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Contracts Advance alternative: the £1,399 email alert, compared.
A UK buyer put it better than we could, on r/smallbusinessuk: "We did sign up to ContractsAdvance and although that was an excellent system, it was so expensive given we basically just wanted an email alert." Both halves of that sentence deserve taking seriously. This page quotes Contracts Advance's own pages and terms, sets the two products side by side, and says where they are the better buy.
The short version. Contracts Advance sells UK tender software on annual contracts from £1,399 a year excluding VAT, with unlimited users on every plan, a 3-day trial, no monthly option and no free tier. Its terms state fees are "non-cancellable and non-refundable", contracts renew automatically for a period equal to the original term unless you give 60 calendar days' notice, and renewal fees rise by the higher of 5.0% a year or UK CPI. TenderVerdict sells the judgment: every relevant UK and EU notice judged BID, STRETCH or SKIP each morning, reasons and skips shown, €99 a month or free weekly, cancelled from one email. If you want a team platform with human bid help, buy theirs. If you wanted an email that reads the notices for you, that is us.
At a glance
| Contracts Advance | TenderVerdict | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | UK tender software sold on annual contracts; began in 2008 as 7House, based at 23 Gay Street, Bath | A daily judged brief: which tenders to bid on, which to skip, and why |
| Published price | Search £1,399, Discover £2,099, Explore £2,999 a year, all excluding VAT | €99 a month; €49 a month for the first 20 accounts; free Monday digest |
| Billing and trial | Annual only, no monthly plan and no free tier; 3-day trial | Monthly, cancel from one email; free plan with no clock |
| Contract | Fees are "non-cancellable and non-refundable"; renews for a period equal to the original term unless you give 60 calendar days' notice | Monthly, no notice period |
| Coverage | We make no claim: the facts we work from include no source or country list. Ask them, in writing | UK Find a Tender and Contracts Finder in full, EU above threshold via TED, France below threshold via BOAMP |
| Automatic output | "one daily email of all tenders published in the past 24 hours that are highly relevant to you" | A decision per notice with the reason: BID, STRETCH or SKIP |
| Says no for you | No AI, relevance score or bid or no-bid feature on their product pages | Yes, most mornings, with the reason |
| Shows what it filtered out | Not among the features they publish | Yes, every skip listed with its reason, plus an audit line of what was read |
| Seats | Unlimited user access on every plan | One account per firm, everyone who needs the brief |
| Beyond alerts | Human bid review sold separately: £750 for one day, £1,495 for two | MCP endpoint so Claude or ChatGPT can ask the judge why |
Contracts Advance facts from contractsadvance.co.uk/pricing/, /our-services/software/, /find-public-sector-tenders, /terms-conditions-v16 and /about-us, plus the r/smallbusinessuk thread "What is everyone using for tender alerts?". Read 6 September 2026.
What Contracts Advance does well
- Unlimited users, on every plan. Not the top tier only, which removes the seat argument entirely.
- They can also sell you the fix. Human bid review at £750 for one day and £1,495 for two. We judge the notice. They will put a person on the response.
- One email, not a portal habit. The core promise is "one daily email of all tenders published in the past 24 hours that are highly relevant to you". That is the right shape for a busy team, and the shape we build on too.
- Prices on the page, and a long record. All three tiers and both advisory add-ons are published, which several competitors will not do, and the business has traded since 2008.
Where teams outgrow it, in their own words
One buyer account and two lines from their own terms. Quoted, not paraphrased; not findings of ours.
- The price against the job. "We did sign up to ContractsAdvance and although that was an excellent system, it was so expensive given we basically just wanted an email alert." (r/smallbusinessuk, "What is everyone using for tender alerts?", read 6 September 2026)
- What the contract says. Their terms state subscription fees are "non-cancellable and non-refundable".
- How it renews, and at what. The agreement renews automatically for a period equal to the original term unless you give at least 60 calendar days' notice, so a three-year deal renews for another three years. On renewal, fees rise by the higher of 5.0% per annum or UK CPI.
On reviews we will be straight with you: independent customer reviews of Contracts Advance are almost non-existent. That is not a criticism and should not be read as one. It does mean there is little third-party evidence either way, so weigh the published price, the terms and a trial rather than a star rating.
