UK B2B Prospecting · 2026 Guide
Free tools to find UK B2B companies by industry (2026 boolean and Companies House guide)
You don't need a £79/month Sales Navigator seat to find 500 UK accountancy firms in Manchester. You need 4 free tools and 90 minutes. Or 12 seconds if you'd rather skip the spreadsheet. Here's the full stack used by 30+ UK B2B firms we run ads for.
5-minute summary
- 4 free tools cover 95% of real UK B2B prospecting needs: Companies House Advanced Search, LinkedIn boolean (free), Crunchbase free tier, Google site: operators.
- Companies House is the workhorse for company-level filtering. LinkedIn boolean is the workhorse for people-level filtering.
- LinkedIn supports AND, OR, NOT, quoted phrases and parens in the free search bar. No Sales Navigator needed for boolean.
- Crunchbase free is patchy outside London VC-backed startups. Skip for bootstrapped UK SMBs.
- Total time for a verified 50-company UK list: ~90 minutes manual, or 12 seconds with the Account List Builder.
The pain
Most marketers waste 4-6 hours building a target list nobody uses
The standard process: open LinkedIn, type "accountant Manchester", scroll past 200 sole traders, copy 30 names into a spreadsheet, lose the spreadsheet in Downloads, repeat next Tuesday. By Thursday the campaign brief is overdue and the list is half-done.
The fix isn't a £79/month tool. It's knowing which 4 free tools to use, in what order, with what filters. The next 5 sections walk through each.
Tool · Free · UK-specific
Companies House Advanced Search
The single best free tool for finding UK B2B companies by industry. Every UK limited company files at Companies House with a 5-digit SIC code, registered office postcode, incorporation date, and accounts filing history. Advanced Search exposes all of it for free.
find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/advanced-search
The 4-filter recipe
- 1. SIC code(s) — 2-4 codes covering your ICP. Full SIC lookup guide here.
- 2. Company status — set to "Active" to kill dormant and dissolved shells.
- 3. Registered office postcode — limit to your target regions (e.g. M, OL, BL for Greater Manchester).
- 4. Incorporation date — set to "more than 3 years ago" to filter out new sole-trader Ltds.
Output: a paginated list of UK companies matching your filters. Max ~5,000 per query. Copy results into a CSV, verify each website manually before adding to any campaign.
Tool · Free · Global
LinkedIn free search with boolean operators
Most people don't know LinkedIn's free search bar accepts boolean operators. It does, and it's the same syntax Sales Navigator uses. The free version loses saved searches, lead alerts, and unlimited search depth. For finding 50-300 named buyers, it's plenty.
The boolean cheat sheet
AND— both terms required. Uppercase or LinkedIn ignores it.OR— either term. Use for synonyms.NOT— exclude. Filters out interns, agencies, recruiters."quoted phrase"— exact match. Essential for multi-word titles.(parens)— group terms. Required when mixing AND with OR.
Examples that work in 2026
"accountant" AND ("partner" OR "director") AND "Manchester"
Find partners or directors at Manchester accountancy firms
("head of marketing" OR "marketing director") AND "SaaS" NOT "intern"
Senior marketing buyers at SaaS firms, exclude juniors
"managing director" AND ("manufacturing" OR "engineering") AND "Yorkshire"
Owners of Yorkshire manufacturing or engineering firms
("founder" OR "co-founder") AND "agency" AND ("Bristol" OR "Cardiff")
Agency founders in the Bristol-Cardiff corridor
Paste these into the LinkedIn search bar, then filter the results by "People" or "Companies" in the tabs. Aim to narrow each saved search to 50-300 results. Anything more is too broad, anything less is too tight.
Tool · Free tier · Global
Crunchbase free tier (use selectively)
Crunchbase started as the US tech-startup database. Coverage is excellent for VC-backed SaaS and fintech, patchy for bootstrapped UK SMBs. The free tier shows basic firmographics, headcount band, founding year, and recent funding events.
Use Crunchbase when your ICP is...
