The best online stamp maker for UK companies
29 August 2026 ยท Estamplab
Make your stamp free · Browse 225 templates
If you run a UK company you will be asked for a stamp or a seal sooner or later, and usually with no notice. Share certificates carry one by tradition. Tender documents ask for one. Banks and registrars ask for one. And almost every overseas counterparty, particularly in Africa, the Gulf and East Asia, will not accept a contract without one, because in their jurisdiction that is simply how a company signs.
So the practical question is not whether the law compels it. It is what your company should have ready for the moment somebody asks, and what has to be on it to be accepted. Both are below, and you can make one free in about two minutes.
Choose another template in the stamp maker
When a UK company needs a stamp or a seal
- Share certificates, which conventionally carry the company seal.
- Tenders and prequalification documents, where the form has a box for it.
- Bank and registrar paperwork, particularly for corporate accounts.
- Contracts with overseas counterparties, where a stamp is expected as a matter of course.
- Board minutes and resolutions, where your articles call for sealing.
- Everyday invoices and letters, where a company stamp identifies the sender at a glance.
What the law actually says
The Companies Act 2006 made the common seal optional. A document can be executed by two directors, by a director and the company secretary, or by a director whose signature is witnessed. Nothing obliges a UK company to own a seal.
Two things keep the demand up regardless. Your own articles of association may still say a seal shall be used for particular instruments, and those provisions bind the company whatever the general law permits, so read them before concluding you are free of it. And counterparties abroad, particularly in Africa, the Gulf and East Asia, routinely refuse a contract without a stamp on it, because in their jurisdiction that is normal.
Is a company seal still required goes through this properly, and the UK company stamp page covers the local specifics.
What goes on a UK company stamp
- The registered company name exactly as shown at Companies House, including the suffix. If the register says "Estamplab Trading Limited", the stamp does not say "Estamplab Trading Ltd". This is the line most often wrong.
- The company registration number, the eight-character CRN. It is the only line anybody can verify, in a free search that takes a minute, which makes it the most useful thing on the mark.
- The registered office on an address stamp.
- On a traditional seal, sometimes the words "Common Seal" and the year of incorporation.
Leave off anything that will change: a phone number, a trading style, a slogan.
Templates set up for UK use
Choose another template in the stamp maker
The common seal layouts are the ones whose wording matches what UK articles tend to describe. The rectangular ones are the everyday marks that go on invoices and letters.
Why the digital version is the one that gets used
British business runs on PDFs. The invoice is emailed, the tender is uploaded, the bank form is a download, and share certificates are increasingly issued as files rather than printed. A rubber stamp only helps if you print the document, stamp it and scan it back, and every step of that makes the file worse: the text stops being selectable, the size triples, the page acquires a slight rotation. We did the arithmetic in the paper a stamp costs.
A digital stamp goes straight onto the PDF. It also carries a date that fills itself in and, if you want it, a serial number that increments, neither of which a rubber die can do.
What it costs
Free to design, with no account and no watermark on the preview. $1.50 for one image format or $3.00 for every format zipped, paid once, with no subscription. Pricing is in USD wherever you are; the full detail is on pricing.
If you also want the physical stamp, download the SVG and take it to a British stamp shop. A vector file gives a sharper die than the photograph most people bring in.
Common questions
Does a UK company need a company stamp?
No. There is no legal requirement, and the Companies Act 2006 made the common seal optional too. Check your articles of association, which may still require one for certain documents, and expect overseas counterparties to ask regardless.
What should a UK company stamp include?
The registered name exactly as at Companies House, the company registration number, and the registered office where the mark is an address stamp. The CRN is the line worth setting largest.
What is the difference between a company stamp and a common seal?
The common seal is the formal instrument named in company law, historically embossed to execute a deed. A company stamp is the everyday inked mark showing which company issued a document. Stamp vs seal sets it out.
Can I use a digital stamp on a UK contract?
A stamp is evidence rather than execution: what makes a contract binding is agreement between the parties. Electronic records are not invalid merely for being electronic. Are digital stamps legal covers the framework, and for anything consequential check what the counterparty will accept.
Where can I make a company stamp online in the UK?
Here, free to design. Open the UK company stamp maker, set the registered name and CRN, and download it. Ireland has its own page, where the seal is treated differently.
Read next: corporate stamps and seals, and the types of stamp an office needs.