If you've asked anyone in the sector where to look for grants, you've probably heard of GrantFinder. It has been around a long time, and plenty of councils and larger charities use it. So when people find Grants Hub, the first question is often a fair one: how do the two compare, and which should we pay for?
We make Grants Hub, so read this with that in mind. We've tried to be straight about where GrantFinder is the better choice. Everything we say about GrantFinder below comes from its own website, checked on 6 October 2026. If something has changed since, their site is the source to trust.
The short answer
- Choose GrantFinder if you are a local authority, housing association, university or large charity with a funding team, you want researcher-written fund summaries and policy news alongside the database, and you are happy to agree a price with a sales team.
- Choose Grants Hub if you are a charity, community group, small business, social enterprise or grant consultant, you want to see the price before you talk to anyone, and you want help deciding which grants fit and drafting the application, not just a list.
Side by side
| GrantFinder (Idox) | Grants Hub | |
|---|---|---|
| Who it's aimed at | Local authorities, charities, not-for-profits, housing associations, education providers | Charities, community groups, small businesses and start-ups, social enterprises, grant consultants |
| Price | Not published. Subscribe, or talk to their sales team for custom plans | From £19.99 a month inc. VAT, published on our pricing page. Cancel any time |
| Try before paying | Contact their team | Free grant match at grantshub.co.uk/match: three of your ten best matches shown in full, no account needed |
| Size | Live funding opportunities: 8,500+, by their own count | 3,900+ live opportunities from 1,400+ UK funders |
| Updated | Daily, verified by expert researchers | Daily |
| Matching | Search with keyword, organisation type, location and activity filters | Search and filters, plus AI matching that ranks open grants against your organisation's profile and scores each one |
| Alerts | Email alerts for deadlines and new opportunities | Email alerts for new matches, keywords and approaching deadlines |
| Writing the application | Not part of the product | AI help to draft proposal letters and answers to application questions, from your own profile |
| Extras | Funding news, trend analysis, PolicyMatch add-on linking funding to UK policy | Funder track records from past awards, Companies House profile fill, a directory of grant consultants and a job board |
A note on the size row: every site counts differently. One "opportunity" on one database can be three separate rounds on another, and some databases keep funds that only open now and then. Treat any headline number, ours included, as a rough guide rather than a score.
Where GrantFinder is stronger
Depth and history. GrantFinder says it has been trusted for over 40 years, and its team of researchers checks and summarises funds every day. If your job is to brief a council cabinet on what's coming, that kind of written summary is valuable.
Policy and news. Their PolicyMatch add-on and news service connect funding to government policy. That matters most to public bodies planning bids around a policy cycle. We don't offer anything like it.
Breadth for public bodies. The case studies on their homepage feature councils. If most of your funding comes from large public programmes, GrantFinder is built around you.
Where Grants Hub is stronger
You can see the price. Grants Hub costs £19.99, £39.99 or £69.99 a month for organisations, inc. VAT, with two months free if you pay yearly. Consultants pay £19.99 to £79.99. There is no sales call and no minimum term. If you cancel, you keep access to the end of the period you paid for.
It tells you what fits. Instead of starting with a blank search box, you describe your organisation once. We rank every open grant against that profile and give each a match score. On the Professional and Advanced plans you also see why a grant fits you.
It helps you apply. Our AI grant consultant answers questions about a specific grant's eligibility and deadlines. It drafts proposal letters and answers to application questions, using what you've told us about your organisation. You still need to read and edit what it writes, but you're not starting from nothing.
It covers businesses as well as charities. Innovate UK competitions, government business schemes and regional growth funds sit alongside trusts, lottery funders and community foundations, across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
It's built for consultants too. Consultants can hold several client profiles, list themselves in our consultant directory and reply to charities who post the help they need on the job board.
Questions people ask
Is GrantFinder free? No. GrantFinder is subscription-only and its website asks you to subscribe or talk to its sales team. It doesn't publish a price.
Is Grants Hub free? Not fully. The grant match is free and needs no account: it shows three of your ten best matches in full. The full report is a single £12.99 payment. The full database, alerts and AI tools come with a subscription from £19.99 a month.
Can I use both? Yes. A council team could, for example, keep GrantFinder for policy and news and use Grants Hub to shortlist and draft for the community groups it supports.
Does Grants Hub take a share of any grant I win? No. We take 0% commission.
Who owns GrantFinder? GrantFinder is part of Idox, a UK software company. Grants Hub is independent.
Try it
Answer four quick questions and see which UK grants fit you, free: grantshub.co.uk/match. If you want the whole database, plans start at £19.99 a month on our pricing page.