Looking for a market to visit? Find markets near you
For the people who keep UK markets running
More people at your market. More local businesses thriving.
Markets are the real, physical heart of local trade. Understead is the online infrastructure built to support them, never to replace them.
A market might be a farmers' market, an artisan fair, a vintage and antiques market, a makers' market, a community market, a car boot sale, or a place where all of these meet. Growers and bakers, but also ceramicists, jewellers, woodworkers, artists, clothing makers, florists, booksellers, repairers and collectors.
Your market gets a free public page and a full set of organiser tools. You run the market, choose the traders, set the fees and keep the relationships. We help more people find you, help good traders find you, and take some of the work out of market day.
You run the market. We help people find it.
Free for markets, forever · No commission · Your traders, your decisions
Why we're doing this
Convenience has been pulling trade away from towns. Markets pull it back.
It's not a lack of love for local businesses. It's a lack of convenience.
People have full days. A supermarket can sort dinner in one stop. A big online retailer makes it easy to buy a present, a plant pot, a piece of furniture, something for the children or a replacement for the thing that broke. Buying from independent people can mean chasing scattered websites, social posts and opening hours, so the choice to support a local business often never gets the chance to happen.
We want to change the convenience, not lecture people about how they shop. A local option should be easy to find whether you're looking for vegetables or vintage clothing, a birthday card or a handmade table.
Markets already bring the independent economy together.
A market is where a first-time maker meets a customer, a small farm sells directly, an artist finds an audience, a second-hand object gets another life, and a whole town bumps into itself. Farmers' markets, craft fairs, makers' events, antiques markets and community markets all do this in different ways. They give very small businesses a real place to exist.
Organisers have done the hard part: finding a site, gathering traders, creating an atmosphere, building trust, and making it happen again next week or next month. We don't want to divert that trade away from the market. We want to bring more people to it.
You have the physical infrastructure. We bring the online part.
Understead brings your market's dates, location, traders and news into one place people can find. They can follow the market, see who trades there, find something worth travelling for and plan a visit. Behind the scenes, you can find traders, manage applications, keep stallholders up to date, share your next market and see how things are going.
The market is not a collection of leads for Understead to take. It is a place worth protecting and strengthening. Our job is to make the independent choice easier for people who don't yet think to look for it.
In the UK, each market belongs to its town. Understead puts the market, independent businesses, groups and local activity in the same place-based network, so a market is found by the people who live around it.
The promise
Your market stays your market
You decide who trades.
Your market, your mix, your rules, pitch prices and dates. Find a Trader suggests possibilities; it never chooses stallholders, judges suitability or awards spaces.
You keep your relationships.
Your stallholders can have their own Understead pages, linked to your market and to their own websites. New customers can find them, and you remain their market organiser.
You keep control of your market's money.
Your stall-fee arrangements stay yours. Understead records fees if you want it to. It never collects them, and takes no commission on sales at your market.
Your own website and social pages still matter.
Understead adds discovery, a live dates widget and sharing tools. It doesn't ask you to give up the channels that already work for you.
The physical market comes first.
We're not turning it into an online-only substitute. Our longer-term shared-ordering idea is about bringing more trade through participating markets, not taking the market out of the picture.
What your market gets, free
Every tool, for every kind of market
Built with organisers of farmers' markets, craft fairs, vintage markets and community markets in mind. Every one of these works the same whether your stalls sell sourdough or silverware.
Help more people find and visit you
Example The Share tab: your stall sign, poster, picture cards and website widget (an invented example market)
- Your public market page. Location, the next date and any changes, a photo, the useful details, and the businesses who trade with you.
- Local discovery. People find markets and independent businesses by place, category and distance, then see who is trading.
- Followers and reminders. People follow a market they care about and hear about dates and changes. Anyone can ask for a reminder the day before a market.
- Who is trading. Your page names the traders coming on the next date. Traders post a photo or a line about what they're bringing, from fresh produce and hot food to paintings, pottery, clothing, jewellery, plants, furniture and vintage finds.
- Promotional toolkit. A QR stall sign, a printable poster, picture cards for social media, and a live dates widget for your own website.
- Weekly follower updates. In weeks when your traders post, the people who follow your market get one email built from their own words. You don't write it.
Find, invite and look after stallholders
Example The Applications tab: every application, and your decision on each (an invented example market)
- Find a Trader. Search the independent businesses near you by trade, product, keyword and distance: a potter, a baker, a silversmith, a vintage dealer, a grower, a woodworker or whatever your market needs. Open their pages, save the ones you like and send a personal invitation.
