Turn Cyber Essentials into
a to-do list you can finish.
A free Cyber Essentials readiness check for UK small businesses: plain questions, a clear list of what to fix, and your policies written for you.
About 10 minutes. No card needed.
Silent product demo: the ReadyCert readiness check asks plain-English questions, translates them back to the official wording, and shows a readiness picture across the five Cyber Essentials controls with a red auto-fail flagged first.
Nobody should need a consultant to answer questions about their own business.
The Cyber Essentials questionnaire is written for assessors. It asks about “in-scope end-user devices” and “multi-factor authentication on cloud services” — perfectly clear if that's your job, and completely opaque if you run a plumbing firm and a client has just asked for a certificate.
So most small businesses do one of two things. They pay someone hundreds of pounds to translate it, or they guess, submit, and find out months later that one unanswered question failed the whole thing. Neither is a good use of anyone's week.
ReadyCert sits in between. It asks about your business in words you already use, maps every answer back to the official control, and tells you honestly what would fail today and exactly how to fix it. Then it drafts the paperwork. Certification itself stays where it belongs — with an IASME-licensed certification body.
The check
Plain questions. Honest answers.
Answer questions about how your team actually works. ReadyCert maps each one back to the official control and tells you, as you go, which answers would fail today.
Fix guides written for the tools you use
Fix guides are written for the tools small businesses actually run on — with the real menu names, in the order you'll click them.
User access & MFA — A7.14
Does Microsoft 365 ask for a code from a phone or app, as well as a password?
Think about what you type when you sign in from a new laptop.
Maps to A7.14–A7.17; A7.15–A7.17 are automatic fails. Any in-scope account without MFA fails the whole User access section.
The official question (A7.14) ▾
Gaps and fixes
See exactly what stands in the way.
Every gap ranked worst-first, each with a click-by-click fix guide for the tools you already use — and a “done when” you can actually check off.
Not ready — yet. Three things stand in the way.
Fix the three items below and you'd no longer fail on the spot. Everything else can wait its turn. 42 questions answered · 3 of 5 controls in shape.
Microsoft 365 sign-in has no second step
Six accounts sign in with a password alone. One account without MFA fails the whole User access control.
See the fix →Two Windows laptops are past their update deadline
High-severity updates must be applied within 14 days. Two devices are at 22 and 31 days.
See the fix →The office router still has its supplied password
Default administrative passwords must be changed before a device is used on the internet.
See the fix →Paperwork
Your policies, already written.
Scope statement, asset register, password policy, joiner-and-leaver process — drafted from your own answers, yours to edit, alongside a draft answer or a clear to-do for every question in the official portal.
Documents
Drafted from your answers · 3 of 11 generatedAll year
Certified once. Ready all year.
A renewal runway with 90-, 60- and 30-day checkpoints, quarterly re-checks that take one click when nothing has changed, and a readiness picture that stays current.
We'll nudge you at each checkpoint. Nothing renews automatically — your certification body handles that.
Guides and free tools
Start with what Cyber Essentials actually asks.
Start hereWhat is Cyber Essentials? The plain-English guideWho runs it, who needs it, the five controls, what changed in 2026, what it costs and how to get certified — no jargon.About 10 minutes
See where you stand in about ten minutes.
Answer the questions, get your readiness picture and a prioritised list of what to fix. No card, and no access to your systems — you describe your setup, ReadyCert never connects to it.
Pricing
One plan. Everything included.
£95 a year for our first 50 customers, then £149. Your price stays at £95 while your subscription stays active.
Billed annually. No monthly tier, no add-ons.
- Year-round readiness status and a renewal runway
- Click-by-click fix guides for your tools
- All 11 policy documents, drafted from your answers
- A draft answer or a clear to-do for every question in the official portal
- Quarterly re-check reminders and renewal reminders
The certificate itself is £320–£440 + VAT for a business of under 50 people, paid to your certification body — and, by our estimate, consultants typically charge around £600 a day to walk you through the questions. ReadyCert costs less than half the certificate fee, and the time it saves is the point.
Stay on top of the rules
Plain-English updates when Cyber Essentials changes, plus the other certifications UK small businesses start getting asked for — ISO 27001, SOC 2, supplier questionnaires.
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Certification is bought separately from your IASME-licensed certification body; their assessment fee is not part of your ReadyCert subscription. ReadyCert is preparation software and cannot guarantee a pass.