Checkatrade vs MyBuilder vs Bark
Checkatrade vs MyBuilder vs Bark.
Short version: they charge you three completely different ways. Checkatrade is a fixed monthly membership on a twelve-month contract, best for an established trade who wants the badge and wins enough work to spread the fee. MyBuilder is free to join and charges a fee only when a customer shortlists you, best for planned home-improvement jobs. Bark sells you credits to unlock leads with no contract, best for niche trades and topping up a quiet week.
All three share your lead with other trades, so the real question is not which is cheapest per lead, but what each one costs you per job you actually win, and whether that lead was ever yours to keep. That is the sum nobody else does. Here it is.
The 30-second version
The three of them at a glance.
Where each one sits, and where owning your leads outright sits next to the lot of them.
| Platform | How you pay | Lead shared with | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Checkatrade | Monthly membership, 12-month contract | The whole directory | Established trades who want the badge |
| MyBuilder | Free to join, pay per shortlist | ~3 trades | Planned home-improvement work |
| Bark | Credits to unlock leads, no contract | ~5 trades | Niche trades, quiet-week top-ups |
| Your own website + ads | You pay for the site and the ads | Nobody, it is yours | Owning your leads outright |
One difference not in the table: Checkatrade vets hardest, checking ID, insurance and qualifications, MyBuilder is lighter, and Bark barely checks at all, which is part of why the Checkatrade badge carries more weight with homeowners.
Three different bills
How each one charges you.
This is where the three genuinely differ, and where most trades get caught out. None of them publishes a full price list, so every figure below is a reported range, not an official tariff. Check the actual number in front of you before you commit to anything.
Checkatrade
A fixed monthly fee, up front.
A membership you pay whether the phone rings or not, quoted on signup and typically around £90 to £150 a month plus VAT, more like £199 to £399 for high-demand trades in busy areas. It is a twelve-month contract, not a monthly one.
MyBuilder
A fee when you get shortlisted.
Free to join and free to look. You pay a shortlist fee only when a customer picks you to quote, and it scales with the job: a couple of pounds on the smallest, £20 to £35 on mid-size work, £50-plus on the big ones. Charged win or lose.
Bark
Credits to unlock a lead.
No monthly fee. You buy credits at roughly £1.10 to £1.80 plus VAT each and spend 5 to 20 of them to unlock a lead, so about £5 to £45 a time. They come off when you unlock the contact, not when the customer replies, and they expire after three months.
The number nobody works out
Your real cost per won job.
Every comparison quotes you the price per lead. That is not what a job costs you. What a job costs you is everything you paid on the leads you lost, plus the one you won. Because these leads are shared, most trades win somewhere around one in five. Run that sum and the three models look very different from the sticker price:
| Platform | What you pay | Roughly to win one | Real cost per won job |
|---|---|---|---|
| Checkatrade | ~£90 to £150/mo fixed | 4 to 6 jobs a month to break even | ~£80 to £200+ per customer |
| MyBuilder | ~£15 to £35 a shortlist | shortlisted 4 to 8 times | ~£140 to £280 |
| Bark | ~£18 a lead unlocked | about 5 leads | ~£90 before you lift a tool |
On a £3,000 bathroom, none of those numbers matter. On a £180 job, a £90 cost to win it has eaten half your margin before you have parked the van. The trade the platforms suit is the one doing bigger-ticket work; the one they quietly punish is the one doing lots of small jobs. Total your fees, divide by jobs won, and compare it to your average job. That single sum tells you more than any review.
The bit they gloss over
Shared, or yours alone?
Here is the thing every one of these pages skates over: not one of them sells you a lead that is yours alone. You are always quoting against other trades who paid to be there too, which is exactly why so many jobs come down to who is cheapest.
| Platform | Who else gets the same lead |
|---|---|
| MyBuilder | Around 3 trades shortlisted per job |
| Bark | Around 5 trades unlock the same contact |
| Rated People | Often more again, 5 to 10 plus |
| Checkatrade | A directory, so customers contact several listed trades |
| Your own website + ads | Nobody. The customer found you |
We think a lead should be yours alone, not flogged to the four other blokes down the road. We made the full case in the shared-lead trap.
Read the small print
The two traps that catch trades out.
Checkatrade
The twelve-month auto-renewal.
The contract runs for twelve months and rolls into another twelve unless you cancel in a short renewal window, giving roughly thirty days' notice. Miss it and you are locked in for another year, sometimes at a higher fee. This, not the monthly cost, is the single biggest complaint trades have.
Bark
Credits that expire in three months.
Credits you buy now expire three months later, so the old trick of buying a cheap bulk pack and using it through a quiet season is gone. Trades report feeling pushed to unlock leads they would otherwise skip, just so the credits do not go to waste. Most older comparison articles still say credits never expire; that is out of date.
Straight from the trade
What trades actually say.
Not the homeowner reviews, the trade forums. The gripes are consistent, and they are different for each one.
Checkatrade
- Auto-renewed with barely any warning
- Renewal price leaping above year one
- Paid leads that never pick up
- Promised leads that never came
MyBuilder
- Paid to be shortlisted, then silence
- Refunds refused once you are charged
- Made-up jobs, still chargeable
- Tyre-kickers fishing for a price
Bark
- Credits burned on dead leads
- Three-month expiry pushing you to buy
- Leads that already found someone
- Barely any checks on who is real
The honest read: MyBuilder is the fairest in structure and shares the job with the fewest trades, Checkatrade carries the most weight with homeowners but ties you in hardest, and Bark is the most flexible but the loosest on lead quality. All three leave you paying to enter a race, not to win it.
