What 192.com does

192.com, founded in 1997 and headquartered in Lewes, Sussex with a customer services office in London, is a UK consumer-facing people finder and directory service that aggregates and resells access to official UK public records. The platform consolidates data from the Open Electoral Register, Companies House, Land Registry, Directory Enquiries (BT-OSIS), County Court Judgments, the Insolvency Register, and mortality records into a single searchable interface, covering over 700 million residential and business records including 750 million electoral roll entries spanning 2002-2026. Core products include People Finder, Electoral Roll Search, Director Reports, Business Directory (2.3 million listings via Creditsafe), Property Prices (11+ million Land Registry properties), Directory Enquiries, and Places Search, with premium offerings comprising Background Reports, Ownership & Occupier Lookup, Personal Checks, and the B2B-oriented AddressAI address verification tool.

The business operates a self-serve, freemium go-to-market model: free registration yields 20 Directory Enquiries searches per day and access to the Business Directory and Property Prices, while premium records require credit purchase. Credit packages range from £15.95 for 6 credits (one-month validity) to £214.95 for 600 credits (six-month validity), with per-search costs of 1-2 credits depending on record type. Revenue is diversified across four streams — usage-based credit packages, one-time background report purchases, recurring monthly fees for verified business listings (via the Central Index channel partnership), and display advertising through Google, Microsoft, and Meta ad networks. The company has remained privately held and bootstrapped since founding, with no external institutional investment disclosed, and is led by founder and chairman Alastair Crawford with Terry Parsons as CTO.

The company's distribution is anchored in organic UK search, content marketing through help guides, an affiliate program, email newsletters to registered users, and channel partnerships — most notably Central Index (for business listing reach across hundreds of UK directories including Evening Standard and Mirror) and Creditsafe (for monthly-updated company data). Customer segments span general consumers seeking to reconnect with contacts or verify identities, individuals performing safety/trust checks, business users doing B2B lead generation and company research, and property/real estate users conducting ownership due diligence. The British Red Cross family tracing partnership and the People Reunited sub-brand provide social impact positioning.

Name

192.com

Legal name

192.com Ltd

Website

https://192.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

1997

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

51–100 employees

Short description

192.com is a UK consumer directory and people finder, founded 1997, that aggregates 700+ million official UK public records (Electoral Roll, Companies House, Land Registry, Directory Enquiries) into a freemium self-serve platform serving individuals, SMBs, and businesses for people search, background checks, and property lookups.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

London

HQ country

United Kingdom

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Technology or R&D, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Personnel, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Credit Packages: Users purchase credit packages to access premium data including electoral roll searches, director reports, county court judgments, ownership verification, insolvency checks, and mortality checks. Credits expire after 1-6 months depending on package size.
2. Background Reports: One-time purchase of comprehensive background reports on individuals, available in HTML and PDF formats, with 12 months viewing window. Can be purchased with credits or as standalone transaction.
3. Business Listing Verification: Monthly fee for businesses to verify their listing on Central Index network, gaining verified status and access to the admin portal. Provides reach across 192.com and hundreds of other UK directories.
4. Advertising: Display advertising on the website using Google, Microsoft, Meta, and other ad networks based on user behavior and location data.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

192.com operates a UK people finder and directory platform aggregating 700+ million records from official sources including the Open Electoral Register, Companies House, Land Registry, and Directory Enquiries. Users register for free to access limited searches and purchase credit packages (from £15.95 for 6 credits to £214.95 for 600 credits) to unlock electoral roll lookups, director reports, ownership verification, and background reports. The platform also sells monthly business listing verification via the Central Index partnership and runs display advertising across its pages.

