Benchmarkly

Check your business idea against real UK companies.

See how many businesses like yours already exist near you and what they typically hold in cash and owe. Then get a three-week plan to test your idea before you sign a lease or spend your savings.

What do you want to start, and where?

Free · No account or card · Built from Companies House records

Or open a real example

Made for the moment before you commit.

  • You have an idea and want a reality check.

    See how many similar businesses already exist near you, and whether their numbers look comfortable or tight, before you hand in your notice.

  • You’re about to sign a lease or borrow money.

    Check what similar companies hold in cash against what they owe, so you plan for the lean months as well as the busy ones.

  • You’re choosing between ideas or places.

    Swap the business or the town and compare again. It works for 731 official business types and towns, cities and postcode areas across the UK.

It won’t predict whether you’ll succeed. Nothing honest can, so we don’t give scores or verdicts.

Three expensive guesses people make before opening.

  1. Judging the competition from the high street.

    Plenty of businesses trade from home, a van or an upstairs office. In Manchester, 1,137 café and coffee-shop companies are registered, 446 of them formed in 2025 or 2026.

  2. Planning around takings, not the gap before them.

    A good month doesn’t help if the bills land first. The report shows what similar companies hold in cash against what they owe at year end, so you know how much cushion is normal in the trade.

  3. Spending before testing.

    A lease, a fit-out or a van full of stock is hard to undo. Your plan starts with a test for this week, designed to take a few hours and little or no money.

From idea to a first test in a few minutes.

  1. Pick a business and a place.

    Your comparison with similar UK companies appears straight away.

  2. Answer two questions.

    Who your first customer is, and why they’d choose you over what they use now.

  3. Get your three-week test plan.

    Download it as a PDF or slides, or save it with a one-time email link.

Here’s what a real report says.

A coffee shop in Manchester, compared with 1,137 live companies registered in Manchester (Companies House register, 1 September 2026).

What the numbers mean for you

Cash is tight in this trade

At year end the typical café and coffee-shop company in Manchester holds £5,212 in cash and owes £30,953; that cash figure is lower than 89% of UK industries.

Typical operators end the year holding less cash than they owe, so there is little slack if takings dip or a big bill lands early.

Start here: Work out how many weeks of costs you could cover before steady customer money arrives, and keep at least that much aside before you launch.

Open the full coffee shop in Manchester report

Frequently asked questions.

Is it really free?

Yes. The comparison and the three-week plan are free, with no account or card. If you want to come back to your plan later, you can save it with a one-time email link.

My idea doesn’t fit a neat category. Will it still work?

Describe it the way you would to a friend. We match it to the closest of 731 official UK business types and always show what it’s being compared with. If nothing fits well, the chat helps you choose the closest comparison and the report says so.

Can it tell me whether my business will succeed?

No. It cannot prove customer demand, count physical shops, predict success, or reveal a typical sales figure when too few companies report one. Registered offices may be mailboxes, and electronically filed accounts cover roughly 60–75% of accounts filed each year—not every business.

What does it show, then?

How many matching companies are registered, how recently they formed, and how many are in strike-off, liquidation, or have not filed accounts yet. Where enough accounts report an item, you can also compare median year-end cash, creditors, equipment, and employees. Every figure shows how many company records support it.

Where do the numbers come from?

Public Companies House data: the monthly company register (5,457,844 live UK companies) and twelve months of electronically filed company accounts. We group records by business category and registered-office area, then show when each source was updated.

How is this different from a general AI chat?

A general chat can produce a plausible number for anything. Benchmarkly can ask questions and explain the result, but every figure must come from the prepared company records. If those records cannot support an answer, the gap stays visible.

What will I leave with?

A business snapshot that compares your idea with similar companies and explains what the numbers mean for you, plus a three-week plan to test it. Export either as a PDF or slides.

Ready to see what you’d be walking into?

Get my free snapshotNo account or card. Takes a few minutes.