Grantify Review 2026: Is It Worth Paying For?
We compete with Grantify, so read this knowing that. Everything below comes from Grantify's own website, its Terms of Business, Companies House and Trustpilot, read on the date above. Where we report what customers said, we say whose account it is.
Is Grantify worth paying for?
Grantify is worth considering if you want an AI drafting platform with a capped amount of human adviser time and you are applying to a funder it covers. Go in knowing three things its marketing does not lead with. First, it publishes no price. Its terms describe package fees plus a commission set in each client's order form, and every fee is non-refundable once paid. UK customers have reported quotes of roughly £4,000 to £5,000 upfront plus a 3 to 3.5 per cent success fee. Second, its flagship service still sells Innovate UK Smart Grants, which were paused in January 2025. Third, its own pages give four different totals for funding secured, from £80m to over £200m. It scores 4.3 on Trustpilot from 348 reviews, with complaints centred on upfront fees, refunds and how much writing customers still did themselves. EchoGrant, which publishes this review, competes with Grantify.
What Grantify actually sells
Grantify is two things sold together: an AI platform that guides you through an application, and a block of time with a human “Funding Advisor” who reviews and refines it. Its Schedule of Services sets out three packages by adviser time: Foundation, up to 4 hours; Growth, up to 11 hours; and Flagship, up to 17 hours. The schedule states that this time “is a cap, not a minimum” and that unused hours are not refunded.
That distinction matters, because it is the source of most complaints. If you expect a consultant to write your application, you will be disappointed. Grantify provides structure and feedback; you do the writing.
It covers Innovate UK (it names Smart Grants, Innovation Loans and the Biomedical Catalyst), the EU's EIC Accelerator, and US SBIR and STTR grants through a separate US site.
What it costs, and what the terms say
Grantify does not publish a price, but customers who were quoted report £4,000 to £5,000 upfront plus a success commission of 3 to 3.5 per cent of the grant. Those figures come from individual accounts on UK Business Forums and PistonHeads between 2021 and 2023, not from Grantify, and none of the UK accounts we found exceeds £5,000 upfront. Grantify's own pricing page returned a page-not-found error when we checked on 12 October 2026, and its FAQ says only that the cost “will vary depending on various factors”. Its Terms of Business define the fees as package fees, commission fees and, where applicable, subscription fees, with every amount set in the client's order form. All fees are non-refundable once paid, and they stay due in full if the funder later reduces or claws back the award. Ask for the order form in writing before you agree to anything.
The Terms of Business, which carry no version date, are more specific about structure than amounts:
- Three kinds of fee. “Fees” are defined as “the Commission Fees, the Package Fees and, if applicable, the Subscription Fees”, with each amount set in the client's order form.
- No refunds. Clause 6.1: all fees “are non-refundable once paid” and remain payable even where the client cancels or “does not engage with the Services”.
- The fee survives a reduced award. Clause 4.4: if the funder reduces or claws back the grant, the fees due to Grantify are unaffected, “with no discount, rebate or refund”.
- No guarantee. “Grantify does not guarantee that any Application will be successful”.
- One concession. Its Smart Grant page offers free help with a second application if the first is not funded.
What customers say they were quoted: about £2,000 upfront, a further £2,000 after 30 days and 3% of any award (PistonHeads, November 2023, taken from Grantify's adverts); £4,500 upfront plus 3.5% (UK Business Forums, December 2021); and £5,000 (UK Business Forums, November 2023). US reviewers on Trustpilot mention $6,000 upfront. These are individual accounts, not published prices.
One more thing to check before you sign: Innovate UK only pays for project costs incurred after the project starts, so a success fee triggered by the award comes out of your own cash.
The Smart Grant problem
Grantify built its reputation on Innovate UK Smart Grants, and its site still sells them as if they were open. On 2 October 2026 its Smart Grant service page read “Secure Up to £1M with an Innovate UK Smart Grant” and “Rounds of funding are closing all the time, so don't miss out”. A second page offers to help you “Secure an Innovate UK Smart Grant for your research and development in 2026”.
Innovate UK paused Smart Grants in January 2025 and said there would be no Smart rounds in the 2025/26 financial year. We found no mention of that anywhere on Grantify's site. Its win-rate claims about Smart Grant rounds (“64% of all winners” on one page, “72% of recent Smart Grant winners” in a pop-up) describe a competition you cannot currently enter. See what replaced Smart Grants and what is open now.
Its own numbers do not agree
The total Grantify says it has secured for clients differs from page to page on its own site:
| Where | What it says |
|---|---|
| Homepage | “Secured £200M+ in startup funding” and “>£200M secured” |
| Success stats and About pages | “£185M+ / $220M Secured”, “Since 2019” |
| Site-wide pop-up | “£135M already secured for innovative businesses” |
| Smart Grants page | “We have raised £80m in funding for our clients and counting” |
The Trustpilot figure varies too: the homepage says 4.4 from 346 reviews and the success stats page says 4.8 from over 280. Trustpilot itself showed 4.3 from 348 on the day we checked. The likeliest explanation is pages updated at different times rather than anything worse, but it means no single figure on the site can be taken at face value.
