June 2026 · Guide

Barbour ABI vs Glenigan vs SiteLens: which planning data tool is right for you?

If your work depends on knowing what’s about to be built — 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. The honest answer is that “planning data tool” describes several quite different products built for different buyers. This guide explains what the main UK options are actually for, how they tend to price, and how to choose, so you don’t pay enterprise money for a job a lighter tool does better — or vice versa.

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 public positioning, and we’ve tried to be fair about where they’re the better choice.

First, what kind of “planning data” do you actually 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. Source and appraise land or development sites — developer and land-agent work: ownership, site history, constraints and valuation.

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. It is generally sold as an annual, sales-led subscription, and Glenigan does not publish standard pricing on its site; you book a demo and get a quote scaled to your team.

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 — construction project leads and market intelligence (enterprise)

Barbour ABI sits in a similar space to Glenigan: construction project leads and market intelligence, again oriented towards projects and the wider construction market, and used by sales, marketing and strategy teams. As the official provider of construction data to government bodies it has a strong reputation for project-level coverage. Like Glenigan, it is typically sold as a sales-led annual subscription rather than self-serve, with pricing on application.

Best for: teams that want project pipelines and market analysis on larger construction schemes, and value a single enterprise relationship. 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 and to filter them by trade and value, a project-intelligence platform is a heavier, costlier answer than the question.

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 ingests applications across the councils we cover, classifies each one by trade, project type and likely value, and lets you watch the areas you care about with alerts — so you stop running the same council searches by hand. It’s deliberately self-serve with transparent pricing: Pro is £39/mo (£29/mo billed annually) and Team is £99/mo, and you can start on a free Explorer account without talking to anyone.

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

Where it’s not the right tool: if you specifically need deep intelligence and contacts on large named construction projects, or land-ownership and site-appraisal data, 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 approvals may suit you better — we draw that line on our SiteLens vs Buildscout page. SiteLens is about breadth of applications and speed of alerts for the supply chain, not bid-level dossiers on megaprojects.

A note on land and site-sourcing tools

If your job is sourcing development sites — ownership, title, constraints, valuation — neither the project-intelligence tools nor SiteLens is really aimed at you; land platforms such as Searchland and LandTech are. We compare the boundary on our SiteLens vs Searchlandpage. 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, expensive mismatch.

How they compare at a glance

(Coverage and pricing models above reflect each provider’s public positioning; always confirm current details with them 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 transparent 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 — most trades’ do — the deciding factor is being able to watch them all at once with alerts, not 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.

The honest summary

There’s no single “best planning data tool” — there’s the right tool for 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 sourcing 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’s exactly the job SiteLens is built for, and you can try it without talking to anyone.

Sources

• Glenigan — construction project intelligence (positioning; pricing on application)
• Barbour ABI — construction project leads & market intelligence (positioning; pricing on application)
• Searchland — land sourcing & site appraisal (named for the land-tool category)
• GOV.UK — Search for planning applications (the public register these tools draw on)
• SiteLens pricing— Pro £39/mo (£29/mo billed annually); Team £99/mo (£79/mo billed annually)