Is Checkatrade worth it for tradesmen?

It can be, mainly for newer businesses and reactive trades like plumbers and electricians in busy areas who need work now and have little online presence of their own. For established trades with strong word of mouth, the cost, the shared leads and the twelve-month contract often make it poor value. Track what each won job actually costs you before you renew.

Is Checkatrade any good for tradesmen?

It is good at two things: vetting, which is stricter than most lead sites, and a brand homeowners recognise. Where it falls down for trades is the money side. The £30 Approved tier only shows your profile to someone who searches for your business by name, the lead plans are quoted rather than published, and the contract renews itself every year unless you phone to stop it.

Is Checkatrade legit and reliable for tradesmen?

Yes, it is a real, long-running business. Checkatrade is a trading name of Vetted Limited, company 04285394, and says it was founded in 1998. Its contract with trades is published in full. Reliable as a company is a different question from reliable as a source of work, though: its own terms say it gives no warranty or guarantee on the quality or amount of leads, and a Fixed Plan lead estimate is not binding.

Checkatrade is a UK trade directory and app where homeowners search for a vetted tradesperson, read reviews, and then call, message, request a quote or book. For a trade it is a paid platform: you pass its checks, set the postcodes you cover, and pay for a plan that puts your profile in front of homeowners in those areas.

How does Checkatrade work for tradesmen?

You sign up through a questionnaire that asks your trade, the postcode areas you want and how many leads a year you are after, then pass up to twelve checks. A free profile gets no leads and Approved at £30 a month only shows you to people who search your business name. To be shown to homeowners searching your trade you need a lead product on top: a Fixed Plan with a set monthly fee, pay as you go with a fee per lead, or credits to unlock jobs on its Opportunities Board.

How does Checkatrade make money?

From the trade side. Its terms for tradespeople list membership (Approved, Fixed Plans, Fixed Plus), pay-as-you-go lead fees, Opportunities Board credits, an application fee of £250 plus VAT it may charge for vetting, card fees on Checkatrade Pay, and paid extras including directory listings, sponsored display, managed advertising and websites.

What checks does Checkatrade do on tradesmen?

Up to twelve: identification, proof of address, qualifications, an open-source check, personal and business CCJ checks, company history, financial checks, a duplicate check against people it has declined or removed, an enhanced business check, a director search and a customer experience check. Public liability insurance is listed too, marked optional. Members have to keep passing the checks for as long as they are members, and Checkatrade says it asks for ongoing proof of qualifications.

Does Checkatrade offer lead exclusivity?

Nothing in Checkatrade's terms promises that a lead is yours alone. Its Opportunities Board terms go further and say jobs on it are "not recommendations or reserved for You, and multiple trades may unlock the same Opportunity", and that customers may contact multiple trades. Checkatrade does not publish how many trades see a given lead, so treat every one as contested.

Are Checkatrade leads shared with other tradesmen?

Yes. The same lead goes to other matching local members at once and you compete to respond first. Checkatrade publishes no figure for how many, so be sceptical of anyone who quotes one as fact. It is not exclusive to you.

Is Checkatrade free for tradesmen?

There is a free profile, but its terms say Checkatrade "will not provide You with leads" on it, and you only show up when someone searches for your business by name. It is a place to collect reviews, not a source of work. Leads need an Approved membership plus a lead product.

What is Checkatrade Pay?

Checkatrade Pay is its card payment service: customers pay you through Checkatrade and its fees are taken out before the money reaches you. The pricing page puts those fees at 1.29% to 1.79%. It sits under separate payment terms from your membership.

What are the disadvantages of Checkatrade?

Shared leads you race other trades for, a contract that renews itself for another year unless the business owner phones to stop it, lead plan prices you only see after the sign-up questionnaire, no guarantee on lead numbers in its own terms, the right to raise your fee at renewal on 30 days notice, and reviews that stay on its platform when you leave.

Can you cancel or leave Checkatrade?

Yes, but only in the ways its terms allow. You get two business days from your start date to cancel without paying anything further. After that the membership runs its term and renews automatically, and to stop the renewal the business owner has to phone Checkatrade no earlier than 35 days before the renewal date. Cancelling your direct debit does not end the contract, and you stay liable for the rest of the term. Do not count on a fourteen-day cooling-off period either: that right protects consumers, and a trade buying a membership for its business is not one.

