Last updated 24 September 2026
Some handyman leads cost more than the job they bring.
Leads Do Work lists a handyman lead at £5 plus VAT, with up to 5 firms competing for it. Search ads from Zapo, formerly Get Work, start at £400 a month plus VAT, which its own forecast turns into roughly £40 per odd job. Handyman Leads skips the lead price and takes 10% of each job. Bidding on the searches homeowners make yourself costs £1.33 to £7.28 a click.
Now set those against the work. Checkatrade prices hanging pictures and mirrors at £45. Win one quote in 3 on £40 leads and that job has cost you £120 to win. On handyman work, the size of the job decides which way of getting leads can pay at all.
Check the phone number
Two sellers, one mobile number, opposite promises.
Geordie Leads sells handyman leads with "no sharing with competitors" and talks of 20 to 40 a day. Handyman Leads says its leads "may be seen by other eligible tradespeople in your area" and expects 3 to 7. Both websites print the same mobile number. Ask which promise you are paying for. Every seller, quoted.
Where we stand
We don't sell handyman leads. We help you get your own.
This guide is the honest version of what buying handyman leads costs, and who else gets them. What we do instead is build handymen a website that turns visits into calls, and run Google Ads in an account in your own name, so every lead that comes in is a customer who found you, and nobody else was sold it.
What the jobs can carry
A £45 job can't carry a £40 lead.
Handyman work is priced by the hour and the visit. Checkatrade puts the average at £30 an hour, with a minimum call-out of £40 to £50 and about £80 for a typical visit. Any lead price comes out of that one visit, so the sums bite here sooner than in any trade quoting whole rooms.
Here are four everyday jobs and what a lead adds per job won at the two published per-lead prices, if you win one quote in 3.
| Job | Typical UK price | Leads Do Work, £5 a lead | Zapo, about £40 a lead |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hang pictures and mirrors | £45 | £15 a win, 33% of the job | £120 a win, 267% of the job |
| Mount a TV, standard setup | £55 to £110 | £15 a win, 18% of the job | £120 a win, 145% of the job |
| Build a wardrobe and chest of drawers | £90 | £15 a win, 17% of the job | £120 a win, 133% of the job |
| Put up eight basic shelves | £200 | £15 a win, 8% of the job | £120 a win, 60% of the job |
Pictures, flat pack and shelves from Checkatrade's handyperson prices (June 2026, averages before VAT); TV mounting from MyBuilder's guide (August 2026), worked at the middle of its range. One win in 3 is MyJobQuote's figure for its trades. The Zapo number spreads its entry fee across the leads it says to expect, with VAT still to add. Leads Do Work's £11 weekly fee is left out.
A won customer should cost around 10 to 15 percent of the job. At £5 a lead only the day of shelving gets there, at 8%. The picture hang gives up 33% of its price before you pick up a drill, and at Zapo's rate every job under £200 costs more to win than it pays.
Turn one job into a list
Checkatrade tells homeowners that "grouping several small jobs into one visit can significantly reduce your overall cost". Ask every caller what else needs doing. A lead that becomes a half day carries its cost; a lead that stays one picture hook does not.
Know which trade you really are
If most of your week is taps, toilets and radiators, the numbers in plumbing leads will fit you better. If it's doors, skirting and fitted shelving, read carpentry leads. Both trades quote bigger jobs than a general handyman.
Your numbers
What can you pay for a handyman lead and still earn?
Pick a job, or type in what a typical visit of yours comes to. Set how many quotes it takes to land one, then put in a seller's price. Try it with one job, then with the total of a full visit.
WHAT CAN YOU PAY FOR A HANDYMAN LEAD?
Pick a job, or type in what yours are worth
Starts on one in three, the figure MyJobQuote tells its own trades to expect. Put in yours.
You can pay up to about
£4
a lead, winning one in 3
- Healthy range, per won job
- £8 to £12
- Which per lead is
- £3 to £4
Put a seller's price in the last box and this will tell you what each won job would cost you.
The 10 to 15 percent band is a rule of thumb, not a measured figure.
Who sells them
Three ways to charge a handyman, in the sellers' own words.
