Compare Architects is operated by Beeran Media Ltd trading as Compare Architects, registered in England and Wales under company number 14472662. Registered office and correspondence address: 27 Old Gloucester Street, London, England, WC1N 3AX. We are the controller of personal information used to run this directory and introduction service. Contact info@comparearchitects.co.uk or write to our registered office for privacy requests. This notice was updated on 28 October 2026.
Directory sources and business invitations
Practice listings come from the owner-supplied residential directory and published business websites. A listing does not establish current registration, membership or participation. Where a homeowner selects an unclaimed practice, we may send a relevant invitation to a checked corporate business contact under legitimate interests, or to a contact with recorded permission. Public availability alone is not treated as consent. Invitations identify us, explain the source and purpose, and include an opt-out. Sole traders and other individual subscribers require an appropriate permission basis.
What we collect
Your contact details, project answers, the practices you choose, account activity and introduction/payment records. Practices supply profile, business and verification details. We do not ask homeowners for bank statements or open-banking access.
How we use it
To save briefs, verify email, run accounts and arrange the introductions you request. We use service requests and contractual steps where appropriate, legitimate interests for security and administration, and separate consent for optional marketing and analytics where required.
Who receives it
Only practices you authorise receive an introduction after eligibility and acceptance checks. Directory browsing and planner use do not automatically distribute your contact details. Our service providers include Replit for hosting and database services, Brevo for service emails, Stripe for payment processing and Google Workspace/Google Sheets for our private operational lead tracker and restricted encrypted recovery backups. The tracker records project status, selected practices, identified account comparisons, email status and payment outcomes. It is restricted to authorised business administrators and refreshes from the website database. Brevo records delivery events; email opens and clicks are measured anonymously rather than associated with individual recipients. Card details are entered on Stripe’s hosted checkout; we do not store card numbers. These providers process information under their applicable agreements and privacy notices. The app’s deployment is configured for Europe, but provider support, security and other processing can involve international transfers. Relevant provider information: Replit, Brevo and Stripe.
The planning-context checker sends your postcode to Postcodes.io and uses approximate coordinates with Planning Data and UK PlanIt. It does not send your name or contact details to those sources. Public planning examples are cached for up to seven days. Optional Google Analytics is used only if configured and you opt in. Google may process data internationally.
Selected practices become responsible for their own use of the contact details you authorise. They may use them for your requested project, not unrelated marketing. We do not sell contact details to an unrestricted list.
Control and retention
Ask us to access, correct, export or delete your information, subject to legal record-keeping duties. You may object to applicable processing and withdraw optional marketing consent. Homeowner/admin sign-in links expire after 20 minutes and sessions after seven days. Architect offer links expire within seven days, show a redacted brief and do not require an account. Unverified project contact information is removed after 30 days. New introduction acceptance closes after seven days; you can contact support to reconfirm a project. After a project has been paused or expired for 90 days, we remove its contact details and free-text message unless an unresolved dispute requires them. Email bodies held in our application are removed after 30 days. The private Google tracker mirrors removals of project contact information at its next successful sync. Provider delivery logs and previews follow the provider’s retention settings. Necessary financial, transaction and complaint evidence is kept for at least six years from the end of the relevant company financial year, or longer where a legal hold applies; unnecessary project detail is not kept simply because a payment record exists. Practice profiles and participation information are maintained while relevant, with correction and deletion requests reviewed individually. Minimal hashed contact-suppression records are kept to honour opt-outs. Hosting backup copies follow the provider’s documented retention and access controls. Our separate encrypted recovery archives are retained for seven days in a restricted business spreadsheet. Backup copies are not used for routine business processing; retention/deletion changes must be reapplied after a restore.
We use secure account cookies and a signed request-limit cookie, lasting up to one day, to keep visitors behind shared hosting proxies from sharing a single form-submission quota. Optional Google Analytics, if configured, loads only after you allow analytics; brief answers and contact details are not sent as analytics events. You can change that choice using Cookie settings.
Contact us about privacy. You may also complain to the ICO.