- · UK SaaS, fintech, healthtech, or proptech with recent funding
- · London-based scaleups (Series A+)
- · Companies with named executive teams (the People tab is useful)
Skip Crunchbase when your ICP is...
- · Bootstrapped UK accountancy, legal, or professional services firms
- · UK manufacturing or industrial SMBs (almost zero coverage)
- · Sub-20 employee firms (rarely indexed)
Tool · Free · Discovery
Google site: operators
The forgotten power tool. Google's site: operator searches a specific domain. Combined with quoted phrases, it surfaces LinkedIn company pages and industry directories that don't show in your SIC search.
site:linkedin.com/company "Manchester" "accountant"
All LinkedIn company pages mentioning Manchester and accountant
site:linkedin.com/company "manufacturing" "Yorkshire" -recruitment
Manufacturing companies in Yorkshire, exclude recruiters
site:icaew.com "member firm" "Birmingham"
ICAEW member firms in Birmingham (industry directory)
"head of marketing" site:linkedin.com/in "SaaS" "London"
Heads of marketing at SaaS firms in London
The honest comparison table
Speed, coverage, cost and GDPR risk across the free stack vs the paid options. No tool wins on every axis. The free stack wins on cost and GDPR posture; the paid tools win on speed and verified contact data.
| Tool | UK Coverage | Cost | Speed | GDPR Risk |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Companies House | Excellent (UK) | Free | Slow, paginated | None |
| LinkedIn boolean (free) | Good (people) | Free | No export | Low |
| Crunchbase free | Patchy in UK | Free / paid | Fast | Low |
| Google site: search | Good for discovery | Free | Manual | None |
| Sales Navigator | Good | £79/mo | Fast | Low |
| Apollo / Cognism | Very good | £800-£15k/yr | Fast | GDPR exposure |
Hours to build a verified 50-company UK list
Time estimates from running this workflow across 30+ UK B2B clients. The free stack takes ~90 minutes once you're practised. The Account List Builder is 12 seconds. Sales Navigator sits in the middle because the data still needs verifying.
Time to build a verified 50-company UK list
Hours. Lower is better. Real-world estimates from agency use.
Time-to-list estimates based on agency use across 30+ UK B2B accounts. Excludes campaign upload time.
Or skip the spreadsheet
Get 50 named UK accounts plus the boolean strings in 12 seconds
The Account List Builder runs SIC + size + geography + active-status filters and outputs a CSV of 50 named UK companies plus paste-ready boolean strings for LinkedIn and Apollo. Free. No catch.
Build my listFrequently asked questions
What are the best free tools to find UK B2B companies by industry?+
Four tools cover ~95% of real-world use cases for free. Companies House Advanced Search (filter by SIC code, location, status). LinkedIn free search with boolean operators (AND, OR, NOT, quoted phrases). Crunchbase free tier (patchy for UK SMBs but useful for funded startups). Google site: operators against linkedin.com/company. Combine all four and you can build a clean 50-company UK list in under 2 hours.
Do I need to pay for LinkedIn Sales Navigator to prospect on LinkedIn?+
No. LinkedIn's free search supports boolean operators (AND, OR, NOT, quoted phrases, parens) on both People and Company searches. You lose saved searches, lead alerts, and unlimited search depth. For most 1-10 person UK B2B teams that's a £79/month saving and 80% of the value.
How do you use boolean search on LinkedIn for B2B prospecting?+
Put exact phrases in quotes. Group with parens. Use AND, OR, NOT in uppercase. Example: ("head of marketing" OR "marketing director") AND "SaaS" AND "London" NOT "intern". LinkedIn applies these operators to the People search bar and the Company search bar. Test small, narrow until results drop to 50-300 names per saved search.
Can you search Companies House by SIC code for free?+
Yes. Companies House Advanced Search at find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/advanced-search lets you filter all UK registered companies by SIC code, company status (active), incorporation date, and registered office postcode. It's free, public, and updated daily. Paginated, capped at ~5,000 results per query. Read the full SIC code guide for the 4 traps to avoid.
