Honest comparison
Velstrian Bid vs CleanTender
A soft-FM specialist against a sector-agnostic bid suite. Both publish their prices, so the real question is scope. Every competitor fact is sourced and dated.
Your first 7 days are free. A card is needed to start.Updated 26 July 2026
Velstrian Bid helps small and mid size firms in any sector find and answer tenders, for public and private work, from £49 per month. CleanTender is a soft facilities-management specialist, with a free tier and Pro at £99 per month, tuned for cleaning, security, grounds, waste and catering bids. Both publish their pricing, so this is not a transparency contest. It is a question of scope and depth, and this page sets out both honestly with dated sources.
Which should you choose?
Choose CleanTender if
- Cleaning, security, grounds, waste or catering is most or all of what you bid.
- You want sector vocabulary such as BICSc, SIA ACS, COSHH and TUPE built in.
- You want a fast qualification scan to decide whether to bid.
- Pro at £99 per month with unlimited drafts fits your budget.
Choose Velstrian (Velstrian Bid) if
- You bid for public and private work: public contracts arrive each morning, and a private client's tender you upload.
- You bid across more than one sector on Find a Tender, Contracts Finder, Public Contracts Scotland and EU TED.
- You want the AI blocked from inventing a figure, with a note on every draft saying AI helped (PPN 017).
- You need social value maths done in code, not just a drafted section.
- You want post-award delivery evidence under the Procurement Act 2023.
At a glance
Scroll the table sideways
| Feature | Velstrian Bid | CleanTender |
|---|---|---|
| Category | UK bid and tender management suite (all sectors) | Soft-FM bid tool (cleaning, security, grounds, waste, catering) |
| UK tender discovery | Yes, Find a Tender, Contracts Finder, Public Contracts Scotland and EU TED, daily at 06:00 UTC, all sectors | Curated soft-FM feed from official UK sources |
| Sector coverage | Sector-agnostic | Soft FM only |
| Bid qualification / fit scan | Yes, a seven part score with the reason behind each part, and a suggestion to go for it, look again or pass | Yes, 0 to 100 in under 30 seconds |
| Drafting grounded in your own past bids | Yes | SQ drafting with soft-FM vocabulary, unlimited drafts on Pro |
| Figure-grounding (AI blocked from inventing a number) | Yes, a fixed check in code | Not stated publicly |
| A note on every draft saying AI helped write it (the PPN 017 disclosure public buyers expect) | Yes | Not stated publicly |
| Social value (the local good you do) added up in code | Yes, worked out in code | Included as a TOMs / Social Value SQ section |
| Proof of delivery after you win (Procurement Act 2023 s.52 / s.71) | Yes | Not stated |
| Published price | Yes | Yes |
| Starting price | £49/month (Starter) | Free tier, Pro £99/month or £990/year |
| Best for | Small and mid size firms bidding for public and private work, in any sector | UK soft-FM SMEs doing 4 to 12 bids a year |
What buyers check first
Traceability
Can every figure in a draft be traced back to your own records?
Read in full: Traceability
- Every £ and % in a draft is checked against a set of allowed figures computed from your own data, and the draft is rejected if a figure is not in that set. Every AI-assisted draft carries a PPN 017 AI-use disclosure and waits for a named person to approve it before you submit.
- Not stated publicly. The sources at the foot of this page describe Selection Questionnaire drafting with soft-FM vocabulary, a 0 to 100 qualification scan and a Compliance Vault. They document no check of this kind.
Data governance
Where your data is kept, and how it is protected.
Read in full: Data governance
- AES-256 at rest, TLS 1.3 in transit, customer data stored in the EU (Ireland), UK GDPR compliant, ICO registered, and follows ISO/IEC 27001. Security sets out each control.
- Not documented in the sources at the foot of this page. This page states nothing about it.
UK regulatory alignment
How each tool handles the UK rules a public buyer checks.
Read in full: UK regulatory alignment
- A PPN 017 AI-use disclosure on every AI-assisted draft, social value calculated in code against the weighting the buyer published rather than by the AI, and post-award delivery evidence against Procurement Act 2023 sections 52 and 71.
- A TOMs and social value section is included in the Selection Questionnaire drafting, per the dated sources at the foot of this page. PPN 017 disclosure and the sections 52 and 71 post-award duties are not stated.
Velstrian Bid's lines are first party and checkable against the product. The CleanTender lines repeat only what the vendor's published material or the dated sources at the foot of this page actually state. Where something is not published, this page says so rather than inferring it. The full table is above.
Where Velstrian Bid loses honestly
For a pure soft-FM contractor, CleanTender is the more specialised tool. Its vocabulary is tuned to cleaning and security bids, its curated feed filters out the noise of other sectors, and its qualification scan gives a fast bid or no-bid signal from a contract pack in under 30 seconds. Velstrian Bid's advantage is breadth and depth on the compliance side: every sector, a hard figure-grounding gate, social value maths done in code and post-award delivery evidence. If you only ever bid for cleaning contracts, that breadth is not worth much to you, and CleanTender may simply be the better fit. A soft-FM supplier who also bids in other categories could reasonably run both.
The longer read
Each product in full, and the prices side by side. Open a line when you want the detail.
What is CleanTender?
CleanTender is a UK bid tool built specifically for soft facilities management: cleaning, security, grounds, waste and catering. It curates a feed of soft-FM tenders from official UK public-sector sources, and its qualification scan reads a contract pack and scores your stored profile against it from 0 to 100 in under 30 seconds. On its Pro plan it drafts Selection Questionnaire responses in the standard sections, including Company Overview, Relevant Experience, Quality Assurance, Staff Training, COSHH Management and a Social Value and TOMs section, with the sector vocabulary these bids expect, such as BICSc, SIA ACS, TUPE and NHS national specifications.
