May 2026 · Guide

Glenigan alternatives for subcontractors & suppliers (2026)

Glenigan is the best-known construction project-intelligence platform in the UK — and it is built for large research and business-development teams, with enterprise pricing and a sales process to match. If you are a subcontractor, material supplier or small developer, you probably do not need the full enterprise suite. Here are the alternatives worth knowing in 2026, and how to pick the right one.

What Glenigan is — and who it is for

Glenigan aggregates construction project leads across their lifecycle, attaches researched contacts, and is sold as an annual subscription typically running into several thousand pounds a year, agreed via a sales call. For a national contractor with a dedicated BD team, that depth earns its keep. For a small firm that just needs to know which nearby projects are worth chasing, it is a lot of platform — and a lot of money — to buy.

Why smaller firms look for an alternative

• Price. Enterprise annual contracts are hard to justify for a sole trader or a small team.
• The sales gate. No public pricing and a required demo means you cannot just try it.
• Fit. Much of the enterprise feature set is aimed at large-team workflows you may never use.
• Timing. Supply-chain firms increasingly want to act at the planning stage, the moment a scheme appears on the register — earlier than a typical project-lead feed.

What to look for in a Glenigan alternative

• Coverage of every UK local planning authority, updated daily.
• Classification — applications sorted by trade, project type and value, so you skip the noise.
• Alerts filtered to your area and your work, delivered without you logging in.
• Self-serve, transparent pricing — a free tier to try, and a price on the page.

The main alternatives in 2026

SiteLens is the self-serve option built for the supply chain: classified planning-application data across 350+ councils, daily alerts filtered to your trade and area, a free forever tier and Pro from £39/mo (£29/mo billed annually) — no sales call. See the full SiteLens vs Glenigan comparison.

Barbour ABI is the other established enterprise platform, similar in shape and pricing to Glenigan — see SiteLens vs Barbour ABI. Planning Pipe is a lower-cost planning-data feed — see SiteLens vs Planning Pipe. SearchLand is aimed at land sourcing and site appraisal rather than supply-chain leads — see SiteLens vs SearchLand. And Buildscout does a different job again, posting letters to homeowners — see SiteLens vs Buildscout.

How to choose

If you run a large BD team and need researched contacts at every project stage nationally, an enterprise platform may still be the right tool. If you are a subcontractor, supplier or small developer who wants to spot the right schemes early, filter out the noise, and pay a price that makes sense for a small team, a self-serve planning-intelligence tool will serve you better. The honest test: start with the free option, set one alert for your area and trade, and see whether the projects that land are worth acting on before you pay anyone.