Why are Checkatrade reviews so high if tradesmen complain about it?

The reviews you see on Checkatrade are homeowners rating the trades they hired, not tradesmen rating their membership. How members rate the membership itself is a separate question, and trade forums are far more mixed, with complaints about lead quality, cost and contracts.

Do Checkatrade leads actually turn into work?

It is mixed and depends heavily on your trade, your area and how fast you respond. Plenty of members report a high share of leads that never pick up or turn out to be time-wasters, while others do well by replying instantly and treating it as one channel among several. Measure your own cost per won job before you commit long term.

What are the best alternatives to Checkatrade?

MyBuilder charges a fee per job, and only when a homeowner shortlists you on a job you chose to show interest in, which suits planned home-improvement work. Bark is pay-per-lead and flexible, with verification tied to its paid plans. A Google Business Profile is free and you keep it. Your own website with Google Ads gives you leads that are yours alone. Word of mouth is still the most trusted source, it is just hard to turn on when you need it.

Last updated 21 October 2026

Is Checkatrade worth the money for tradesmen?

Is Checkatrade worth it? Sometimes. If you are just starting out, or you do emergency work like plumbing or electrics in a busy area, Checkatrade can bring in real jobs while you build your name. If you already tick over on word of mouth, the cost, the shared leads and the twelve-month contract often make it poor value for the money.

What the contract says

The £30 Approved tier only shows you to a search for your name
Leads need a paid plan on top, priced for your trade and postcode
No guarantee on the quality or number of leads
Renews itself unless the owner phones within 35 days of renewal

No spin here, and no pretending it is all bad. Below is the honest breakdown: what it costs, how the leads really work, the vetting, and who it suits, so you can make the call for your trade and your postcode.

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.

How it works

What Checkatrade is, and how it actually works.

Checkatrade is a UK trade directory and app, run by Vetted Limited, where homeowners look up a checked tradesperson and then call, message, ask for a quote or book. For you it is a paid membership. You pass their vetting, choose the areas you want to cover and how many leads you want, then pay a monthly fee to appear in their search results and app. Homeowners then call you, ask for a quote, or book you straight from your profile, and your reviews build up your rating over time.

The catch most trades only find in the small print is which tier gets you seen. Checkatrade's own product terms say a free profile gets no leads, and that an Approved profile at £30 a month "will only appear on the Platform when a user searches for your business by name". Turning up when a homeowner searches for your trade in your postcode takes a lead product on top, and that is where the real bill sits.

Pass the checks
ID, address and qualifications checked

Pick your patch
choose postcodes and lead volume

Pay monthly
a membership fee to be listed

Homeowners find you
they call, quote or book you

What you buy	How you pay	What the terms say
Free profile	£0	No leads. Found only by a search for your name
Approved	£30 a month	The tick and a profile, still found only by name
Fixed Plan	A set monthly fee, quoted to you	Lead estimate is not binding, and leads can stop once you hit it
Pay as you go	A fee per lead, against a monthly budget	Fee varies with job value, location and season; capped at 120% of budget
Opportunities Board	Credits to unlock a job	Several trades may unlock the same job, no refund if it goes nowhere

Follow the money

How Checkatrade makes money.

Checkatrade makes its money from trades, and its terms for tradespeople read like a menu: membership, Fixed Plans, pay-as-you-go lead fees, credits for the Opportunities Board, an application fee of £250 plus VAT it may charge to cover vetting, card fees on Checkatrade Pay (1.29% to 1.79% on its pricing page), and paid extras from directory listings to sponsored display and managed advertising. None of that is sinister, but it is worth remembering whose customer you are when the sales call comes.

Credit where it is due

What checks Checkatrade does, and why they count.

This is Checkatrade's genuine strength. Before you can show the badge there are up to twelve checks, and its terms make passing them a condition for as long as you stay a member, with Checkatrade saying it asks for ongoing proof of qualifications. That is a world away from the sites where anyone with a card can pay to appear.

Identification
Proof of address
Qualifications
An open-source check
Personal and business CCJ checks
Company history
Financial checks
A duplicate check
An enhanced business check
A director search
A customer experience check
Public liability insurance, marked optional

The money

What it really costs.

