One search: CCJs, winding-up petitions, up to five years of accounts and the company credit score (R-Score) — for every company registered in England & Wales.
Search any company registered in England & Wales by name or company number, free, with no card and no time limit. You get the credit risk rating (R-Score), backed by real-world data, County Court Judgments (CCJs), winding-up petitions, secured charges, filing behaviour and five years of filed financials — taken directly from Companies House, HMCTS and The Gazette, not resold from a third party credit risk platform with no UK market insights. 5.1 million companies are searchable; 3.4 million carry a credit score (R-Score).
The R-Score is a 0–100 credit risk gauge, paired with a 1–10 risk rating where 1 is the lowest risk. It weighs profitability (42%), asset quality (38%) and funding (20%) from filed accounts. It also uses signals outside the accounts: overdue filings, secured charges, CCJs from HMCTS court records and winding-up petitions from The Gazette. An active winding-up petition forces a rating of 10 (Distressed), whatever the accounts say. Read the full methodology.
Yes. Company pages, R-Scores, alerts and PDF reports are 100% free with no card and no time limit. The Open API is available for developers. The product uses a freemium pricing model.
The R-Score is a 0-100 credit risk gauge built from filed accounts, filing behaviour, charges, County Court Judgments and winding-up petitions. It is paired with a 1-10 risk rating where 1 is the lowest risk. Full calculation details are on the methodology page.
Primary public sources only: Companies House filings, HMCTS court records for County Court Judgments, The Gazette for insolvency and winding-up activity, and the charges register. It is not resold credit bureau data.
No. Searching for a company on Black Flag Alert leaves no footprint and does not affect its credit rating or score in any way.
Companies House filings, court records and Gazette notices are monitored continuously, and CCJ and winding-up petition alerts are checked daily, so risk profiles reflect the latest public record.
Around 5.1 million companies registered in England & Wales are searchable and about 3.4 million carry a R-Score. Scottish, Northern Irish and overseas companies are not covered.
Anyone can search and view company risk profiles for free. Creating a free account adds alerts when a risk profile changes, watchlists and downloadable PDF reports.
Credit bureaus resell data and charge per report. Black Flag Alert computes its R-Score directly from primary public records — Companies House, HMCTS, The Gazette and the charges register — and gives the result away free.
We put Black Flag Alert next to RedFlag Alert and Company Watch on the data that decides a credit check. This is how the three stack up.
How to read this grid: tick = included. amber dash = partial or paid tier only. cross = not offered. Details under each mark come from the providers' own published material and our own audits, with dates at the foot of the page.
| Data function | Black Flag Alertfree for everyone | Company Watchpaid plans | RedFlag Alertpaid subscription |
|---|---|---|---|
| Risk scoring | |||
| Headline risk scoreThe number you act on | YesR-Score 0 to 100, plus a Risk Rating of 1 to 10 with plain band labels. | YesH-Score 0 to 100, plus a colour-coded risk rating. | YesCategories, not numbers: Gold, Silver, Bronze, then one to three red flags. |
| Score breakdownSee why the score is what it is | YesThree components with published weights: Profit 42%, Assets 38%, Funding 20%. Every ratio explained in plain English. | PartialH-Score factors shown, but the formula is proprietary. | NoSingle composite score. The breakdown field exists but is locked behind premium tiers. |
| Event overrideA winding-up petition beats healthy accounts | YesAn active winding-up petition forces Risk Rating 10, whatever the accounts say. | NoH-Score is purely financial. Petition data sits in separate Gold-tier feeds. | YesDetrimental events force the three-red-flag rating. |
| 5-year score trend | YesCharted per company with a warning threshold. | PartialHistorical H-Score available in reports. | NoCurrent rating only. |
| Recommended credit limit | YesFigure plus a plain-English credit recommendation. | YesCredit and contract limits, from Bronze tier. | YesCredit limit and a separate credit score. |
| Company financials | |||
| Filed accounts depth | 5 yearsTurnover, operating profit, PBT, net assets and staff per year, direct from Companies House iXBRL. | YesFull financial statement explorer as a paid add-on. | PartialRatios surfaced, not the full filed figures. |
| Ratio breadth | 9 ratios × 5 yearsROCE, RONW, margins, leverage, interest cover, current ratio, cash coverage, each with an explanation. | YesRatio analytics around the H-Score. | 27 ratiosWide set, including per-employee measures. |
| Sector benchmarking | YesCash vs sector peers: percentile against thousands of same-sector companies. | YesIndustry percentile positioning. | No |
| Data quality indicator | YesPer company: how many metrics were usable, scored out of 100. We show our confidence, not just the result. | No | No |
| Court and insolvency events | |||
| County Court Judgements | DailyChecked daily from HMCTS records, shown on the company page. | NoNot listed in current plans. | Yes |
| Winding-up petitions | DailyFrom The Gazette, checked daily, overrides the score. | Gold tierIncludes unadvertised petitions and applications. | Yes |
| Strike-off and Gazette notices | YesFirst Gazette notices and proposals to strike off, dated, in the credit events table. | NoNot listed in current plans. | YesTracked as detrimental events. |
| Directors, ownership and identity | |||
| Phoenix director detection | YesNames directors who previously served on companies that later failed, with the companies listed and verifiable. | Gold tierEnhanced directorships data, Gold only. | No |
| Ownership structure | YesPSC data with a visual ownership map and control breakdown. | No | No |
| VAT number | VerifiedChecked against HMRC, with the verification date shown. | YesFrom Bronze tier. | No |
| Registered charges and mortgages | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Monitoring and workflow | |||
| Email alerts on risk changes | FreeWith a free account. | YesFrom Bronze tier. | YesMonitoring is their core product. |
| PDF reports | Free | YesSnapshot reports plus Excel export. | Yes |
| Natural-language company screening | YesAsk in plain English, get matching companies across the whole register. | No | No |
| Data access and integration | |||
| API | Free trialSelf-serve, no card. 100 calls and 20 contact lookups per rolling 24 hours. | YesAPI, scoring gateway and BigQuery access. | YesGraphQL API with paid access. |
| AI agent integration (MCP) | YesWorks inside Claude, Cursor and Windsurf. | No | No |
| Warehouse access (BigQuery) | No | YesDirect dataset access for enterprise users. | No |
| Coverage | 5.1m searchableEvery England and Wales company, around 3.4m scored. Scotland and Northern Ireland not covered. | UK-wideCount not published. | ~3.5m ratedTheir claimed figure. |
Prices as published or audited on the dates shown below.
Sources. Black Flag Alert: live product, August 2026. RedFlag Alert: our own audit of their platform and API, March 2026; their website blocks automated access, so current-page verification was not possible. Company Watch: their public plans page, 18 August 2026. Where a cell says a feature sits in a paid tier, that comes from the provider's own plan list.