shouldiuse.io

Categories

VERDICT

Check your cyber security - NCSC.GOV.UK Review

Depends

Should I use Check your cyber security - NCSC.GOV.UK?

Free UK government service for checking your organisation's cyber security posture - checkcybersecurity.service.ncsc.gov.uk

· 1 week ago

UK small businesses and charities should run these free checks — the cost is zero and it's built for non-experts. Large enterprises need paid CHECK/CREST testing instead, and nobody should rely on Web Check or Mail Check, which retire March 2026.

Confidence

Medium. Based on ~25 public sources; no direct user reviews of the service found.

Ratings

  • Value for money
  • Ease of use
  • Feature depth
  • Support qualityNo evidence of support channels
  • Security posture

Pricing

Free

Check your cyber security

ModelNot disclosed
Monthly feesNot disclosed
HardwareNot disclosed
Free tierYes

Best for

  • UK small businesses
  • Charities and community organisations
  • One-off posture checks
  • Non-technical owners

Not for

  • Large enterprises needing real penetration testing
  • Anyone wanting ongoing monitoring beyond March 2026
  • Non-UK organisations
  • Teams needing vendor support or SLAs

Gotchas - check before you buy

high

Don't build ongoing monitoring on it — Web Check and Mail Check retire March 2026.

medium

One-off snapshot only; you'll need another tool for continuous scanning.

medium

No support or SLA; deeper findings require paid CHECK/CREST consultants.

low

Some domains return empty results with no explanation.

Pros and cons

Pros

  • Completely free — no cost, no upsell
  • Built for non-experts; promoted to charities, churches, and small firms
  • Backed by the UK National Cyber Security Centre
  • Checks your domain's email security configuration
  • Recommended by insurers as a first step after cyber attacks

Cons

  • Web Check and Mail Check retire March 2026
  • Basic checks only — no penetration testing
  • Government service scoped to UK infrastructure
  • Domain result pages can show no data

Sources & method

- 11 sources - No known vulnerabilities found in the sources reviewed.

official x3review x1security x2news x5

Key stats

  • Value for money: 5/5

    Rating

  • Free

    Starting price

  • 11

    Sources

  • Analyzed

  • Value for money: 5/5. Completely free government service
  • Ease of use: 4/5. Aimed at non-technical owners
  • Feature depth: 2/5. Basic checks; paid ITHC goes deeper
  • Support quality. No evidence of support channels
  • Security posture: 4/5. Operated by UK's national cyber authority
  • Free Price UK government service
  • March 2026 Web Check retirement Mail Check retiring too
  • £1,000+ Paid ITHC alternative NCSC CHECK pen testing on G-Cloud
  • £460–£1,750 NCSC-assured services G-Cloud consultancy pricing

Pricing

Check your cyber security

Free

  • Web and email security checks
  • No paid tier exists

Security

No known vulnerabilities found in the sources reviewed.

What users say

No direct user reviews found; the service is recommended by accountancy bodies, charities, and insurers rather than rated by users.

Alternatives

Compare Check your cyber security - NCSC.GOV.UK with each alternative.

Full analysis

Based on ~25 public sources; no direct user reviews of the service found.

Free UK NCSC checker — try it once if you're a small org; core tools retire March 2026; enterprises need paid ITHC.

Methodology

Based on ~25 public sources; no direct user reviews of the service found.

Read how a report is made.

Sources

  1. review
  2. news
  3. news
  4. security
  5. security
  6. NCSC CHECK IT Health Check and Penetration Testing - G-Cloudapplytosupply.digitalmarketplace.service.gov.uk
    official
  7. NCSC Cyber Security Consultancy - G-Cloudapplytosupply.digitalmarketplace.service.gov.uk
    official
  8. news
  9. news
  10. official
  11. news

Add this review to your site

This check for Check your cyber security - NCSC.GOV.UK says Depends.

Put the badge on your site.

Visitors see the independent review.

The link points here, and search engines follow it.

This is the badge visitors see on your site.

Paste one snippet. Keep the link as it is. A nofollow tag stops search engines from following it.

Rate this review

Anonymous. You can change your vote.

Loading votes…

Comments

One queue. No nested comments. Give a display name first. Limit: 200 words per comment and 7 comments per day. You can edit or delete yours.

Save a name to write a comment.

0 / 200 words

No comments yet.