Last updated 21 October 2026
Checkatrade vs MyBuilder vs Bark.
Which is better, Checkatrade, MyBuilder or Bark? It depends how you want to pay, because they charge you three completely different ways. Checkatrade is a 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.
Everything here about Checkatrade's contract comes from its own published terms and conditions, last read on 21 October 2026. Terms get revised, so check yours against the current version before you act on anything.
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 plan or pay per lead, 12-month contract | Not published. Customers may contact several | Established trades who want the badge |
| MyBuilder | Free to join, pay per shortlist | Not published. Trades report up to 5 | Planned home-improvement work |
| Bark | Credits to unlock leads, no contract | Up to 5 respond | 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 lists up to twelve checks, covering ID, qualifications, CCJs and company history before the badge. Bark says plainly that not all professionals on Bark are verified: its Bark Verified badge, with photo ID and face recognition, a background check and fraud checks, comes with its paid plans. That gap 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. Only Bark publishes a unit price. Checkatrade publishes its entry tiers but quotes the plans that bring leads, and MyBuilder sets a fee per job. Where a figure below comes from trades rather than the company, it says so. Check the actual number in front of you before you commit to anything.
Checkatrade
A fixed monthly fee, or a fee per lead.
Its Fixed Plan is a set fee you pay monthly in advance whether the phone rings or not, quoted on signup and reported by trades at about £70 to £150 a month plus VAT, more like £200 to £400 for busy trades in competitive areas. Its pay-as-you-go option charges per lead against a monthly budget instead. Either way it is a twelve-month contract, not a monthly one.
MyBuilder
A fee when you get shortlisted.
Free to join, and free to express interest on most leads. You pay a shortlist fee when the customer's contact details are shared with you, and it is worked out from the job's likely size, value and location, with no published fee table. Charged win or lose.
Bark
Credits to unlock a lead.
On the credits model most trades are still on, there is no monthly fee. You buy credits at £1.80 plus VAT each, less in packs, and spend a varying number of them to unlock a lead. They come off when you unlock the contact, not when the customer replies, and they expire after three months. Cleaners, end of tenancy cleaners and roof and gutter cleaners have been moved onto Bark Marketplace instead, a monthly subscription you can cancel any time.
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, you will lose more than you win. Here is the sum for each, with example inputs in the last column to show how it runs. They are illustrations, not reported prices, so put your own figures in:
| Platform | What you pay | The sum | Example, cost per won job |
|---|---|---|---|
| Checkatrade | A fixed monthly fee, reported at £70 to £150 plus VAT | Monthly fee divided by jobs won that month | £150 a month, 2 jobs won: £75 a job |
| MyBuilder | A shortlist fee per job, shown before you express interest | Fee times the shortlists it takes to win one | £15 a shortlist, 1 win in 4: £60 a job |
| Bark | £1.80 a credit plus VAT, a varying number of credits per lead | Credits per lead times £1.80 times the leads it takes to win one | 10 credits a lead, 1 win in 5: £90 a job |
On a £3,000 bathroom, £90 to win the job barely registers. On a £180 job, it is half the price of the job gone 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. Checkatrade is the awkward one to price up, because it publishes only its entry tiers and quotes the plans that bring leads once it has questioned you, so we broke down what Checkatrade really costs a month separately.
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 | Not published. Trades report up to 5 shortlisted per job |
| Bark | Up to 5 professionals respond to the same lead |
| Rated People | Closed to new members. Its leads now go to Checkatrade members |
| Checkatrade | Not published. Its terms say customers may contact multiple 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 the business owner phones Checkatrade, no earlier than 35 days before the renewal date. Miss it and you are locked in for another year, and the terms let the fee rise at renewal on 30 days' notice. That renewal, more than the monthly cost, is what catches trades out.
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. Older comparison articles that say credits never expire are 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
- Not every profile is verified
The honest read: MyBuilder is the fairest in structure, because you see the fee before you commit and pay nothing to join, Checkatrade carries the most weight with homeowners but ties you in hardest, and Bark is the most flexible but charges the moment you unlock, reply or no reply. 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 twelve-month commitment |
| Doing planned home-improvement jobs | MyBuilder | You see the job and the fee before you express interest, so you can judge it 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 full detail 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. For the lead sellers beyond these three, see how every model of trade lead compares.
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.
- Which is better, Checkatrade or MyBuilder?
- For a trade testing the water or doing planned home-improvement work, MyBuilder is usually the better start; for an established or reactive trade that can spread a fixed fee over steady work, Checkatrade can be. They are built differently, so "better" depends on you. MyBuilder is free to join and charges a shortlist fee when a customer shares their contact details with you, with no contract, and it does not publish how many trades a homeowner can shortlist. Checkatrade is a monthly membership on a twelve-month tie-in, with up to twelve checks behind its badge. 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 up to five trades on Bark's own terms, verification is tied to its paid plans rather than applied to every professional, and credits now expire three months after you buy them. Checkatrade is a fixed commitment that ties you in for twelve months, but it lists up to twelve checks before its badge 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 shares their contact details with you, and you pay it whether they ever reply and whether you win. MyBuilder's terms say plainly that it does not guarantee you will be able to quote or secure the work, and that any refund is at its discretion and comes only as account credit. It is a legitimate service, but go in knowing you are buying an introduction, not a job.
- How much does Checkatrade cost for tradesmen?
- Checkatrade publishes its entry tiers, a free profile, £30 a month, and Growth from £59, but not what a plan that actually generates leads costs: that is quoted when you sign up, by trade and area. Trades commonly report about £70 to £150 a month plus VAT, and £200 to £400 a month for busy trades in competitive areas. It is a twelve-month contract that renews for another year unless the business owner phones Checkatrade no earlier than 35 days before the renewal date, so treat it as an annual commitment, not a monthly one.
- How much does MyBuilder charge?
- Nothing to join, and nothing to express interest on most leads. You pay a shortlist fee when a homeowner shortlists you and contact details are exchanged; on some leads the details are shared the moment you express interest, and the fee is charged then. MyBuilder shows the fee against each lead, excluding VAT, before you express interest, calculates it from the likely size, value and location of the job, and publishes no fee table. It is non-refundable and charged win or lose.
- 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 £1.80 plus VAT at Bark's current price, less in packs, and the number of credits a lead costs varies by job. 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.
- Do Checkatrade, MyBuilder or Bark sell exclusive leads?
- No. Bark says up to five professionals respond to a lead. Checkatrade's Opportunities Board terms say "multiple trades may unlock the same Opportunity" and that customers may contact multiple trades, and none of its lead terms promises a lead is yours alone. MyBuilder charges when a homeowner shortlists you, does not publish how many trades it shortlists, and trades report up to five. If exclusivity matters to you, none of the three sells it.
- Are the leads shared on these sites?
- Yes, on all of them. Bark says up to five professionals respond to a lead, and MyBuilder does not publish how many it shortlists, though trades report up to five. Checkatrade's terms say customers may contact multiple trades and that several trades may unlock the same Opportunities Board job, 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.
Keep reading
More straight answers for trades.
Tired of renting leads off all three?
See what it costs, then tell us about your business and we'll show you what owning your leads looks like. Got a question first? Just message us.