COMPARISON · AS OF 2026-07-31
Built for UK storage, not adapted to it.
The short answer
SiteLink is a long-established platform with a track record and formal security attestations StoreBay does not have. The question this page answers is narrower: what a UK operator specifically needs — Bacs Direct Debit, storage licence agreements, UK VAT handling and UK data residency — and where each platform stands on those. If you operate in the US, choose SiteLink.
01 / The UK requirements
Four things British storage needs
These are not preferences. Each one is a legal or banking requirement that a platform either models or leaves to you.
A licence, not a lease
UK storage is granted as a licence to occupy. Software that models it as a lease or tenancy, and the customer as a tenant, was built for a different legal regime — and the distinction protects you from security-of-tenure claims.
Bacs Direct Debit
The sensible default rail for a recurring licence fee, with a statutory advance-notice obligation before every collection and payments that can be reversed weeks later. Card-first platforms tend to treat “collected” as final; in Bacs it is not.
VAT-inclusive consumer pricing
Prices shown to consumers must include VAT with mandatory fees up front. A storefront that quotes ex-VAT to consumers is the drip-pricing pattern the DMCC Act 2024 targets.
Protection, not insurance
Goods protection is a contractual liability waiver. Selling or describing it as insurance without authorisation is a regulated activity — so the distinction has to be built into the product, not remembered by staff.
02 / The comparison
Capability by capability
| Capability | StoreBay | SiteLink |
|---|---|---|
| Published pricing | Full formula published — base + per-unit ladder | No public price list (pricing page returns 404) |
| Bacs Direct Debit | Advance notices, failure states and indemnity clawbacks modelled end to end | No public evidence of Bacs-specific handling |
| UK storage licence agreements | Licence to occupy, e-signed at move-in — not a lease or tenancy | No public evidence of UK licence-agreement templates |
| UK data residency | DigitalOcean LON1 + UK GDPR + PCI SAQ-A | No public evidence of a scoped UK-residency commitment |
| Security certifications | PCI SAQ-A; no SOC 1/SOC 2 attestation today | SSAE 16 (SOC 1) Type II and PCI Level 1 |
| Cloud management | Browser-based, one live view across every site | Yes — SiteLink Web Edition, stated as preferred for single and multi-store |
| Track record | New platform — this is the honest gap | Founded 1996; long-established, widely deployed |
SiteLink facts from its own public materials, captured 2026-07-31 (claims-evidence #60). Where a row reads "no public evidence" it means exactly that — we could not find it published, not that the capability is absent. SiteLink is a trade mark of its owner, named here for identification only.
One current fact worth knowing if you are mid-evaluation, in SiteLink’s own words: “SiteLink is moving to Storable.com. You’ll find everything — logins, integrations, tech and billing support — on the new Storable website, and sitelink.com will be redirected there in the coming months.” That is their announcement, not our characterisation, and it affects where support and billing will sit rather than the software itself. StoreBay’s published price at 50 units is £63/mo +VAT, and it is £63/month +VAT including the first 50 units.
03 / Where SiteLink wins
Three reasons to choose them instead
Two of these are things StoreBay genuinely cannot match today, and saying so is more useful to you than pretending otherwise.
Track record and scale
SiteLink has been in this industry since 1996 and is deployed at enormous scale. StoreBay is new. If a long operating history is your first filter — and for many buyers it reasonably is — that is a real and material advantage, and no amount of feature comparison changes it.
Formal security attestations
SiteLink publishes SSAE 16 (SOC 1) Type II and PCI Level 1 certifications. StoreBay holds neither today; we run PCI SAQ-A because card data never touches our systems, which is a different and narrower claim. If your procurement process requires a SOC report, we cannot meet it yet.
Operating in the US
SiteLink is a US platform built for the US market, and it is consolidating into Storable, one of the largest storage-technology groups. If your sites are in North America, StoreBay is simply the wrong tool — everything we have optimised for is British.
04 / FAQ