- Traders wanted. Post the stall types you're looking for, whether it's jewellery, street food, plants, upcycled clothing or a particular craft. It shows on your page and your town's page, and links straight to applications.
- Applications. Your own form with your questions and the documents you ask for, and every application in one place. Accept, waitlist or decline: Understead never decides for you.
- Your mix. See which kinds of businesses trade with you and where you might want more choice. The numbers are a guide, never a restriction.
- Import your trader list. Add your existing stallholders in one go, including traders who don't have an Understead page yet.
- Trader documents. Traders choose what to share with your market, and your dashboard keeps it together. Nothing is approved or rejected automatically.
- Waiting list and spare pitches. Offer a vacancy, see who is interested and decide who gets the space.
- Seasons and fees. Record regular places, seasonal bookings and what has been paid or is due. The money stays between you and the trader.
Run the market without six spreadsheets
Example The This week tab: who is coming, who isn't, and what they're bringing (an invented example market)
- Dates, hours and last-minute changes. Keep the real schedule up to date, including cancellations, extra dates and changed hours, and tell followers and traders in the same step.
- Check-ins and who's coming. Ask traders whether they're coming, see who has confirmed, and mark arrivals on market day.
- Trader messages. Message all your stallholders, or just those coming, not coming or yet to answer for a date. Replies come to you.
- Co-organisers and several markets. Add co-organisers and deputies, and run more than one market from one account.
- Records and handover. An incident log, risk assessment, rules, an emergency card and permission reminders, all downloadable, so the market can be handed over with nothing lost.
- A weekly organiser summary. If you switch it on, a Monday view of dates, check-ins, new applications and waiting-list requests.
- Weather for market days. Met Office forecasts and warnings for your upcoming dates, with optional alerts.
- Trader badges. Traders show for themselves whether they take cards, have step-free access or accept Healthy Start.
Show what your market contributes
Example The Numbers tab: pitches filled, visitors counted and online interest (an invented example market)
- Numbers that matter. Pitches filled, traders attending, visitors counted, new traders and online interest, with online interest kept clearly apart from real footfall.
- Visitor survey and counter. A one-minute QR survey for visitors, and a tap counter for counting people in.
- Printable reports. One clear page for your committee, council, landowner, funder or annual meeting.
- Optional takings estimates. Traders can share broad, private sales bands. You only see a combined figure when at least three traders have answered.
- A monthly note. Three numbers each month: page views, taps on the apply button, and traders listed.
See it
More than food: your page and your weekly email
Example Hollowbrook Saturday Market: your trader line-up
The people
Who's trading here
Trading this week: Hollin Silverworks and Second Spool Vintage posted fresh updates in the last seven days.
Trade here? Link your listing so shoppers can find you before market day: ask the organiser to add you, or list your business free.
Example The weekly email to followers, as it sends
Understead
Hollowbrook Saturday Market
Three traders posted this week.
Hollin Silverworks · Hollowbrook
“New hammered silver rings this week, and the leaf earrings are back.”
Second Spool Vintage · Hollowbrook
“Two mid-century lamps and a box of old cookery books. First come, first served.”
See their page →
Two Fields Bakery · Ashcombe
“Long-ferment sourdough, and a cardamom knot trial batch. The knots go fast, come early.”
Next market: Saturday 7 November, 9am to 1pm, Hollowbrook Town Square.
Their words, not ours. We just carry them.
See the market pageunderstead.live
Hollowbrook Saturday Market is an invented example. No such market, and none of these traders, exist.
From day one
One sheet for the entrance table
Your market's name, a QR code to your page, and Every stall, one page. Print it the day you claim. The people already walking through your market can follow it in one tap, and that list stays the market's: we don't rent it back to you and we don't sell anything to it.
Real Scan it: this opens the live page for Dartmouth Saturday Market
Dartmouth Saturday Market
Every stall, one page. Scan for who's trading here and to follow the market for news.
understead.live
Picture it
A normal market week
- TuesdayYour dashboard shows who's coming. A ceramicist can't make Saturday, so there's a space to fill.
- WednesdayYou search nearby makers for ceramics and homewares, look through their pages and save the ones you'd like to contact. Or you offer the space to someone on your waiting list. You decide.
- ThursdayA jeweller posts a photograph of her new work, a grower shares what's ready, and a vintage trader adds a few of the pieces they're bringing.
- FridayYou share a poster and a picture card for Saturday. Followers can see who's coming and what's worth the trip.
