Ontario procurement platforms for contractors
The government's own portals are free to use and free to bid on. Some tools that sit on top — including Wonable, which is paid (from $49/month) — charge for aggregation, alerts, and proposal help, not for bidding. Here's the honest map.
| Platform | What it is | Cost to bid | Cost to use | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CanadaBuys | Official federal government tender portal (Government of Canada). | Free | Free | Federal contracts. The system of record for anything federal. |
| Ontario Tenders Portal | The Government of Ontario's provincial e-tendering portal (Jaggaer/Supply Ontario). | Free | Free | Provincial ministry and agency contracts. |
| bids&tenders / Biddingo | Commercial portals that many Ontario municipalities, school boards, and hospitals post on. | Free to free-ish | Free to view; some plan holders pay for alerts | Municipal, MASH-sector, and broader-public-sector contracts. |
| MERX | Canada's longest-running general tender aggregator (mdf commerce). Public and some private. | Free on the source portal | Subscription tiers for full access/alerts | Broad, multi-vertical coverage across Canada. |
| OECM / Supply Ontario | Shared-services procurement for Ontario's broader public sector (vendors of record). | Free | Free | Standing-offer / vendor-of-record arrangements. |
| Wonable (this site) | Paid aggregator + intelligence: pulls 23 portals into one ranked feed, checks if you qualify, prices, and drafts proposals. | Free (you bid on the portal) | Paid — from $49/mo; AI proposals on Pro $199/mo | Saving the hours of monitoring portals, qualifying, and drafting. |
Costs accurate as of 2026-06-21; verify subscription pricing on each vendor's site. Bidding on the government source portals is free in every row above.
Free portals vs paid tools — how to choose
If you bid on a handful of contracts a year and have time to check each portal yourself, the free government portals are all you need — start with CanadaBuys (federal) and the Ontario Tenders Portal (provincial), and register on the municipal portals your buyers use. Nothing about bidding costs money.
A paid tool earns its keep when the monitoring is the problem: opportunities are spread across 20-plus portals, posted with little notice, and lost to whoever saw them first. Wonable ($49/mo) collapses that into one ranked feed, auto-checks whether you qualify, does the Ontario pricing math, and drafts proposals (unlimited on Pro at $199/mo). That's what the subscription buys — the finding and the preparation, not access to bid. See exactly how the paid model works →
FAQ
Do I have to pay to bid on Ontario government contracts?
No. Bidding is free on the public portals — CanadaBuys, the Ontario Tenders Portal, and the municipal portals all let you register and submit a bid at no charge. Paid tools like MERX or Wonable charge for aggregation, alerts, and proposal help, not for the right to bid.
Which platform is free and which is paid?
The government's own portals (CanadaBuys, Ontario Tenders Portal, OECM/Supply Ontario) are free to use and free to bid on. Municipal portals like bids&tenders and Biddingo are generally free to view. MERX and Wonable are paid tools that sit on top — you still submit the actual bid for free on the source portal.
If the portals are free, why use a paid tool like Wonable?
Because the contracts are scattered across 20-plus portals, posted with short notice, and usually won by whoever saw them first and matched the requirements cleanly. Wonable (from $49/mo) gives you one ranked feed, auto-checks disqualifiers, does the Ontario pricing math, and drafts proposals. If you have time to monitor every portal by hand, the free portals are all you need.
What's the cheapest honest way to start?
Free: register on CanadaBuys and the Ontario Tenders Portal and check them yourself. If the monitoring is eating your week, Wonable's free tier lets you browse the aggregated feed, and the $49/mo plan adds real-time alerts and the full intelligence suite.
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