What eTendersNI is
eTendersNI (etendersni.gov.uk) is the portal where Northern Ireland government departments, agencies and arm's-length bodies advertise opportunities for goods, services and works, according to its own homepage. The Department of Finance says it was introduced in April 2015, and that public sector bodies in Northern Ireland advertise their tender opportunities on it.
The Department of Finance states that registration and use is free for suppliers. To respond to a tender, and to make sure you receive notifications, you register as a supplier organisation. Registration asks for a D-U-N-S number, a nine-digit business identifier that the Department says is free to obtain, plus details such as company type and the share of your business carried out in Northern Ireland. The portal also provides registration walkthroughs, user manuals, FAQs and a helpdesk for suppliers new to public tendering.
What eTendersNI does well
- It is the official home of NI public sector tenders. It is where Northern Ireland government departments, agencies and arm's-length bodies publish their opportunities.
- It is free. There is no charge to register or use it.
- It is where you act. You respond to tenders through the portal. The site tracks calls for tenders, submissions, contracting authorities and awarded contracts.
TenderSignal does not replace any of this. You need an eTendersNI supplier account to respond to a Northern Ireland tender, however you first spotted it.
Why suppliers add TenderSignal
Many Northern Ireland suppliers sell beyond Northern Ireland too. Councils, housing associations, health bodies, universities and utilities in other parts of the UK and in Ireland advertise elsewhere, and many run their own portals. Checking each by hand is a daily chore. Here is how we approach it.
- Coverage beyond the national portals. We carry eTendersNI together with Find a Tender, Contracts Finder, Public Contracts Scotland, Sell2Wales and eTenders in Ireland, plus 600+ buyer portals on platforms such as In-Tend, Delta eSourcing, ProContract, Atamis and Jaggaer. Around one in four live tenders we carry is not on any national portal. They are on the buyer's own portal, and we bring them into one feed.
- A feed matched to your business. Tell us what you sell, then set region, sector and buyer type. You see what fits instead of repeating the same searches.
- Buyer contacts on Pro. The £39 a month + VAT plan shows the buyer's contact name, email and phone number where one is published.
The eTendersNI notices in our feed sit alongside everything else, so you can see Northern Ireland opportunities and the wider market in one list. For a view organised by place rather than by portal, use the Northern Ireland tenders hub. If you sell across the border, the Ireland tenders hub and our eTenders Ireland page cover the Republic's national portal.
eTendersNI and TenderSignal side by side
| Feature | eTendersNI | TenderSignal |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Official portal for Northern Ireland public sector tenders | A tender discovery and alert service for the UK and Ireland |
| Coverage | Northern Ireland departments, agencies and arm's-length bodies, per its website | UK and Ireland: eTendersNI, the other national portals and 600+ buyer portals |
| Registration | Free; supplier registration needed to respond and to receive notifications | Free account, no card; Pro from £39 a month + VAT |
| Responding to a tender | Yes, through the portal | No, you respond on the portal where the tender is run |
| Matched feed | Search, browse and notifications after registration | Matches to your profile, daily on Pro; weekly count of new matches on Free |
| Buyer contacts | As published in each notice | Free on tenders also on the national portals; all of them on Pro |
| Price | Free | Free plan; Pro £39/month + VAT; Business from £99/month + VAT |
Which to use
eTendersNI alone suits suppliers who sell only to Northern Ireland departments and agencies and are happy to check the portal themselves.
Adding TenderSignal suits businesses that also sell to councils, health bodies, housing associations or universities, or that work across Great Britain and Ireland. The usual pattern is simple: find the opportunity in your TenderSignal feed, then register and respond on eTendersNI or on the buyer's own portal.
Free lets you browse and discover, with no card: the free plan lets you browse every live tender, with search, filters, award history and competitor profiles, and one saved search with its matches in your account, with a weekly email of how many new tenders it found. Pro does the finding for you every morning, with daily delivery of every match, an AI relevance score with its reasoning, buyer contacts, matches not on the national portals, contracts coming up for renewal in your sectors, unlimited saved searches and tender tracking with reminders. Business is £99 a month + VAT for up to 20 seats, with a 30% discount for registered charities. See pricing, or set up free tender alerts in a couple of minutes.
To explore further, browse the sector pages, the buyer directory or the awarded contracts pages for who won what. Compare our other guides in the alternatives overview, including Public Contracts Scotland and Sell2Wales.