Company Lookup Tools Compared: Finding the Right One for Your Needs

There are dozens of tools for looking up UK company information, ranging from the free Companies House service to enterprise-grade platforms costing thousands per year. Which one is right for you depends entirely on what you need the data for - verifying a supplier, assessing credit risk, or identifying new businesses the moment they register are three very different problems that call for three very different tools.

This guide compares the six most widely used options honestly, with specific detail on what each one is genuinely good and bad at, so you can make the right call for your use case.

Companies House (Free)

The official government registry and the source of truth for all UK company data. Every other tool on this list ultimately sources its UK data from here.

Strengths

• Completely free - no limits on searches or document downloads
• Authoritative - this is where the data originates; no enrichment lag or interpretation error
• Free API with generous rate limits (600 requests per five minutes on the streaming API)
• PSC (beneficial ownership) data included - full register of persons with significant control
• Filing history going back to digitisation, including full accounts PDFs and confirmation statements
• Real-time status on active, dormant, dissolved, and struck-off companies

Limitations

• No credit scores or financial analysis - you see raw filed accounts, not interpreted risk signals
• No contact information - no phone, email, or website data of any kind
• No turnover, employee-count or size banding to filter on - the register does not hold those figures
• Alerts follow one company at a time - you can be emailed when a company you already follow files something, but not when a company matching your criteria first appears
• No saved searches - advanced search filters by SIC code, registered office address and incorporation date, and downloads up to 5,000 rows, but nothing remembers the search or shows you only what is new since last time
• The interface is functional but not optimised for bulk research or list-building

Best for: Quick one-off lookups, checking filing status, downloading accounts, verifying a UK company before entering a contract

See also: NewcoHunter vs Companies House - a detailed side-by-side comparison

Endole

A comprehensive company information platform that enriches Companies House data with credit scores, financial analysis, and contact details. Aimed at sales and credit teams who need richer profiles than Companies House provides.

Strengths

• Detailed company reports with financial analysis - not just the raw filed accounts, but computed ratios, trend lines, and commentary
• Credit risk scores and payment behaviour predictions based on financial history and sector benchmarks
• Director network mapping - see shared directorships and connected companies, useful for supplier due diligence and fraud screening
• Contact information including email addresses, phone numbers, and web presence, sourced from multiple data partners
• Good search filters by industry (SIC), location, employee count, and turnover band - practical for list-building
• Company monitoring - watch a portfolio of companies and receive alerts on key changes (accounts filed, directors changed, charge registered)

Limitations

• Credit-based or subscription pricing can become expensive for teams doing large volumes of lookups or exporting bulk lists
• Contact data quality is inconsistent - phone and email matches are better for established businesses than recently incorporated ones
• No new company monitoring - Endole surfaces companies that already exist in its database; it does not alert you to incorporations as they happen
• The depth of insight drops significantly for micro-businesses and sole-trader limited companies with minimal filed accounts

Best for: Sales prospecting against established companies, credit checks, supplier due diligence. Compare: NewcoHunter vs Endole

Creditsafe

An enterprise-focused credit reference agency with global coverage. Creditsafe is built for risk and compliance teams at mid-market and enterprise organisations - not for one-off lookups or small-team prospecting.

Strengths

• International coverage across 200+ countries - the widest reach of any tool in this comparison
• Real-time credit scores updated daily, incorporating payment data from trade credit networks as well as filed accounts
• Monitoring and alerts for changes to watched companies - credit score moves, CCJs, insolvency events, director changes
• API for integration into ERP, CRM, and procurement systems - suitable for automating credit decisioning at scale
• Compliance tools for KYC and AML checks, including sanction screening and PEP checks
• Established data sharing relationships with banks and trade creditors that improve payment behaviour accuracy

Limitations

• Enterprise pricing with minimum contract commitments - not practical for freelancers, small agencies, or any team that needs occasional rather than continuous access
• Requires a sales conversation to get started - no self-serve signup or trial
• Overkill for most sales prospecting use cases; the credit-risk orientation means you are paying for data you may not use
• Focused on companies that already exist and have a credit history - not designed to surface new incorporations

Best for: Enterprise credit risk management, international due diligence, compliance and KYC teams

Company Check

A free-to-use platform that presents Companies House data in a more accessible format than the official registry. It sits between Companies House and a full-fat data provider - more readable, but thinner than Endole or Creditsafe.

