Urgent Cyber Essentials certification
You have a date. This page tells you what is achievable between now and then, what will get in the way, and what it costs. Reviewed by a human assessor rather than an automated check.
Ready to buy? Same day with the urgent option.
Transparent, fixed pricing based on your organisation size. By default we give you access to the IASME portal to complete your Cyber Essentials assessment yourself, and once you submit it we aim to assess within one business day. You can preview the Cyber Essentials self-assessment questions to see where you stand first. There is no call or consultation as standard; we simply send you the questionnaire to complete. Your submission is reviewed by a qualified, certified assessor, never fed into AI. Need it faster? Add urgent turnaround below. Want us to review your setup against the controls before you apply? That is a gap analysis, quoted separately: ask for one using the contact button under the form.
Need Cyber Essentials Plus as well? Plus is a hands-on technical audit on a booked date rather than a questionnaire, so we do not put a turnaround on it. The timings above are for Cyber Essentials. Tell us Plus is coming and we will sequence the two so the certificate is still in date when the audit starts: fast Cyber Essentials Plus.
An appointed IASME Certification Body: your certificate comes directly from us. Verify our credentials on the BlockMark registry, and find us listed on the IASME website.
If your controls already meet the standard, Cyber Essentials can be assessed within one business day of you submitting, using our urgent turnaround option. Solusec is an appointed IASME Certification Body, so the assessment and the certificate both come from us with no third party in the chain. If your controls are not ready, the honest answer is that the assessment speed will not save you, and we will tell you that on the first call rather than at the end.
Work backwards from your date
Most people asking for urgent Cyber Essentials are working to one of four dates: a tender closing, a contract completing, an insurance renewal, or a customer audit. Whichever it is, plan backwards from it.
| Working back from your date | What has to be done |
|---|---|
| Deadline day | Certificate in hand, PDF and registry entry available to your buyer |
| 1 business day before | Assessment completed (urgent option), certificate issued on a pass |
| 2 to 3 days before | Self-assessment questionnaire completed and submitted |
| The variable part | Remediation: whatever the five controls are not currently meeting |
| Day one | Gap analysis, so the remediation list is known rather than discovered late |
The only genuinely unpredictable block is remediation. Everything else is measured in days and is within our control. That is why, when a date matters, the gap analysis is worth more than the urgent option: it converts an unknown into a list.
The three things that will cost you the deadline
Assessment speed is rarely what makes people late. These three are, and all of them are findable today.
- Unsupported software still in scope. Any operating system, browser or application past its vendor support date is an automatic fail. Upgrading a few machines is a day. Replacing a line-of-business application that only runs on an unsupported platform is a project.
- MFA missing on a cloud service you forgot about. It is required on every cloud service for every user, including administrators. The failure is almost never the main tenant, it is an old file-sharing account or a legacy mailbox.
- Everyday accounts holding local administrator rights. Separating admin from day-to-day accounts across an unmanaged estate takes longer than people expect and needs a short window of user disruption.
What we will and will not do
We will prioritise your assessment, work to your date, and tell you the moment anything threatens it. We will not pass a submission that does not meet the standard, and we will not tell you a date is achievable when it is not.
If you see a provider guaranteeing a pass before they have looked at your estate, that guarantee is either meaningless or it means they are not genuinely assessing you. We have written about why that should worry you.
Price, including the urgent option
| Organisation size | Certification | + urgent turnaround | + gap analysis |
|---|---|---|---|
| Micro, 1 to 9 staff | £320 | £420 | £720 |
| Small, 10 to 49 staff | £440 | £540 | £840 |
| Medium, 50 to 249 staff | £500 | £600 | £900 |
| Large, 250+ staff | £600 | £700 | £1,000 |
Urgent turnaround is £100 and prioritises your assessment to within one business day of submission. A gap analysis checks your setup against the five controls before you apply, and we quote it against what you have. For a tight deadline with any uncertainty, ask for one alongside the urgent turnaround.
Common questions
How urgent is too urgent?
If your controls are genuinely in place, a certificate within two business days is realistic: one day to complete and submit the questionnaire, one for the urgent assessment. Below that, the constraint is you rather than us. If your controls are not in place, the honest range is one to four weeks depending on what needs fixing, and no certification body can compress it.
Can you tell me today whether my date is achievable?
Usually yes, on a short call. The questions that decide it are: is everything in scope on supported software, is MFA on every cloud service for every user, and do your people work in accounts without administrator rights. Three clear yeses and your date is almost certainly fine.
Does urgent cost more than the standard price?
£100 on top of the certification fee. The certification fee itself does not change: £320 for micro, £440 small, £500 medium, £600 large, all excluding VAT. There is no premium for being in a hurry beyond the £100 prioritisation.
My buyer needs proof before the certificate arrives. What can I give them?
Tell them you are in assessment with a named certification body and give them our details so they can verify us on the IASME directory. Most buyers accept that for a short window. What they will not accept is a claim with no certification body behind it.
What if I fail?
You get told precisely which controls failed and what evidence is needed, in plain language. The scheme allows one free resubmission within a limited window, so in most cases you fix and resubmit at no extra cost. Missing that window means starting a new application, which is exactly the outcome the gap analysis is designed to prevent.
Fast Cyber Essentials, however you search for it
Cyber Essentials guides
Free, no obligation
Understand your exposure
An attacker’s first move is not an attack, it is a look. So we look first, and send you what we find, worst first.
- Services and ports you did not know were open
- Security misconfigurations on anything public facing
- Known vulnerabilities already indexed by engines like Shodan
- Company credentials sitting in known breach data
The only question is: do you know where and how to look?
We reply within one business day. Prefer to talk first? 01902 288763 or info@solusec.co.uk.
Nothing is touched on your systems. It is all public and already indexed, just scattered. We pull it together, which is what an attacker does first.
Deadline looming? Let's get you certified.
A quick call, an honest answer on what is achievable, a fixed price, and an assessor who moves fast.