Updated October 2026 · Guide

The best planning data tool for 2026: what each is for, and what each really costs

If your work depends on knowing what’s about to be built, whether that is winning contracts, specifying products, tracking competitors or planning a pipeline, you eventually outgrow searching council websites one at a time. The question is which paid tool to reach for. In practice, “planning data tool” describes several quite different products built for different buyers. This guide explains what the main UK options are for and what they cost, so you don’t pay enterprise money for a job a lighter tool does better, or buy a light tool for a job that needs the enterprise one.

We build one of these tools, so treat the SiteLens sections as our point of view. Everything about the others is drawn from their own websites, except Glenigan’s prices, which it does not publish: those come from public reviews. We’ve tried to be fair about where they’re the better choice.

First, what kind of “planning data” do you need?

Three jobs hide under the same phrase, and they map to different products:

1. Find live planning applications and turn them into leads. Supply-chain work: subcontractors, suppliers, installers and merchants who want to reach a project early, filtered to their trade and patch.
2. Track large construction projects and contract pipelines. Main-contractor and enterprise BD work: who’s bidding what, project values, timelines, decision-makers on major schemes.
3. Find and appraise development sites. Developer and land-agent work: site sourcing, constraints, comparables and appraisal.

Most disappointment with a “planning data tool” comes from buying for one of these jobs and using it for another. So match the tool to the job.

Glenigan: construction project intelligence (enterprise)

Glenigan is one of the long-established UK construction-data providers. Its focus is project intelligence: detailed records on construction projects, typically the larger, named schemes, with project stages, values, and the firms and decision-makers attached, aimed at sales and marketing teams chasing those projects. Its 160 researchers make more than a million calls a year, and it now also advertises AI that mines each planning application, planning documents to download, NBS specification data and an in-app sales pipeline. Glenigan publishes no price: you book a demo and get a quote for the users and data you need. Its terms renew a contract for further 12-month periods unless you email at least 90 days’ notice, and let fees rise each year by up to RPI plus 5%.

Best for: main contractors, large product manufacturers and enterprise BD teams who need deep intelligence on major projects and the contacts behind them, and who have the sales motion to act on it. We cover the trade-off in detail on our SiteLens vs Glenigan page.

Where it’s overkill: if your job is to catch the steady flow of smaller and mid-sized applications across a region, the householder extensions, commercial fit-outs, change-of-use and minor new-builds that make up most trades’ work, an enterprise project-intelligence subscription is more tool, and more cost, than the job needs.

Barbour ABI: project and market intelligence (enterprise)

Barbour ABI sits in a similar space to Glenigan: construction project leads and market intelligence, oriented towards projects and the wider construction market, and used by sales, marketing and strategy teams. It calls itself the ONS’s longest-standing provider of construction new orders data, its UK research team confirms project values, start dates and bidders by direct contact, and its leads platform tracks projects valued over £100k. Like Glenigan, it is sold through a demo and a bespoke quote, priced by the sectors, locations, users and API licences you choose. Its own ROI page says average subscription costs range from £4k, with an average of around £7,500 a year.

Best for: teams that want project pipelines and market analysis on larger construction schemes, and value a single enterprise relationship. What its leads contain and what they cost is covered in ABI construction leads, and our SiteLens vs Barbour ABI page goes through the differences.

Where it’s overkill: same caveat as Glenigan. If you mainly need to be told quickly about relevant applications in your area, filtered to your trade, a project-intelligence platform is a heavier, costlier answer than the question.

Choosing between the two enterprise platforms

Glenigan and Barbour ABI are close substitutes: both sell researched intelligence on named construction schemes, quoted after a demo, to BD, sales and marketing teams. Coverage of the schemes you care about, the renewal terms and whether you will use the researcher service decide it, not the feature grids. We set out what buyers report paying and what the renewal clauses say in Glenigan vs Barbour ABI.

The question worth asking before either, though, is whether you need project intelligence at all. If your work is supply-chain, meaning you want to know which new applications across your patch mean work for your trade, both are the wrong shape and the price difference between them is beside the point. That is the case for the third option below.

SiteLens: a filtered, daily lead feed from the planning register (self-serve)

SiteLens is built for the first job on the list: turning the public planning register into a filtered, daily lead feed. It brings in every new application across 380+ UK councils each night and tags each one with the trades it needs, from 22 works tags running from groundworks to renewables. Estimated value bands, each naming its basis, help you size a job at a glance, and a morning alert watches your areas for you, so you stop running the same council searches by hand.

