BuildAlert alternative

BuildAlert posts your letters for £2 to £2.50 each. SiteLens finds the jobs worth chasing.

BuildAlert: Browsing is free with no card. Data Only is £29 a month, with up to three campaigns and no bulk exports or API. Letter subscriptions run from £50 a month (25 letters) to £500 a month (250 letters), at £2.00 a letter or £2.50 a postcard; pay-as-you-go packs start at £25 for 10 letters. Monthly, cancel any time. VAT is not stated.
SiteLens: £39 a month, or £29 a month billed annually. Self-serve, no contract, cancel online.

Checked 21 October 2026.

BuildAlert finds homeowners through new planning applications, then prints, posts and tracks your letters to them. SiteLens sorts every new application across 380+ UK councils by the trades it needs, matches the firms on them to Companies House and emails your matches each morning.

Start for free Try Pro free for 7 days, no card

Which should you choose?

Choose SiteLens if you want to choose the jobs and make contact yourself: the new applications in your patch sorted by your trade, Companies House checks on the firms you want to chase, and your matches in your inbox each morning. Start free, then £39 a month, or £29 a month billed annually.

Choose BuildAlert if writing to homeowners by post is how you win work and you want it done for you, with letters printed, posted and tracked and sent automatically as applications arrive or are approved, or if you want applicant addresses for your own campaigns at £29 a month.

What SiteLens does better

Sorted by your trade

22 works tags, from groundworks to renewables, mark the trades each application needs, so a scaffolder’s alert holds scaffolding jobs. BuildAlert sorts applications into project types such as extensions, loft conversions and garden rooms.

Who is behind it, checked

Companies House numbers are matched to applicants, agents and contractors on every plan, and Pro adds the directors and filing health, the agent’s published email and phone, and 15 contact lookups a month. BuildAlert gives you applicant addresses and agent details for your letters.

Your leads, in your CRM

Pro exports up to 5,000 rows a month as CSV, with a HubSpot and Salesforce file ready for your CRM, and API plans start at £149 a month, billed annually. BuildAlert’s Data Only plan includes no bulk exports or API access.

SiteLens vs BuildAlert, feature by feature

Each BuildAlert entry comes from its own website unless the cell says otherwise. Checked 21 October 2026.

Feature	SiteLens	BuildAlert
Price	£39/mo, or £29/mo billed annually	Data Only £29/mo; letter plans £50 to £500/mo; VAT not stated
Try before you pay	Free plan with no time limit, plus 7 days of Pro, no card	Free browsing with no card; pay when you send a letter
Contract	Monthly or annual, no minimum term, cancel any time	Monthly, cancel at any time, no cancellation fees
Planning applications	Every new application across 380+ UK councils, collected every night	400+ UK councils, over 20,000 applications scanned a week
Automatic classification	Project type, stage, building type and a plain-English brief	Each application categorised by project type
Trade tags	22 works tags, from groundworks to renewables	Project types such as extensions, loft conversions and garden rooms
Search filters	Trade, stage, value, radius, council, constraints, EPC, homes, storeys and more	Project type, status, estimated value, domestic or commercial, postcode, town, council or nationwide
Plain-English and keyword search	Included	Free-text keywords, with words to leave out
Project values	Estimated value bands, each naming its basis	Estimated project value band, such as £50k to £100k
Alerts on new applications	Daily or weekly email by trade, area and keyword; hourly on Team	Lead alerts on saved campaigns; up to three on Data Only
Decision alerts	On every plan, including free	Status updates added daily; letters can go out on approval
Contact details	Agent’s published email and phone, the named project team and 15 lookups a month (Pro)	Applicant addresses and planning agent details on every plan
Planning documents	Read for figures and the named project team, with the document list	Drawings, application forms and supporting documents
Companies House match	Yes, on every plan (directors, accounts and charges on Pro)	Not mentioned on its website
Tenders and contract awards	Near each site and in alerts, plus public contracts ending in the next 12 months	Not mentioned on its website
Maps and site data	Map search; 24 planning constraint flags, six drawn on the map; EPC and a street-level imagery link; history at the address on Pro	Postcodes, radius searches, councils, or custom areas drawn on the map
Pipeline and exports	Built-in leads pipeline; CSV with HubSpot and Salesforce columns (Pro)	Won, lost or pending lead tracking with ROI; no bulk exports on Data Only
API	API plans available from £149/mo, billed annually	Not on the Data Only plan
Letters to homeowners	No. SiteLens does not print or post letters	Printed, posted and tracked, sent automatically with follow-ups; £2.00 a letter on a subscription
Market analytics	Approval rates, decision times and volumes by council (Pro)	Area pages with new leads and average project value
Getting started	Six guided starting points by trade or role, built into the app	Questions answered on WhatsApp or by email

See your own patch before you decide.

Search 380+ UK councils free, with no card. When you want the names behind the schemes, try Pro free for 7 days. After that, Pro is £39 a month, or £29 a month billed annually, with no contract.

Start free Try Pro free for 7 days, no card

See every plan and price or all features.

When you should still pick BuildAlert

Pick BuildAlert if the letter is the job. It prints, posts and tracks every letter for you, at £2.00 each on a subscription, and its campaigns can run every day without you: send when an application is submitted, approved or both, follow up after 7 or 14 days, set a daily sending limit and A/B test your templates. It fills in the applicant’s name and address, offers a free AI letter builder and free template design from the Business plan, and its QR business profiles, a premium feature, email you the moment someone scans your letter. BuildAlert says its customers have reported enquiry conversion rates of 4 to 8% from homeowner letters, and if you only need the data for a few campaigns, its £29 Data Only plan costs less than SiteLens Pro month to month.

If you would rather choose the jobs and make contact yourself, by email, phone or a visit, SiteLens gives you the new applications in your patch sorted by your trade, Companies House checks on the firms you want to chase and a morning email of the ones that fit. That is SiteLens Pro at £39 a month, or £29 a month billed annually, with no contract.

Can you use both?

Many trades could. Find and qualify the work in SiteLens, sorted by your trade each morning, then use BuildAlert to post a branded letter to the applicants worth contacting.

Frequently asked

How much does BuildAlert cost?

Browsing is free with no card. Data Only is £29 a month, with up to three campaigns and no bulk exports or API. Letter subscriptions run from £50 a month (25 letters) to £500 a month (250 letters), at £2.00 a letter or £2.50 a postcard. Pay-as-you-go packs start at £25 for 10 letters. VAT is not stated.

Does SiteLens send letters to planning applicants?

No. SiteLens does not print or post letters. It finds and sorts the new applications in your patch, matches the firms on them to Companies House and emails your matches each morning. Pro adds the agent’s published email and phone and 15 contact lookups a month. If you want letters sent for you, BuildAlert does that.

What is the real difference between BuildAlert and SiteLens?

BuildAlert is an outreach service: its campaigns can contact every new matching application automatically, by letter or postcard, with follow-ups and ROI tracking. SiteLens is for finding and qualifying the work: 22 trade tags, estimated value bands that name their basis, Companies House checks and nearby public tenders, with your matches emailed each morning.

Can I export leads to my CRM?

On SiteLens, yes. Pro exports up to 5,000 rows a month as CSV, including a file with HubSpot and Salesforce columns, at £39 a month. API plans start at £149 a month, billed annually. BuildAlert says bulk exports and API access are not included with its £29 Data Only plan.

See it before you pay a penny.

Stay on the free plan for as long as you like, or try Pro free for 7 days, no card. Sign up, then start it on the upgrade page.

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