- SaturdayA visitor who came for a handmade gift finds a florist, a second-hand bookstall and a baker. Now they have a reason to come back.
An illustration using invented businesses, not a customer story.
The longer view
One place now. One shared basket one day.
Think of someone who rarely gets to a market because life is busy. They want a loaf and some vegetables, but also a birthday present, a handmade bowl, a houseplant and a vintage lamp. Today they order it all from a supermarket and a big online marketplace, simply because it's easy.
Our ambition is for them to find independent businesses across all of those, place one order with several willing traders, and collect everything at a participating market or another local point. Instead of replacing market day, that gives them a reason to come. They may stay, meet the maker, buy something else and come back.
A shared basket and collection is our long-term vision. It is not part of the organiser tools today. It would only work with willing traders and organisers, on arrangements made together, and nobody would have to fulfil orders, become a collection point or give up their own customers.
The destination is still the market. The difference is that more people can choose to shop there.
Three steps
Find it. Claim it. Make it yours.
Find your market.
Search by name or place at the top of this page. If it isn't there, add it free.
Confirm you're its organiser.
We email you a link. If you use the address on your market's website, or the one we wrote to, it's approved straight away; otherwise we check it by hand first, so your page and tools stay with the right person.
Start where it helps.
Confirm the next date, import your regular traders, print a poster or fill a space. Nothing about how you run the market has to change.
The deal
A straightforward deal
Free for markets of every kind: farmers' markets, craft and makers' markets, vintage and antiques markets, community markets, fairs, food hubs, co-ops and collectives. No market subscription, no listing fee and no commission on market sales.
We're free for markets because markets are where producers already gather, and we'd rather you brought yours than paid us. The money comes from producers who choose to open a shop, and from suppliers advertising in the guides. Never from you, and never from a percentage of anyone's takings.
Questions organisers ask
Straight answers
Is this only for farmers' and food markets?
No. It's for every kind of market: makers, artists, craft and design, textiles, vintage, antiques, collectables, second-hand, general and community markets, as well as growers, farms and street food. Every market has its own rules and personality, and the organiser decides what fits.
Are you trying to replace my market with online shopping?
No. We're trying to bring people to physical markets. A future shared basket with collection at a market would only ever be built with participating markets, never to bypass them.
Will you take my traders or contact them behind my back?
No. You remain the organiser and you decide who trades. A business's page belongs to that business. Understead never recruits your stallholders into another market. Find a Trader shows you public pages and lets you choose whether to approach someone; invitation emails only go to businesses that have said they welcome them.
Is it really free?
Yes. Market pages and organiser tools are free, with no subscription and no commission on market sales.
Do I have to give up my website, email list or Facebook page?
No. Keep using them, and add Understead's live dates widget, QR sign and ready-to-share picture cards.
Do all my traders need to sign up?
No. Import your existing trader list, including people without an account. Traders with their own Understead page can do more, like answering check-ins and posting what they're bringing.
Can I advertise for particular types of stall?
Yes. Post a Traders wanted notice for the businesses you want, and use Find a Trader to discover local candidates. Applications come to you and you decide.
Does Understead approve traders, check documents or set prices?
No. It gives organisers the information and tools to run their own markets. It informs, it never enforces.
Who controls the market's followers?
People choose to follow a market. Your dashboard shows how many there are and gives you ways to reach them, without exposing or selling their contact details. It is not a downloadable address book.
Does Understead take stall fees or customer payments?
No. Your fee arrangements stay as they are, and traders take payment their own way. A shared checkout is a separate, future ambition.
What if my market already has a listing?
Find it, confirm you organise it and take over the page. An unclaimed listing doesn't mean Understead runs your market: it's a page waiting for its organiser.
Can a council, charity or community group use it?
Yes, including teams running several markets, fairs or community events from one account.
Can I take my market history with me?
Yes. Your records download as spreadsheets or one printable page. Followers' contact details are never exported.
You have built the meeting place
Markets give people something a big shopping platform can't: real places, real conversation, and independent businesses that belong to their communities. The grower and the goldsmith, the potter and the plant seller, the artist and the second-hand bookseller.
We want people who rarely think to visit a market to discover how much they can find at one, and we want the organisers who make those places possible to have practical support without another bill or another platform taking control. We're here to help more people find your market, and to support the people who trade there.
Ollie and Lucy, UndersteadFood hubs and collectives
Run a food hub?
Same deal, free forever, and your page carries your ordering days and collection points. List your food hub