Can small businesses get Cyber Essentials?
Yes - Cyber Essentials is explicitly designed for UK small businesses. The Micro tier covers organisations with 1–9 staff at £299.99 + VAT (Fig Group price) and includes free £25,000 cyber liability insurance for UK organisations under £20m turnover.
Can small businesses get Cyber Essentials?
Yes - Cyber Essentials is explicitly designed for UK small businesses. The Micro tier covers organisations with 1–9 staff at £299.99 + VAT with Fig Group (the lowest published price from any IASME-licensed body in the UK) and includes free £25,000 cyber liability insurance for organisations under £20m turnover.
Who the Micro tier is for
- Sole traders with employees or associates on payroll
- Micro-limited companies (1–9 headcount)
- Partnerships of up to 9 partners
- Charities and community interest companies up to 9 staff
- Owner-operated professional-services firms (consultancies, accountants, solicitors, designers)
What small businesses get for £299.99 + VAT
- A valid Cyber Essentials certificate, issued digitally and listed on the public IASME directory.
- Free cyber liability insurance up to £25,000 indemnity (organisations < £20m turnover).
- Use of the Cyber Essentials badge in marketing, tender responses, and email signatures.
- Procurement eligibility for government tenders, NHS supplier frameworks, and enterprise-client due diligence.
- Typically a 5–15% reduction on any standalone cyber-insurance premium.
Is Cyber Essentials hard for small businesses?
Not especially. The five controls - firewalls, secure configuration, user access, malware protection, and patching - are routine IT-hygiene steps that most competently-run small businesses already meet. Common early-failure points are:
- Home-office routers still on factory default admin credentials for staff who work from home (see remote and hybrid workforces).
- Phones on out-of-support Android or older iOS.
- One account used for both admin and daily email.
A free readiness check takes under 10 minutes and flags any issues before you pay.
How long does it take for a small business?
With Fig Group's 6-hour turnaround guarantee on compliant submissions, a well-prepared micro business can go from "buy the assessment" to "certificate in inbox" inside the same working day. Most of the time for a small organisation is spent completing the questionnaire (typically 60–90 minutes).
Can sole traders get Cyber Essentials?
Yes. A one-person business is covered by the Micro tier at the same £299.99 + VAT. See Can a sole trader get Cyber Essentials? for a fuller answer.
Bottom line
Cyber Essentials was designed with UK small businesses in mind. At £299.99 + VAT with a same-day turnaround from Fig Group, plus free £25k cyber liability insurance, it is the highest-ROI certification available to UK SMEs.
Start Cyber Essentials from £299.99 + VAT | Free readiness check | Cyber Essentials Online
About the author
Jay Hopkins
Managing Director, Fig Group
Jay Hopkins is the Managing Director of Fig Group and an IASME-licensed Cyber Essentials assessor. He was previously Head of Technology for a global regulated firm. He works with UK organisations across regulated sectors on baseline compliance, supply-chain assurance, and AI-augmented security tooling.
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