Is MyBuilder free for tradesmen?

Yes to join. There is no membership, subscription or joining fee. You create a profile and browse jobs for free, and you only pay a fee when a customer shortlists you for their job.

How much does MyBuilder charge for leads?

There is no published price list. The shortlist fee is worked out from the estimated size of the job, so it scales with the work. Trades report it starting under £3 for the smallest jobs and rising to roughly £20 to £35, or £50 and up on big projects. Treat those as reported ranges and check the fee shown before you commit, because MyBuilder does not publish fixed prices.

When do you actually pay on MyBuilder?

You browse and express interest for free. You are charged the moment the homeowner shortlists you, which is when MyBuilder hands over their contact details so you can quote. You pay at the "they picked you to quote" stage, not when you win.

Are MyBuilder leads shared or exclusive?

Shared. A homeowner shortlists several trades for the same job, commonly up to three but some report more, and every shortlisted trade pays their own fee. So you are usually quoting against two or three others who all paid to be there.

Do you pay if you do not win the job on MyBuilder?

Yes. The fee is charged when you are shortlisted, not when you win, so you can pay to quote and still lose the job to another trade. That is the single biggest thing to understand before you start.

Can you get a refund on MyBuilder?

Rarely. Shortlist fees are non-refundable as standard because MyBuilder treats itself as an introduction service, not a pay-to-win one. Refunds are at its discretion and usually come as account credit, and trades widely report being refused even for customers who never answered.

Which is better, MyBuilder or Checkatrade?

They are built differently. Checkatrade charges a monthly membership and trades on brand recognition with homeowners; MyBuilder is free to join and charges per shortlist, with leads shared among fewer trades. Checkatrade tends to suit reactive trades who want the badge; MyBuilder suits planned home-improvement work. Both share your lead around, and with both the customer stays theirs, not yours.

Does MyBuilder vet tradesmen and check insurance?

It verifies your ID and business details and checks certifications, or runs a skills assessment, for the trades you list. But it states that confirming a trade is insured is down to the homeowner, so insurance is not necessarily a joining gate. Its vetting is lighter than Checkatrade and heavier than Bark.

Are the leads on MyBuilder any good?

Because customers write out the job, home-improvement leads can be well described. But trades commonly report tyre-kickers fishing for a ballpark price, customers who never reply, and the odd fake job, and you still pay the non-refundable fee if you were shortlisted. Quality is the luck of the draw, and you are betting the fee on it.

Is MyBuilder worth it?

Is MyBuilder worth it for tradesmen?

Short answer: for some. MyBuilder is free to join and only charges when a customer shortlists you, which makes it cheaper to start than most. It works if you are a home-improvement trade with good reviews who picks off the cheap, well-described jobs. It is hard to justify if you are new with no reviews, in an emergency trade, or somewhere quiet, because you pay per shortlist whether you win the job or not, and that never comes back.

Below is the honest version most of these comparisons skip: what it really costs, the one number nobody works out for you, what trades actually say once the fees start landing, and who should walk away.

The 30-second version

MyBuilder against the rest.

Where MyBuilder sits next to the other lead sites, and next to owning your leads outright.

Platform	How you pay	Lead shared with	Vetting	Best for
MyBuilder	Free to join, pay per shortlist	~3 trades	Light to moderate	Planned home-improvement work
Checkatrade	Monthly membership + per-lead	Several	Heaviest	Reactive trades who want the badge
Bark	Pay per lead, in advance	Several	Lightest	Flexibility, wide range of trades
Rated People	Monthly fee + per-lead	Several	Light	Less used than it was
Your own website + ads	You pay for the site and the ads	Nobody, it is yours	You are the brand	Owning your leads outright

How it works

How MyBuilder actually works.

This is the bit that catches people out, so it is worth getting straight. You do not pay to join and you do not pay to look. You pay the moment a customer picks you.

