Companies House UK Scraper

Scrape UK company data from Companies House using the official API. Extract company profiles, officers, SIC codes, registered addresses, and filing dates.

What does Companies House UK Scraper do?

Companies House UK Scraper lets you extract detailed information about UK-registered companies using the official Companies House API. It retrieves company profiles including registration details, officer information, SIC codes, and filing history dates.

The actor searches Companies House by company name or accepts direct company numbers and URLs. It handles pagination for search results and can optionally fetch officer details for each company. All data comes from the official government API, ensuring accuracy and reliability.

This is ideal for anyone performing due diligence, market research, or competitor analysis on UK businesses. The data includes company status, type, registered address, and key dates that are essential for business intelligence.

Use Cases

• Due diligence teams -- verify company details, officer information, and filing status before partnerships or investments
• Market researchers -- analyze UK companies by industry using SIC codes, identify active vs dissolved companies
• Data analysts -- build datasets of UK companies for sector analysis, geographic mapping, or trend identification
• Developers -- integrate UK company data into CRM systems, compliance tools, or business intelligence platforms

Features

• Search companies by name or keywords
• Look up companies by registration number directly
• Extract full company profiles with all registration details
• Fetch officer lists (directors, secretaries) for each company
• Handles API rate limiting automatically
• Exports to JSON, CSV, Excel, or connect via API

How much will it cost?

Companies House API is free. The only cost is Apify platform compute time.

Results	Estimated Cost
100	~$0.01
1,000	~$0.05
10,000	~$0.30

Cost Component	Per 1,000 Results
Platform compute	~$0.05
Proxy (optional)	~$0.00
Total	~$0.05

How to use

1. Get a free API key from Companies House Developer Hub
2. Go to the Companies House UK Scraper page on Apify Store
3. Enter your API key in the Authentication section
4. Enter search terms, company numbers, or Companies House URLs
5. Set the maximum number of items
6. Click "Start" and wait for the results

Input parameters

Parameter	Type	Description	Default
searchTerms	array	Search queries to find companies by name	-
companyNumbers	array	Companies House registration numbers	-
startUrls	array	Companies House URLs to scrape	-
apiKey	string	Companies House API key (required)	-
includeOfficers	boolean	Fetch officer details for each company	true
maxItems	number	Max results to return	100
maxConcurrency	number	Parallel request limit	5
proxyConfig	object	Proxy settings	Apify Proxy

Output

The actor produces a dataset with the following fields:

{
    "companyName": "REVOLUT LTD",
    "companyNumber": "09740085",
    "companyStatus": "active",
    "companyType": "ltd",
    "dateOfCreation": "2015-07-23",
    "registeredAddress": {
        "addressLine1": "7 Westferry Circus",
        "locality": "London",
        "postalCode": "E14 4HD",
        "country": "United Kingdom"
    },
    "sicCodes": ["64999"],
    "officers": [
        {
            "name": "STORONSKY, Nikolay",
            "officerRole": "director",
            "appointedOn": "2015-07-23"
        }
    ],
    "jurisdiction": "england-wales",
    "lastAccountsDate": "2023-12-31",
    "confirmationStatementDate": "2024-07-23",
    "url": "https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/09740085",
    "scrapedAt": "2024-01-15T10:30:00.000Z"
}

Field	Type	Description
companyName	string	Registered company name
companyNumber	string	Companies House registration number
companyStatus	string	Active, dissolved, liquidation, etc.
companyType	string	Ltd, PLC, LLP, etc.
dateOfCreation	string	Incorporation date (YYYY-MM-DD)
registeredAddress	object	Registered office address
sicCodes	array	Standard Industrial Classification codes
officers	array	Directors and secretaries (if includeOfficers is true)
jurisdiction	string	Registration jurisdiction
lastAccountsDate	string	Date of last filed accounts
confirmationStatementDate	string	Date of last confirmation statement
url	string	Companies House URL
scrapedAt	string	ISO 8601 scrape timestamp

Integrations

Connect Companies House UK Scraper with other tools:

• Apify API -- REST API for programmatic access
• Webhooks -- get notified when a run finishes
• Zapier / Make -- connect to 5,000+ apps
• Google Sheets -- export directly to spreadsheets

API Example (Node.js)

import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';
const client = new ApifyClient({ token: 'YOUR_TOKEN' });
const run = await client.actor('YOUR_USERNAME/companies-house-uk-scraper').call({
    searchTerms: ['Revolut'],
    apiKey: 'YOUR_COMPANIES_HOUSE_API_KEY',
    maxItems: 100,
});
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();

API Example (Python)

from apify_client import ApifyClient
client = ApifyClient('YOUR_TOKEN')
run = client.actor('YOUR_USERNAME/companies-house-uk-scraper').call(run_input={
    'searchTerms': ['Revolut'],
    'apiKey': 'YOUR_COMPANIES_HOUSE_API_KEY',
    'maxItems': 100,
})
items = client.dataset(run['defaultDatasetId']).list_items().items

API Example (cURL)

curl "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/YOUR_USERNAME~companies-house-uk-scraper/runs" \
  -X POST \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_TOKEN" \
  -d '{"searchTerms": ["Revolut"], "apiKey": "YOUR_KEY", "maxItems": 100}'

Tips and tricks

• Start with a small maxItems (10-20) to test your API key before running large scrapes
• Companies House rate limits at 600 requests per 5 minutes -- keep maxConcurrency low (5-10)
• Use company numbers for precise lookups; use search terms for discovery
• SIC codes can be used to filter companies by industry sector

FAQ

Q: Does this actor require login credentials? A: Yes, you need a free API key from the Companies House Developer Hub. Registration is free and instant.

Q: How fast is the scraping? A: Approximately 100-200 company profiles per minute, depending on whether officer data is included.

Q: What should I do if I get rate limited? A: Reduce maxConcurrency to 3-5. Companies House allows 600 requests per 5 minutes.

Q: Can I scrape dissolved companies? A: Yes, Companies House keeps records of dissolved companies and they appear in search results.

Is it legal to scrape Companies House?

Companies House data is public information maintained by the UK government. This actor uses the official free API provided by Companies House specifically for programmatic access. The data is Crown Copyright but is available under the Open Government Licence. For more information, see Apify's blog on web scraping legality.

Limitations

• Requires a free API key from Companies House Developer Hub
• Rate limited to 600 requests per 5 minutes by the API
• Only covers UK-registered companies (England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland)
• Officer data requires an additional API call per company

Changelog

• v0.1 (2026-04-23) -- Initial release