What customers say
On Trustpilot, 89% of Grantify's 348 reviews are five-star and 5% are one or two stars. The positive reviews praise useful expert feedback, a structured process and a friendly team, and several report winning. The negative reviews return to the same few themes: upfront fees that were not clear from the marketing, finding that they still did most of the writing, little human contact after paying, and difficulty getting money back. Trustpilot notes that Grantify has not replied to recent negative reviews and has not invited customers to review recently.
Forum threads on UK Business Forums and PistonHeads echo the same points. Each is one person's account. One customer reported paying £5,000 and escalating to dispute resolution when a refund request went unanswered; Grantify replied in the thread that it had no record of the email. Another poster tested the grant finder with an ineligible profile, still received matches, and called it a lead generator.
The company
Grantify Ltd, company number 12274128, incorporated 22 October 2019, registered office in London (Euston Road), status active. Its confirmation statement and accounts were up to date on 2 October 2026; its next accounts are due by 31 October 2026. It describes itself on Companies House under IT services and tax consultancy.
Who it suits, and who should look elsewhere
It may suit you if
- you will write the application yourself and want structure and a reviewer
- you are applying to an EIC Accelerator or US SBIR round it supports
- you have budget for an upfront fee you will not get back
Look elsewhere if
- you want a price before a sales call
- you want someone else to write the application
- you were shopping specifically for a Smart Grant
- a success fee would come out of cash you do not have
Alternatives, with prices where they publish them
ZenGrants is software built for Innovate UK and UKRI applications, at £69 a month, or £55 a month billed annually, with no human service. GrantUp is a consultancy covering Innovate UK, UKRI, Horizon Europe, ESA and ARIA; it quotes a fee before work starts with no percentage of the award on its standard route, though its Unlimited retainer and no-win-no-fee option do carry a success fee. FundGenius offers a free eligibility check and does not publish its paid tiers. We compare these and seven more in the best AI grant writing tools for UK businesses.
EchoGrant, which publishes this page, scores a project against a grant free with no signup, reviews an application you have drafted for a fixed £250, and writes applications from £2,500. There is no success fee and no subscription. If what you want is AI drafting software you use every month, ZenGrants is closer to that than we are.
Five questions to ask before you sign anything
- What is the total upfront fee, and when is each part due?
- What is the commission percentage, and is it on the amount awarded or the amount drawn down?
- Will the funder let me pay that commission from the grant? If not, can I afford it in cash?
- How many hours of a named human adviser do I get, and who writes the answers?
- Which competition, open today, are you proposing I apply to?
Questions people ask
How much does Grantify cost?
Customers report quotes of about £4,000 to £5,000 upfront plus a 3 to 3.5 per cent success commission, but Grantify does not publish a price. Its pricing page returned a page-not-found error on 12 October 2026 and its FAQ says only that cost “will vary depending on various factors”. Its Terms of Business define the fees as package fees, commission fees and, where applicable, subscription fees, with the amounts set in each client’s order form. The quotes come from posts on UK Business Forums and PistonHeads between 2021 and 2023. They are individual accounts, not published prices, so ask for the order form in writing before you agree to anything.
Does Grantify refund fees if the application fails?
Not under its current terms. Clause 6.1 states that all fees are non-refundable once paid and remain payable even if the client cancels or does not engage. Clause 14.4 says cancellation does not entitle the client to a refund. The terms also state that Grantify does not guarantee any application will succeed. The one concession on its site is a free second attempt: its Smart Grant page says that if you are not funded first time, it will help with your second application for free.
Can Grantify still get me an Innovate UK Smart Grant?
No one can at the moment. Innovate UK paused Smart Grants in January 2025 and said there would be no Smart rounds in the 2025/26 financial year. Grantify’s Smart Grant pages, checked on 2 October 2026, still describe the scheme as open, with rounds “closing all the time”. The current open routes for an innovative SME are sector-specific Innovate UK competitions and the Growth Catalyst programme, which we cover in our guide to Smart Grant alternatives.
Is Grantify legit?
Yes, in the sense that it is a real, active company. Grantify Ltd is registered at Companies House under number 12274128, was incorporated on 22 October 2019, and is not behind on its filings. It has 348 Trustpilot reviews, 89 per cent of them five-star. The criticisms are about value and clarity rather than legitimacy: upfront fees that customers felt were not made clear, how much of the writing they still had to do, and refunds.
What are the alternatives to Grantify?
It depends what you want from it. For software that drafts Innovate UK and UKRI answers, ZenGrants publishes its prices, at £69 a month or £55 a month billed annually. For a human consultancy, GrantUp quotes a fixed fee before work starts with no percentage of the award on its standard route, though its Unlimited retainer and no-win-no-fee option do carry a success fee. For a review of an application you have already written, EchoGrant charges £250 with no success fee. For a free first look at eligibility, FundGenius and EchoGrant both offer one.
Sources, all read on 2 October 2026: grantify.io (homepage, success stats, about, Schedule of Services, Terms of Business, Smart Grant pages and FAQ), Companies House (company 12274128), Trustpilot (uk.trustpilot.com/review/grantify.io), UK Business Forums and PistonHeads. Quotations are as they appeared on those pages. Customer accounts are summarised and attributed to their source, not presented as fact. We have not used Grantify's service. If you work at Grantify and something here is wrong or out of date, tell us and we will correct it the same day.
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