The free Companies House Advanced company search can list new incorporations by date, address text, SIC code, status and type with no account, and it will download a CSV of the first 5,000 matching rows.
Its limits are real: one Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) code per search, a registered-office filter that matches address text rather than a geographic area, and no way to save or schedule a search for next time. None of that stops a single search from working well for a one-off job. The practical decision most practices face is not whether to use Companies House — it is public and free either way — but whether running the same search once, by hand, is enough, or whether it needs to happen every week without re-typing every filter. This guide walks through the exact steps, works a hypothetical example, and compares the manual route against the other ways of getting the same result.
What the free search can and cannot do
The Advanced company search sits on the Companies House website and needs no sign-in. Once its filter sections are expanded, it offers an incorporation-date range, a registered-office address text box, company status checkboxes, one Standard Industrial Classification field, company type and subtype checkboxes, and a dissolved-date range. A results page shows a count, twenty results per page, and a “Download results” button.
Three limits shape everything that follows. First, the SIC field accepts one code at a time — entering several separated by commas returns an error, so a search across three related activities means three separate searches. Second, the address field is a text match on the filed registered-office string, not a postcode-area search, so it can miss a company whose address text lacks the word searched for, or catch one that happens to share it. Third, the site displays at most 10,000 results and downloads at most the first 5,000 as a CSV, so a broad, unfiltered search is a number to read, not a list to work from.
A dated walkthrough
The steps below were reproduced on 17 September 2026 in a clean browser session without an account, using the field labels as displayed on that date. No screenshots are included; the wording in the Action and Output columns is what appeared on screen at the time.
| Step | Purpose | Owner | Input | Action | Output | Completion check | Common failure |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Reach the live filtering tool without creating an account. | You | A web browser. | Open the Advanced company search page. | The search form loads with no sign-in prompt. | The page title reads “Advanced company search”. | Using the plain search box on the Companies House homepage instead, which has none of these filters. |
| 2 | Reveal every filter section, which are collapsed by default. | You | The loaded search form. | Click “Show all filters”. | Incorporation date, status, SIC and company type sections are all visible. | Every filter field described below is on screen at once. | Looking for the SIC field before expanding filters and assuming it does not exist. |
| 3 | Narrow to companies whose filed address text matches a place. | You | A place name or partial address, e.g. “Bristol”. | Type the text into “Enter a full or partial address”. | An address filter is queued for the search. | The typed text appears in the field. | Treating this as a radius or boundary search; it is a text match on the address string only. |
| 4 | Set a defined incorporation window. | You | A From and To date, day/month/year, e.g. “18 08 2026” to “17 09 2026”. | Enter the incorporation date From and To fields. | A bounded incorporation-date filter. | Both fields show the intended dates in day, month, year order. | Transposing day and month — the field's own example, “27 03 2007”, is day first. |
| 5 | Exclude companies whose current register status is not wanted. | You | A status choice, e.g. Active. | Tick the company status checkbox. | A status filter is applied. | The checkbox shows ticked. | Leaving every status box unticked, which returns every status including dissolved companies. |
| 6 | Narrow to one declared business activity. | You | One five-digit SIC code, e.g. 43220. | Type the single code into “Nature of business”. | An activity filter is applied. | Exactly one code appears in the field. | Entering more than one code, comma-separated or repeated, which returns “Error: Enter a valid SIC code” — confirmed on 17 September 2026. |
| 7 | Restrict to a legal form the practice can service. | You | A company type, e.g. Private limited company. | Tick the company type checkbox. | A type filter is applied. | The checkbox shows ticked. | Overlooking that Community interest company and Private fund limited partnership sit under a separate subtype list, not the main type checkboxes. |
| 8 | Run the combined filter set. | You | The completed filter form. | Click “Search”. | A results page. | The page shows “N results” at the top. | Clicking “Clear search” instead, which resets every filter just entered. |
| 9 | Record a historical volume for this exact window and filter set. | You | The results page. | Read the result count; note that only twenty show per page and at most 10,000 can be displayed. | A dated count tied to a specific filter combination. | The count, the date and the exact filters used are written down together. | Quoting a count later without its date and filters — results change daily as the register updates. |
| 10 | Get a working file of the matching companies, up to the cap. | You | The results page. | Click “Download results”. | A CSV file with 11 columns, capped at the first 5,000 rows. | The file opens with the expected columns and no more than 5,000 rows. | Assuming the CSV holds every result when the count exceeds 5,000; only the first 5,000 download. |
A hypothetical example
Take a hypothetical four-person accountancy practice in Bristol that wants owner-managed trades and small construction contractors as clients. Using the steps above with the window 18 August to 17 September 2026 (the preceding 31 days), status Active and company type Private limited company, two versions of the same idea produce different historical counts:
- A specialist search — address text “Bristol”, one SIC code, 43220 (plumbing, heat and air-conditioning installation) — returned 8 results, a single search.
