Switching Company Secretarial Software: What to Look For

If your current company secretarial tool has changed its pricing, removed features from your plan, or just doesn't feel like it's built for someone like you anymore — you're not imagining things. Company secretarial software providers do change hands, and new ownership can bring changes to pricing and plans.

This isn't a criticism of any specific product. It's a market dynamic. And if it's affecting you, the question becomes: what should you actually look for in a replacement?

Signs Your Current Tool Is Changing

Before switching, it's worth confirming that the problem is the tool and not just a temporary annoyance. These are the patterns that usually signal a lasting shift:

• Price increases that outpace inflation — a 10% bump is one thing; a 40% increase or a new "per company" surcharge is another
• Features moving to higher tiers — something you used to have (like CH filing or document generation) now requires an upgrade
• Reduced support quality — slower response times, generic replies, support articles replacing human help
• Forced migration to a new platform — your data moves to a different system with a different interface, often with less flexibility
• New ownership announcements — acquisitions are sometimes followed by price or plan restructuring

If several of these are happening at once, you're likely in a consolidation cycle. It's worth evaluating alternatives before you're forced to.

What to Look For in Company Secretarial Software

Not every tool is built for the same user. Professional company secretaries managing 500 clients have different needs from an owner-director running one or two micro companies. Here's what matters for self-filing directors (our guide to choosing the best company secretarial software works through the same criteria by company type):

Pricing Model

This is where most of the confusion lives. There are five broad pricing tiers in the UK market:

Tier	Typical cost	What you get
Free (CH WebFiling)	£0 to use (filing fees apply — £50 for a confirmation statement online)	File confirmation statements and accounts directly with Companies House; free email reminders. No document generation, no registers.
Per-action tools	A fee per filing or document — the total depends on how much you do	Pay per filing or per document. Cheap if you only file twice a year; costs add up the more filings and documents you need.
Owner-director subscription	A monthly fee for the first company, less for each additional	All features included in one monthly subscription. Predictable costs.
Professional subscription	Priced by number of client companies	Multi-client management, bulk filing, practice dashboards. Built for company secretaries and accountants.
Enterprise	Price on application	Large-firm tools with API access, custom workflows, and dedicated support.

For an owner-director, the sweet spot is usually an owner-director subscription or per-action tool. The key question: does the price include everything, or will you pay extra for document generation, filing, or additional companies?

Watch for "from £X/mo" pricing that excludes CH filing fees, identity verification, or document exports. The headline price should be the actual price.

Feature Checklist

At minimum, company secretarial software for UK owner-directors should handle:

• Register of members — the only mandatory local register after the ECCTA reforms of 18 November 2025 (see our guide to the register of members)
• Share certificates — generated automatically when shares are allotted or transferred
• Dividend vouchers with tax calculations — including the dividend tax rates for the current tax year
• Board minutes — for dividends, allotments, registered office changes, and other resolutions
• Companies House API filing — file confirmation statements, officer changes, and registered office changes directly, without switching to WebFiling
• Deadline reminders — confirmation statement, accounts, and identity verification deadlines
• Identity verification tracking — critical during the ECCTA transition period (November 2025 – November 2026)
• Multi-company support — if you run more than one company, managing them from a single dashboard saves real time

Missing any of these means you'll end up supplementing the tool with manual templates — which defeats the purpose.

Owner-Director vs Professional Focus

Many company secretarial tools were built for professional company secretaries and accountants, then adapted for individual directors. The difference shows up in:

• Complexity — professional tools assume you know what an AP01 or a CH01 is; owner-director tools explain what you're filing and why
• Pricing — professional tools are priced for portfolios of client companies, with per-company rates that fall steeply as the portfolio grows; owner-director tools are priced for one or a handful of companies
• Workflow — professional tools optimise for batch operations across hundreds of companies; owner-director tools optimise for doing things right on one or two companies with minimal time

If you're a solo director who files their own returns, a professional-grade tool is likely overkill. You'll pay for features you don't use and navigate an interface designed for a different workflow.

Post-ECCTA Compliance

The ECCTA reforms that took effect in November 2025 changed how company information is managed in the UK. Your software should already reflect these changes:

• Local registers of directors, secretaries, and PSCs are abolished — the tool should not ask you to maintain them
• Identity verification is mandatory for all directors and PSCs
• Companies House filing validation is stricter, with new rejection reasons

If your current tool still shows "Register of Directors" as something you need to maintain locally, it hasn't been updated for post-ECCTA compliance. That's a red flag.

Data Portability

Before switching to any tool, check:

• Can you export your data? Registers, documents, and filing history should be exportable as PDF or CSV
• Can you import existing data? If you have 5 years of share history, you don't want to re-enter it manually
• What happens if you cancel? Some tools delete your data after cancellation; others give you a grace period to export

Data portability matters more than most directors realise — until they try to leave and discover their company records are locked inside a platform they no longer want to pay for.

CompanyMinder: An Owner-Director-First Alternative

CompanyMinder is built specifically for UK owner-directors who self-file. It covers the core document-and-register checklist above — register of members, share certificates, dividend vouchers, board minutes, deadline reminders, and identity verification tracking — with owner-first pricing rather than the per-client tiers built for accountancy practices. It produces the company's own records — share certificates, dividend vouchers, board minutes and resolutions — and you file with Companies House yourself through its online services; CompanyMinder doesn't prepare or submit Companies House filings.

It comes from Crocker Digital Ltd, a UK software company with no private-equity ownership. The pricing is one predictable subscription — £9/month for your first company and £5/month for each additional — so you pay for the companies you manage, not a per-filing meter.

If you're evaluating alternatives because your current tool has changed, you can get started with CompanyMinder on the free tier — single-company registers, one document generation, and basic reminders. Either way, the criteria above will help you find the right fit.

Sources

• Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023
• Companies House identity verification guidance — GOV.UK