DefenceLens vs Stotles
Stotles is a well-designed public-sector sales platform: it covers the whole UK public sector, offers a generous free tier, and wraps tenders in workflow tools — buyer profiles, signals and CRM integrations. The comparison with DefenceLens is really a comparison of breadth versus depth. Here it is, honestly.
| Stotles | DefenceLens | |
|---|---|---|
| Coverage | All UK public sector — health, local government, education, defence and more. | UK defence and security only, from pipeline notice to contract award. |
| Defence filtering | Generic keyword/CPV filters you configure yourself. | A purpose-built defence classifier (CPV + defence-buyer whitelist + domain keywords), with reasons shown per notice. |
| Workflow tools | Strong: pipelines, team workspaces, buyer intelligence, CRM integrations. | Deliberately lean: search, alerts-in-progress, winners feed, CSV export. |
| Winner intelligence | Award notices and supplier pages within the general platform. | A dedicated defence winners feed: values, buyers, per-company win histories, first-time-winner flags. |
| Free tier | Generous freemium across the public sector. | 30-minute full-access trial, then a free tier with live match counts. |
| Pricing | Freemium; paid tiers quote-based. | Published: £3,950–£30,000/year by plan. |
Comparison based on publicly available information, July 2026. Products change — verify details with each provider before buying.
Stotles is likely the better fit if…
- You sell across the public sector and defence is one vertical among several.
- You want team workflow — shared pipelines, qualification stages, CRM sync — around your tender process.
- You want a free tier you can live in for a while before paying.
DefenceLens is likely the better fit if…
- Defence is your market, and configuring generic filters to approximate it has burned you before.
- You need award-side intelligence as much as tender-side: who's winning, at what value, and who's new.
- You'd rather have one accurate defence feed than a broad platform you have to tune.
Frequently asked questions
- Can't I just set up defence filters in a generic platform?
- You can get close, but defence is genuinely hard to filter: many defence contracts carry civilian CPV codes (construction, catering, IT), and many military-sounding keywords appear in civilian notices. DefenceLens classifies with three layers — CPV, a maintained defence-buyer whitelist, and domain keywords — and shows why each notice qualified.
- Does DefenceLens have Stotles-style workflow features?
- No — no shared pipelines or CRM integrations today (CSV export is included from the Operator plan, CRM export is on the Capture roadmap). DefenceLens spends its effort on the intelligence layer rather than workflow.
- Which is cheaper?
- Stotles' free tier is bigger; at the paid level its prices are quote-based while DefenceLens publishes prices from £3,950/year. Compare on the total cost of the plan that actually covers your use, and on what your team does with the time each saves.
Judge it on the data, not the marketing
Every new DefenceLens account gets 30 minutes of full access — every notice, every award, every winner — before you spend anything. Then compare.
More comparisons: DCI alternative · vs Tussell · vs Stotles · vs Supply2Defence