What makes a good tender portal
Before comparing specific portals, it helps to know what separates a useful one from a frustrating one. Five things matter most to suppliers who bid regularly on public-sector contracts.
Coverage
Which portals and countries does it include? A tool that covers TED but not regional portals misses below-threshold opportunities that are often less competitive.
Filtering quality
Can you filter by CPV code, region, contract value, buyer type, and keyword? Basic keyword filtering creates noise. Intent-based matching reduces it.
Alert relevance
How many alerts are genuinely relevant? A tool that sends 50 alerts a day, of which 3 matter, is worse than one that sends 5, of which 4 matter.
Ease of use
Can a bid manager set it up in minutes, or does it require training and onboarding? The best portal is the one your team actually uses.
Pricing transparency
Is the price published or hidden behind 'contact us'? For SMEs, knowing the cost before committing is a basic requirement.
Portal and aggregator comparison
Free government portals first, then paid aggregators. All information verified as of June 2026.
| Portal | Region | Free | AI Scoring | Bid Pack Analysis | Alert Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| TED | EU / EEA | RSS / email (basic keyword) | |||
| Find a Tender | UK | Email (keyword) | |||
| Contracts Finder | UK | Email (basic) | |||
| SAM.gov | US | Email (keyword + NAICS) | |||
| CanadaBuys | Canada | Email (keyword) | |||
| Mercell | EU / Nordics | Dashboard + email | |||
| Jorpex | EU / Africa | Dashboard + email | |||
| TenderStria | 50+ countries | Dashboard (scored feed) |
What each portal and aggregator does best
TED
EU / EEAFreeThe EU's official procurement journal. Over 700,000 notices/year. No scoring, no analysis. You search manually.
Find a Tender
UKFreeUK above-threshold contracts. Clean interface but limited filtering. No scoring.
Contracts Finder
UKFreeUK contracts above £12k. Broader than Find a Tender but noisier.
SAM.gov
USFreeUS federal contracts. NAICS code classification. No AI features.
CanadaBuys
CanadaFreeCanadian federal procurement. Simple search and alert system.
Mercell
EU / NordicsLarge European coverage, AI-based matching, 14-day free trial. Strong in Nordic countries. No bid-pack analysis.
Jorpex
EU / AfricaGood comparison content and coverage guides. Strong in African and EU markets.
TenderStria
50+ countries100+ portals, AI scoring 0-100 with reasoning, bid-pack analysis with structured requirements. Free sandbox demo.
How to decide which portal fits your business
If you bid in one country, start with the free government portals. For UK suppliers, Find a Tender and Contracts Finder cover everything above £12k. For EU suppliers, TED is the starting point. For US suppliers, SAM.gov. These are free, authoritative, and sufficient for teams bidding on a few tenders per quarter.
If you bid across sectors or countries, add an aggregator. The time cost of logging into five portals daily and running the same searches exceeds the subscription cost of any aggregator on this list. The question is which one covers your markets and matches your workflow.
If you need bid-pack analysis, not just discovery, look at tools that go deeper. Most aggregators stop at discovery: they find the tender and alert you. Fewer read the bid pack itself and tell you whether you meet the requirements. If your bottleneck is reading 150-page tender documents, discovery alone does not solve it. For more on the reading problem, see our guide on reading tenders with AI.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best free tender portal?
For EU contracts: TED (ted.europa.eu). For UK contracts: Find a Tender (above threshold) and Contracts Finder (below threshold). For US federal contracts: SAM.gov. For Canada: CanadaBuys. All are official government portals, free to search and use, with no subscription required.
Are tender aggregators worth paying for?
It depends on volume. If you bid on one or two tenders per quarter in a single country, manual portal checking is sufficient. If you bid actively across multiple sectors or countries, the time cost of checking portals individually exceeds the cost of an aggregator. The test: if your team spends more time searching for tenders than preparing bids, the search is the bottleneck.
Can I use multiple portals at once?
Yes. Many teams check official portals directly for their primary market and use an aggregator to cover secondary markets and regional portals they would not otherwise monitor. The two approaches are complementary, not exclusive.