Here is the honest part most articles skate over, and it changed under our feet. Checkatrade now publishes entry tiers: a free profile, Approved at £30 a month, and Growth at "prices from £59 a month". What it still does not publish is the number that actually matters to you, because Growth is a floor rather than a price and the sign-up flow ends in a figure quoted for your trade, how competitive your postcode is and how many leads you ask for. So treat every figure you read online, this one included, as a rough guide, not gospel.

With that caveat, trades commonly report about £70 to £150 a month plus VAT on a lead-generating plan, and £200 to £400 a month for busy trades in competitive areas. Paying per lead is a real option and not a rumour: Checkatrade's own terms include a pay-as-you-go product, billed monthly in arrears, with a fee for each lead. What that fee is, Checkatrade does not publish, and the per-lead figures floating around online do not come from it. Its pay-as-you-go terms say only that the fee per lead varies with the job value, the channel, your location, the season and supply and demand, and that the current range is shown inside the members area. On top of any plan, the terms allow an application fee of £250 plus VAT for vetting, which is non-refundable. Add up those reported figures and a busy trade can spend a few thousand pounds a year. For the full picture, including VAT and the contract, see how much Checkatrade really costs.

Read this before you sign

It is a twelve-month contract, and it renews itself.

Membership is a fixed twelve-month term that auto-renews every year
You get two business days at the start to cancel without paying more
To stop renewal, the owner phones no earlier than 35 days before the date
Cancelling your direct debit does not end the contract, you have to tell them
The terms let them raise your fee at renewal on 30 days notice

Do the maths

Work out your cost per won job, not your monthly fee.

The fee on its own tells you nothing. Total everything you pay in a month, membership plus any per-lead charges, then divide it by the jobs you actually won. That number, cost per won job, is the only way to tell if it is paying its way. Do it after three months, before you are anywhere near the renewal.

The case for it

When it is worth it.

Plenty of trades do well out of Checkatrade, and it would be daft to pretend otherwise. It earns its keep in a few clear situations.

You are new or have no website yet, and you need work coming in while you build your name
You do reactive or emergency work, plumbing, electrics, heating, locks, where people search in a panic and hire fast
You are in a busy town or city with enough searches to justify the fee
You will work the profile properly, answer in minutes, and chase every review
You treat it as one tap among several, not the only source of work

The case against it

The disadvantages of Checkatrade.

The complaints from trades are consistent, and worth knowing before you commit for a year.

The lead is never only yours

The same job goes to several of you at once, so you are racing to answer and often quoting against each other on price. Checkatrade does not publish how many.

Time-wasters and no-answers

A common gripe is that a big share of leads never pick up, ghost the chat, or were never a real job, and you have paid to chase them all the same.

It can cost more than it makes

For trades in quieter areas or on low-value jobs, the fees do not always come back, and it can feel like working to pay the membership.

You are locked in for a year

The twelve-month auto-renew and the renewal-window rules make it far easier to join than to leave, and prices can rise when it renews.

No promise on lead numbers

Its terms give no warranty or guarantee on the quality or amount of leads, and a Fixed Plan estimate is "only an estimate and is not binding".

The badge is theirs, not yours

Your profile, your reviews and your spot in the list live on their platform. Stop paying and you drop back to a free profile only found by name, and the reviews stay with Checkatrade.

The reviews are from homeowners

The reviews on Checkatrade are homeowners rating the trades they hired, not trades rating the membership. Trade opinion on the membership is far more mixed.

The verdict

Worth it for some, not for others.

Worth a look if

You are just starting out with no online presence
You do emergency or reactive work
You are in a busy, high-demand area
You can respond to a lead within minutes

Probably not if

You already have steady word of mouth and repeat work
You do high-volume jobs where the fees do not add up
You are in a rural or quiet area with few searches
You want to own your marketing, not rent your spot

Your options

The alternatives.

Checkatrade is not the only option, and it is not the only lead site that shares your job around. We gave the other two the same honest treatment, on MyBuilder and Bark, and put all three head to head. The wider market, from pay-per-lead sellers to managed ads, is in how trade leads are sold. Here is how the main ones stack up, fairly.