Some charge per lead, some charge by the month, and the task apps take a cut of the job. Each one is quoted from its own website, help centre or terms.
| Seller | Price | Who else gets the job | In their words |
|---|---|---|---|
| Leads Do Work | £5 + VAT a lead, £11 a week | 1 to 3 others, never over 5 | "Customers compete with 1 to 3 tradesmen" |
| Get Work (now Zapo) | £400 to £1,600 + VAT a month | Nobody | "exclusive leads to handymen" |
| Handyman Leads | 10% of each job | Whoever claims it first | "first-come, first-served" |
| Geordie Leads | By phone | Nobody | "no sharing with competitors" |
| MyJobQuote | Credits, priced per job | Up to 3 trades | "Up to 3 tradesmen can accept details" |
| MyBuilder | A fee when shortlisted | Whoever the homeowner picks | "Only pay a fee when shortlisted" |
| Bark | £1.80 + VAT a credit | Up to 5 professionals | "a maximum of five Professionals" |
| Airtasker | 12.5 to 20% + VAT of the task | Nobody, once assigned | "if you don't win the work, you won't pay" |
| TaskRabbit | Client pays the service fee | Nobody, once booked | "You keep 100% of what you charge" |
Leads Do Work: the cheapest lead, and a weekly fee
Its Connect price list has "General Building / Handyman" at £5 for a homeowner and £10 for a business, before VAT. On top sits "a small weekly service fee of £11.00", which is more than two handyman leads in itself. Connect accounts get leads first, and the price list says "Jobs are not guaranteed, so customers must respond quickly." Returns are reviewed by hand and refunded as credit to your balance.
Zapo prices a lead at £40 and pictures one at £6.40
Zapo, formerly Get Work, has no page at a handyman address. Its handyman page sits under property maintenance and says it "delivers exclusive leads to handymen and property maintenance companies" through search ads. An illustration on that page shows a cost per lead of £6.40. The pricing page tells a different story: £400 a month plus VAT, £200 of it ad budget, for an estimated 10 leads. Leads "arrive within 1-4 weeks".
Handyman Leads and Geordie Leads: one number, two stories
Handyman Leads charges nothing upfront and takes "Fee: 10% of each job, shown clearly before you accept a lead". Its FAQ says you pay "on leads you accept", and its page doesn't say whether that fee is still due when the customer picks someone else. Ask before you accept one. Leads go to whoever claims them first, and its own footnote warns that regulated electrical, gas and structural work should only be taken by someone qualified for it.
Geordie Leads sells exclusive handyman leads, "no long-term contracts, no minimum volumes", with prices given by phone. Its number is the one Handyman Leads prints. One more page-one seller, Dolead, filters its handyman leads "by ZIP code" and cites the US rules TCPA and CCPA, so check that a seller's leads are in the UK before you pay for any.
MyJobQuote, MyBuilder and Bark: pay to reach the customer
MyJobQuote prices each job in credits, and among the things it weighs are "Competition for the lead" and "Age of the lead". The credit packs are only shown once you sign up. MyBuilder lets you express interest free and charges when a homeowner shortlists you, whether or not you get the job. Bark hasn't moved handymen to its new subscription model, so it is still credits at £1.80 each, with up to 5 professionals on each request. The detail is in is Bark worth it and is MyBuilder worth it.
Airtasker, TaskRabbit and NeedHelp take a cut instead
The task apps charge nothing to see or quote a job. Airtasker takes 20% plus VAT until you earn £450 in 30 days, falling to 12.5% once you earn £2,800 in 30 days, and only when you're assigned the task. TaskRabbit lets you set your own rate and charges the client its fee. NeedHelp calls itself a "100% FREE service" for trades; its UK terms, dated May 2021, charge the client 20% of the job price. On a job the size of most handyman work, paying a share only when you win is kinder than paying for every lead, but every job through the app carries it.
Everything here about Leads Do Work's contract comes from its own published terms and conditions, last read on 23 September 2026. Terms get revised, so check yours against the current version before you act on anything.
Rather have handyman leads that are yours alone?
That's what we do. We don't sell leads. We build the website and run the Google Ads that bring handyman customers straight to you, in an ad account in your name that stays yours if you ever leave.
See pricingBuying the click yourself
Your own ads pay on full days, not single pictures.
Lead sellers bidding on "handyman leads" pay about £31.93 a click to find you. A homeowner's "handyman near me" search, 18,100 a month, costs £3.75. That is about 8.5 times less, and it is the click the sellers are reselling. The dearest click in the list is "picture hanging service" at £7.28, for the £45 job.
