ParseForge
UK Companies House Scraper
parseforge/uk-companies-house-scraper
Lead generationBusinessOther
Scrapes UK Companies House for company profiles and officer details. Returns company number, name, status, address, and more as flat rows. Search by company name or registration number.
- Total users
- 94
- Monthly active
- 3
- Total runs
- 4.7K
- Bookmarked
- 0
- Rating
- Not rated yet
- Last modified
- 12 days ago
Overview
UK Companies House Scraper
Scrape UK Companies House for company profiles, officers, and filing history, up to a million per run. Every company comes with its registration number, status, address, and key dates. No API key or login. Export to CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML.
Companies House publishes the official register of every UK company, but its web interface is slow to search and hard to export. This Actor reads the public company search and profile pages directly, so you can pull structured data by company name or number without an API key. It returns each match as one flat row, ready for analysis.
| Who uses it | What they scrape UK Companies House for |
|---|---|
| Market researchers | Build lists of companies in a sector for competitive analysis |
| Sales teams | Enrich leads with registered address, status, and incorporation date |
| Compliance officers | Verify company existence and officer details for due diligence |
| Data analysts | Collect bulk company data for trend analysis and reporting |
What it does
This Actor collects UK company records from Companies House by company name or number, and returns each company as a flat row with optional officer details.
- 🔍 Search by name or number: Enter a company name like 'technology' or an exact registration number like '12345678'.
- 👥 Officer enrichment: Optionally fetch director names, roles, and appointment dates for each company.
- 📊 Flat row output: Each company is returned as a single record with consistent fields, ready for spreadsheets or databases.
- ⚡ High volume: Collect up to 1,000,000 companies per run, subject to Companies House rate limits.
Results export to CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML, or straight from the API.
What you can do with UK Companies House data
📈 Build a prospect list.
A sales team searches for 'technology' companies, collects 500 records with officer details, and filters by active status to create a targeted outreach list.
🔎 Verify company details.
A compliance officer enters a company number, gets the registered address and current status, and confirms the directors to meet KYC requirements.
📊 Analyze market sectors.
A market researcher collects all companies matching a keyword, exports to CSV, and groups by incorporation date to spot new entrants in a niche.
🗂️ Enrich CRM data.
A data analyst runs a list of company names through the Actor, adds officer names and addresses to existing records, and updates the CRM.
Why choose this scraper
| What you get | |
|---|---|
| No API key | Uses the public Companies House web interface, no registration or token needed |
| Structured data | Returns company number, name, status, address, incorporation date, and more in a fixed schema |
| Officer details | Optionally includes director names and roles for each company |
| Bulk export | Download results as CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML for further processing |
How it compares
No other Store actor targets UK Companies House the same way, so the honest comparison is with the alternatives teams actually weigh.
| UK Companies House Scraper | Build it in-house | By hand | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Setup | Run it now, zero config | Days of engineering | None, but hours per pull |
| When UK Companies House changes | Maintained for you | You fix it | You re-learn the page |
| Proxies, retries, anti-bot | Built in | Your problem | Browser only |
| Output | Fixed JSON schema, CSV/Excel export | Whatever you build | Copy-paste |
| Cost | Pay per result | Engineering time | Analyst hours |
Configure the run
Drive the Actor with a company name or registration number, and set the maximum number of companies to collect. Officer details can be included or skipped to balance speed and data depth. The Input tab lists every parameter.
A first run with the defaults:
{
"searchQuery": "technology",
"maxItems": 10
}
A larger pull:
{
"searchQuery": "technology",
"maxItems": 200
}
Pricing
Pay-per-result: $0.0075 per result collected. You pay only for the results written to your dataset.
| Results collected | Approximate cost |
|---|---|
| 100 results | $0.75 |
| 1,000 results | $7.50 |
| 10,000 results | $75.00 |
New Apify accounts start with $5 in free credit.
Free users
Free-plan runs return up to 10 results as a preview. Upgrade your Apify plan to collect up to 1,000,000 results per run.
Run it
- Create a free Apify account with $5 in credit.
- Open the UK Companies House Scraper.