Option	How you pay	Lead yours alone?	Best for
Checkatrade	Monthly membership, sometimes plus per-lead	No, shared	New or emergency trades in busy areas
MyBuilder	A fee when a homeowner shortlists you	No, shared	Planned home-improvement work
Bark	Pay per lead with credits	No, shared	Flexibility, verification on paid plans
Rated People	No longer sold. Its leads now go to Checkatrade members	No, shared	Nobody new: it closed all memberships
Google Business Profile	Free	Yes	Local searches, and you keep it
Your own website plus ads	You pay for the build and the ads	Yes	Owning your leads outright

Word of mouth still beats all of them for trust. It is just the one thing you cannot switch on the week the diary goes quiet, which is why trades turn to the paid options in the first place.

Another way

Rent the leads, or own them.

Strip it all back and the real question is not Checkatrade versus MyBuilder versus Bark. They all work the same way: you rent your spot, and the job gets shared around. The other path is to own your leads instead of renting them, with your own website and your own ads, so every call comes straight to you and nobody else is sold the same job. That is the whole reason we build what we build. If you want the longer argument on why shared leads are stacked against you, we wrote it up in the shared-lead trap.

We will be straight with you though: this is not a switch you flip overnight. A lead site can have you live tomorrow. Your own setup is a build, and ads take a little while to find their feet. If you need work this week and have nothing of your own yet, a stint on Checkatrade while you get sorted is a fair call. We would rather tell you that than pretend otherwise. If you want to see what that build involves, what it costs each month and who owns what, it is all on our websites for tradesmen. When you are ready to build something of your own, our guide on how to get more leads lays out the order to work through.

Why us

Why take our word for it?

Fair question, given we build websites and run ads for trades for a living. Honestly? Because we will tell you when not to bother. If a lead site is the right move for you right now, we will say so. We make nothing from selling your job to the four other blokes down the road, because we never do it. We only do well when your phone actually rings.

Straight answers

Questions trades actually ask.