Strengths

• Free basic access with no registration required - good for one-off checks
• Clean, easy-to-read company profiles with financial summaries presented as key ratios rather than raw accounts
• Director search - find all companies associated with an individual by name
• Useful for quick due diligence on a counterparty when you do not need a full credit report

Limitations

• Limited features compared to paid alternatives - no contact data, no payment behaviour scores, no monitoring alerts
• Ad-supported free tier, which affects the experience for regular users
• No API access on the free plan - bulk data extraction requires a paid arrangement
• No new company monitoring - lookup-only, reactive rather than proactive
• Financial data is a formatted view of filed accounts, not independently enriched or interpreted

Best for: Quick company snapshots, basic financial overview, casual one-off research

OpenCorporates

The largest open database of companies in the world, covering 140+ jurisdictions. OpenCorporates is built around an open-data philosophy: basic records are freely accessible, with commercial API access for organisations that need bulk data or integration.

Strengths

• Unmatched jurisdictional coverage - from Companies House to the Cayman Islands, Delaware to Hong Kong
• Open data ethos - basic company records are free and linkable, making it useful for researchers, journalists, and civil society
• Useful for cross-border corporate structure research - beneficial for mapping holding companies and offshore entities
• API available for data integration, with an active user community and clean, consistent data schema across jurisdictions

Limitations

• Data can lag behind source registries - OpenCorporates aggregates from dozens of sources with varying update frequencies
• Limited financial data - accounts and turnover data are sparse outside a handful of major jurisdictions
• No credit scores, risk analysis, or contact information
• Not optimised for commercial sales prospecting - the tool is designed for transparency and research, not lead generation

Best for: International company research, cross-jurisdictional investigations, journalists, compliance researchers

NewcoHunter

Purpose-built for monitoring newly incorporated UK companies - a fundamentally different use case from the lookup tools above. Where the others help you research companies that already exist, NewcoHunter tells you about companies the moment they appear on the register.

Strengths

• Real-time monitoring of new Companies House registrations - companies are indexed within hours of appearing on the register
• Filter by SIC code, geography, and incorporation date - reach new businesses in your exact target sector and region, not the whole register
• Weekly email digests of matching new companies, so your team receives a curated pipeline without any manual searching
• CSV export for CRM integration - drop new leads directly into HubSpot, Salesforce, or any spreadsheet-based workflow
• Designed for the specific moment when a business needs your services most - a newly incorporated company needs an accountant, a business bank account, insurance, a website, and a dozen other things immediately
• Simple, transparent pricing from £29/month with a free tier to try the search and filtering before committing

Limitations

• Focused on new companies - not a general company lookup tool; for research on established companies, use another tool in this list
• No credit scores (new companies rarely have meaningful credit history anyway)
• UK-only currently (US expansion is on the roadmap)
• Contact data for brand-new companies is limited by nature - many new incorporations have not yet published a phone number or website

Best for: B2B sales teams, accountants, insurers, and service providers who want to reach businesses at the point of incorporation. See how it works or try the free company search tool.

Feature Comparison

Feature	Companies House	Endole	Creditsafe	Company Check	OpenCorporates	NewcoHunter
New company alerts	No	No	No	No	No	Yes
SIC / industry filter	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes
Geography filter	No	Yes	Yes	No	Limited	Yes
Credit scores	No	Yes	Yes	Basic	No	No
Contact data (email / phone)	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	Limited
PSC / beneficial ownership	Yes	Yes	Yes	Partial	Partial	Via CH link
International coverage	UK only	UK focused	200+ countries	UK only	140+ jurisdictions	UK only
CSV / bulk export	No	Yes (paid)	Yes (paid)	No	API only	Yes
API access	Yes (free)	Yes (paid)	Yes (paid)	Paid only	Yes	Planned
Free tier	Fully free	Limited	No	Yes (ad-supported)	Basic data free	Yes
Pricing model	Free	Credit-based / subscription	Enterprise contract	Free / paid tiers	Free / paid API	From £29/mo

Which Should You Choose?

The right tool depends on what question you are trying to answer. Here is clear guidance by use case.