The per-lead column divides each click price by 7.33%, WordStream's average conversion rate for home improvement search ads. That rate is measured on American campaigns, so read the column as an estimate.
| Search | Searches a month | Per click | Per lead |
|---|---|---|---|
| picture hanging service | 70 | £7.28 | £99 |
| tv mounting near me | 260 | £6.62 | £90 |
| tv wall mounting service | 720 | £6.34 | £86 |
| hire a handyman | 210 | £5.54 | £76 |
| furniture assembly near me | 480 | £5.00 | £68 |
| handyman near me | 18,100 | £3.75 | £51 |
| flat pack assembly | 480 | £3.75 | £51 |
| local handyman near me | 2,900 | £3.47 | £47 |
| local handyman | 1,900 | £3.37 | £46 |
| handyman services near me | 1,300 | £3.02 | £41 |
| handyman services | 2,900 | £2.88 | £39 |
| odd job man near me | 2,400 | £2.08 | £28 |
| curtain pole fitting | 720 | £1.33 | £18 |
Google Ads data for the UK, pulled 23 September 2026. These are bid-based estimates, so most advertisers pay less per click.
So your own ads run from £18 to £99 a lead, and a "handyman near me" lead at about £51 costs more than a picture hang pays. At one win in 3, that is about £153 a customer, which only sits inside the band on work worth £1,020 or more. On a single small job, Leads Do Work's £5 lead beats it easily.
Own ads earn their keep for a handyman who sells half days and days: a landlord's list between tenants, a new homeowner with ten jobs, a day at the £350 Checkatrade gives for London. What they give you that a bought lead can't:
- Bid on day-rate work, skip one-off hooks
- Leave "picture hanging service" out
- Keep "curtain pole fitting" at £1.33
- Only the postcodes you want to drive to
- Nobody else was sent the customer
- Your account, kept if you leave
Start small and measure what a visit is really worth before you raise the budget. How much to put behind it is in how much to spend on Google Ads, and the wider comparison of lead sources across every trade is in our trade leads guide.
Google Local Services Ads has a handyman category
"Handyman" is on Google's UK list of Local Services Ads categories. You pay for each answered call rather than each click, and there are no lead credits in the UK. On a job this size, a call that turns out to be one curtain pole still costs you. More in our Local Services Ads guide.
Where the handyman stops
Some handyman leads are jobs you can't legally take.
A lead feed files a gas hob, a new outdoor socket and a wobbly shelf under the same word. One seller's website mentions the limit, in a footnote. Paying for the lead doesn't make the work yours to do.
Gas: registered or hands off
Under regulation 3 of the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998, a self-employed person may only do gas work as a member of the class the Health and Safety Executive approves. The HSE says anyone working on gas appliances in a home "must be a Gas Safe registered engineer". A gas hob, a cooker move or a boiler service goes to someone who is. The detail is in our plumbing leads guide.
Electrics: three jobs need notifying
In England, Approved Document P lists the jobs a handyman can't simply get on with: a fresh circuit, a replacement consumer unit, and circuit changes beside a bath or shower all have to be notified. "All other electrical installation work is not notifiable", including repairs and like-for-like swaps. Swapping a light fitting in the hall is handyman work; a new circuit for an electric shower is not, unless you're registered. See electrician leads for the schemes.
Work outside the notifiable list still has to be safe: gov.uk says you "must meet safety and energy efficiency standards even if you do not need formal approval", and that the person doing non-compliant work "could be prosecuted and fined". Put on your website what you do and what you pass on. Customers with a gas or electrical job then call the right person, and you stop paying for leads you can't do.
Through the year
Handyman searches peak in October.
"handyman near me" was searched most in October and least in December, about 1.8 times lower. Spring and summer held level. For a handyman, the year has one busy spike and one soft patch, not a closed season.
UK searches for "handyman near me", by month
September 2025 to August 2026. Google Ads keyword data, rounded bands.
Autumn is the rush
October sits clear of every other month. It's the time to have your prices, your website and your phone ready.
Winter slows, it doesn't stop
December still ran at 12,100 searches. A monthly lead plan bills the same through it; an ad budget of your own can be trimmed for the quiet weeks.
Small jobs, small print
Below £42, the doorstep cancellation rules don't apply.
Handyman prices cluster right on a legal line. The Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013 say their cancellation part does not apply to an off-premises contract where the customer pays £42 or less. Checkatrade's minimum call-out of £40 to £50 sits either side of it, and a £45 picture hang agreed in the hallway is just over.
When a job you agree at the customer's home comes to more than £42:
- They can cancel within 14 days
- Give them the cancellation details
- Skip that and it runs a year longer
- Starting sooner? Get it in writing
- Urgent repairs they asked for are exempt
Failing to give the cancellation information is an offence too. A short line on your quote, and a text from the customer saying "yes, please start Tuesday", covers most of it.
A shared lead goes to whoever answers first
Handyman Leads spells it out: "A lead may no longer be available once another eligible professional has claimed it." Leads Do Work says jobs are not guaranteed and you must respond quickly. On a ladder with your hands full, that is a race you can't always enter. A customer who rang you from your own website was never sent to anyone else, so there is no race to lose.
