For public sector buyers
Find the suppliers already doing the work, before you go to market
Search the published contract awards for the work you are about to buy. See who has delivered it, for which public bodies, in which part of the UK, and whether they are a small business, a charity or a social enterprise. Every name comes with the contracts that put it there.
Free for people at councils, NHS bodies, housing associations, universities, colleges, schools and central government. No card, no purchase order.
What the account gives you
Three views a category manager would otherwise build by hand
Find suppliers
Describe the work, choose an area and, if you want, only SMEs, voluntary sector organisations, charities or community interest companies. Suppliers are ranked by how many matching contracts they have won, with the buyers they won them from.
Your contracts coming up for renewal
Every contract of yours with a published end date in the next 18 months, soonest first, with the incumbent. The same list suppliers watching your organisation see, so you know which conversations are coming.
Who supplies you now
Your main suppliers by contracts awarded, and how many of them are SMEs or voluntary sector, as they declared it. Useful when the social value or SME spend question comes up at committee.
How suppliers are found
Evidence, not a directory people paid to join
A supplier appears because it won a published UK public contract whose title or description contains the words you searched for. Nobody can buy their way into the ranking, and nothing is there because a supplier said so.
Suppliers who use Tender Radar can certify their own size and type and name a person for market engagement. They are shown in a separate, labelled group with that contact, and are never ranked above anyone else.
- Where: where each notice says the work is delivered, or the buyer's location when it does not say. Never a registered office.
- SME and voluntary sector: as the supplier declared on its award notices, and only when every recent notice agrees.
- Charity: matched to the Charity Commission and Scottish Charity Regulator registers.
- Every supplier links to its contracts and to the original notices.
- Award data from Find a Tender, Contracts Finder, Public Contracts Scotland and Sell2Wales, under the Open Government Licence.
Preliminary market engagement
Widen the field, then engage it fairly
The Procurement Act 2023 encourages engaging the market before a procurement, and expects that engagement not to give any supplier an unfair advantage. The finder is built for the first half: finding capable suppliers you might not otherwise have heard of, particularly smaller and voluntary sector ones. Where a supplier has worked is evidence of experience, not a reason to prefer it.
Questions
Before you ask for an account
Who can have a buyer account?
Anyone working for an organisation that puts tenders out: councils, NHS bodies, housing associations, universities, colleges, schools, police, fire and central government. Use your work email address. If your organisation's own notices use that email domain, we send you a sign-in link straight away; otherwise a person checks it first.
Why can I not use a Gmail or Outlook address?
Because the address is how we know where you work. A buyer account shows market engagement contacts that suppliers gave for public sector buyers, so it has to go to people at public bodies.
What does it cost?
Nothing. Buyer accounts are free and stay free. Suppliers pay for Tender Radar's tender alerts and intelligence; buyers do not.
Can I use it from Claude or ChatGPT?
Yes, free with a buyer account. Add Tender Radar as a connector in Claude or ChatGPT, approve it once, and ask in plain English: which SMEs have delivered this kind of work in your region, who holds similar contracts and what they were worth, or what of yours ends next year. It reads published contract data only, never a supplier's private account or contact address.
Is my searching shared with suppliers?
No. We keep a record of searches, with the account that made them, to see what buyers look for and improve the finder. We never tell a supplier who searched or what for.
Try it on the next thing you are about to buy
Ask for an account with your work email, search for the work, and see whether the shortlist is one you could have put together otherwise.
Free for people at public bodies. No card.