Checkatrade Alternatives: Every Option for UK Tradespeople in 2026

The Checkatrade alternatives still trading in 2026 are MyBuilder, Bark, TrustATrader and Which? Trusted Traders, plus TrustMark as a badge rather than a lead source. Rated People was the fifth until it closed to tradespeople in September.

Then there are the free routes, which homeowners use more than any of them.

Which one suits you comes down to two things: whether you can commit to a year, and what a won job is worth to you. This guide puts every option side by side with a sourced price, so you can decide on numbers rather than on a sales call.

Where I stand. I run Local Ladder, which builds websites and local SEO for UK trades. I earn money when a tradesperson owns their marketing instead of renting it, so I am not neutral, and I say so wherever it matters below. No platform has paid to appear here. The prices live in my UK Trade Lead Cost Tracker, re-verified on 30 September 2026, and I checked Which? Trusted Traders’ pricing on 11 October 2026.

Why Tradespeople Look for a Checkatrade Alternative

Most of the people searching this phrase are not unhappy with Checkatrade’s homeowners. They are unhappy with the bill, the contract, or both.

Checkatrade officially starts at £30 a month for a listing with no lead stream and “from £59” for the plans that send enquiries. Members report real bills of £80 to £500 a month, on a 12-month fixed term, for leads that third-party analyses put in front of ten to twenty or more members.

Two things changed in 2026. Checkatrade added the Opportunities Board, a pay-to-unlock feed of leftover leads sold in credits at a price it does not publish. And on 18 September it bought the Rated People brand, so there is one fewer big platform to switch to.

If that is the bill you are trying to get out of, read my Checkatrade review for who it still works for, and the cancellation guide if you are inside a contract.

Every Checkatrade Alternative Compared

Platform	How it charges	Cost on record	Contract	Trades per lead
MyBuilder	Fee when a homeowner shortlists you	From £7 official; £5–£35 typical; £540 and £940 filmed on big jobs	None	3–5 reported
Bark	Credits to reveal a customer’s details	£1.80 a credit; roughly £9–£36+ a lead	None on standard credits; credits expire in 3 months	Up to 5 (official)
TrustATrader	One annual fee, paid in advance	£240–£750 a year, estimated; no published price	12 months, no exit once live	Directory capped at 10 per category per area
Which? Trusted Traders	Monthly or annual membership plus assessment	£69 a month or £828 a year for 0–3 staff, plus £248 assessment (official)	Not stated on the join page	Directory, not leads
TrustMark	Registration through a scheme provider	From about £145 plus VAT a year via NICEIC; providers set their own fees	Annual	Badge, not leads
Rated People	Closed to tradespeople 16 Sep 2026	Jobs now go to Checkatrade members	Memberships ended	Not applicable
Checkatrade, for comparison	Monthly subscription	£30 a month official; £80–£500 reported	12 months fixed	10–20+ reported

Which? Trusted Traders’ prices come from its own join page on 11 October 2026, which does not say whether VAT is included. TrustMark’s figure is NICEIC’s published application and annual fee for the scheme; other providers charge differently.

Pay-Per-Lead Alternatives: MyBuilder and Bark

These two are the only big platforms you can test without a commitment, and they charge at different moments.

MyBuilder charges when a homeowner has read your profile and shortlisted you. The fee is shown before you express interest, starts from £7 officially, and runs £5 to £35 on everyday jobs. A quiet month costs nothing.

Bark charges when you choose to reveal a customer’s details, before the customer has chosen anyone. Credits cost £1.80 each and a lead needs 5 to 20 or more, so roughly £9 to £36. Up to five professionals can buy the same lead, and credits expire after three months.

On reported conversion of 1 job per 5 to 10 leads, a won job costs about £25 to £280 on MyBuilder and £45 to £360 on Bark. The difference is the timing: on MyBuilder the customer picked you first.

My MyBuilder review and Bark review go through what tradespeople report on each, including the refund rules that catch people out.

Subscription Alternatives: TrustATrader and Which? Trusted Traders

If you want a badge and a profile rather than a stream of shared leads, these are the two established options, and both cost less than a year of Checkatrade.

TrustATrader charges one annual fee in advance. It publishes no price, and 2026 estimates range from £240 to £750 a year. Its trader terms cap each category at ten traders per area, and it does not renew automatically. You cannot cancel inside the 12 months once your profile is live. The TrustATrader review reads those terms clause by clause.

Which? Trusted Traders is the only one of the big names that publishes a full price list. On its join page on 11 October 2026: £69 a month or £828 a year for a business with up to three staff, £89 a month for four to nine, £124 a month for ten to fourteen, plus a £248 assessment fee. The assessment includes a credit report, customer reference checks and a 90-minute visit from a trading standards professional.