The honest verdict
So which one should you pick?
| If you are… | Best starting point | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Brand new, no reviews, cash tight | MyBuilder or Bark | Pay-as-you-go, no contract, test demand without a £2,000 commitment |
| Doing planned home-improvement jobs | MyBuilder | Fewer trades per job and well-described work you can judge before you pay |
| Established, doing higher-value work | Checkatrade + your own site | The badge helps close, and you can spread the fixed fee across enough jobs |
| Niche or wide-catchment trade | Bark | Covers categories the big directories miss, with no commitment |
| Doing lots of small, low-value jobs | None of them | The cost per won job eats the margin; use free channels instead |
And yes, sometimes the answer is none of them, at least not on their own. If your average job is small, the maths never works, and you are better off with a filled-in Google Business Profile, reviews you gather yourself, and word of mouth. We would rather tell you that than talk you onto a platform that will quietly lose you money. For the full order to work through, see how to get more leads.
The bigger picture
Renting leads, or owning them.
Step back from Checkatrade versus MyBuilder versus Bark and the real split is this: every one of them rents you a lead. You pay for the introduction, share it with a few rivals, and the customer was never really yours. Win or lose, next month you start again and pay again. Stop paying and the work stops the same day, and the reviews you built up stay on their platform, not yours.
A lead from your own website and your own ads is owned. The customer found you, they are yours, and the repeat work and the recommendation to their neighbour cost you nothing on top. We are straight about it: that is a build, not a switch you flip today, and a lead site can tide you over while you get there. But once your own thing is running, you stop paying to enter a race you usually lose.
If you want the deep dive on any one of them, we broke each down on its own: is Checkatrade worth it, is MyBuilder worth it, and is Bark worth it.
Why us
Why take our word for it?
Fair question, because we build websites and run ads for trades, so we have a horse in this race. Honestly? Because we will tell you to stay on Checkatrade, MyBuilder or Bark when it is the right call for where you are, and we make nothing from you doing that. We only do well when your phone rings with work that is yours, so we would rather give you the real sum than talk you off a platform that is paying.
Straight answers
Questions trades actually ask.
- Is MyBuilder better than Checkatrade?
- They are built differently, so "better" depends on you. MyBuilder is free to join and charges a shortlist fee only when a customer picks you to quote, with the job shared among roughly three trades and no contract. Checkatrade is a fixed monthly membership on a twelve-month tie-in, with heavier vetting and a badge homeowners recognise. MyBuilder wins on flexibility and no lock-in and suits planned home-improvement work; Checkatrade wins on brand trust and suits established or reactive trades with steady volume. Either way the lead is shared and the customer stays theirs, not yours.
- Which is better, Bark or Checkatrade?
- Bark has no contract and you pay per lead with credits, but the lead is shared with around five trades, the vetting is light, and credits now expire three months after you buy them. Checkatrade costs more and ties you in for twelve months, but the vetting is proper and the brand carries weight with homeowners. Bark suits niche trades and topping up a quiet week; Checkatrade suits a trade who wants a steady branded presence and can win enough jobs to spread the fixed fee. Neither gives you a lead that is yours alone.
- Is MyBuilder a con?
- No, but the thing that feels like one is real: you pay the shortlist fee when a customer picks you to quote, and you pay it whether they ever reply, whether the job is real, and whether you win. MyBuilder states it plainly: you are paying for the verified contact details, not a guaranteed job, and refunds are usually refused. It is a legitimate service, but go in knowing you are buying an introduction, not a job.
- How much does Checkatrade cost for tradesmen?
- There is no public price list; you get a quote when you sign up, and it varies by trade and area. A membership that actually generates leads tends to land around £90 to £150 a month plus VAT, and for high-demand trades in busy regions it can run to £199 to £399 a month. It is a twelve-month contract that renews for another year unless you cancel in the renewal window, so treat it as an annual commitment, not a monthly one.
- How much does MyBuilder charge?
- Nothing to join and nothing to browse or express interest. You pay a shortlist fee only when a homeowner shortlists you to quote, and the fee scales with the estimated job value: a couple of pounds on the smallest jobs, around £20 to £35 on mid-size work, and £50 or more on big projects. It is charged the moment you are shortlisted, win or lose, and VAT is added on top.
- How do Bark credits work?
- You buy credits in a pack, then spend them to unlock the contact details on a lead. A credit costs somewhere around £1.10 to £1.80 plus VAT, cheaper in bulk, and a single lead costs roughly 5 to 20 credits depending on the job, so about £5 to £45 a lead. The credits come off when you unlock the contact, not when the customer replies, and credits now expire three months after you buy them, so bulk-buying to use through a quiet spell no longer works.
- Are the leads shared on these sites?
- Yes, on all of them. Bark sells the same lead to around five trades, Rated People to more, and MyBuilder shortlists roughly three of you per job. Checkatrade is a directory rather than a per-lead sale, but customers browse and contact several listed trades, so you are still competing. None of the three gives you a lead that is yours alone, which is the whole reason the same job gets won on price.
- How do I stop relying on lead generation sites?
- You do not have to quit cold. The way off is to build something you own that brings work in without a per-lead fee: a website that turns visitors into calls, a filled-in Google Business Profile, reviews you gather yourself, and ads that point at your own site. Keep a lead site ticking over while that gets going, then wind it down as your own channels pick up. The difference is that a customer who finds you through your own site is yours to keep, along with the repeat work and the recommendation to their neighbour.
Tired of renting leads off all three?
Tell us a bit about your business and we'll show you what owning your leads looks like. Got a question first? Just message us.