- A balanced search — the same address text and window, run three times for SIC codes 43210 (electrical installation), 43220 and 43390 (other building completion and finishing) — returned 5, 8 and 7 results respectively, 20 in total across three separate searches. A company that filed two of those codes would appear in more than one search, so this total can double-count; the free search has no way to de-duplicate across separate runs.
Both figures are historical 31-day counts observed on 17 September 2026, not a forecast of future incorporations or client demand. A wider, unfiltered search on the same address text and window returned 546 results — a useful upper bound, but not itself a reviewable list.
Free search vs a repeatable workflow
The manual walkthrough above answers a single question on a single day. The table below compares it, on the same task, against the other ways of getting new-incorporation data out of Companies House.
| Criterion | Free web Advanced search | Advanced search API | Free Company Data Product (monthly snapshot) | A repeatable filtered workflow |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Setup | None — open the page. | Free registration for an API key. | Download a roughly 469 MB zip, or seven smaller parts. | Someone defines the filter criteria once, in a spreadsheet, script or service. |
| Multi-SIC filter | One code per search; repeat for each. | Several codes in one call, comma-delimited or repeated. | None built in; filter the downloaded file yourself. | As many codes as the definition specifies, applied together. |
| Address / geography | Text match on the filed address string. | A location parameter, still text-based. | Registered-address fields in the file; you build any geography logic yourself. | Depends on the process; can still be limited to the same text match underneath. |
| Status and type | Checkboxes for both, applied per search. | Both available as call parameters. | Present as fields in the file; apply your own filter. | As specified in the saved definition. |
| Saved definition | None — nothing is remembered between visits. | None server-side; your own script has to store the parameters. | None — your filter logic lives outside the file. | Stored and reused without re-entering it. |
| Rerun effort | Repeat every filter by hand each time. | Low once scripted; manual otherwise. | Download and refilter again next month. | Low after the initial setup. |
| Export | CSV, first 5,000 rows, 11 columns. | JSON, up to 5,000 rows per call, paged for more. | The full snapshot of live companies; you extract what you need. | Typically a smaller, already-filtered list rather than a raw file. |
| Coverage and limits | Live register; 10,000 displayed, 5,000 downloaded, one SIC code. | Live register; 600 requests per five-minute period, higher on request. | Live companies only, compiled at month end. | Bounded by whatever Companies House publishes and by the definition chosen. |
| Freshness | Live, as current as the register. | Live, same register. | Monthly; a new incorporation can be weeks old before it appears. | As often as the process reruns — commonly daily to weekly. |
| Review control | Full manual control; every row reviewed by hand. | Whatever the calling script and its user perform. | Full, once you have built your own filtering. | The reviewer decides relevance from a shorter list; the process does not decide for them. |
| Cost | Free. | Free to register; needs someone who can call an API or write retrieval code. | Free; needs the tooling and time to work with a large file. | Varies — staff time to build and maintain an in-house process, or a subscription to a service that does it. |
For a single, occasional question — who incorporated in a particular town last month, say — the free manual search is enough on its own, and anything else adds setup for little benefit. The comparison matters once the same search must run every week: re-typing several SIC searches and keeping the address text and window consistent becomes the real cost, not the search itself.
Caveats to keep in mind
- Address is a text match, not a geography. Searching “Bristol” matches any filed registered-office address containing that text; it is not a postcode-area or radius search.
- One SIC code per web search. Multiple codes need multiple searches, or the API.
- Display and download caps. At most 10,000 results display and at most 5,000 download as a CSV; a larger result set needs narrower filters to see it all.
- Company type and status are self-declared filters, not outcomes. They describe the register entry a director filed or a status the register currently shows, not whether the company is trading or the type is still accurate.
- Incorporation is not trading. HMRC's guidance on trading and non-trading companies (checked 17 September 2026) confirms that forming a company does not itself make it active; a newly incorporated company may not yet be carrying on any business activity.
- Counts change daily. Every figure in this guide is a snapshot from a specific date; rerunning the same search tomorrow can return a different number as the register updates.
For what each register field means, see the Companies House data guide, and for choosing SIC codes deliberately, see SIC codes explained. Companies House also publishes its own register accuracy guidance and the Advanced search API reference for anyone building on it.
Run the free manual search first. It costs nothing and, for a one-off question, is usually the whole answer. If the same filters need to run every week, the next question is how to turn this walkthrough into a profile sized to what the practice can review — covered in building a useful new-company search profile.
How Launch Register can help
Every step above works without it. Where a repeatable search is the constraint, Launch Register stores the search definition — the postcode areas, SIC codes and company type it matches on — and reruns it, presenting a smaller list to review each time instead of the raw results. The search definition and every decision about which company is relevant remain the practice's. See how Launch Register works.
See how a repeatable profile works
Turn the filters from this walkthrough into a saved profile and review a personalised sample of matches.
Personalised sample of up to 10 companies · no card required · £29/month to continue