Where the lead came from
The consent behind a bought lead becomes your problem too.
The Information Commissioner's Office says a business buying marketing data "must undertake proportionate checks and due diligence". If you text or email a bought handyman lead, the consent has to name you. The fines lead sellers and their buyers have had in home improvement are set out in our roofing leads guide.
Before paying any handyman lead seller, ask:
- Which website did the customer fill in?
- Does the consent name my business?
- Is it a UK homeowner, in my postcodes?
- How many others were sent it?
- Do I pay if they pick someone else?
Which way to go
Match the way you pay to the size of job you sell.
Cheap per lead suits you if
- You fill gaps with small jobs
- You can ring back in minutes
- You bundle jobs per visit
- You check the consent
A cut of the job suits you if
- You are just starting out
- Most jobs are under £100
- You'd rather pay on wins
- You can live with the fee
Your own ads suit you if
- You sell half days and days
- You have landlord clients
- You want customers to keep
- Your account, kept if you leave
Plenty of handymen use more than one: a task app while they build a name, a cheap shared lead to fill a quiet Tuesday, and their own ads for the bigger visits once they know what those are worth. Whichever you pick, the job has to be bigger than the cost of winning it.
Our sources
Where these figures come from.
Our interest, stated plainly: we sell websites and Google Ads management to trades. On price per lead for a single small job, Leads Do Work's £5 beats anything your own ads will do, and this guide says so.
Each seller's claims come from its own website, price list, help centre or terms, as they stood on 23 September 2026. Click prices and search volumes are Google Ads data for the UK, pulled the same day. Job prices are from Checkatrade and MyBuilder. The rules come from legislation.gov.uk, the HSE, gov.uk and Approved Document P, which covers England; the building rules differ in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Questions handymen ask
Handyman leads, answered.
- What does a handyman lead cost in the UK?
- Leads Do Work lists a handyman lead at £5 plus VAT, with an £11 weekly fee on its Connect plan. Zapo, formerly Get Work, runs search ads for handymen from £400 to £1,600 a month plus VAT, about £40 per lead on its own estimate. Handyman Leads charges 10% of each job instead of a lead price. Bark credits are £1.80 each plus VAT. A click on a homeowner's handyman search costs £1.33 to £7.28, going by Google Ads data for the UK.
- Will other handymen get the same lead?
- Mostly not. Leads Do Work says 1 to 3 other tradesmen compete for each job, never more than 5. MyJobQuote lets up to 3 accept each lead and Bark up to 5. Handyman Leads works first come, first served. Zapo and Geordie Leads say theirs go to you alone, and on MyBuilder the homeowner picks who gets their number.
- Is Airtasker or TaskRabbit cheaper than buying handyman leads?
- They charge differently. Airtasker takes a service fee of 12.5 to 20% of the task plus VAT, only once you're assigned the task, so a quote you lose costs nothing. TaskRabbit says you "keep 100% of what you charge", because the client pays its service fee on top. Neither charges you to find out about a job, but both set the fee against every job you do through them.
- Can a handyman do electrical work?
- Some. English rules (Approved Document P) single out three jobs that must be notified: fitting a new circuit, putting in a new consumer unit, or altering circuits near a bath or shower. Swapping a light fitting or a socket elsewhere is not notifiable, though it still has to be safe. Notifiable work needs a competent person scheme registration or a building control application.
- Can a handyman fit a gas hob or move a cooker?
- Not unless the business is Gas Safe registered. The Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998 limit gas work to members of the class of persons approved by the Health and Safety Executive, which is the Gas Safe Register. A handyman lead for a gas hob is one to hand on.
- When do people search for a handyman most?
- UK searches for "handyman near me" peaked in October and were lowest in December, about 1.8 times quieter. From March to August they held level.
- Do the cancellation rules apply to small handyman jobs?
- Only above £42. The Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013 cancellation rules don't apply to a contract agreed away from your premises where the customer pays £42 or less. Above that, a job agreed at the customer's home carries a 14-day right to cancel, and you need their request in writing to start sooner.
- Can I legally buy handyman leads?
- Yes, if you check how the seller got them. The ICO expects a business buying marketing data to make proportionate checks, and says taking the seller's word for it is not enough. If you plan to text or email the customer, the consent has to name your business.
Keep reading
More straight answers for trades.
Fill the week with full visits from customers who rang you first.
We build the website and run Google Ads in an account in your name, aimed at the bigger handyman jobs and the postcodes you cover. The price is on the home page, and if you'd rather ask something first, message us.