Vigil vs Company Watch

What Company Watch does

Company Watch is best known for the H-Score®, a 0 to 100 measure of corporate financial health built on seven financial factors. Alongside it sit TextScore®, which applies natural language processing to company filings, and a Probability of Distress model. Credit teams, lenders, insurers, auditors and public sector bodies use these scores to judge how likely a company is to run into financial difficulty.

The platform also monitors UK and Irish companies in real time. Users build portfolios and get configurable, plain English alerts by email and in the platform when filings, directors, H-Score® or other risk indicators change. Data and alerts are also available through an API and Google BigQuery.

Two features go further on fraud and director risk. Vigilance™ scans Companies House filings as they happen and flags anomalies, including possible phoenix activity, by looking at director links, the timing of insolvencies and suspicious new incorporations. Enhanced Director Matching links directors and officers who appear under more than one Companies House record, so you can see a person's full business history, with a confidence score on each match.

Company Watch sells Bronze, Silver and Gold plans with optional add-ons. You can find the current plans on the Company Watch website.

What Vigil does

Vigil monitors Companies House and the London Gazette and sends a plain English alert when something changes at a company or director on your watchlist. A director resigns, a charge is registered, a First Gazette Notice is published: you get an email saying what happened and why it might matter to you. The Pro plan adds Slack alerts, a director watchlist and phoenix company detection.

The Gazette alert is built for creditors. When a company applies to be struck off, Vigil sends the notice with the two-month objection deadline and a link to object on GOV.UK. If that company owes you money, the window is your chance to stop it disappearing with the debt.

Vigil doesn't score financial health. It's for people who want to add a list of companies, get alerts they can read in a few seconds, and pay monthly without booking a demo. Plans start at £27 a month with no contract.

Which one fits

Company Watch covers more ground. If your job involves credit decisions on large exposures, fraud checks at onboarding, or reporting risk across a big portfolio, its scoring models, director matching and Vigilance™ go deeper than Vigil attempts to.

Vigil is narrower and cheaper. It suits credit controllers, accountants, solicitors and small business owners who want to know when something changes at the companies they deal with, and who would rather sign up online than talk to sales.

The two can sit side by side. A credit team might use Company Watch for financial analysis on major counterparties and Vigil for everyday alerts across a longer list of smaller suppliers and customers.

When to use Company Watch

• You need a validated financial distress score such as the H-Score® for credit or audit decisions
• You want phoenix and fraud detection through Vigilance™ and Enhanced Director Matching
• You need portfolio monitoring with API or BigQuery access for your own systems
• You're a lender, insurer, public body or corporate risk team managing a large portfolio

When to use Vigil

• You want plain English alerts for Companies House filings and London Gazette notices on a watchlist
• You want the creditor objection deadline included with every strike-off alert
• You're a credit controller, accountant, solicitor or small business owner
• You want published monthly pricing from £27, with no contract or sales call