- Set your inputs and any filters, then click Start.
- Export the results as CSV, Excel, JSON, or XML from the Dataset tab.
Run it programmatically through the Apify API (run-sync-get-dataset-items) or the ApifyClient for JavaScript and Python.
Use with AI agents (MCP)
Give an AI agent live access to UK Companies House through the Model Context Protocol. Add the Actor to Claude, Cursor, or any MCP client:
claude mcp add --transport http apify "https://mcp.apify.com?tools=parseforge/uk-companies-house-scraper"
Then prompt it in plain language to run the scraper and read back the results.
Troubleshooting
Why am I getting no results?
Check your search query. If you entered a company number, make sure it is exactly 8 digits. For names, try a broader keyword or check for typos.
Why is the run slow?
If you enabled officer details, each company requires an extra page load. Disable that option for faster collection, or reduce the maximum number of companies.
Why did the run stop before reaching my maximum?
Companies House may rate-limit requests. The Actor handles retries, but if you hit a limit, wait a few minutes and run again with a lower maximum.
Why are some officer fields empty?
Not all companies have officer data publicly listed, or the officer page may be temporarily unavailable. Try running again later.
Can I get filing history?
This Actor currently returns company profile and officer data, not filing history. Check the Apify Store for a dedicated filing history scraper if needed.
FAQ
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Do I need an API key for Companies House? | No. This Actor uses the public web interface, so no API key or login is required. |
| Can I search by company number? | Yes. Enter the exact registration number in the search query field, and the Actor will return that specific company. |
| What data is returned for each company? | Each record includes the company number, name, status, registered office address, incorporation date, and other core fields. If you enable officer details, director names and roles are added. |
| How many companies can I collect in one run? | You can set the maximum up to 1,000,000 companies. The actual number depends on the search results and Companies House rate limits. |
| Does this include dissolved companies? | Yes, the search returns both active and dissolved companies, and the status field tells you which is which. |
| Can I export the data? | Yes, results can be exported as CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML from the Apify dataset. |
| Is officer data always available? | Officer data is public for most companies, but some may have restrictions. The Actor fetches it only when you enable the option. |
| How fast is the scraping? | Speed depends on the number of companies and whether officer details are included. Without officers, it is faster; with officers, each company requires an extra page load. |
| Can I schedule this Actor to run regularly? | Yes, you can set up a schedule in Apify to run the Actor daily, weekly, or at any interval. |
| Is this legal to scrape? | Companies House data is public information, and scraping it for legitimate purposes is generally allowed. Always check the website's terms of service. |
Related actors
Browse the full ParseForge collection for more scrapers.
🆘 Need help? Email parseforge@protonmail.com with your run ID, your input, and what you expected.
⚠️ Disclaimer. This Actor is unofficial and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Companies House. It collects only publicly available data. You are responsible for using the collected data in compliance with the source's terms of service and applicable data-protection laws, including GDPR, CCPA, and PIPL. Do not use it to collect personal data unlawfully.
Input
| Field | Type | What it does | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
| searchQuery required | string | Company name or keyword to search for | technology |
| maxItems | integer | Maximum number of companies to collect per run. | 10 |
| includeOfficers | boolean | Fetch officer names and roles for each company (slower but more data) | true |
Pricing
from $7.00 per 1,000 results
| Charged for | What it is | Price each |
|---|---|---|
| result | Single result in the default dataset. | $0.007 to $0.0075 |
Tiered: the lower figure is the price on a higher Apify plan. Billing and the free credit live on Apify.
API
One POST returns the dataset directly. Same shape for every scraper in the library, so swapping the slug is the only change.
curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/parseforge~uk-companies-house-scraper/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=$APIFY_TOKEN" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{
"helloWorld": 123
}' Examples
Input that runs as-is.
{
"helloWorld": 123
} Reviews
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Issues
We build and maintain this scraper, so a problem with it comes to us. Report it on the Apify listing and the thread stays attached to the scraper where the next person can find it: open an issue.
Broken and urgent, or you would rather not post in public? Write to parseforge@protonmail.com and it reaches the people who wrote it.