You're paying for leads and you're not sure if it's worth it. Maybe you signed up to Checkatrade a year ago and you've had a handful of decent jobs but a lot of tyre-kickers. Or you're on Bark and half the leads seem to have been sent to every tradesperson within fifty miles.
Let's break down what each platform actually costs, what you get for your money, and whether any of them are genuinely worth it in 2026.
Checkatrade: The Big Name
Checkatrade is the one most homeowners have heard of. That TV advertising budget is enormous, and it does mean customers trust the brand. Being "Checkatrade approved" carries weight, especially with older customers who remember the telly ads.
What it costs: Monthly membership starts around £120 per month for a basic listing. But that's just the entry fee. You'll also pay for leads on top — typically £8–£25 per lead depending on your trade and area. A plumber in London might pay £20 for a boiler repair lead that five other plumbers also received.
Lead quality: Mixed. Checkatrade does attract genuine customers, but the competition is fierce. In popular trades like plumbing and electrical, you might be one of eight or ten businesses receiving the same lead. Whoever rings back fastest usually wins — which means you're essentially paying for the privilege of being in a race.
The reviews angle: The strongest thing about Checkatrade is the review system. Customers do check your reviews before booking, and a solid profile with fifty or sixty five-star reviews is a genuine asset. Some tradespeople stay on Checkatrade purely for the social proof, even if the leads themselves aren't great.
Best for: Established tradespeople who can handle the monthly cost and want the brand credibility. Works well if you're in a less competitive trade or a smaller town where there aren't many listed competitors.
MyBuilder: The Bidding Model
MyBuilder works differently. Instead of paying a monthly fee, you buy credits and spend them to express interest in jobs. The customer posts what they need, tradespeople bid on it, and the customer picks who they want.
What it costs: Credits range from about £2 to £40 depending on the job size. A small handyman task might cost you £3 in credits to bid on, while a full kitchen refit could be £35–£40. You only pay to express interest — you don't pay if you win the job, which is different from some other platforms.
Lead quality: Generally better than average. Because customers have to describe their job in detail, you can read the description before spending credits. This means you can avoid the time-wasters before you've spent any money. The flip side is that popular jobs get a lot of interest, so you're still competing.
The profile matters: MyBuilder puts a lot of emphasis on your profile — photos of past work, reviews, response time. Tradespeople with detailed profiles and strong reviews get shortlisted more often. If your profile is bare, you'll burn through credits getting ignored.
Best for: Trades that do bigger, project-based work — kitchen fitters, bathroom installers, builders, landscapers. Less suited to quick reactive work like emergency plumbing because the customer is usually planning ahead.
Bark: The Volume Play
Bark sends leads to multiple professionals and charges you to unlock the customer's contact details. The model is built around volume — lots of leads, lots of competition.
What it costs: You buy credits in bundles, and each lead costs a certain number of credits to unlock. Prices vary wildly — a simple cleaning job might be £5, while a building project could be £30+. There's also a Bark Premium subscription at around £150 per month that gives you some leads included.
Lead quality: This is Bark's weakest point. Because it's so easy for customers to submit a request, you get a lot of people who are just browsing prices, aren't ready to commit, or submitted a request on three different platforms simultaneously. The conversion rate from lead to actual job tends to be lower than Checkatrade or MyBuilder.
The spray and pray problem: Bark sends each lead to multiple tradespeople — sometimes up to fifteen. So you're paying to unlock contact details for someone who's already been called by a dozen competitors. Speed is everything on Bark. If you're not ringing within five minutes, someone else probably already has.
Best for: Trades where the job value is high enough to justify the conversion rate. If you're a landscaper bidding on £5,000 garden redesigns, even a 10% conversion rate makes the maths work. If you're a handyman doing £100 jobs, you'll probably lose money.
The Real ROI Question
Here's where most tradespeople go wrong with lead platforms: they don't actually track their return. You need to know your numbers.
Take Steve, an electrician in Bristol. He spent £280 on Checkatrade last month — £120 membership plus £160 on leads. He received 12 leads, converted 4 into jobs averaging £350 each. That's £1,400 in revenue from a £280 spend. Decent return.
But his mate Paul, also an electrician in Bristol, spent the same £280 and only converted 1 job. Same leads, same area — Paul just wasn't responding fast enough and his profile had three reviews compared to Steve's forty-seven.
The platform isn't the whole story. How fast you respond, how professional your profile looks, and how you handle that first phone call matter just as much as which platform you're on.
What Nobody Tells You About These Platforms
All three platforms make their money from tradespeople, not from customers. That means their incentive is to sign up as many tradespeople as possible and send out as many leads as possible. More competition means more credits spent, which means more revenue for them.
This isn't a conspiracy — it's just business. But it does mean the platforms aren't always motivated to limit how many tradespeople receive each lead or to filter out low-quality enquiries. Keeping that in mind helps you make smarter decisions about how much to invest.
Also worth noting: these platforms all want to sit between you and the customer permanently. They don't want you building a direct relationship. Some tradespeople use platforms to win the first job, then keep the customer's number for future work, referrals, and recommendations. That's where the real long-term value is.
Alternatives Worth Considering
Before you pour more money into lead platforms, consider what else that budget could do. Google Business Profile is free and puts you in front of people actively searching for your trade in your area. A decent profile with regular reviews can outperform any paid platform.
Word of mouth is still the most powerful lead source for most trades. Every happy customer is a potential referral machine — but only if you actually ask for the recommendation. Most tradespeople finish a job, get paid, and never follow up. A simple message the next day asking if everything's alright — and mentioning you're always happy to take referrals — goes a long way. Some tradespeople use AI assistants like Gaffer to send these follow-up messages automatically after every job.
Social media costs nothing but time. A Facebook page with photos of your recent work, shared in local community groups, can generate a steady stream of enquiries without paying a penny per lead.
So Which One Should You Pick?
If you forced me to choose one: MyBuilder for project-based trades, Checkatrade for reactive trades like plumbing and electrical. Bark only if you're in a high-value trade and you're disciplined about responding instantly.
But honestly? Don't put all your eggs in one basket. Use a platform to fill gaps in your diary, not as your only source of work. The tradespeople earning the most are the ones with a mix — some platform leads, some Google, some referrals, some repeat customers.
Track every penny you spend on leads and every job you win from each source. After three months, you'll know exactly which platform — if any — is actually making you money. Cut the ones that aren't and reinvest in the ones that are.