Note what the reviewer did not say. He called it an excellent system. The mismatch was between what he bought and what he needed. A daily email of relevant notices is a good product; it is just not a decision, and £1,399 a year is a lot to pay for a list you still have to read.
The question no alert tool answers
"What did you throw away, and why?" Every tool in this category filters, and a filter you cannot inspect is one you have to double-check by hand. TenderVerdict's brief ends with the skipped tenders, each with a one-line reason, and an audit line saying how many notices we read, how many came from your countries and how many were judged. That is the difference between a quiet morning and a blind one.
Pricing, honestly
| Plan | Price | Billing | Seats | Trial or free tier | Verified |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Contracts Advance Search | £1,399 a year, excluding VAT | Annual, renews for an equal term unless 60 days' notice | Unlimited | 3-day trial | 6 Sep 2026, contractsadvance.co.uk/pricing/ |
| Contracts Advance Discover | £2,099 a year, excluding VAT | As above | Unlimited | 3-day trial | 6 Sep 2026, contractsadvance.co.uk/pricing/ |
| Contracts Advance Explore | £2,999 a year, excluding VAT | As above | Unlimited | 3-day trial | 6 Sep 2026, contractsadvance.co.uk/pricing/ |
| Bid review add-ons | £750 for one day, £1,495 for two days | Bought per review | Not applicable | None | 6 Sep 2026, contractsadvance.co.uk/pricing/ |
| TenderVerdict Pro | €99 a month, or €49 for the first 20 accounts, locked for 12 months | Monthly, cancel any time | Whole firm | Free Monday digest, no clock | This site |
Their entry tier is £1,399 excluding VAT, which is £1,678.80 in year one once UK VAT at 20% is added. Ours is €1,188 a year at €99 a month, or €588 on the founding deal, cancellable from one email. Compare like with like before you take our word for the gap.
Choose Contracts Advance if
- Several people need the same feed and you want the seat question gone.
- You want human bid help and software from one supplier, at a published price.
- An annual or multi-year commitment suits how you buy, and 60 days' notice is not a problem.
- You want a UK supplier with a long trading history.
Choose TenderVerdict if
- You are a 2 to 20 person digital, marketing, software or consultancy firm and you basically just wanted an email alert that had already been read.
- You want a decision on each relevant tender, with the reason, before you open anything.
- You want to see what was skipped so you can trust what was not.
- A four-figure annual commitment before your first won bid is not a risk you want.
Where TenderVerdict does not fit
We read four official public feeds and judge notices, not tender packs. We hold no award archive and no buyer contacts, we do not write or review bids, we do not deliver to Slack, Teams or your CRM, and we give no coverage guarantee. Our coverage page and judge page state the edges.
Frequently asked questions
How much does Contracts Advance cost?
Search is £1,399 for one year excluding VAT, Discover £2,099 and Explore £2,999, both excluding VAT. There is no monthly plan and no free tier; the trial is 3 days. Human bid reviews cost £750 for one day and £1,495 for two.
Can I cancel Contracts Advance mid-term?
Their terms state that subscription fees are "non-cancellable and non-refundable", and that the agreement renews automatically for a period equal to the original term unless you give at least 60 calendar days' written notice. Check the current terms before signing.
Does the price rise at renewal?
Their terms state that on renewal, fees are increased by the higher of 5.0% per annum or the rate of increase of the UK Consumer Price Index over the previous subscription period.
Does Contracts Advance decide whether you should bid?
It publishes no AI, relevance score or bid or no-bid feature on its product pages. The automatic output is "one daily email of all tenders published in the past 24 hours that are highly relevant to you". A human bid review is sold separately.
Which countries does Contracts Advance cover?
We do not state one, because the facts we work from include no source or country list. Ask them directly, in writing. TenderVerdict reads UK Find a Tender and Contracts Finder in full, TED for every EU country above the thresholds, and France below threshold via BOAMP.
Is TenderVerdict a replacement for Contracts Advance?
Only for the daily email. Contracts Advance includes unlimited user access and sells human bid review. If your team uses those, it is doing work we do not do.
Related
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