• Verifying a supplier or counterparty before signing a contract - Start with Companies House. It is free, authoritative, and sufficient for confirming a company is active, checking its registered address, and downloading its latest accounts. For a deeper read on how to do this properly, see how to check a UK company.
• Assessing credit risk on a customer or debtor - Creditsafe for enterprise teams with volume and compliance requirements; Endole for SMEs and mid-market teams who need enriched credit data without a full enterprise contract. Both draw on payment behaviour data that Companies House alone cannot provide.
• Building a targeted list of established companies to prospect - Endole gives you the best combination of search filters, contact data, and financial context for UK-focused list-building. See how it compares to NewcoHunter for this specific use case.
• Finding brand-new companies to sell to at the point of incorporation - NewcoHunter is the only tool in this list built specifically for this. Set a filter by SIC code and region, save your search, and receive a weekly digest of every new company that matches - rather than searching the register manually. Accountants use it to find new clients, insurers to reach new businesses needing cover, and agencies to pitch new founders. Try it with the free company search tool.
• Researching corporate structures across multiple countries - OpenCorporates for breadth across 140+ jurisdictions; Creditsafe where you also need credit risk depth internationally.
• AML and KYC compliance - Creditsafe for enterprise-grade screening with sanction and PEP data. For accountants specifically, see AML checks for accountants for the regulatory context and a practical workflow.
• Quick one-off research with no budget - Companies House is always the right starting point. Company Check is a more readable wrapper around the same data if you prefer a cleaner interface.

One important note: these tools are not mutually exclusive. Many teams use Companies House alongside a specialist tool - for example, using NewcoHunter to identify newly registered companies in their sector, then running a quick Companies House check on the most promising ones before outreach.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the best free company lookup tool in the UK?

Companies House is the best free option by a significant margin. It is the authoritative source of UK company data, covers every registered company, is completely free with no registration required, and includes PSC data, filing history, and real-time status. Company Check and OpenCorporates offer free tiers but add less value for straightforward UK lookups than the official registry itself. If you want to try filtering new companies by industry and location for free, NewcoHunter also offers a free tier via its free company search tool.

Which tool is best for finding new company leads?

NewcoHunter is purpose-built for this. The other tools in this comparison are primarily lookup tools - you search for a company you already know about. NewcoHunter works the other way around: you define the type of company you want to reach (by SIC code, location, and incorporation date), and it delivers a list of every new company that matches as they appear on the Companies House register. This makes it particularly valuable for accountants, insurers, and B2B service providers who want to reach businesses at the point when they need services most. See how it works.

Do these tools use Companies House data?

Yes - every UK company information tool ultimately draws on Companies House as its primary data source, because Companies House is the statutory register. The official Companies House API is free and openly accessible. What the paid tools add is enrichment on top of that raw data: credit scores derived from payment behaviour and financial ratios, contact information sourced from third-party data partners, director network graphs, and monitoring alerts. NewcoHunter uses the Companies House streaming API to capture new incorporations in near-real-time and adds industry and location filtering on top.

Which tool has the most up-to-date data?

For UK company data, the Companies House API itself is the most current source - changes to the register are reflected within hours of filing. NewcoHunter also connects directly to the Companies House streaming API, so new incorporations appear in its index within hours of registration. Enriched data platforms like Endole and Creditsafe may have a short lag between a filing appearing at Companies House and being reflected in their enriched profiles, because the enrichment processing takes time. OpenCorporates can lag more noticeably for UK data because it aggregates from many sources with varying update schedules.

Can I export company lists from these tools?

It depends on the tool and the plan. NewcoHunter includes CSV export as a standard feature, designed for dropping new leads directly into a CRM. Endole and Creditsafe both support bulk exports, typically as part of paid plans. Companies House does not offer a bulk export through its standard interface, though its bulk data product and API can be used to build your own extract - which requires technical resource. Company Check does not support bulk export on its free tier. If exporting a targeted list of new companies filtered by sector and geography is your primary goal, NewcoHunter is the most direct route to that output.

Which tool should I use for due diligence on a company director?

For checking directorships and the companies an individual is or has been associated with, Companies House is the most complete and authoritative source - its officer search covers all appointments, resignations, and disqualifications going back decades. Endole adds a layer of visualisation through its director network mapping, which is useful for spotting patterns across connected companies. For regulated due diligence including sanction screening and PEP checks, Creditsafe provides the compliance-grade tooling that firms subject to AML obligations typically require. See also: NewcoHunter vs DueDil and NewcoHunter vs Red Flag Alert for two further tools focused on risk and due diligence.