Every paid UK tender alert platform you've been pitched republishes data that the government is required by law to publish for free. Five portals. All UK public-sector cleaning notices, all the time. Zero subscription cost.
This is the side-by-side. What each free portal covers. How to set up the email alerts. When you actually do need a paid tool on top. Honest answers for UK cleaning and FM SMEs sick of being upsold.
What's in this comparison¶
- Why every UK public-sector tender is on a free portal
- Contracts Finder
- Find a Tender Service
- Public Contracts Scotland
- Sell2Wales
- eTendersNI
- myTenders (supplier side)
- How to set up your free alert stack in 30 minutes
- When a paid tool actually earns its fee
- Verdict + what to do today
Why every UK public-sector tender is on a free portal¶
The Procurement Act 2023, in force since 24 February 2025, requires UK public buyers to publish in-scope contract notices on a central digital platform. In practice that's Find a Tender Service for both high-value and below-threshold notices in England, Wales and NI. Contracts Finder only carries procurements started before that date. Scotland runs Public Contracts Scotland, and Sell2Wales and eTendersNI run alongside Find a Tender.
If a paid platform claims to surface notices that aren't on these free portals, ask which buyer is paying them to publish privately. The answer is usually that a tiny number of buyers use a sourcing platform for above-threshold notices, but the vast majority of cleaning and FM tenders relevant to UK SMEs are required by law to be on the free official sites.
If a salesperson tells you their alerts catch tenders the free portals miss, ask them to name three buyers and the dates of the notices. Most can't.
Pro tip
Contracts Finder¶
contractsfinder.service.gov.uk. Run by gov.uk. Since 24 February 2025 it only carries English procurements that started under the old 2015 rules, so it thins out every month. New below-threshold work, from £12,000 (central) and £30,000 (councils, NHS) inc VAT, goes on Find a Tender.
Coverage in practice: most council cleaning, school cleaning, NHS support services below the FTS threshold, central-government office contracts. The bulk of what a small UK cleaning firm bids on lives here.
Set up: register a free supplier account. Configure saved searches by CPV code (90910, 90911, 90919 for cleaning) plus title-keyword fallback. Save the search and turn on email alerts. Five minutes.
Find a Tender Service¶
find-tender.service.gov.uk. Replaced the EU OJEU portal for the UK. Carries all UK public-sector contracts over £135,018 incl. VAT, including NHS trust cleaning, large council estates, and central-government office contracts.
If you're below £140k in turnover or focused on smaller council work, you may rarely see Find a Tender notices that fit. If you want to grow into NHS or large multi-site work, this is the portal you have to watch.
Set up: same as Contracts Finder. Free supplier registration, saved searches, email alerts.
Public Contracts Scotland¶
publiccontractsscotland.gov.uk. The Scottish equivalent. Covers Scottish councils, NHS Scotland, and Scottish public bodies in full. Contracts published here do not duplicate to Contracts Finder.
If you cover Scotland at all, this is the portal you have to register on. Most Scottish cleaning notices won't appear on the English portal, so an English-only saved search will miss them entirely.
Sell2Wales¶
sell2wales.gov.wales. Welsh public-sector procurement portal. Carries notices for Welsh councils, NHS Wales, and Welsh government bodies.
Often lower competition from English firms because most don't know to register. If you're based in or service Wales, the registration is free and the alerts are worth setting up.
eTendersNI¶
etendersni.gov.uk. The Northern Ireland portal. Covers NI departments, councils, and health trusts.
Smallest of the four nation portals by volume but essential if you operate in NI. The setup is the same shape as the others.
myTenders (supplier side)¶
mytenders.co.uk. Not a government portal. Free supplier access to notices published by 4,300+ UK public buyers who use myTenders as their eProcurement platform of record.
Some of those notices also appear on Contracts Finder or Find a Tender, but not all. Free registration is worth doing for the supplemental coverage.
How to set up your free alert stack in 30 minutes¶
- Register on Find a Tender. Configure a saved search by CPV codes 90910, 90911, 90919 (cleaning) with a title-keyword fallback for "cleaning", "hygiene", "janitorial". Turn on email alerts. 5 minutes.
- Register on Find a Tender Service. Same saved-search shape. 5 minutes.
- Register on Public Contracts Scotland (if you cover Scotland), Sell2Wales (Wales), eTendersNI (Northern Ireland). Same shape. 15 minutes total.
- Register on myTenders for free supplier access. 5 minutes.
Total setup: 30 minutes. Annual cost: £0. Coverage: every UK public-sector cleaning notice required by law to be public.
Saved searches expire on some portals after 12 months of inactivity. Diary a 6-monthly check to make sure your alerts are still firing.
