What to Build Next: Picking a Micro-SaaS Niche From UK Company Registrations

Most lists of micro SaaS ideas start with a feature someone thought would be neat. A better place to start is a group of people who keep turning up with the same problem. In the UK you can count them, because every new limited company registers at Companies House and declares what it does with a SIC code.

That gives an indie hacker a useful test. Pick a niche where hundreds of new businesses appear every month, then build the one tool each of those companies needs in its first week of trading. A new takeaway or cleaning company has no software habits yet, so there is nothing to switch away from and no contract to wait out. The next batch of buyers arrives every working day.

This guide uses Company Explore's registration data for the 30 days and 12 months to 18 October 2026 to show which niches have the volume, how to read whether they are growing, and how to check one before you write any code.

Why new companies make a good first market

An established salon has a booking system it half likes and a receptionist who knows how to use it. Persuading that salon to move costs you weeks of sales effort for one account. A salon that registered last Tuesday is still deciding how clients will book, how it will take deposits and where its price list will live. It wants something that works by Friday.

The register also tells you their industry, address, incorporation date and directors, so you know roughly what they need before you get in touch.

The supply is steady. In the 30 days to 18 October 2026, 62,561 UK companies were incorporated, about 2,800 on an average weekday and around 600 on a weekend day. Total incorporations over the last 12 months were 775,985, about 6% below the 826,322 of the year before, so the overall market is slightly smaller than it was. Some niches are still growing inside that, and those are the ones worth a closer look.

Micro SaaS ideas by niche, with the numbers

Here are ten niches with enough new companies to support a small product, the counts behind them and a first-week tool for each. The 12-month change compares the last 12 months with the 12 months before.

None of these tools is clever, and that is fine. A cleaning company in its first week needs a way to price a three-bedroom house without a site visit. A new takeaway has to keep allergen information for every dish and register with its local council before it opens. The best first product in a niche usually handles a chore the founder knows they must do and hasn't set up yet.

Some codes are broader than they look. 85590 ("other education not elsewhere classified") covers tutors, driving instructors, corporate trainers and course creators, so you'd want company name keywords to narrow it. 86900 mixes therapists, aesthetics clinics and health coaches. Our guide to SIC codes covers the common traps, and the SIC code directory lists every code with its description.

How to read growth in registration data

A single 30-day figure tells you size. To judge direction, use two comparisons.

• 12 months against the 12 before: this smooths out seasonal swings. Because total incorporations fell about 6%, a niche at -3% is holding up better than the market, and one at +11% is growing in a shrinking year.
• The last 3 months against the 12-month pace: multiply the 3-month count by four and compare it with the 12-month total. This shows whether a trend is speeding up or fading.

Cleaning is a good example of why you need both. Its 12-month count of 7,307 is 3% below the previous year, which looks flat. The last three months brought 1,974 new cleaning companies, which works out at roughly 7,900 a year, so registrations have picked up recently. Physical well-being companies (96040, which covers massage and wellness businesses) went the other way: 4,013 in 12 months, down 7%, with a 3-month pace about 14% below that.

Growth matters less than volume for a first product. A niche with 600 new companies a month and a flat trend will give you more trials than one with 40 a month that doubled. Growth is a tiebreaker, and a warning sign when it turns sharply down.

The Leads Dashboard shows these windows for any industry, from 1 day to 2 years, and breaks them down by county and city.

Sanity-check a niche before you build

Four questions will rule out most bad niches in an afternoon:

• Volume: are there at least a few hundred new companies a month? Below that, you will run out of fresh prospects quickly and spend your time on established firms that already have software.
• Trend: is the 12-month count holding up against the 6% fall across all incorporations? A niche falling much faster than the market is shrinking under you.
• Ability to pay: does the business take money from customers from day one? Salons, takeaways, garages and cleaners invoice in their first week. A holding company or a consultancy waiting for its first contract may not spend anything for months.
• Reachability: can you find the owner? Small trades and services are usually run by the director, and an enriched export will pick up any website, email or phone number the company has published.

Then do the cheap test. Pull last month's registrations for the code, look at 30 of them by hand and ask whether you would want 30 of these as customers. If half have no website, no trading name and an accountant's address, you have learned something about the niche for free.

Check competition too. If three large booking platforms already target salons, pick a narrower corner they ignore, such as deposits for mobile beauticians or a booking page a new salon can set up in ten minutes.

Software is a crowded niche of its own. As we covered in new UK software companies up 63%, 41,401 companies listed SIC 62012 in the last 12 months, against 25,370 the year before. Building tools for other developers means competing with a lot of them, while a tool for takeaways is mostly up against paper records.

Combine codes carefully

You can widen a niche by grouping related codes. Plumbers (43220, 577 in 30 days) and electricians (43210, 587) often want the same job sheet and quoting tools, so one product can serve both. Add them together and you get 1,164, but treat that as an upper limit, because a company can list both codes and will be counted twice. The same applies to takeaways and cafes, or to beauty (96020) and well-being (96040).

Grouping helps you size a market, but aim the first version at one code. "Booking for salons" is far easier to sell than "booking for service businesses".

A routine for choosing your next niche

1. Open the Leads Dashboard and list every code with more than 300 new companies in the last 30 days.
2. Remove holding companies, property letting and vague codes such as 82990 (other business support), unless you have a specific reason to sell to them.
3. For each remaining code, note the 12-month change and the 3-month pace, and drop anything falling much faster than the market.
4. Write down the one chore every new company in the niche must sort out in its first week.
5. Pull 30 recent companies under your top two codes and check their websites, addresses and directors by hand.
6. Build the smallest version of the tool for one code, then contact the next month's registrations.

Frequently asked questions

What are good micro SaaS ideas in the UK?

Look for tools that a new small business needs in its first week, in a niche that adds hundreds of companies a month. In the 30 days to 18 October 2026 that included takeaways (1,763), hairdressing and beauty (1,129), car repair (804) and cleaning (626).

How do I know if a niche is big enough?

Count new registrations under its SIC code. A few hundred a month gives you a steady supply of companies that have just started and haven't chosen their tools yet, which is enough to run a small product on.

Should I pick a growing niche or a large one?

Pick volume first and use growth as a tiebreaker. A large flat niche gives you more first conversations than a small fast-growing one, though a niche falling much faster than the 6% market decline is worth avoiding.

Can I find the companies once I've built the tool?

Yes. Filter by SIC code and incorporation date in a tool built on Companies House data, then add published websites, emails and phone numbers with an enriched export so you can reach the founders directly.

To see which niches are adding companies this month, open the B2B List Builder and filter by SIC code and the last 30 days.