Comparison
Thornton & Lowe vs Glaxtons: an honest comparison
Including the cases where Thornton & Lowe is the better choice, because a comparison page that finds nothing good to say about the alternative is an advert, and you would be right to discount it.
Who Thornton & Lowe are
- Founded
- 2009, by Dave Thornton
- Based
- Bolton
- Founded in 2009 by Dave Thornton and headquartered in Bolton.
- Operates Tender Pipeline, a free tender monitoring and contract award research tool.
- Since 29 July 2026 has been part of the Procurement Growth Group alongside Executive Compass, with Dave Thornton as Group CEO.
- Tom Sander-Daniel continues as Managing Director.
What they publish: Thornton & Lowe publishes a win rate of over 75 percent and states it completes more than 400 bids and tenders a year across sectors from construction to healthcare.
Why people compare Thornton & Lowe and Glaxtons
Thornton & Lowe is the most visible bid writing brand in UK organic search, so most buyers meet them first. People arrive here either because they want a second quote, because the merger has prompted a review, or because they want a firm with deeper specialism on one named framework rather than broad coverage.
The question worth asking
Volume is the question worth asking. A consultancy completing 400-plus bids a year is running a production model, which is exactly right for a business submitting many mid-value tenders. It is a different proposition from a small number of high-stakes framework applications where a single submission decides four years of revenue. Neither model is better in the abstract. They suit different problems, and you should be clear which problem you have.
Where each of us is stronger
Choose Thornton & Lowe if
- Sector breadth. If you tender across many unrelated sectors, their coverage is wider than ours.
- Tender Pipeline is a good free tool and worth using regardless of who writes your bids.
- Capacity for concurrent submissions, now considerably greater as part of the merged group.
Choose Glaxtons if
- We publish a 93 percent success rate measured across more than 500 submissions between 2022 and 2025, against their published figure of over 75 percent.
- Directors write and front the work rather than allocating it from a writer pool.
- We are independent, so no sister company may be advising a competitor on your lot.
Published win rates across this industry are self-reported and unaudited, ours included, and the denominators differ between firms. Treat every percentage on every bid consultancy website, including this one, as directional rather than comparable.
Common questions
Is Glaxtons a good alternative to Thornton & Lowe?
It depends on the problem you have. We publish a 93 percent success rate measured across more than 500 submissions between 2022 and 2025, against their published figure of over 75 percent. Directors write and front the work rather than allocating it from a writer pool. We are independent, so no sister company may be advising a competitor on your lot. That said, Thornton & Lowe is the stronger choice in several cases: Sector breadth. If you tender across many unrelated sectors, their coverage is wider than ours. Tender Pipeline is a good free tool and worth using regardless of who writes your bids. Capacity for concurrent submissions, now considerably greater as part of the merged group.
What should I ask before choosing between Thornton & Lowe and Glaxtons?
Volume is the question worth asking. A consultancy completing 400-plus bids a year is running a production model, which is exactly right for a business submitting many mid-value tenders. It is a different proposition from a small number of high-stakes framework applications where a single submission decides four years of revenue. Neither model is better in the abstract. They suit different problems, and you should be clear which problem you have.
What does Thornton & Lowe claim about its success rate?
Thornton & Lowe publishes a win rate of over 75 percent and states it completes more than 400 bids and tenders a year across sectors from construction to healthcare. Glaxtons publishes a 93 percent success rate measured across more than 500 submissions between 2022 and 2025. No UK bid consultancy publishes an independently audited win rate, including us, and the denominators differ between firms, so treat all published rates as directional rather than comparable.
Reviewed 22 August 2026. Facts about Thornton & Lowe are drawn from their own published material and from trade press coverage. Their performance figures are presented as their claims rather than as verified fact. If anything here is out of date or wrong, tell us at info@glaxtons.co.uk and we will correct it.
Not sure which frameworks are even worth bidding?
That is the question to settle before you choose a consultancy. Our free framework fit review tells you which two or three are worth your quarter and which to decline. If nothing fits, we will say so.
Free Framework Fit Review
What do you supply, who buys it today, and which frameworks are you already on?