That specialisation is a real advantage, and it is one Velstrian Bid does not try to match. If cleaning or security is all you bid for, CleanTender's vocabulary and its fast fit scan are built around exactly your work, and its pricing is public: a free tier to browse the contract directory, and Pro at £99 per month or £990 per year, which adds the qualification scan, unlimited drafts, the Compliance Vault and email alerts. CleanTender positions itself for soft-FM SMEs doing roughly 4 to 12 bids a year.
What is Velstrian Bid?
Velstrian Bid is Velstrian's UK bid and tender management suite, live and ready to use today. It is built for small and mid size firms that write their own bids, for public and private work. Unlike a sector specialist, it is sector-agnostic: it tracks Find a Tender, Contracts Finder, Public Contracts Scotland and EU TED across any category, refreshed every morning at 06:00 UTC. It drafts answers grounded in the supplier's own submitted bids, and its defining rule is figure-grounding, so before a draft is shown, every £ and % is checked against a set of allowed figures computed from your own data, and if a number is not in that set the draft is rejected. Every AI-assisted draft carries a PPN 017 AI-use disclosure and waits for a person to approve it.
Velstrian Bid calculates social value in code against the weighting the buyer published rather than only drafting it as a questionnaire section, and after award it tracks each commitment to a delivery percentage with a RAG status, captures evidence, issues monthly reports and checks the Procurement Act 2023 KPI duties in sections 52 and 71. Its bid-fit and coverage marking, by contrast, is still in development and not in the released product, so on the fit-scan row above CleanTender is genuinely ahead today.
Velstrian Bid publishes its pricing. Starter is £49 per month for 1 user, Pro is £149 per month for 5 users with post-award delivery tracking, and Portfolio is £549 per month for 10 users. Once your account is open you set it up and run it yourself, with no consultant needed, and you pay by card, held securely by Stripe and never stored by us.
Pricing compared
Both tools publish their prices, so you can compare directly. CleanTender is free to browse and £99 per month on Pro. Velstrian Bid is £49 per month on Starter and £149 per month on Pro. For a soft-FM supplier, CleanTender Pro at £99 sits between Velstrian Bid's two paid tiers, and the deciding factor is scope rather than price: CleanTender covers soft FM deeply, Velstrian Bid covers every sector plus social value done in code and post-award delivery.
Frequently asked questions
Is Velstrian Bid or CleanTender cheaper?
Both publish prices. CleanTender has a free tier and a Pro plan at £99 per month or £990 per year. Velstrian Bid Starter is £49 per month and Pro is £149 per month. For a soft-FM-only supplier, CleanTender Pro at £99 sits between Velstrian Bid's two paid tiers.
What sectors does CleanTender cover?
CleanTender is a soft facilities-management specialist covering cleaning, security, grounds, waste and catering. Velstrian Bid works in any sector: it finds public tenders on Find a Tender, Contracts Finder, Public Contracts Scotland and EU TED, and answers the private tenders you upload.
Does CleanTender handle social value?
Yes. CleanTender drafts a Social Value and TOMs section as part of its Selection Questionnaire responses. Velstrian Bid calculates social value in code against the weighting the buyer published, and the AI never computes the total.
Which finds more tenders?
CleanTender curates a soft-FM feed from official UK public-sector sources, which is focused but narrow. Velstrian Bid pulls Find a Tender, Contracts Finder, Public Contracts Scotland and EU TED across all sectors and refreshes the feed every morning at 06:00 UTC.
Does CleanTender have a qualification score?
Yes, and it is a genuine strength: CleanTender reads a contract pack and scores your stored profile against it from 0 to 100 in under 30 seconds. Velstrian Bid gives each published tender a seven part score with the reason behind each part, and suggests go for it, look again or pass. The decision stays yours.
Which handles post-award delivery?
Velstrian Bid tracks each commitment to a delivery percentage with a RAG status, captures evidence, issues monthly social-value reports and checks the Procurement Act 2023 KPI duties in sections 52 and 71. CleanTender does not state a post-award delivery feature.
I run a cleaning company, which should I use?
If soft FM is all you bid for, CleanTender's sector vocabulary, including BICSc, SIA ACS, COSHH, TUPE and NHS national specifications, is tuned for you and its qualification scan is fast. Velstrian Bid is the better fit if you bid across sectors or need social value maths done in code and post-award delivery evidence.
Can I use both Velstrian Bid and CleanTender?
Yes. A soft-FM contractor could use CleanTender for cleaning and security bids and Velstrian Bid for tenders in other sectors, for social value scoring and for post-award delivery evidence.
Sources
Read the 4 sources, each dated and linked
- CleanTender pricing (free tier, Pro £99/month or £990/year), curated soft-FM feed, 0 to 100 qualification scan in under 30 seconds, Selection Questionnaire sections and sector vocabulary, Compliance Vault, and target of 4 to 12 bids a year. CleanTender, "7 Best AI Tender Software for UK Contracts (2026)", 29 April 2026. cleantender.co.uk/resources/comparisons/ai-tender-software
- CleanTender soft-FM scope and free contract-directory access. CleanTender, "AI Bid Management Software: Best UK Options (2026)", 29 April 2026. cleantender.co.uk/resources/comparisons/ai-bid-management-software-uk
- Velstrian Bid capabilities, figure-grounding, PPN 017, PPN 026 and Procurement Act 2023 s.52 / s.71. Bid fit score with seven reasons (first party). Velstrian, Velstrian Bid product page.
- Velstrian Bid pricing: Starter £49/month, Pro £149/month, Portfolio £549/month (first party). Velstrian, Pricing.
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