Management consultancy leads the family.
The 13 trades grouped into digital and professional, busiest first. Management consultancy took 33,040 of the 145,533 counted here over the last twelve months, 23% of the family on its own. Each trade opens on its own page, broken down town by town.
| Trade | Oct 2026 | Last 12 months | Relative twelve-month volume |
|---|---|---|---|
| Management consultancy | 2,747 | 33,040 | |
| Web & software development | 2,445 | 22,711 | |
| IT consultancy | 1,456 | 16,621 | |
| Advertising & design | 1,179 | 13,386 | |
| Business support services | 898 | 12,692 | |
| Architecture & engineering | 1,123 | 11,446 | |
| Education & training | 986 | 10,613 | |
| IT support | 737 | 9,898 | |
| Estate agents | 345 | 3,914 | |
| Accounting | 307 | 3,859 | |
| Recruitment | 346 | 3,422 | |
| Photography | 171 | 2,057 | |
| Legal services | 172 | 1,874 | |
| Digital and professional, all 13 trades | 12,912 | 145,533 |
The families are ours, not the register's: they exist so the colour on every chart means something. A company carrying more than one SIC code can land in more than one trade, so the rows above can count the same company twice and the family total is a total of the rows rather than a headcount of companies. The grouping is set out in full on the method page, SIC code by SIC code.
March was the busiest month.
New digital and professional companies registered across the UK each month. The busiest month was March on 13,810. The quietest was December on 9,157.
New digital and professional companies in the UK, by month
Nov 2025 – Oct 2026 · 145,533 in total
Registrations dip over Christmas and pick up in the new year in almost every trade, so compare a month with the same month a year earlier rather than with the one before it.
How far back it goes.
Digital and professional companies still on the register, by year of incorporation, and the like-for-like comparison underneath: the first 10 months of 2026 against the same 10 months of 2025.
New digital and professional companies in the UK, by year
2015 to 2026 · 2026 counts January to October only
Older years undercount. The register only holds companies that still exist. Anything formed in an earlier year and since dissolved has dropped off it, so the further back the chart goes the more it undercounts. That alone makes every trade look like it is growing. Some of the rise here is real growth and some of it is simply that recent companies have had less time to close. The long view of UK company formation takes the same problem apart across all 39 trades.
| Trade | Change | Jan–Oct 2025 | Jan–Oct 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Web & software development | Up 84% | 11,095 | 20,360 |
| Education & training | Up 28% | 7,204 | 9,195 |
| IT support | Up 22% | 6,912 | 8,435 |
| Architecture & engineering | Up 18% | 8,480 | 9,979 |
| Management consultancy | Up 17% | 24,483 | 28,556 |
| Advertising & design | Up 15% | 9,986 | 11,521 |
| IT consultancy | Up 14% | 12,573 | 14,316 |
| Legal services | Up 10% | 1,472 | 1,621 |
| Business support services | Up 2% | 10,651 | 10,819 |
| Estate agents | Down 1% | 3,361 | 3,322 |
| Recruitment | Down 3% | 3,038 | 2,946 |
| Photography | Down 5% | 1,832 | 1,743 |
| Accounting | Down 6% | 3,469 | 3,252 |
9 of the 13 trades in this family registered more companies in the first 10 months of 2026 than in the same months of 2025; 4 registered fewer. Web & software development moved most on the way up, at 84%. Accounting moved most on the way down, at 6%.
Where digital and professional firms are starting.
New digital and professional companies registered over the last twelve months, by the post town on the registered office address, or, where that office is a formation agent, by the town the company's directors run their other companies from.
London is counted as a single post town, so it is not really in the same contest as the rest of the list. It took 7.6 times as many new digital and professional companies last year as Manchester. Leaving it in the ranking below would squash every other bar to a stub, so it sits up here on its own.
Ranked 2 to 16, without London
Bars scaled to Manchester at 3,143, not to London
Each town above links to its busiest digital and professional trade there where that pairing has enough volume for a page, and to the town itself where it does not. Every town counted, ranked and linked.
The rest of the register.
43,806 new companies were counted across all 39 trades in October 2026, 12,912 of them in this family. Here is where the other 30,894 landed.
Online retail, Takeaways, Restaurants & cafes, Hairdressing & beauty, Convenience stores, Catering & events, Pubs & bars, Wholesale Property 80,044 2 trades · Last 12 months
Property investment & letting, Property management Building and trades 74,672 4 trades · Last 12 months
Construction, Electricians, Plumbers & HVAC, Landscaping People and care 41,761 7 trades · Last 12 months
Health practitioners, Cleaning services, Care services, Fitness, Security services, Childcare, Veterinary Transport and logistics 35,916 5 trades · Last 12 months
Freight & couriers, Motor vehicle repair, Used car dealers, Taxi & private hire, Removals
All 39 trades in one table · The long view · How the counts are made
85,429 new companies in digital and professional, registered March to November 2026. Any month from £15.
85,429 companies in digital and professional registered across the UK in March to November 2026 are in the file, each with its name, number, registered address, directors and trade. Every company registered, with its website, email and phone number where we can find one. Most companies this new have no website yet, so many rows will be the company, its address and its directors.
Bought per trade or as one digital and professional file. National, the whole UK; filter by town in the file. Any month from £15; every month we hold for £2306.58, 10% off. 3p a company, £15 minimum an order. Pick one month, any mix, or everything.
- Management consultancy 23,346 companies £630.34
- Web & software development 18,602 companies £502.25
- IT consultancy 12,179 companies £328.83
- Advertising & design 9,521 companies £257.07
- Architecture & engineering 8,455 companies £228.29
- Business support services 8,452 companies £228.20
- Every trade, with its count and price
Pay by card. Within a minute an email tells you when your file will arrive: usually within a few hours, never more than 48 hours.
Not ready to buy? Every one of the 39 trades has a free sample: its 25 newest companies, with each one's registered address and directors, as a CSV. Pick the trade.
Five rows from this list, with an email found
Real companies from the file, picked from the ones we found an email for: most companies this new have none yet. The full file has every column and the whole address. We hide most of each email here, never in the file you buy.
| Company | Town | Registered | Trade | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| L&W TREASURY LIMITED | Brentwood | 16 Sep 2026 | Management consultancy | e•••@lwtreasury.com |
| THE LANDING SPACE LTD | London | 15 Oct 2026 | Management consultancy | h•••@thelandingspace.co.uk |
| HECTIC SOFTWARE LTD | Watford | 12 Oct 2026 | Web & software development | h•••@hecticsoftware.com |
| LUKE STOREY LIMITED | Walton-on-Thames | 27 Jul 2026 | IT support | l•••@lukestorey.co.uk |
| ASHDOWN SYSTEMS LTD | Brighton | 4 Jun 2026 | IT consultancy | h•••@ashdownsystems.co.uk |