What is the Companies House Advanced Search?+
It's the second tier of Companies House search at find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/advanced-search. The default search box only finds named companies. Advanced Search lets you filter by SIC code, location, status, type, and date. It's the single best free tool for building a UK B2B target account list.
How do I find UK companies by industry without paying?+
Three steps. One: pick 2-4 SIC codes for your industry using the ONS SIC 2007 list (we have a mapping guide). Two: paste them into Companies House Advanced Search, filter by 'Active' and your regions. Three: export the first 200, verify against websites, layer with LinkedIn boolean for the named buyers. Cost: £0. Time: ~90 minutes for a 50-company verified list.
Is Crunchbase free for B2B prospecting in the UK?+
The Crunchbase free tier shows basic firmographics on funded companies. UK coverage is patchy outside of London-based VC-backed startups. If your ICP is bootstrapped UK SMBs (accountancy, manufacturing, professional services), Crunchbase will return mostly noise. Use it only if your ICP is funded SaaS, fintech, or healthtech.
Can I use Google to find B2B companies?+
Yes. Google's site: operator searches a specific domain. Example: site:linkedin.com/company "Manchester" "accountant" returns LinkedIn company pages matching both terms. Pair with intitle: and inurl: for more precision. It's slow but free, and it surfaces companies that don't show in SIC searches.
What's the GDPR risk of using free B2B prospecting tools?+
Low for the discovery tools listed (Companies House, LinkedIn search, Google, Crunchbase) because you're identifying companies, not buying personal data. Risk increases when you scrape emails, buy lists from third parties, or use email-finding tools without a lawful basis. ICO guidance: business-to-business outreach with legitimate interest is generally allowed, but you must offer a clear opt-out and never email B2C addresses.
Why are paid B2B databases like ZoomInfo and Cognism so expensive?+
Three reasons. One: they scrape and verify millions of contacts continuously. Two: they sell to enterprise sales teams who happily pay £15k+/year per seat. Three: the data decays fast (people change jobs every 3 years), so they bill annually to fund constant re-verification. For a small UK team, the free stack covers 80% of the value at 0% of the cost.
How long does it take to build a 50-company UK target list manually?+
With the free stack (Companies House + LinkedIn boolean + Google), about 90-120 minutes once you're practised. The Account List Builder does the same job in 12 seconds and includes the boolean strings ready to paste into LinkedIn Campaign Manager.
Are LinkedIn boolean searches against the terms of service?+
No. Boolean operators are an official LinkedIn search feature documented in their help centre. The terms of service prohibit scraping, automated bots, and bulk extraction, not manual boolean searching. Use boolean liberally. Stay away from Chrome extensions that auto-scrape.
Can I export results from Companies House Advanced Search?+
Not directly to CSV from the UI. Workarounds: copy-paste page by page (slow), use the Companies House Bulk Download (full monthly dump of ~5m active companies, ~3GB), or use the free Companies House API with a personal access key (rate-limited but fine for small lists).
What's the difference between a target account list and an ICP?+
An ICP (Ideal Customer Profile) describes the kind of company you sell to (industry, size, geography, buying triggers). A target account list is the named version of that ICP, with specific company names, websites, and LinkedIn URLs. ICP first, then list. We have a separate guide on writing the ICP.
Do these free tools work for non-UK markets?+
Companies House is UK-only. The US equivalent is Open Corporates and SEC EDGAR. Germany uses Unternehmensregister. LinkedIn boolean and Google site: searches work globally. Crunchbase has stronger US coverage. The workflow translates, the data source changes.
Should I just buy a B2B email list instead?+
No. UK B2B email lists sold by third parties typically have 30-60% bounce rates, contain dead contacts, and create GDPR exposure if you can't prove the lawful basis. Build the company list with free tools, then enrich with verified email-finding tools (Apollo, Hunter, Lusha) one contact at a time. Slower, cleaner, defensible.
Or do what you do best
Free tools get you the list. Layered titles, sharp creative and weekly iteration get you the meetings.
We run this exact prospecting stack for 30+ niche UK B2B firms. Let us run yours while you go run your business.
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