How to set up Contracts Finder alerts
Contracts Finder (gov.uk/contracts-finder) is the UK government's free portal for English public sector contract notices under the Public Contracts Regulations 2015. Since the Procurement Act 2023 came into force on 24 February 2025, new tender notices, including below-threshold ones, are published on the Central Digital Platform (Find a Tender), so Contracts Finder now mainly carries procurements that started under the old rules. Setting up email alerts takes about five minutes. Go to the Contracts Finder website, click "Create an account" and register. Once logged in, use the search function to search by keyword (for example, "cleaning services") and apply any filters for contract value or buyer type. When you have a search that returns useful results, click "Save this search" and tick the option to receive email notifications. Contracts Finder will then email you when new contracts match your saved search.
You can save multiple searches to cover different keywords, buyer types, and contract values. Contracts Finder sends emails daily, so you will receive a digest of new matching notices each morning.
Getting the most out of Contracts Finder keyword alerts
A few habits make Contracts Finder alerts significantly more useful. Use multiple narrow searches rather than one broad one: "cleaning services" and "facilities management" and "soft FM" will catch notices described in different ways. Try CPV code search as well as keyword search: go to Advanced Search and enter the relevant CPV code (for example 90910000 for cleaning services) to find notices that use the code but may describe the work in unexpected language. Set a minimum contract value to filter out notices too small to be worth pursuing. And review your saved searches regularly, as terminology and buyer behaviour change.
What Contracts Finder does not cover
Contracts Finder is a genuinely useful free resource but it covers only part of the UK procurement market. The most significant gaps are: Scotland (Public Contracts Scotland is a separate register), Wales (Sell2Wales is a separate register), and Northern Ireland (eTendersNI is separate). Under the Procurement Act 2023, new notices of every value sit on Find a Tender, not Contracts Finder. Many councils, NHS trusts, housing associations, and other buyers publish below-threshold procurement only on their own portal (In-Tend, ProContract, Delta eSourcing or Jaggaer), and these notices never reach Contracts Finder. Framework call-off notices often appear only on the relevant framework portal. The result is that a supplier relying solely on Contracts Finder may be seeing only a small fraction of the market relevant to their work.
Contracts Finder vs Find a Tender: which to use?
Under the Procurement Act 2023 the split between the two registers has changed. Find a Tender, home of the Central Digital Platform, now carries all new notices for procurements under the Act, above and below the procurement thresholds (currently £207,720 including VAT for sub-central goods and services). Below-threshold contracts are notifiable from £12,000 including VAT for central government and £30,000 including VAT for other authorities, and if the buyer invites competitive tenders it must publish a below-threshold tender notice on Find a Tender. Contracts Finder still carries procurements that started under the old rules, so it is worth watching both for now, with Find a Tender as the primary source.
Why most suppliers end up needing more than Contracts Finder
Consider a cleaning contractor in the East Midlands. Their most valuable opportunities may include: an NHS trust contract published only on the trust's Atamis portal; a council contract published on the council's In-Tend system; a housing association contract advertised only on their Jaggaer portal; and a Scotland-wide FM contract on Public Contracts Scotland. None of these appear on Contracts Finder. TenderSignal aggregates Find a Tender, Contracts Finder, Public Contracts Scotland, Sell2Wales and 600+ buyer portals, including framework systems, into a single matched feed. You describe your business once and receive every relevant notice across all sources, not just the fraction that reaches Contracts Finder.
How TenderSignal extends your Contracts Finder coverage
TenderSignal reads Contracts Finder every day and includes it alongside Find a Tender, Public Contracts Scotland, Sell2Wales and 600+ buyer portals. Instead of separate keyword searches on each portal, you set your CPV codes, regions, and contract value range once, and receive a matched digest each morning. AI relevance scoring helps you triage which opportunities are worth pursuing. The free tier covers unlimited browsing, one saved search and a weekly new-match email; Pro delivers every match daily with AI relevance scoring. Create a free account to see how many live tenders across all UK sources match your business right now.
Want more than one portal? See why suppliers choose our Contracts Finder alternative.