Join free
no membership, no monthly fee

Express interest
flag the jobs you fancy, free

They shortlist you
and you are charged, win or lose

You quote against ~2 others
the customer picks one

The defining mechanic

You pay to enter the race, not to win it.

Being shortlisted buys you the introduction and the customer's number, nothing more. The same job is usually shared with around three trades, all of whom paid, and only one wins. The fee is the same whether you land a £3,000 bathroom or never get a reply, and it does not come back.

The money

What it really costs.

Here is the honest bit: MyBuilder does not publish a price list. The shortlist fee is worked out from the estimated size of the job, so every figure you see quoted online, this one included, is a reported range, not an official tariff. Always check the fee shown on the job before you commit. As a rough guide, from what trades report in mid-2026:

Job size	Reported shortlist fee
Small jobs (under ~£75)	Under £3
Mid-size (£500 to £1,000)	~£8 to £15
Larger (£1,000 to £3,000)	~£20 to £35
Big projects	£50 and up

Fees carry VAT on top, and there is no refund if the lead turns out to be a dead one. A trade quoting steadily can hand over anywhere from £50 to a few hundred pounds a month in shortlist fees. The price on the screen, though, is not the number that decides whether it is worth it.

The number nobody works out

Your real cost per won job.

Every comparison quotes you the fee per shortlist. None of them do the sum that actually matters, because the fee is not what a job costs you. What a job costs you is every fee you paid on the ones you lost, plus the one you won. Here is the sum:

shortlist fee × shortlists it takes to win one = your true cost per job

Say you fit bathrooms. You get shortlisted on jobs at around £15 a go, and because the lead is shared with two or three others, you win roughly one in four. That is four fees, £60, for every job you land, before you have spent an hour quoting the three you lost. On a £3,000 bathroom, £60 is nothing. On a £200 job at £10 a shortlist won one in three, you are paying £30 to make £200, and now it matters.

Big-ticket work

High job value, cost per won job is a rounding error. This is where MyBuilder pays.

Small, shared jobs

Low value, several trades, and the fees on the ones you lose eat the margin on the one you win.

The rule

Total your monthly fees, divide by jobs won. If that is a big slice of an average job, it is not working.

Straight from the trade

What trades actually say.

Not the glowing homeowner reviews, the trade forums. The picture there is consistent, and it cuts both ways.

The gripes

Paying to be shortlisted then losing the job, with no refund
Charged for dead leads, no-shows and cancelled jobs
Tyre-kickers "wanting caviar at tuna-fish prices"
The odd fake or scraped job, still chargeable
Too many trades on one job, a race to the bottom on price
No phone line, email-only support, and refunds routinely refused

The fair points

Cheaper leads than Rated People, often by a good margin
You quote for free and only pay when picked, which feels fairer
You choose which jobs to go for
A small cheap lead can turn into big repeat work
You can pause it when the diary is full
Well-described home-improvement jobs let you judge before you pay

The honest read from the trade: cheaper and fairer in structure than Rated People, and it can pay if you are ruthlessly selective on the low-fee, well-described jobs. But it is riddled with paying-for-nothing, thin descriptions and no refunds, and one trade summed the lot up nicely: they will refund you on Amazon, but not here.

Vetting and trust

How well does it vet?

MyBuilder checks your ID and business details and looks at your certifications, or runs a skills test, for the trades you list. That is more than Bark, which barely checks anything, but lighter than Checkatrade's heavier vetting. Worth knowing: MyBuilder puts the job of confirming a trade is insured onto the homeowner, so being insured is not necessarily a gate to joining. For you, it means the badge carries less weight with customers than Checkatrade's does, which is part of why the same job gets shared around and won on price.

The honest verdict by trade

Who it is for, and who should walk away.

Worth a go if

You do planned home-improvement jobs
You have a strong review history
You cherry-pick the cheap, well-described jobs
You are new with no budget, testing demand
You are in a busy area with plenty of jobs

Give it a miss if

You do emergency or reactive work
You are new with no reviews yet
You are rural or somewhere quiet
You hate paying for jobs you lose
You would rather own your leads than rent them

And yes, sometimes the answer is keep it. If you are just starting out with nothing else bringing work in, a few quid a shortlist to test demand while you build your own thing is a fair call. We would rather tell you that than pretend a lead site is always the enemy.

