If you are a tradesperson in the UK, you have probably used Checkatrade, MyBuilder, Rated People, or one of the other lead platforms at some point. They make a compelling pitch: sign up, get your profile listed, and leads will come to you. For many tradespeople, especially those just starting out, these platforms are the first step into getting work beyond word of mouth.
But at some point, most tradespeople start asking the same question. Is this actually good value? Am I renting leads that I could be generating myself? What would happen if I put this money into my own website instead?
This article is an honest comparison. Not a sales pitch disguised as a blog post, but a genuine look at the numbers, the trade-offs, and when each option makes sense.
What Checkatrade actually costs
Checkatrade’s pricing has changed multiple times over the years, and the current model is not as straightforward as it once was. As of 2026, the typical cost for a tradesperson on Checkatrade breaks down roughly as follows:
Monthly membership: Around eighty to one hundred and twenty pounds per month, depending on your trade and area. Some trades pay more in competitive postcodes.
Per-lead fees: On top of the membership, many tradespeople report paying additional costs per lead or per contact, depending on the tier and features they have opted into.
Annual cost: Between roughly nine hundred and sixty and one thousand four hundred and forty pounds per year, before any per-lead costs.
That is the baseline. But the real cost is not the membership fee — it is the quality and exclusivity of the leads.
The shared lead problem
Here is the fundamental issue with every lead generation platform: when a homeowner posts a job on Checkatrade, multiple tradespeople receive that lead. You are competing with three, four, sometimes six or more other businesses for the same job. The homeowner often picks whoever responds fastest or quotes cheapest, regardless of experience or quality.
This creates a race to the bottom. You are competing on speed and price rather than on the quality of your work. And every lead you win has cost you time quoting on the jobs you lost. If you quote five jobs and win one, the cost of that one job is not just the Checkatrade fee — it is the time you spent on the other four quotes that went nowhere.
MyBuilder works similarly. Rated People works similarly. Bark works similarly. The model is the same: the platform aggregates demand, sells access to multiple tradespeople, and lets homeowners pick. The platform wins regardless of who gets the job.
What a proper website actually costs
There are different levels of investment when it comes to having your own website:
DIY website builder (Wix, Squarespace): Fifteen to thirty pounds per month. You get a decent-looking site that you build yourself. The catch is that most tradespeople build a four or five page brochure site that does not rank on Google for anything useful. It looks nice but generates no leads. Our article on whether tradespeople need a website explains why structure matters more than design.
Local web designer: Eight hundred to two thousand pounds one-off, plus hosting costs. You get a professional-looking site, but most web designers are not SEO specialists. The site will look polished but still probably will not rank for searches like “plumber in Maidstone” or “emergency electrician Guildford.” No ongoing SEO, no directory listings, no review system.
SEO agency retainer: Five hundred to one thousand five hundred pounds per month. You get ongoing SEO work — content creation, link building, technical optimisation. But most agencies do not include the website itself, so you are paying this on top of the website build cost. And many agencies work with multiple businesses in the same trade and area, which defeats the purpose.
All-in-one service (like Localengine): Three hundred pounds per month, no setup fee. Website, directory listings, Google Business Profile management, review cards, rank tracking — everything included. One tradesperson per county, so you are not competing with another client for the same searches.
The maths: renting leads vs owning your pipeline
Let us run the numbers for a typical year.
Checkatrade route
- Annual membership: approximately one thousand two hundred pounds
- Time spent quoting shared leads: significant (often unpaid)
- Leads are shared with other tradespeople
- If you cancel, every lead stops immediately
- You own nothing — no website, no rankings, no reviews (Checkatrade reviews stay on Checkatrade)
Own website route (with SEO)
- Annual cost: three thousand six hundred pounds (at three hundred per month)
- Leads are exclusive — nobody else gets them
- Rankings compound over time (month six is better than month one)
- Reviews go to your Google profile (you own them)
- If you cancel the SEO service, your website and rankings remain
- Your Google reviews remain forever
The Checkatrade route costs less upfront but gives you nothing permanent. The moment you stop paying, the leads stop. You are renting access to customers.
The website route costs more but builds an asset. Your Google rankings, your reviews, your directory presence — those continue working for you even after you stop paying for management. You are building something you own.
When Checkatrade makes sense
This is not a one-sided argument. There are situations where lead platforms genuinely make sense:
When you are brand new. If you have just started your business, have no reviews, no website, and no reputation, Checkatrade gives you immediate access to homeowners. It is a fast way to get your first jobs and your first reviews while you build your own presence.
When you need work urgently. If you have a quiet month and need to fill your diary quickly, turning on a lead platform can generate enquiries faster than SEO, which takes weeks to months to gain traction.
When you specialise in one-off jobs. If your business model is high-volume, low-value jobs where speed matters more than relationship-building, the platform model can work. You answer fast, you quote fast, you get the job.
The problem comes when Checkatrade becomes your only source of leads. If you have been on the platform for years and still rely on it entirely, you are paying an ongoing tax on every job without building anything permanent.
When your own website makes more sense
When you are established and want to grow. If you have been trading for a few years, have happy customers, and want more consistent leads without competing on price, a website that ranks on Google is the better long-term investment.
When you work in a defined area. If you cover a specific county or region and want to dominate local search in that area, a targeted website with service and location pages will outperform any lead platform. You are not competing with six other tradespeople for each enquiry — you are the one the customer finds first.
When you want leads you own. The leads that come through your own website are yours. The customer found you on Google, visited your site, read about your services, saw your reviews, and then called you specifically. That is a fundamentally different quality of lead than a shared enquiry from a platform.
When you want your reviews on Google. Every review you collect through Checkatrade stays on Checkatrade. If you leave, those reviews do not come with you. Google reviews, on the other hand, live on your Google Business Profile permanently. They help you rank higher and they belong to you. Our guide on getting more Google reviews explains how to build this up consistently.
The transition strategy
Most tradespeople do not need to quit Checkatrade overnight. The sensible approach is to overlap:
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Start building your own presence now. Get your Google Business Profile optimised, start collecting Google reviews, and either build or commission a proper website. Our Google Business Profile setup guide is a good starting point.
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Run both in parallel for six months. Use Checkatrade for immediate lead flow while your Google rankings build. This way you are never short of work during the transition.
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Track where your leads actually come from. Ask every caller how they found you. After a few months you will see the balance shifting — more leads from Google, fewer from Checkatrade.
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Reduce or cancel the platform when Google is working. Once your own pipeline is generating enough work, you can step back from the platform and redirect that budget elsewhere.
The goal is not to hate Checkatrade. It is to move from renting leads to owning them. The sooner you start building your own presence, the sooner you have a choice — and the less dependent you are on any single platform.
The bottom line
Checkatrade and similar platforms are a tool. They work. But they are someone else’s tool, and you pay to use it every month with nothing to show for it when you stop.
A website that ranks on Google is your tool. It takes longer to build, but once it is working, every lead is exclusive, every review strengthens your position, and the whole system compounds month after month.
If you are ready to start building your own lead pipeline, Localengine handles the whole thing — website, directories, Google profile, review cards, rank tracking — for three hundred pounds per month with no setup fee. One tradesperson per county, so your competitors cannot follow you. Check whether your area is still available.