Checkatrade vs MyBuilder UK — Which Platform Is Worth Your Money in 2026?

Checkatrade and MyBuilder are two of the most widely used lead platforms for UK tradespeople — but they work on completely different models. One charges a subscription and lets customers find you. The other is free to join and charges you each time you try to win a job. Those differences compound significantly over the course of a year, and choosing the wrong platform for your trade or stage of business costs real money.

This guide compares both platforms honestly: how they work, what they cost, what the leads are actually like, and which one tends to suit which type of tradesperson.

The Fundamental Model Difference

Understanding this first saves a lot of confusion later.

Checkatrade is a membership model. You pay an annual or monthly fee to be listed in their directory. Customers search for tradespeople in their area, find your profile, read your reviews, and contact you directly. You are not paying per lead — you are paying for the right to appear in the directory and be found. Some members also receive leads generated by Checkatrade's own advertising (similar to a HomeAdvisor model), but this is a separate cost on top of the membership.

MyBuilder is a pay-per-lead model. It is free to create a profile. Customers post job descriptions on the platform and you browse jobs in your area. To express interest, you purchase credits and spend them on a job posting. The customer then sees which tradespeople have expressed interest and decides who to contact. You quote as normal from there. No subscription — but no guarantee of anything from a credit spend either.

Neither model is inherently superior. They suit different business situations, which is what the rest of this guide unpacks.

Checkatrade in 2026: How It Works

Checkatrade membership costs vary by trade and region. As a broad guide, expect to pay approximately £800–£1,200 per year as a sole trader, though costs can be higher in competitive trades or if you add extra features. Check current pricing directly with Checkatrade before committing — it changes and varies considerably.

Before you can join, Checkatrade vets your qualifications and insurance. Depending on your trade, this might mean providing Gas Safe registration, NICEIC or NAPIT approval, relevant City & Guilds certificates, public liability insurance, and a valid ID. The vetting process takes time but is part of what gives the Checkatrade badge its value to consumers.

Once you're live, your profile appears in Checkatrade's search results. Reviews directly affect your ranking — more verified reviews push you higher in the search results for your trade and area. This is important: two businesses in the same area paying the same membership fee can get wildly different enquiry volumes depending on how many reviews they have and how recent those reviews are.

Reviews on Checkatrade are gated. A customer can only leave a review once the job has been verified — meaning Checkatrade confirms the job actually happened before the review goes live. This makes the reviews more credible than unverified platforms, but it also means your review count builds more slowly.

Strengths: Strong consumer brand recognition in the UK — many homeowners search Checkatrade by name rather than Google. Verified reviews carry more weight than unverified ones. Leads tend to be higher-intent (the customer has already chosen to contact you specifically, not just broadcast to whoever picks up).

Weaknesses: The upfront cost is significant. New members often find the first few months slow while they build up enough reviews to rank well. Some trades are extremely competitive on the platform — in large cities, you may be competing against hundreds of other profiles in the same category.

MyBuilder in 2026: How It Works

Creating a profile on MyBuilder is free. You only spend money when you actively choose to pursue a job. Credits are purchased in advance and spent when you express interest in a job posting. Lead costs vary significantly: smaller jobs (a tap washer, a door lock) might cost a few pounds in credits; larger quoted work (a kitchen fit, a full rewire) can cost £30–£50 or more per lead. Competition also affects cost — high-demand job types in your area will cost more credits.

The process: you browse job postings, decide which ones look worthwhile, spend credits to express interest, and then wait to see if the customer chooses to contact you. If they do, you arrange a visit and quote as normal. If they don't, you've spent the credits with nothing to show for it.

There is no vetting by default. Any tradesperson can sign up and start buying leads. Reviews are available but not gated — customers can leave feedback without Checkatrade-style job verification.

Strengths: No subscription commitment — useful if your work is seasonal or you want to test a new area. Pay only for jobs you actively choose to pursue. Wide range of job types available. No upfront fee to get started.

Weaknesses: Lead quality varies considerably. You are often competing against several other tradespeople for the same job, and some customers are explicitly price-shopping. If your conversion rate is poor — which is common when starting out — your cost per job actually won can become very high. The platform has no mechanism to signal your quality above your review count, which takes time to build.

Direct Comparison

Which Trades Do Better on Each Platform

Platform performance varies significantly by trade, because it reflects what customers actually search for and how much they value formal credentials.

Checkatrade tends to work better for: plumbers, electricians, heating engineers, and kitchen and bathroom fitters. These are trades where homeowners are particularly concerned about qualifications — Gas Safe, NICEIC, Part P — and where the Checkatrade vetting process reassures them that the person they're hiring is legitimately qualified. The trust signal matters most when the work is regulated or carries risk.

