK company by its registration number. Understand CRN formats including SC, NI and OC prefixes, and confirm which company a number belongs to free of charge.
• Companies House SearchSearch company information from the Companies House public register by name or company number. Independent service with free company summaries and an optional formatted PDF report.
• Company reportsThe optional downloadable PDF report and what it costs.
• Sample Company ReportSee the structure of the UK Company Information Report PDF section by section, page by page, so you know exactly what you receive before you order one.