It also shows who is behind each scheme. Companies House numbers are matched to the applicants, agents and contractors on every plan, including free. Pro names the firms, opens the directors, people with significant control and filing health, and adds the agent’s published email and phone, the named project team and 15 contact lookups a month. It’s self-serve with published prices: Pro is £39/mo, or £29/mo billed annually, and Team is £99/mo, or £79/mo billed annually, for up to 5 people on one shared leads pipeline, with hourly alerts and larger exports. You can start on the free plan without talking to anyone, and try Pro free for 7 days with no card.

Best for: subcontractors, suppliers, installers, merchants and product specifiers who want early sight of relevant applications across more than one council, filtered to their trade, without an enterprise contract or a sales call.

Where it’s not the right tool: if you specifically need researched intelligence and contacts on large named construction projects, or site sourcing and appraisal for land deals, that’s a different product, and an enterprise project-intelligence platform or a land tool is the better buy. Equally, if you’re a residential trade selling direct to homeowners, a letter-campaign tool aimed at householder applications may suit you better. We draw that line on our SiteLens vs Buildscout page. SiteLens focuses on breadth of applications and speed of alerts for the supply chain, rather than bid-level dossiers on megaprojects.

A note on land and site-sourcing tools

If your job is finding and buying land, meaning site sourcing, constraints, comparables and appraisal, neither the project-intelligence tools nor SiteLens is aimed at you. Land platforms such as SearchLand and LandTech are. SearchLand’s Standard plan is from £195 a month per licence, paid annually, with a 12-month minimum. We compare the boundary on our SiteLens vs SearchLand page. It’s worth naming because “planning data” search results mix all of these together, and buying a land tool to find supply-chain leads, or the reverse, is a common and expensive mismatch.

How they compare at a glance

(Barbour ABI’s and SearchLand’s figures were checked on their own sites on 21 October 2026. Glenigan publishes no price, so its figures come from 2024 reviews. Always confirm current details with the vendor directly.)

How to choose, in three questions

1. Is your work supply-chain or project-led? If you sell into or work on projects as a sub/supplier and need applications fast and filtered, that points to a lead feed like SiteLens. If you chase named major projects and need contacts and bid intelligence, that points to Glenigan or Barbour ABI.
2. Do you want self-serve or a managed enterprise relationship? If you’d rather try a tool today on a card-free account and see the data before you commit, self-serve published pricing matters. If you want onboarding, training and an account manager across a big team, the enterprise route fits.
3. What does “an area” mean to you? If your patch crosses two or three council boundaries, and most trades’ do, the deciding factor is being able to watch them all at once with alerts, rather than the depth of any single project record. You can see how that looks on real council pages such as Glasgow and North East Lincolnshire, or browse the full list of councils we cover. New to this and not sure where applications even live? Start with how to find planning applications in your area.

There is no single best planning data tool. The best choice depends on your job. For deep intelligence on large construction projects with a team and a budget to match, Glenigan and Barbour ABI are the established choices. For finding and appraising land, a land platform is what you want. And if you’re in the supply chain and the daily reality is “tell me, quickly, what relevant applications just landed across my areas, filtered to my trade”, that is the job SiteLens is built for, and you can try it without talking to anyone.

Sources

• Glenigan, construction project intelligence (positioning, researchers and calls); pricing (quote only) and General Terms of Business (clauses 3.1 and 5.9, renewal, notice and price rises)
• Trustpilot reviews of Glenigan: 28 November 2024 (a renewal invoice of £3,500) and 9 April 2024 (a renewal charge of £6,800)
• Barbour ABI: Construction Project Leads, positioning, the ONS new orders line and how pricing is built
• Barbour ABI: Your ROI, “average subscription costs range from £4k” and an “average annual Barbour ABI subscription of around £7,500”
• SearchLand, land sourcing & site appraisal (named for the land-tool category); Standard from £195/mo per licence, paid annually, with a 12-month minimum, at searchland.co.uk/pricing
• GOV.UK: Search for planning applications (the public register these tools draw on)
• SiteLens pricing: Pro £39/mo, or £29/mo billed annually. Team £99/mo, or £79/mo billed annually