Bid benchmarks
Price your government bid against the field,
not against a guess
See how many bidders a buyer draws, how far winners land from the median, and where your price would have sat, from the bids the portal published: in full for Qatar, in part for Bahrain. Ready before the pricing meeting.
A work email reserves $50 in credit.
Qatar in full · Bahrain from opening results · Scoped by buyer
Counted in Ishara on 29 October 2026.
Where it has data. Benchmarks read the bids the portals publish: in full for Qatar, from its awards and bidder tables since 2017, and in part for Bahrain, from its opening results with bidders and prices. For the UAE (federal and Ajman) and Oman, Ishara carries notices and deadlines, so their benchmarks wait for bid data. The numbers travel with the tender record onto the bid desk, beside your own notes and emails.
Density
Know how many bidders this buyer draws
A buyer that draws three bidders is a different market from one that draws twelve. The histogram buckets bidders per tender for the buyer you pick, and a toggle lays the whole market beside it so the two scopes line up.
- Buckets of 1 to 2, 3 to 5, 6 to 8 and 9 or more bidders
- Single-bid share, the fastest read on thin competition
- One buyer, or the whole market it buys in
Spread and percentiles
See where your price would have sat
Award values from the 10th to the 90th percentile sit on one ruler, with the median marked. Place your cost on it and you see the room above it before you write a number.
Beside the ruler, the spread panel shows how far winners landed from the median priced bid, at the 25th, 50th and 75th percentiles of the buyer's history. Below the median reads as a saving, above it as a premium.
From the median to your margin
Price into the winning zone, then check your floor
See where winners usually land against the median, price to land there, subtract your cost, and test the margin against the floor your business needs.
Read
The median award for this buyer and how far below it winners usually price.
Price
Into the winning zone, then subtract your cost to get your margin.
Decide
Above your floor, bid. Below it, walk away with the numbers in hand.
Step by step on one bid: price a government bid from award history. The full method: benchmarks and pricing.
Scope and compare
One buyer, or the whole market
Pick a government buyer and every panel recomputes for it. Flip the compare toggle and the market sits beside it on the same ruler.
By buyer
The ministry or authority you are bidding to, with its own density, spread and percentiles.
Against the market
Histograms turn into shares and award values share one ruler, so a small buyer and the market line up.
Shared as a link
Every view is a link, scope and toggle included, so a colleague opens exactly the panels you read.
Bid benchmarks come with Business, $39 per seat per month, or $32.50 billed yearly, kept for 12 months for workspaces that pay before 15 March 2027. They pair with the recompete radar and tender intelligence in a bid team's week.
From signal to pursuit
See the opportunity
and choose the next move
Follow one tender from first discovery to a considered pursuit. Each step keeps the source and the decision in view.
Illustrative bid workflow. The buyer, notice and timeline are fictional.
Inside the bid deskA relevant opportunity, with a place to start
An example health ministry is buying laboratory reagents for its hospitals. Start with the scope, the closing window and the record behind the notice.
- Buyer
- Example health ministry
- Submission window
- 18 days in this scenario
- Category
- Medical and laboratory supplies
Read the scope and confirm that the opportunity belongs in your pursuit list.
Turn the notice into a decision
Compare the buyer's priorities with your capabilities. Keep the evidence, open questions and internal decision together.
- Relevant experience
- Two comparable projects in the example
- Open question
- Confirm the fieldwork requirement
- Decision owner
- Bid lead
Ask the bid lead to review the fit and the unresolved requirement before committing the team.
Give the next step an owner
Keep the tender, working documents and next actions on one record. The example remains in review until the bid lead decides.
- Next action
- Prepare the clarification questions
- Owner
- Proposal team
- Working stage
- Qualification, pending review
Review the proposed task, then carry the agreed plan into the bid pipeline.
Frequently asked questions
Where do the numbers come from?
From the bids the portals publish: Qatar's awards with their bidder tables (24,000+ Qatar awards since 2017) and Bahrain's opening results with bidders and prices, 97,000+ priced bids in all. Each panel is computed from those tables for the buyer you choose. For the UAE and Oman, Ishara carries notices only, so they have no benchmarks yet.
Can I benchmark one buyer?
Yes, that is the default. Pick a government buyer and the histogram, the spread and the percentiles recompute for its awards. Flip the compare toggle to lay the whole market beside it on the same ruler, and share the view as a link.
What does winner versus median mean?
On each awarded tender the winning bid is compared with the median priced bid, and the panel shows that gap at the 25th, 50th and 75th percentiles of the buyer's history. A buyer whose winners usually price well below the median tells you where the winning zone sits.
How does this reach my pricing meeting?
Open the benchmarks for the buyer, place your cost on the percentile ruler, and read the margin against your floor. Track the tender into a bid pipeline from its profile and the numbers travel with the record.
Which plan includes it, and how do I start?
Bid benchmarks come with Business, $39 per seat per month, or $32.50 billed yearly, kept for 12 months for workspaces that pay before 15 March 2027. Ishara opens in waves: join the waiting list with a work email to reserve $50 in credit.
Keep exploring
Where to go next.
Tender intelligence
Government tenders from Qatar, the UAE (federal and Ajman), Bahrain and Oman, with each buyer's record.
Price a government bid
Set your price from the bids published in Qatar and Bahrain.
For bid teams
Find, qualify and win government deals, with the buyer and the field in view.
Early-access pricing
Free, Pro and Business per seat. Enterprise is scoped with the team.
Price against the field, not against a guess
Get early access and price your next bid against the buyer's own history. A work email reserves $50 in credit.
Invite-only early access in waves · A work email reserves $50 in credit · Arabic and English