UK Tender Alerts After Brexit: Contracts Finder vs Find a Tender
Discover how UK public tenders moved after Brexit and learn the key differences between Contracts Finder and Find a Tender platforms.
Stock photo for illustration only, not from the actual event
- UK notices stopped appearing on TED at the start of 2021 and moved to two UK government services.
- Find a Tender handles higher-value contracts, while Contracts Finder focuses on lower-value opportunities.
- Both services publish notices as OCDS JSON under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
- Weekly notice volume is low enough to pull everything and filter locally.
Following the UK's departure from the European Union, public notices officially stopped appearing on TED at the beginning of 2021. Today, these notices reside across two distinct UK government services, with placement determined primarily by the financial scale of each contract.
Find a Tender manages the higher-value contracts, mirroring the tier that historically went to TED. On the other hand, Contracts Finder hosts lower-value opportunities predominantly located in England, alongside a wealth of award notices and early market engagement data.
Stock photo for illustration only, not from the actual event
Relying on just one platform means missing vital opportunities. A boutique two-person IT consultancy will likely uncover more relevant projects on Contracts Finder, whereas a large facilities management firm pursuing multi-year frameworks will spend most of its time reviewing Find a Tender.
From a technical standpoint, both services publish notices as OCDS JSON under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Users are free to reuse this data commercially provided proper credit is given, and no API key is required to access it. However, the search endpoints only filter by date and stage, meaning keyword filtering, CPV code matching, and value thresholds are left to the developer.
Understanding OCDS (Open Contracting Data Standard) formatting is crucial for developers building custom notification pipelines, as standardized schemas eliminate the need for complex data transformation before storing records in spreadsheets or databases.
Surprisingly, during a typical week, each service only generates a few dozen new tender-stage notices. This volume is small enough to pull completely and filter locally without heavy infrastructure. For those wishing to bypass pipeline maintenance, an Apify actor named UK Public Tenders Tracker automates the process across both services for just $0.004 per tender without any subscription fees.
Source: Dev.to
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