Product overview

192.com is a UK people finder and directory service launched in 1997 that operates a multi-tiered product portfolio combining free and premium access to public records. The core offering centers on People Finder search, supported by Electoral Roll Search (2002-2026 records), Directory Enquiries, Business Directory, and Places Search including Property Prices. Premium services include Background Reports, Director Reports, Ownership & Occupier Lookup, Personal Checks, and AddressAI (AI-powered address verification). The platform aggregates data from multiple official sources including the Open Electoral Register, Companies House, Land Registry, Directory Enquiries databases, and Creditsafe business data, with credits required for premium record access.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• People Finder Primary people search tool for finding residential addresses, phone numbers, and contact details of UK individuals by aggregating electoral roll, directory enquiry, and company records.
• Electoral Roll Search Search 750 million UK electoral roll records from 2002 to 2026 providing full names, detailed addresses, length of residency, household occupants, and neighbours.
• Director Reports Access to over 4 million UK director reports for current and inactive directors, sourced from Companies House and merged with electoral roll and directory enquiry listings.
• Background Reports One-time purchasable comprehensive profile reports on UK individuals covering address, phone numbers, co-occupants, property ownership, electoral roll entries, directorships, mortality, insolvency, county court judgments, shareholdings, and company financials.
• Directory Enquiries Free UK telephone directory search covering 15 million residential and business listings from BT-OSIS data, with 20 free searches per day for registered users and no credit requirement.
• Business Directory Searchable directory of 2.3 million UK business listings supplied by Creditsafe with monthly updates, providing company contact details, director data, and company information.
• Places Search UK places search for finding postcodes, street maps, aerial photography, and area information by searching streets, towns, postcodes, or villages.
• Property Prices Searchable Land Registry database covering 11+ million properties in England and Wales, providing property price history and sale dates from year 2000 onwards.
• Ownership & Occupier Lookup Address lookup providing property ownership information for England and Wales addresses and occupier information UK-wide, with results emailed to the user.
• AddressAI AI-powered UK address verification software for cleansing address databases, improving delivery, communication, and data quality for UK contact records.
• Closed Companies Search Searchable database of UK companies that have ceased trading, filterable by company name, last active dates, company type, and company number.
• Address Finder UK address-based people search tool providing access to postcodes, property prices, street maps, and aerial photography for an address.
• Advanced People Search Refined UK people search with parameters including middle name, household members, building/flat, street, village, town, county, country, and data source selection across electoral roll and directors/shareholders.
• Personal Checks Suite of individual verification services including ownership verification, county court judgments, insolvency check, and mortality check for UK addresses.

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles5 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature3 records

Partnerships

Four partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• Central IndexcoreChannel Partner/ Reseller/ Distributor192.com partnered with Central Index to manage all user-generated business listings. Central Index provides rich business listings to hundreds of UK directories including The Evening Standard and The Mirror, as well as local newspaper directories. This allows businesses a single point to manage and enhance their online presence to millions of potential customers. Businesses can claim, verify, and enhance listings with photos, keywords, contact details, website links, and descriptions.
• CreditsafecoreTechnology or IntegrationCreditsafe supplies company information for the Business Directory, providing 2.3 million company listings. 192.com receives monthly updates from Creditsafe with any changes made to business details.
• British Red CrossminorStrategic or Co-development Partner192.com is proud to support the British Red Cross in reconnecting and reuniting families. The partnership supports the British Red Cross Family Tracing Service which helps people find missing family members.
• People ReunitedminorOthersPeople Reunited is listed as a related service/brand under the 192.com umbrella, focused on family reunification services.

Scale indicators10 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Direct peers

• CheckPeople: UK-focused people search and background check platform offering similar aggregation of public records including electoral roll and court records. Direct competitor serving the same UK consumer and small-business segments with comparable credit-based premium access model.
• Pipl: Global people-search and identity verification platform aggregating public records and social data. Comparable in offering people finder and background report functionality; differs in geographic breadth and B2B identity-verification focus but targets overlapping use cases.
• Spokeo: US-headquartered people search and background check service using a similar aggregation-plus-credit model. Highly comparable business model (free search funnel, paid premium reports) with same data-driven directory core, though focused on US records.
• BeenVerified: Subscription-based background check and people search service covering public records aggregation. Comparable to 192.com's background report and personal checks products in both offering and monetization approach.
• PeopleFinder: US-based people search and background report provider that aggregates public records for individual lookup. Directly comparable product category and revenue model to 192.com's consumer-facing people finder.
• CheckCompany: UK-focused company information and director search service pulling from Companies House. Directly comparable to 192.com's Business Directory and Director Reports products for the B2B due-diligence use case.

Broad incumbents

• Yell.com: UK's leading online business directory offering company search, reviews, and verified listings. Overlaps with 192.com's business directory and Central Index listing business but operates as a broader marketing platform for SMBs rather than a people-focused search.
• Thomson Local: UK directory service providing business search and listings, historically a printed directory now operating digitally. Comparable as a UK directory aggregator with business listing subscription model overlapping 192.com's Central Index partnership offerings.
• Experian UK: UK credit reference and consumer data bureau providing background, identity, and credit information to consumers and businesses. Adjacent to 192.com's background checks and personal verification services but operates at much larger scale across broader financial services.

Others

• Central Index: UK business listings aggregator and channel partner that manages 192.com's verified business listings and distributes them across hundreds of UK directories. Partner rather than competitor, but operates in the same UK business directory ecosystem.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks7 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/192com
• Facebookfacebook.com/192com

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles2 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about 192.com