Is Checkatrade worth the money?: For a new trade, or one doing emergency work in a busy town, it often is: the badge carries weight with homeowners and a lead plan can fill gaps while you build a name. For an established trade living on word of mouth, usually not. You pay for twelve months, the leads are not yours alone, and Checkatrade's own terms say it gives no guarantee on the quality or amount of leads. The test is your cost per won job: total what you pay in a month, divide by the jobs you actually won, and compare that with your average job value.
Is Checkatrade worth it for tradesmen?: It can be, mainly for newer businesses and reactive trades like plumbers and electricians in busy areas who need work now and have little online presence of their own. For established trades with strong word of mouth, the cost, the shared leads and the twelve-month contract often make it poor value. Track what each won job actually costs you before you renew.
Is Checkatrade any good for tradesmen?: It is good at two things: vetting, which is stricter than most lead sites, and a brand homeowners recognise. Where it falls down for trades is the money side. The £30 Approved tier only shows your profile to someone who searches for your business by name, the lead plans are quoted rather than published, and the contract renews itself every year unless you phone to stop it.
Is Checkatrade legit and reliable for tradesmen?: Yes, it is a real, long-running business. Checkatrade is a trading name of Vetted Limited, company 04285394, and says it was founded in 1998. Its contract with trades is published in full. Reliable as a company is a different question from reliable as a source of work, though: its own terms say it gives no warranty or guarantee on the quality or amount of leads, and a Fixed Plan lead estimate is not binding.
What is Checkatrade?: Checkatrade is a UK trade directory and app where homeowners search for a vetted tradesperson, read reviews, and then call, message, request a quote or book. For a trade it is a paid platform: you pass its checks, set the postcodes you cover, and pay for a plan that puts your profile in front of homeowners in those areas.
How does Checkatrade work for tradesmen?: You sign up through a questionnaire that asks your trade, the postcode areas you want and how many leads a year you are after, then pass up to twelve checks. A free profile gets no leads and Approved at £30 a month only shows you to people who search your business name. To be shown to homeowners searching your trade you need a lead product on top: a Fixed Plan with a set monthly fee, pay as you go with a fee per lead, or credits to unlock jobs on its Opportunities Board.
How does Checkatrade make money?: From the trade side. Its terms for tradespeople list membership (Approved, Fixed Plans, Fixed Plus), pay-as-you-go lead fees, Opportunities Board credits, an application fee of £250 plus VAT it may charge for vetting, card fees on Checkatrade Pay, and paid extras including directory listings, sponsored display, managed advertising and websites.
What checks does Checkatrade do on tradesmen?: Up to twelve: identification, proof of address, qualifications, an open-source check, personal and business CCJ checks, company history, financial checks, a duplicate check against people it has declined or removed, an enhanced business check, a director search and a customer experience check. Public liability insurance is listed too, marked optional. Members have to keep passing the checks for as long as they are members, and Checkatrade says it asks for ongoing proof of qualifications.
Does Checkatrade offer lead exclusivity?: Nothing in Checkatrade's terms promises that a lead is yours alone. Its Opportunities Board terms go further and say jobs on it are "not recommendations or reserved for You, and multiple trades may unlock the same Opportunity", and that customers may contact multiple trades. Checkatrade does not publish how many trades see a given lead, so treat every one as contested.
Are Checkatrade leads shared with other tradesmen?: Yes. The same lead goes to other matching local members at once and you compete to respond first. Checkatrade publishes no figure for how many, so be sceptical of anyone who quotes one as fact. It is not exclusive to you.
Is Checkatrade free for tradesmen?: There is a free profile, but its terms say Checkatrade "will not provide You with leads" on it, and you only show up when someone searches for your business by name. It is a place to collect reviews, not a source of work. Leads need an Approved membership plus a lead product.
How much does Checkatrade cost per month for tradesmen?: Partly, and this changed recently. Checkatrade now publishes entry tiers at join.checkatrade.com/pricing: a free profile, Approved at £30 a month, and Growth at "prices from £59 a month". What it still does not publish is what a lead-generating plan actually costs, because Growth is a floor rather than a price and the sign-up flow ends in a figure quoted for your trade and postcode. Trades commonly report about £70 to £150 a month plus VAT on a lead-generating plan, and £200 to £400 a month in busy trades and competitive areas, and some plans add a fee on top for each lead. Get a direct quote for your own trade and postcode before you sign anything.
What is Checkatrade Pay?: Checkatrade Pay is its card payment service: customers pay you through Checkatrade and its fees are taken out before the money reaches you. The pricing page puts those fees at 1.29% to 1.79%. It sits under separate payment terms from your membership.
What are the disadvantages of Checkatrade?: Shared leads you race other trades for, a contract that renews itself for another year unless the business owner phones to stop it, lead plan prices you only see after the sign-up questionnaire, no guarantee on lead numbers in its own terms, the right to raise your fee at renewal on 30 days notice, and reviews that stay on its platform when you leave.
Can you cancel or leave Checkatrade?: Yes, but only in the ways its terms allow. You get two business days from your start date to cancel without paying anything further. After that the membership runs its term and renews automatically, and to stop the renewal the business owner has to phone Checkatrade no earlier than 35 days before the renewal date. Cancelling your direct debit does not end the contract, and you stay liable for the rest of the term. Do not count on a fourteen-day cooling-off period either: that right protects consumers, and a trade buying a membership for its business is not one.
Why are Checkatrade reviews so high if tradesmen complain about it?: The reviews you see on Checkatrade are homeowners rating the trades they hired, not tradesmen rating their membership. How members rate the membership itself is a separate question, and trade forums are far more mixed, with complaints about lead quality, cost and contracts.
Do Checkatrade leads actually turn into work?: It is mixed and depends heavily on your trade, your area and how fast you respond. Plenty of members report a high share of leads that never pick up or turn out to be time-wasters, while others do well by replying instantly and treating it as one channel among several. Measure your own cost per won job before you commit long term.
What are the best alternatives to Checkatrade?: MyBuilder charges a fee per job, and only when a homeowner shortlists you on a job you chose to show interest in, which suits planned home-improvement work. Bark is pay-per-lead and flexible, with verification tied to its paid plans. A Google Business Profile is free and you keep it. Your own website with Google Ads gives you leads that are yours alone. Word of mouth is still the most trusted source, it is just hard to turn on when you need it.

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