MyBuilder tends to work better for: general builders, landscapers, painters and decorators, and handyman-type work. These are trades where customers are more likely to be price-comparing across several quotes, where formal vetting is less critical, and where the job value and complexity varies widely. The pay-per-lead model makes it easier to pick and choose which jobs to pursue.

These are tendencies, not rules. A well-reviewed electrician on MyBuilder will still win jobs; a poorly reviewed landscaper on Checkatrade will still struggle. But if you're choosing where to start, trade type is a useful guide.

The Review Strategy Matters on Both Platforms

Reviews are not just a nice-to-have on either platform — they are a direct commercial lever.

On Checkatrade, more reviews drive higher ranking in search results, which drives more profile views, which drives more enquiries. Two tradespeople in the same area, in the same trade, at the same membership tier can get vastly different enquiry volumes based entirely on their review count. Review acquisition is a competitive advantage, and systematic review-requesting — asking every customer immediately after job completion, sending a direct link — is the differentiator between a Checkatrade membership that pays off and one that doesn't.

On MyBuilder, reviews affect how customers evaluate you once they've seen your expression of interest. A profile with 40 reviews will win more shortlisting decisions than a profile with 8. When you're starting out, the priority is getting your first 10–20 reviews quickly — ask every customer, make it frictionless, and follow up. That early review base makes every subsequent credit spend more likely to convert.

What Neither Platform Tells You: Cost Per Acquired Job

Both platforms market themselves using cost per lead or monthly membership cost. Neither of those numbers tells you what actually matters: how much it costs you to win a paying job.

Here is the calculation to run for any platform you use:

1. How many enquiries or leads did you receive in the period?
2. How many of those did you quote?
3. How many quotes converted to booked jobs?
4. What did those jobs earn in total?
5. Divide total platform cost by number of jobs won. That is your cost per acquired job.

A Checkatrade membership at £1,000 per year that produces 30 booked jobs costs £33 per job. MyBuilder at £2,000 per year (say, 200 leads at £10 average, with a 10% conversion rate) producing 20 booked jobs costs £100 per job. In that scenario Checkatrade wins on efficiency even though it costs more in absolute terms. The numbers could easily reverse depending on your trade, area, and how well you convert — the point is to track them rather than guess.

Can You Use Both?

Yes, and many tradespeople do. A common pattern is to use Checkatrade as the core platform for your main trade and area, and use MyBuilder to test new job types or geographic areas where you don't yet have a review presence. MyBuilder's pay-as-you-go model makes it low-risk to explore whether a new type of work is worth pursuing before committing to a subscription in a new category.

The risk with using both at the same time is spreading too thin. Managing enquiries, converting leads, and collecting reviews across two platforms takes time. If you are already struggling to follow up enquiries quickly on one platform, adding a second will make that worse. Focus on one platform and get it working well before adding the second.

Alternatives Worth Knowing About

Checkatrade and MyBuilder are not the only options.

TrustATrader operates a membership model similar to Checkatrade but with a smaller audience and typically less competition within it. In some trades and areas, the lower member density means more enquiries per profile even if the total volume is smaller. Worth comparing if Checkatrade seems saturated in your area.

Rated People operates similarly to MyBuilder — pay-per-lead, customers post jobs, you buy credits to express interest. It has been losing market share in recent years but remains active, particularly for smaller domestic jobs. Some tradespeople find one platform more active than the other in their specific area.

Google Local Service Ads are worth serious attention. These are pay-per-lead ads that appear at the very top of Google search results — above standard paid ads — and include a Google Guaranteed badge if you pass their vetting. Lead quality tends to be high because the customer is actively searching Google for your trade right now. The cost structure is different from MyBuilder, and the setup is more involved, but the ROI can be strong for trades with high-intent search volume. See the separate guide on Google Local Service Ads for a full breakdown.

The Verdict

Neither Checkatrade nor MyBuilder is universally better. The right choice depends on three things:

• Your trade. Regulated trades with strong consumer brand recognition (plumbing, electrical, gas) tend to perform better on Checkatrade. Price-compared trades (general building, decorating, landscaping) often perform comparably or better on MyBuilder.
• Your area. If Checkatrade is saturated with well-reviewed competitors in your local market, the subscription may not generate enough enquiries. If MyBuilder has high lead volume for your trade in your area, the pay-per-lead model can work well even with moderate conversion rates.
• Your stage of business. Newer businesses without reviews often find Checkatrade slow to start. MyBuilder's pay-as-you-go model lets you generate some jobs while you build your review base, without committing to a year's subscription upfront.

The practical approach: run a 90-day trial on whichever platform you choose, track every lead, every quote, and every job won, calculate your cost per acquired job, and compare it against other channels. Then invest in whichever platform produces the best return — and cut the ones that don't. Guessing is expensive.