UK company data providers, honestly compared (2026)
"Where do I get UK company data?" has more answers than most buyers realise, and the right one depends entirely on what you're actually buying — a raw register list, in-platform research, named contacts, or an enriched export to feed a prospecting workflow. This is an honest guide to the main options, what each is genuinely best for, and where the real prices sit. Yes, Firmfeed is one of them; we'll tell you plainly when one of the others is the better call.
Pricing and product details below were read from public pages and our market research in July 2026. Check each provider's site for current figures.
The options at a glance
| Provider | Cost (as of July 2026) | Best for | The catch |
|---|---|---|---|
| Companies House (official register) | Free | A raw list of every live UK company | No websites or trading signals; multi-GB file needs engineering |
| Endole & similar research platforms | ~£25–£39/month | In-browser research, credit reports, director lookups | Exports rationed (~1,000 rows/month); thin website coverage |
| Experian & enterprise data | Quote-only | Large-scale targeting with account management | Self-serve pay-as-you-go retired; no public pricing |
| List brokers (Selectabase, Data HQ) | ~£150–£380 per 1,000 records | Named contacts with TPS-screened phones for telemarketing | Personal-contact data — carries the GDPR diligence burden |
| Fiverr / Apify scraper gigs | ~£5–£50 per job | Cheap, quick raw Companies House extracts | Mostly re-selling free data; website columns usually guessed |
| Firmfeed | £49–£99 datasets; custom from £149 | Enriched, uncapped exports: verified websites + buying signals, ready for your CRM | Company-level only — no personal contacts, no research UI |
How to choose: start from what you're buying
The mistake is shopping by brand instead of by job. Four jobs cover almost everyone in this market — figure out which one is yours and the shortlist picks itself.
1. You just need the raw register → Companies House
If you want a list of company names, numbers and registered addresses and you have the engineering to handle a multi-gigabyte file, the official Free Company Data Product is free, unrestricted and the correct answer. Everything else in this list is, at heart, selling you enrichment on top of it — so start here and only pay when the register genuinely can't do the job. The most common thing it can't do is tell you which companies have a website, which is its own comparison.
2. You research companies one at a time → Endole
If your work is looking up individual companies — credit standing, director history, filings — in a browser, a research subscription like Endole at £25–£39/month is the right shape and a fair price. Firmfeed deliberately doesn't do in-platform research, credit scores or director profiles. Where it diverges is export at volume: Endole rations exports to about 1,000 rows a month, which is the wrong tool if you need thousands of rows in one file (see the Endole alternative comparison).
3. You need named contacts to phone → list brokers
If your motion is outbound calling and you need named individuals with TPS-screened phone numbers, that's what brokers like Selectabase and Data HQ sell, at roughly £150–£380 per 1,000 records. Firmfeed does not compete here and never will: we sell company-level data only, with no scraped personal contacts, by design. That's a deliberate GDPR stance, not a gap we're planning to fill.
4. You feed enriched data into a workflow → Firmfeed
This is the job Firmfeed is built for: you want a clean CSV of companies that actually trade, each with a website verified against the register entry (no guessed domains) and observable buying signals — analytics tags, ad pixels, ecommerce checkouts, live careers pages — so your team can prioritise. You enrich contacts yourself in tools you already pay for (Apollo, Sales Navigator). No subscription meter, no export cap, no sales call.
The two gaps most providers leave open
Two things are genuinely hard to buy in this market, and they're the reasons Firmfeed exists. The first is verified websites at scale: the register has no website field, and bolting on a guessed domain quietly fills your CRM with the wrong companies. The second is transparent, self-serve pricing — as the enterprise players moved to quote-only, the option to just see a price and buy largely disappeared. Firmfeed is built on closing both: verified, confidence-graded websites, and fixed prices published up front.
UK Digital & Marketing Agencies — Verified + Buying Signals. 1,596 established UK agencies, every row with a website verified against the Companies House record and at least one live buying signal. £99 one-off, no subscription — with a free 50-row sample.
Where Firmfeed is the wrong choice
- You need credit reports or director profiles — use a research platform like Endole.
- You need named contacts and phone numbers to call — use a list broker, and mind the GDPR obligations.
- A free raw register list genuinely covers your need — use Companies House and keep your money.
Need a specific cut of UK companies? Any SIC code, region, company age or size band — with verified-website and buying-signal enrichment — delivered as a clean CSV within 48 hours. Fixed prices from £149, no sales call.
Frequently asked questions
What's the best source of UK company data?
There's no single best — it depends on what you're buying. If you need a raw list of every registered company and nothing else, Companies House open data is free and unbeatable. If you research a few companies in depth with credit checks, a platform like Endole fits. If you need a clean, enriched export — companies with verified websites and buying signals, ready to feed a prospecting workflow — that's the gap Firmfeed fills, without a subscription or a sales call.
Is Companies House data really free?
Yes. The Free Company Data Product (a monthly bulk CSV) and the Companies House API are free and unrestricted. The catch is what they don't contain: no website, no signal of whether a company actually trades, and a multi-gigabyte file that needs engineering before it's usable. Every paid provider in this market is, at some level, selling you enrichment and convenience on top of that free spine.
Why is UK company data so much cheaper than contact/email lists?
Because they're different products with different risk. Company-level data — registered fields plus a company's own public website — carries little personal-data risk, so it trades cheaply (roughly £0.03–£0.08 per enriched row). Personal-contact lists with named individuals and phone numbers cost far more (£150–£380 per 1,000 from brokers) precisely because they carry the GDPR diligence burden. Firmfeed deliberately sits on the company-level side of that line.
Which providers publish transparent pricing?
Fewer than you'd expect. As of July 2026, Endole publishes subscription pricing and Firmfeed publishes fixed dataset and custom-cut prices. Experian's self-serve pay-as-you-go option was retired, so its business data is quote-only, and most list brokers quote per project. Transparent, self-serve pricing is one of the clearer ways to tell a productised data seller from an enterprise sales motion.
Can I get a custom cut instead of an off-the-shelf list?
Yes — that's Firmfeed's custom service. Send your target criteria (SIC codes, region, company age, size band) or your own list of company numbers, and you get the same verified-website and buying-signal enrichment as a clean CSV within 48 hours, at a fixed price published up front from £149 — no sales call and no quote wait.