Creditsafe alternatives for UK company credit checks (2026)

Quick comparison

The real choice is whether you need a credit score, a credit limit and county court judgments, or only the public record. Creditsafe sells the first; several alternatives sell the same kind of report at a published price, and some sell only the second.

Creditsafe

Creditsafe is a credit reference agency that sells company credit reports for the UK and, by its own account, over 200 countries. A report includes a credit score from 0 to 100 that predicts the likelihood of insolvency within 12 months, an international score from A to E, a recommended credit limit and a contract limit, CCJs, payment behaviour shown as Days Beyond Terms, directors, shareholders and ultimate beneficial owners. It also sells monitoring, compliance checks and a Connect API.

Creditsafe is one of four credit reference agencies designated by HM Treasury under the Commercial Credit Data Sharing scheme, alongside Experian, Equifax and Dun & Bradstreet. Nine designated banks must share loan, credit card and current account data on their SME customers with those agencies. That gives Creditsafe data that tools built only on Companies House do not have.

Pricing is not published. Creditsafe offers a free trial and a free company credit report for business use; production use needs a quote from sales.

Why people look for an alternative: they want a published price, a monthly plan without an annual contract, or they only need occasional checks.

Company Check

Company Check offers free company profiles and accounts, with paid plans for risk scores, credit limits, monitoring and alerts. Business Monthly is £35 a month and Business Annual £350 a year, both with unlimited credit reports; a single report costs £20. We found no public API.

Best for: small credit control teams that want a Creditsafe-style report at a fixed monthly price.

Endole

Endole bundles company and director research, credit reports with scores and limits, CCJs over six years, charge and Gazette history, monitoring and API access in one plan: £39 a month, or £25 a month billed annually, with a 7-day money-back guarantee. Exports are capped at 1,000 rows a month.

Best for: small teams that want credit reports, monitoring and an API in one subscription. See our Endole alternatives comparison for more detail.

Experian

Experian is also a designated credit reference agency, and its Business Express service sells UK and international business credit reports with credit scores, limits, director information and payment trends, as one-off reports or subscriptions. Its separate My Business Profile product, for checking your own company, costs £24.99 plus VAT a month after a two-month free trial. We could not confirm the current price of a one-off report on the pages we read.

Best for: teams that want a second large bureau, or lenders already using Experian data.

Red Flag Alert

Red Flag Alert sells growth and insolvency risk scores, around 90 signals per company with twice-daily updates, and packages for onboarding, compliance and portfolio monitoring. All packages are custom priced, and API access comes with selected packages.

Best for: insolvency practitioners, lenders and finance teams monitoring large portfolios.

Companies House

Companies House is the free official register that every tool here draws on. It shows status, officers, owners, charges, insolvency notices and every set of accounts filed, and its "follow" feature emails you when a company files something. It has no scores, limits, CCJs or payment data. For many supplier checks that is enough; see what Companies House shows compared with a credit report.

Best for: one-off checks by someone who can read a balance sheet.

UK Company Data (ours)

UK Company Data covers the full Companies House register and balance sheet figures parsed from about 37 million machine-readable accounts filed from 2008 to 2026. Company pages are free to search; a one-off financial history pack for one company costs £9 (Excel or CSV within 24 hours); the API and MCP server are free for 50 requests a month, and API Pro is £39 a month for 5,000 requests and a 50-company watchlist.

What it does not do: no credit scores or limits, no CCJs, no payment data and no officer data yet, and companies that file only PDF accounts, including many large groups, have no figures. The watchlist raises alerts for status changes, overdue accounts, new accounts and charges, negative net assets and sharp falls in cash.

Public-record signals still catch a lot. On 1 October 2026, 423,006 companies carried a proposal to strike off and 58% of them were also overdue with their accounts (strike-off statistics). You can check any company's status and balance sheet trend on our company search.

Best for: multi-year balance sheets, filing-based alerts and AI assistants, alongside a credit report when you need a limit.

How to choose

1. You need a credit limit for trade credit decisions: Creditsafe, Company Check, Endole or Experian. Ask each for a trial on companies you already know.
2. You need a fixed monthly price and no contract: Company Check or Endole.
3. You monitor a large portfolio for insolvency risk: Red Flag Alert or a Creditsafe contract.
4. You only need to confirm a company exists, files on time and has a healthy balance sheet: Companies House, or our free company check tool.
5. You need accounts data in code or an AI assistant: UK Company Data, or see Companies House API alternatives.

Sources

• Creditsafe: free company credit report
• GOV.UK: Commercial Credit Data Sharing consultation and call for evidence
• Endole pricing
• Company Check credit reports
• Experian Business Express credit reports
• Red Flag Alert packages and pricing

FAQ

Is there a free alternative to Creditsafe?

For basic checks, yes. Companies House is free and shows status, officers, owners, charges and every set of accounts filed. What no free source gives you is a credit score, a credit limit or CCJ data. Creditsafe itself offers a free company credit report and a free trial, which is often enough for a single decision.

How much does Creditsafe cost?

Creditsafe does not publish prices. You get a quote from its sales team based on the number of reports, users, countries and extras such as monitoring or API access. Alternatives with published prices include Company Check at £35 a month or £350 a year and Endole at £39 a month or £25 a month billed annually, checked 17 October 2026.

Which alternative has the same bank data as Creditsafe?

Under the Commercial Credit Data Sharing scheme, the nine designated banks share SME loan, credit card and current account data with four designated credit reference agencies: Creditsafe, Experian, Equifax and Dun & Bradstreet. If that bank data matters to your decisions, compare reports from those agencies rather than from tools built only on public records.

Can I replace Creditsafe with Companies House data?

Partly. Companies House data tells you whether a company exists, is filing on time, has charges or insolvency notices and how its net assets have moved. It cannot tell you whether the company pays its suppliers late or has unpaid judgments. For small, low-risk accounts that may be enough; for larger credit limits, use a credit report too.

Sources: Companies House register and accounts data (Open Government Licence v3.0), legislation.gov.uk and GOV.UK guidance where linked. This page is general information, not legal, tax or credit advice. Spotted an error? Email info@globalmindsetmarketing.co.uk.