The bigger picture

Renting leads, or owning them.

Step back from MyBuilder versus Checkatrade versus Bark and the real split is this: a lead site lead is rented. 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. 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.

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 it is running, you stop paying to enter a race you usually lose. If you want the full argument, we laid it out in the shared-lead trap, and the practical order for getting more work is in how to get more leads. If you are also weighing the subscription rival, see is Checkatrade worth it.

The 90-day test

How to tell if it is working.

Do not run it on a hunch. Give it ninety days and one simple sum, then decide with numbers, not feelings.

Track every fee. Log what you spend on shortlists each month, and every job you actually won from them.
Work out cost per won job. Total fees divided by jobs won. That is your real number, not the fee per shortlist.
Compare it to the job. If your cost per won job is a small slice of an average job, keep going. If it is eating your margin, stop.
Compare it to owning. Weigh it against what a lead from your own website and ads would cost, once, for a customer you keep.

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 MyBuilder when it is the right call, 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 free for tradesmen?: Yes to join. There is no membership, subscription or joining fee. You create a profile and browse jobs for free, and you only pay a fee when a customer shortlists you for their job.
How much does MyBuilder charge for leads?: There is no published price list. The shortlist fee is worked out from the estimated size of the job, so it scales with the work. Trades report it starting under £3 for the smallest jobs and rising to roughly £20 to £35, or £50 and up on big projects. Treat those as reported ranges and check the fee shown before you commit, because MyBuilder does not publish fixed prices.
When do you actually pay on MyBuilder?: You browse and express interest for free. You are charged the moment the homeowner shortlists you, which is when MyBuilder hands over their contact details so you can quote. You pay at the "they picked you to quote" stage, not when you win.
Are MyBuilder leads shared or exclusive?: Shared. A homeowner shortlists several trades for the same job, commonly up to three but some report more, and every shortlisted trade pays their own fee. So you are usually quoting against two or three others who all paid to be there.
Do you pay if you do not win the job on MyBuilder?: Yes. The fee is charged when you are shortlisted, not when you win, so you can pay to quote and still lose the job to another trade. That is the single biggest thing to understand before you start.
Can you get a refund on MyBuilder?: Rarely. Shortlist fees are non-refundable as standard because MyBuilder treats itself as an introduction service, not a pay-to-win one. Refunds are at its discretion and usually come as account credit, and trades widely report being refused even for customers who never answered.
Is MyBuilder worth it for tradesmen?: It can be if you are a home-improvement trade with strong reviews who cherry-picks the cheap, well-described jobs, because leads are shared with only about three trades and the fees are low to start. It is hard to justify if you are brand new with no reviews, in an emergency trade, or in a quiet area, because the non-refundable fees stack up whether you win or not.
Which is better, MyBuilder or Checkatrade?: They are built differently. Checkatrade charges a monthly membership and trades on brand recognition with homeowners; MyBuilder is free to join and charges per shortlist, with leads shared among fewer trades. Checkatrade tends to suit reactive trades who want the badge; MyBuilder suits planned home-improvement work. Both share your lead around, and with both the customer stays theirs, not yours.
Does MyBuilder vet tradesmen and check insurance?: It verifies your ID and business details and checks certifications, or runs a skills assessment, for the trades you list. But it states that confirming a trade is insured is down to the homeowner, so insurance is not necessarily a joining gate. Its vetting is lighter than Checkatrade and heavier than Bark.
Are the leads on MyBuilder any good?: Because customers write out the job, home-improvement leads can be well described. But trades commonly report tyre-kickers fishing for a ballpark price, customers who never reply, and the odd fake job, and you still pay the non-refundable fee if you were shortlisted. Quality is the luck of the draw, and you are betting the fee on it.

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