Companies House Follow vs FilingPing - which do you need?
Companies House offers a free way to get an email when a company changes something on the register. If you only need to keep an eye on a handful of companies, it may be all you need. This guide explains what Follow does, based on Companies House's own pages, and where a dedicated monitoring tool such as FilingPing adds something. We have a commercial interest here, so we have tried to be fair.
What Companies House Follow does
"Follow" is part of the Companies House Find and update company information service. Based on Companies House and GOV.UK pages:
- It is free.
- You need an account. GOV.UK says you register an email address and password with the service before you can use it.
- You follow a company from its page. Search for the company, open it and choose the option to follow it.
- It emails you when something is filed. Companies House says the alert tells you what has been filed as soon as it has been accepted, with a link to the company's filing history where you can download the document free of charge. You are also emailed when Companies House removes a transaction.
- The company is not told. Companies House says the company you follow will never find out.
- It covers strike-off proposals. A Companies House blog post says following a company is the most reliable way to learn of a proposal to remove it from the register.
For what it is, that is a good service. It is free, official, and fast once a filing is accepted. Its own guidance suggests directors and auditors use it to keep track of changes.
What we could not confirm
Not everything about the service is spelled out in the pages we read, so we are careful here.
- Limits. None of the pages we read state a limit on how many companies you can follow, and none describe a bulk way to follow many at once. We can only say the pages do not say. Check for yourself if you need large numbers.
- Alerts for missed deadlines. The alert is described as being about information filed and accepted. A missed accounts deadline is an absence of a filing, so, as our inference, it may not trigger an email. We could not verify either way.
- Gazette notices. We could not verify whether Follow tells you about insolvency notices that appear in The Gazette before or alongside anything on the register.
Where Follow can fall short for credit control
Following one company at a time from the website works for a small list. It gets awkward if you have hundreds of customers and suppliers, if the emails need to reach a team rather than one person, or if you want to feed changes into another system. The point is not that Follow is bad. It was built for a different job than managing a customer book.
What FilingPing adds
FilingPing watches UK companies on the Companies House register and alerts you to the changes credit controllers care about. From our product facts:
- Alerts for the signals that matter, including status changes (for example into liquidation or administration), overdue accounts and confirmation statements, insolvency filings, and strike-off or dissolution notices filed at Companies House, plus name changes, charges and officer or PSC filings. Alerts usually arrive within minutes of Companies House publishing a change.
- Spreadsheet upload of up to 5,000 companies at once, so you do not have to add each one by hand.
- Delivery where your team works: Slack (Starter plan and above), signed webhooks (Pro and above) and an API.
FilingPing watches the Companies House register, not The Gazette itself. Notices that appear only in The Gazette, such as a winding-up petition advert, are not covered until something is filed at Companies House.
- A daily digest, so a busy inbox is not flooded.
- Filters, so you can choose which kinds of change you see.
There is a free plan that covers five companies. We do not promise guaranteed timing, and no alert can tell you about something that has not yet been published.
Which do you need?
Follow is probably enough if:
- you watch a handful of companies,
- one person reads the alerts,
- and you are happy with an email for each filing.
Consider FilingPing if:
- you monitor dozens or thousands of companies, or upload them from a spreadsheet,
- you want overdue accounts and insolvency-type changes highlighted,
- you want alerts in Slack or in your own systems via webhooks or the API,
- or you want a daily digest.
Using both is also perfectly reasonable.
A short checklist
- List the customers and suppliers whose failure would hurt you.
- Decide how many companies that is and who needs the alerts.
- Try the free route first: follow your top few companies on Companies House.
- Use our free Company check for a quick look at any company.
- If you outgrow one-at-a-time alerts, start on the free plan.
This guide is general information, not legal or financial advice.
Sources
- Follow companies for free (GOV.UK)
- How to follow companies on the Companies House register (Companies House blog)
- Objecting to a company being struck off is now easier (Companies House blog)
- About our services, Companies House (GOV.UK)
- Searching the Companies House register (GOV.UK)
Updated 30 September 2026 · All guides
Get alerts before it's too late
FilingPing watches the companies you trade with and alerts you, usually within minutes of Companies House publishing a change: insolvency filings, strike-off notices, overdue accounts and more.