Companies House

Companies House is the UK government register where companies are incorporated, filed, and searched by anyone who needs the paperwork trail. By our assessment, its real value is not style but certainty: you can look up company names, basic filing history, and the official record that sits behind a firm. The downside is the same thing that makes it reliable — it is administrative, not friendly, and it asks you to know what you are looking for. In practice it feels like a registry should: plain pages, formal labels, and a lot of forms rather than guidance. Compared with private business databases, it is the source of record rather than a polished directory, which is why people use it when accuracy matters more than convenience. It suits lawyers, accountants, journalists, and anyone checking a company’s existence, while casual users may find it spare and stiff.