Choosing how to keep up with rule changes? Here's a straight comparison from the team behind ScanToComply — including the cases where we're honestly not the best option — with links to official sources.
The short answer: Checking official websites yourself is free and completely legitimate — the catch is that it only works if you check the right pages, regularly, forever. Rules for a typical small business are spread across GOV.UK, your council's site and one or more regulators, and pages change without announcement. ScanToComply automates exactly that checking (daily) — most owners choose the Pro plan at £19.99/month — and alerts you by SMS and email when something changes. DIY wins on cost; automation wins on consistency.
For a typical café, shop or salon, the rules that matter live on several different official sites: GOV.UK for national law, your local council for licensing, food registration and trading rules, and regulators like the Food Standards Agency or HSE for your sector. None of these will email you personally when something relevant changes — publication on the website is the notification.
Doing this well by hand means keeping a list of the right pages, visiting them on a schedule (weekly is realistic for most rules), and spotting what actually changed on each page. It's genuinely free, and a disciplined owner with one simple business can absolutely make it work. The honest failure mode isn't ability — it's consistency. The checking gets skipped in busy weeks, and busy weeks are most weeks.
ScanToComply checks the relevant official pages for your trade and city every day, and when something changes you get a plain-English SMS and email telling you what changed, with a link to the official source so you can verify it yourself. Plans start at £9.99/month, though most owners choose Pro (£19.99/month) for custom pages and the weekly summary; every plan starts with a 14-day free trial and no card required. You're paying for consistency and translation, not for access — the underlying information is public either way.
What automation doesn't change: you still have to act on the alert, and no monitoring service is a substitute for professional advice on complex legal questions. If your business is very simple — one activity, one location, few regulated areas — and you genuinely enjoy the weekly check, DIY remains a perfectly rational choice.
ScanToComply watches the official government, council and regulator pages for your trade and city every day, and alerts you by SMS and email the moment something changes.
Check my risk — free 2-minute quiz →See plans & pricing · 14-day free trial · No card needed
Yes — it's all on official public websites. What you pay for is having those pages checked daily, changes spotted, and a plain-English alert sent to you, instead of doing that work yourself.
It depends on your trade, but most small businesses have several relevant official pages across GOV.UK, their council and a regulator. Checking them properly is typically a recurring weekly task — and the discipline to never skip it is the hard part.
If your business has very few regulated areas, you're comfortable navigating official websites, and you'll actually keep the routine up. The risk isn't capability — it's that checking quietly stops during busy periods.
Want the full picture for your trade or city? See our free compliance guides.
ScanToComply