Compared with doing it yourself
Unlike searching The Gazette by hand, every notice arrives matched to its company number
The official sources are free and they are the authority. InsolvencyRadar reads them for you every hour, joins the notice to the company and tells you about the ones on your list.
Quick verdict
Which should you pick?
Last updated 13 October 2026. Competitor prices and features as published on that date.
The category
What is a company insolvency monitoring tool?
In the UK, a company entering insolvency is announced in The Gazette, the official public record, while Companies House holds the company's register entry and filings. Checking a company yourself means searching both. An insolvency monitoring service reads the notices for you, matches them to company numbers and alerts you about the companies you care about.
At a glance
Two different jobs
InsolvencyRadar does one thing: it tells you when a UK company enters a formal insolvency process, from the official notice, at a published price. Companies House and The Gazette is built for a different job, described below in its own terms.
InsolvencyRadar
Every corporate insolvency notice in The Gazette, read hourly and matched to its Companies House number, with one alert across your whole watchlist.
Best for: Anyone watching dozens or hundreds of customers or suppliers, and software that needs the status by number.
Companies House and The Gazette
The Gazette publishes the official notices, with free search and email alerts. Companies House lets you follow companies for free and offers a free API for register data.
Best for: Occasional checks on a few companies, and anyone who needs the official record itself.
From our own record
35% of liquidation notices were solvent
Of the 13,879 liquidation notices The Gazette published in the last 90 days, 4,874 were members' voluntary liquidations: a company closing down that can pay its debts in full. The Gazette prints them under the same headings as insolvent liquidations, so a reader going by titles alone would flag every one of them.
- Liquidation notices
- 13,879
- Solvent (MVL)
- 4,874
- Share solvent
- 35%
- Window
- 90 days
Counted from InsolvencyRadar's own record of Gazette notices and recalculated every hour.
Feature by feature
InsolvencyRadar and Companies House and The Gazette side by side
The table compares what each one publicly offers as of 13 October 2026. A shaded cell marks the side that does that row better; some rows have no winner because the two do it differently. Competitor prices come from the sources listed further down.
| Feature | InsolvencyRadar | Companies House and The Gazette |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | From €19 a month | Free |
| Official authority | Links every event to the official notice | They are the official record |
| Notice matched to Companies House number | Every notice, including those whose summary is cut off before the number | You match it yourself |
| Solvent liquidations separated | Yes, by notice code | Same headings as insolvent ones |
| One alert across a whole list | Watch 250 or 1,000 companies | Follow companies one by one |
| Webhook to your systems | Yes | Email alerts |
| API for insolvency status | €0.02 per check | Companies House API free for register data; Gazette bulk data from £618 a year (2023 list) |
| AI agent access (MCP) | Yes | No |
| Personal insolvency | Not covered | Published in The Gazette |
Strengths
Where each one is genuinely better
Neither is better at everything. InsolvencyRadar is narrower on purpose: it covers the insolvency signal only, and covers it well. Companies House and The Gazette wins wherever the job needs more than that signal, and those strengths are real.
InsolvencyRadar
-
The join is done for you
About a third of Gazette feed summaries are cut off before the company number; InsolvencyRadar resolves each one through the notice's linked data.
-
Solvent closures kept apart
Members' voluntary liquidations, where the company can pay its debts, are labelled solvent instead of looking like insolvencies.
-
One list, one alert
Add 250 or 1,000 company numbers once and hear about any of them, instead of following each company separately.
-
Webhooks, API and MCP
The same status reaches your systems by webhook, your code by API and an AI agent by MCP.
Companies House and The Gazette
-
Free
Searching The Gazette and following companies at Companies House costs nothing.
-
The official record
The Gazette notice is the authority; any service, including this one, reads from it.
-
Personal insolvency included
The Gazette also publishes personal insolvency notices, which InsolvencyRadar deliberately does not cover.
-
Register data
Companies House has filings, officers and accounts, which InsolvencyRadar does not.
Decision helper
Which one fits your situation?
Read down both lists and count which one describes you better. If both do, the two can run side by side: many teams keep a broader source for some decisions and use InsolvencyRadar purely to watch existing customers and suppliers.
Choose InsolvencyRadar if
- ✓ You watch more than a handful of companies
- ✓ You need to hear the day a notice is published
- ✓ You do not want solvent closures flagged as insolvencies
- ✓ Your systems need a webhook or an API
- ✓ An AI agent needs to check suppliers
Choose Companies House and The Gazette if
- ✓ You check a few companies occasionally
- ✓ You need the official notice text itself
- ✓ You need personal insolvency notices
- ✓ Your budget is zero
Questions
What people ask when comparing
How do I check if a company is in liquidation for free?
Search the company on The Gazette for insolvency notices, and check its status at Companies House. Both are free and official. Remember that a liquidation notice can be a solvent members' voluntary liquidation, which The Gazette prints under the same headings as an insolvent one.
Why pay when The Gazette is free?
The Gazette publishes the notices but does not watch your customer list for you. InsolvencyRadar matches every notice to its company number, separates solvent liquidations and sends one email or webhook across your whole watchlist the day a notice appears.
How many liquidation notices are actually solvent?
In the last 90 days, 35% of Gazette liquidation notices were members' voluntary liquidations, where the directors declared the company can pay its debts in full. A reader going by notice titles alone would count every one of them as insolvent. The figure is recalculated from the record every hour.
Is Companies House status enough on its own?
It is a good check, but a company's register status changes when filings are processed, while the Gazette notice is the public announcement of the insolvency itself. Checking both, or using a service that reads every notice for you, gives the fuller and earlier picture.
Sources
Where the competitor facts come from
Every claim about Companies House and The Gazette on this page comes from the pages below, read on 13 October 2026. Prices and features change; check the source before you decide, and tell us if anything here is out of date.
Related
Other comparisons
Hear the day a customer enters insolvency.
Watch 250 UK companies for €19 a month, or check one for €0.02 over the API. Monthly plans start with a 7-day free trial.
- Published price
- No sales call
- Every alert links to The Gazette