MyTenders Platform Overview: Connecting Public Sector Buyers and Suppliers
Introduction
MyTenders is one of the UK’s most widely used e-procurement platforms, giving public sector organizations a structured, compliant way to publish and manage tender opportunities while providing businesses of all sizes with direct access to government contracts. Whether you’re a procurement officer navigating compliance requirements or a supplier seeking your next contract win, understanding how MyTenders works is increasingly essential in today’s public sector landscape.
With gross UK public sector procurement spending reaching £434 billion in 2024/25, the infrastructure behind how those contracts are advertised and awarded has never mattered more. MyTenders sits at the center of that infrastructure.
What Is MyTenders and How Does the Platform Work?
MyTenders is an e-procurement (electronic tendering) platform operated by Proactis Tenders Limited. It is used primarily by public sector organisations, including local authorities, housing associations, NHS trusts, and government departments, to publish, manage, and administer contract and tender opportunities in a fully digital environment.
MyTenders functions as a two-sided marketplace. On one side, public sector buyers create and publish procurement notices. On the other, registered suppliers search for opportunities, download tender documents, ask clarification questions, and submit bids, all within one platform ecosystem.
The platform operates in two tiers. Suppliers can register for free and gain access to all publicly listed contract notices. Buyers who need to manage the full procurement cycle, from publishing to award, can upgrade to MyTenders PRO, the platform’s paid subscription service.
As a recognized e-sender, MyTenders integrates directly with the government’s Find a Tender Service (FTS) and Contracts Finder, allowing buyers to publish notices to both portals from a single account without duplicating effort.
MyTenders PRO: Key Features for Public Sector Buyers
For procurement teams, MyTenders PRO is designed to streamline the entire contracting lifecycle and ensure compliance with the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 (PCR 2015). The platform’s features are structured around reducing administrative overhead while maintaining a complete audit trail.
Key capabilities include:
Notice Creation Wizard: A step-by-step publishing tool that guides buyers through the correct forms and procedures for both low-value and high-value contracts. It prevents incomplete notices from being published to FTS or Contracts Finder, significantly reducing the risk of procedural errors.
Secure Electronic Postbox: Suppliers submit bids and pre-qualification questionnaires (PQQs) through a secure postbox, ensuring no correspondence is missed and all submissions are time-stamped and auditable.
Q&A Facility: Buyers can manage supplier queries through an anonymous question-and-answer tool. Responses are published to all interested parties simultaneously, ensuring fair and transparent communication throughout the procurement process.
Document Hosting: Cloud-based storage allows buyers to attach up to 100MB of freely accessible tender documents to any notice, eliminating the need for separate file-sharing platforms.
Single Procurement Document (SPD) Tool: Buyers can create and attach SPDs to shortlist suppliers at the pre-qualification stage, which is particularly useful for two-stage procurement procedures involving high volumes of potential bidders.
Quick Quotes: For lower-value procurements, MyTenders provides an invite-only Request for Quotation (RFQ) system, giving buyers a lightweight route to market that still maintains process integrity.
With over 4,300 public sector organizations registered on the platform, MyTenders offers buyers significant reach into an established supplier network exceeding 25,000 registered businesses.
For organizations looking to further understand compliance obligations in the public sector, the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman framework provides useful context on accountability standards across government bodies.
How Suppliers Can Use MyTenders to Win Public Contracts
For businesses seeking to enter or expand within the public sector supply chain, MyTenders provides a practical starting point. Supplier registration is free and gives immediate access to every contract notice published through the portal.
Once registered, suppliers can:
- Browse and search all publicly listed tender opportunities
- Set up alerts for notices that match their business category
- Access tender documents and supporting attachments
- Submit questions through the Q&A facility
- Respond to Quick Quote invitations for lower-value work
- Submit full bid responses via the secure electronic postbox
The platform’s reach is significant. In 2024, direct public spending with SMEs reached £45.4 billion, and the public sector continues to actively seek diverse supplier bases. MyTenders gives smaller businesses structured visibility into that market without the need for expensive intermediaries.
For businesses also exploring digital growth strategies alongside procurement activity, understanding SEO for fintech and professional service providers can complement a broader digital presence that supports credibility in tender submissions.
MyTenders and the Procurement Act 2023: What Has Changed?
The UK’s public procurement landscape has undergone its most significant reform in a generation. The Procurement Act 2023, which came into force on 24 February 2025, introduced sweeping changes that directly affect how platforms like MyTenders operate and how both buyers and suppliers engage with the tendering process.
How the Act Affects Buyers Using MyTenders
For contracting authorities, the Act introduces a legal duty to consider dividing contracts into smaller lots, a change designed to reduce barriers for SMEs and newer entrants to the market. Buyers must now publish more notices (including contract performance notices, payment compliance notices, and procurement termination notices), increasing the overall volume of procurement activity managed through e-procurement platforms.
MyTenders customers are unaffected in terms of platform access. As a recognized e-sender, the platform already supports direct publishing to Find a Tender (FTS), which became the primary portal for above-threshold UK contract notices from January 2021 following Brexit and the UK’s departure from the EU’s OJEU system.
How the Act Affects Suppliers
For suppliers, the Procurement Act introduces greater transparency and standardization. Public bodies are now required to provide structured bid feedback to unsuccessful tenderers, helping businesses refine future submissions. The Find a Tender service — which MyTenders integrates with — has been enhanced to allow suppliers to register once and reuse their details across multiple bids.
The Act also shifts the contract award criterion from Most Economically Advantageous Tender (MEAT) to Most Advantageous Tender (MAT), giving contracting authorities broader flexibility to weigh quality, social value, and innovation alongside price. For suppliers, this means demonstrating broader organizational value, not just competitive pricing, is now more important than ever.
What Is MyTenders PRO and Is It Worth It for Procurement Teams?
MyTenders PRO is the platform’s full-service subscription tier, designed for public sector buyers who need to manage procurement exercises end-to-end. It consolidates what would otherwise require multiple tools and portals into a single, compliant workflow.
The value proposition is straightforward: instead of logging into separate systems to publish on Contracts Finder, manage supplier queries, receive bid responses, and maintain a contracts register, PRO centralises all of this under one account. This is particularly relevant given the increased publishing obligations introduced by the Procurement Act 2023.
The platform’s support team, reported to include law graduates with postgraduate qualifications in procurement law and policy, provides guidance on procedural and legal questions, which can be particularly valuable for smaller procurement teams that lack in-house legal resources.
Is MyTenders Free for Suppliers?
Yes, supplier registration on MyTenders is free. Once registered, suppliers gain access to the full list of publicly listed contract opportunities on the platform, the ability to set up email alerts for relevant notices, and access to tender documentation where it has been made publicly available.
Paid access is only required on the buyer side, where MyTenders PRO provides the tools necessary to manage the full procurement lifecycle. There is no cost for suppliers to search for, access, or respond to contract opportunities published through the platform.
Conclusion
MyTenders occupies an important position in the UK’s public procurement ecosystem. For buyers, it offers a compliant, centralized solution to manage the increasingly complex demands of public sector tendering, particularly in the context of the Procurement Act 2023. For suppliers, it provides direct, free access to a significant pipeline of public sector contract opportunities.
As procurement spending continues to grow and regulatory expectations intensify, platforms like MyTenders that integrate compliance, transparency, and process efficiency into a single framework will only become more integral to how public organizations buy and how businesses win work.