Pro tip
When a paid tool actually earns its fee¶
Three legitimate cases for paying on top of the free portals.
- You want contract expiry intelligence (knowing when an existing contract you'd like to bid for is up for renewal). TenderLedger and Tracker Intelligence sell this; the cheaper tiers don't reliably deliver it.
- You want incumbent-supplier and spend data on who currently holds a contract and what they're being paid. Tracker Intelligence is the main option for that.
- You want qualification scoring and bid drafting on top of the alerts (i.e., not just "what's available" but "can I win it"). CleanTender bundles those for £99/mo. No paid alert-only platform does this.
If you're in case 3 — most cleaning and FM SMEs — the question isn't "which paid aggregator" but "why am I paying both an aggregator AND a bid writer." See our full UK bid-stack alternatives guide for the maths.
Side by side: every free UK tender source¶
| Portal | Coverage | Threshold | Devolved nation? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Contracts Finder | English procurements started before 24 Feb 2025 | Old PCR 2015 rules only | No (England) |
| Find a Tender Service | All UK public sector | >£135,018 incl. VAT | No (UK-wide) |
| Public Contracts Scotland | Scottish councils, NHS Scotland, public bodies | All values, statutory | Yes (Scotland) |
| Sell2Wales | Welsh councils, NHS Wales, public bodies | All values, statutory | Yes (Wales) |
| eTendersNI | NI departments, councils, health trusts | All values, statutory | Yes (Northern Ireland) |
| myTenders (supplier) | Notices from 4,300+ public buyers | Whatever they publish | UK-wide (subset) |
Coverage and threshold rules under the Procurement Act 2023.
Verdict: what to do today¶
Spend 30 minutes setting up the five free portals plus myTenders. Don't pay anyone for alerts until you've used the free stack for a quarter and identified an actual gap.
If after a quarter you find yourself wishing you knew when the local council's existing cleaning contract is up for renewal, look at TenderLedger or Tracker Intelligence. If you find yourself wishing you knew faster which notices are worth bidding on, look at CleanTender. Neither problem is solved by Supply2Gov.
Sources
- Contracts Finder · Free portal: English public-sector tenders over £12,000
- Find a Tender Service · Free portal: UK tenders over £135,018 incl. VAT
- Public Contracts Scotland · Scottish public-sector procurement
- Sell2Wales · Welsh public-sector procurement
- eTendersNI · Northern Ireland public-sector procurement
- Procurement Act 2023 · Statutory basis for the publication requirements
FAQs
Frequently asked questions
- No, in most cases. Every new public-sector cleaning notice in England, Wales and NI from £12,000 (central) or £30,000 (councils, NHS) inc VAT has to be on Find a Tender Service by law. Scotland uses Public Contracts Scotland. Both are free, both have saved-search email alerts, and combined they carry the bulk of what a UK cleaning SME bids on. A paid tool earns its fee only if you need contract expiry intelligence, spend data, or qualification scoring on top.
- Age. Since 24 February 2025, new procurements publish on Find a Tender Service, from £12,000 (central government) and £30,000 (councils, NHS) inc VAT right up to large multi-site estates. Contracts Finder only carries English procurements that started under the old rules before that date. Most new SME cleaning notices now sit on Find a Tender.
- No. They're separate statutory portals. Scottish public-sector notices appear on Public Contracts Scotland. They do not duplicate to Contracts Finder. If you cover Scotland and only watch Contracts Finder, you'll miss Scottish opportunities entirely.
- Five minutes per portal. Registering all five (Contracts Finder, Find a Tender Service, Public Contracts Scotland, Sell2Wales, eTendersNI) plus myTenders takes about 30 minutes start to finish. Setting up saved searches with CPV codes for cleaning (90910, 90911, 90919) and email alerts adds another 10 minutes per portal. Total under an hour for full coverage.
- Yes. NHS cleaning contracts above £135,018 incl. VAT are required to be on Find a Tender Service. NHS Trust contracts below that threshold, from £30,000 inc VAT, go there too. NHS Scotland sits on Public Contracts Scotland, NHS Wales on Sell2Wales, NI Health and Social Care on eTendersNI. Set up alerts on all four (or all five if you cover NI).
- 90910000 (Cleaning services) is the headline. Add 90911000 (Accommodation, building and window cleaning) and 90919000 (Office, school and office equipment cleaning) for finer coverage. For soft FM bundling, add 79993000 (Building and facilities management). Use these as your saved-search filter on every portal, and add a title-keyword fallback for "cleaning", "hygiene", "janitorial" to catch notices that miscoded the CPV.