Which service finds public tenders automatically for your company?
There is no single best service for everyone. There is the one that fits your markets, your contract sizes and your team. This guide compares the four ways to find public tenders automatically and shows how to recognise a good service.
· 7 min read
What is the best service to find public tenders automatically?
The best service is the one that covers every portal your buyers publish on, removes duplicates and sends you only the tenders that fit your company. If you only look for large EU-wide contracts, the free notifications from TED are enough. If you also want to win contracts below the EU thresholds, you need a service that reads the national, state and municipal portals too, because that is where the many smaller procedures appear.
Polytender is built for exactly that case: you enter your website, it becomes a search profile of keywords and CPV codes, and every morning you get the matching tenders from more than 300 official procurement portals in one email. Whether that is the best route for you is something you can check yourself with the criteria below.
Rule of thumb: one portal in one country works with free alerts. From several portals, countries or service lines on, a service that aggregates, removes duplicates and filters by your profile pays off.
Four ways to find public tenders automatically
Almost every service on the market belongs to one of these four groups. They differ in how many sources they cover and who does the filtering: you or the service.
Free alerts from the official portals
TED, the EU's official journal, and many national portals offer saved searches with email notifications. It costs nothing and comes straight from the source. The catch: each alert covers exactly one portal, TED only carries contracts above the EU thresholds, and the same tender often lands in your inbox several times.
Fits if you only watch one or two portals.
Classic tender databases
Paid services that collect notices from many portals and make them searchable through a keyword profile. You maintain the search terms, regions and CPV codes yourself. The result depends on your keyword list: too narrow and you miss tenders, too broad and your inbox fills up.
Fits if you know your search terms well and maintain them regularly.
Services with AI matching
These services match every new notice against a profile of your company, not just against keywords. Semantic AI understands meaning, across languages too, and finds tenders in which none of your keywords appears literally. Polytender belongs to this group.
Fits if you bid in several regions or countries and have little time to screen.
Your own AI agent
You connect an AI assistant such as Mistral Vibe, Claude, ChatGPT or Copilot to a tender data source and let it search, assess and read documents by your own rules. It is the most flexible route, but it needs a clean data layer and some setup.
Fits if you want to automate your own workflows.
Read the guide: build an AI agent for tendersHow to recognise a good service
Use these six questions to check any provider, including us. Ideally during a trial and with your real range of services.
Does it cover contracts below the thresholds?
Ask for the list of connected portals. A service that essentially reads only TED shows you the EU-wide procedures and misses the many smaller contracts from states, cities and municipalities.
Does it remove duplicates?
The same tender often sits on the state portal, the national portal and TED. A good service merges them into one entry and keeps corrections and moved deadlines up to date.
How is your search profile created?
Plain keyword lists are yours to invent and maintain. A profile derived from your company that you can still edit in full is better: keywords, exclusion terms, CPV codes and regions.
Can you get to the tender documents?
The notice alone is rarely enough to decide. Check whether you can open the documents right in the service or first have to register on every portal.
How current and traceable is the data?
New notices should reach you by the next morning at the latest, and every match should link to the original notice. That one always prevails.
Are price and cancellation transparent?
A public price, a free trial and cancelling without a phone call say a lot about a provider. Also check where your data is stored and whether you can get a data processing agreement.
Portal alerts, database or AI matching compared
A comparison by type of service, not by provider. Individual services can differ, so a test of your own is always worth it.
| The options compared | Free portal alerts | Classic database | AI matching with Polytender |
|---|---|---|---|
| Portals covered | One per alert | Many, depending on the provider | More than 300 official portals in Europe, the UK and the US |
| Below the thresholds | Only on that portal | Depends on the provider | Yes, in the directly connected markets |
| Duplicates | Repeated across portals | Depends on the provider | Merged into one entry |
| Filtering | Keywords or CPV codes per portal | A keyword profile you maintain | A profile from your website, with a reason for every match |
| Setup | One account and one alert per portal | Set up a search profile and keep adjusting it | Enter your website, review the profile, done |
| Cost | Free | Paid, depending on the provider | Public price, 30 days free trial |
How Polytender finds tenders for your company
Three steps, then the search runs on its own.
Enter your website
Polytender reads your website and drafts a search profile from it, with keywords, CPV codes and a description of what you offer. You do not need to know any procurement jargon for that.
Fine-tune the profile
You pick countries and regions and adjust keywords, exclusion terms and CPV codes. If a match does not fit, you mark it as not relevant and the next list gets sharper.
The matching tenders every morning
Every night we read the connected portals, remove duplicates and match new notices against your profile. In the morning the matches are in your inbox, each with its deadline and a short reason why it fits.
When another option fits better
No service is the best for everyone. In these cases you are better served elsewhere.
- You only watch one portal
- If all your buyers publish on the same platform, its free alert is enough.
- You only look for large EU-wide contracts
- For procedures above the thresholds TED is the original source, and its saved search is free.
- You are looking for software that writes bids
- Polytender finds tenders, explains the matches and makes the documents accessible. The bid itself is still written in your own tools.
- Your market is not connected yet
- Check our sources page to see whether your countries and portals are included. If one is missing, tell us before you decide.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best service to find public tenders automatically?
It depends on where you bid. For large EU-wide contracts the free notifications from TED are enough. If you also want to find national, regional and municipal procedures, you need a service that aggregates many portals, removes duplicates and filters by a company profile. Polytender does exactly that and can be tested free for 30 days.
Can I find public tenders automatically for free?
Yes, with limits. TED and many national portals offer free saved searches with email notifications. You do have to set up each portal separately, you get duplicates, and on TED you only see procedures above the EU thresholds.
How do I find tenders below the EU thresholds?
These procedures do not appear in the EU's official journal but on national, state and municipal portals, in Germany for example through the federal notice service and the procurement platforms of the states. You either watch these portals one by one or use a service that reads them directly.
Do I need CPV codes to find matching tenders?
No. CPV codes help because buyers classify their procedures with them, but they are not always assigned accurately. A good service combines CPV codes with keywords and matching by meaning. Polytender suggests fitting codes from your website.
How quickly do I learn about a new tender?
With Polytender on the morning after the nightly match: the portals are read every night and the new matches arrive by email. For most bid deadlines a daily rhythm is enough.
Does such a service really find every tender?
No, and nobody can guarantee that. A service only finds what is published on the portals it is connected to. So check the list of sources and keep in mind that the original notice always prevails.
What does a tender search service cost?
Portal alerts are free, commercial services usually bill monthly or yearly. Polytender has one plan with all sources and features, priced by seats and search profiles, with a free 30-day trial. Current prices are on the pricing page.
See for yourself which tenders fit you
Enter your website. Polytender drafts your search profile and shows you the tenders that match it today.
Enter your website and see your matching tenders. 30 days free, cancel anytime.
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