That assessment is the point. Which? is a consumer brand homeowners already know, and the endorsement involves a visit rather than a document check.

It is a reputation signal rather than a lead stream, and a first year at £828 plus £248 lands just under the £1,200 to £2,000 that third-party analyses put on a typical Checkatrade year.

TrustMark: The Badge Without the Leads

TrustMark is the government-endorsed quality scheme for work in and around the home. You register through a scheme provider, usually a trade body you already belong to, and each provider sets its own fee.

NICEIC publishes £145 plus VAT to apply and £145 plus VAT a year. Certass charges £5 plus VAT a month as a membership upgrade, with registration and assessment fees on top. Some consumer-code memberships include it.

What TrustMark does not do is send you work. It adds a badge to your website, your van and your Google profile that some homeowners look for, and it is required for some government-funded energy efficiency work. Treat it as a trust signal to put next to your own marketing, not a replacement for it.

Free Alternatives to Checkatrade

“Checkatrade alternatives free” is one of the searches that brings people to this page, so here is the honest list. None of these is a trial or a stripped-down tier. They are the channels homeowners use most, and they cost time rather than money.

Your Google Business Profile. “Plumber near me” gets 90,500 UK searches a month and “electrician near me” 74,000 (Google Ads data, September 2026). Those searches return a map pack of three businesses above every advert and every directory, and the three come from Google Business Profiles. A finished profile with steady reviews is the single biggest free alternative there is, and the reviews on it are yours for good.

Your trade body’s directory. The Gas Safe Register, NICEIC’s find-a-contractor tool, the Federation of Master Builders’ find-a-builder search and the equivalents for other trades are public directories homeowners search by postcode. You are already paying for the registration. Check your entry is complete, because most are not.

Nextdoor and local Facebook groups. “Can anyone recommend a roofer?” is posted in every town every week. The trades who get named are the ones whose customers are in the group, which is a reason to ask every customer for a recommendation there as well as on Google.

Referrals, run on purpose. Word of mouth is free until you leave it to chance. A text to every finished customer asking them to pass your number on, with a reason to do it, costs nothing and compounds.

Your own website. Not free to build, but free per enquiry, and the enquiry is not shared with anyone. It is also where every other channel sends people to check you out. Whether to build it yourself on Wix or Squarespace or have it built is a separate decision, which I go through in Local Ladder vs website builders.

Lead Generation Companies

Beyond the directories sits a second kind of seller: companies that run their own adverts and websites in your trade, take the enquiry and sell it on, exclusive or shared, per lead or per booked job.

Almost none publish a UK price, and the better ones charge per call or per booked job. I have written up the questions to ask them in my guide to plumbing leads in the UK, and they apply to every trade: where was the lead generated, is it sold to anyone else, what is refunded, and who owns the phone number the customer rang.

Checkatrade vs the Alternatives, in One Line Each

• Checkatrade or TrustATrader? Checkatrade for volume in a busy postcode, TrustATrader for a cheaper badge with capped competition. Both are a year’s commitment.
• Checkatrade or MyBuilder? MyBuilder to test, Checkatrade to fill an empty diary fast. Only one of them lets you stop next month. The full comparison is in Checkatrade vs MyBuilder.
• Checkatrade or Bark? Bark is pay-as-you-go across far more service categories, and you pay before the customer has chosen anyone. Checkatrade’s name is better known to homeowners, after years of television advertising.
• Checkatrade or Which? Trusted Traders? Which? for the endorsement and a published price list, Checkatrade for enquiries. Neither is cheap over a year.
• Checkatrade or your own website? The directory rents you a page on its domain. The website is yours, and I sell them, so run the numbers in the tracker before you believe me.

Can You Leave Checkatrade for One of These?

Not mid-term, as a rule. Checkatrade’s small print says “Memberships are for 12 months”, and members posting in 2026 describe being held to the full term after the leads dried up.

What you can do is line the replacement up before the renewal date. Open a MyBuilder account now, because it costs nothing until a shortlist lands.

Finish your Google Business Profile this week. Then, when notice is due, you are not choosing between Checkatrade and nothing.

My how to cancel Checkatrade guide covers the notice period, what happens to your reviews, and the retention call.

The Alternative They All Depend On

Every platform on this page makes money the same way: it ranks on Google for what your customers search, then sells you a share of the people who arrive. Checkatrade draws an estimated 2.4 million UK visits a month from Google, and it did not get them by accident.

Advertisers pay up to £13.41 for a single top-of-page click on “plumber near me” and £17.93 on “roofers near me” (Google Ads data, September 2026). The map pack sits above those adverts, charges nothing per click, and sends the enquiry to one business.

That is what I build, so weigh my bias, then check the figures. My guides for plumbers, builders, electricians and roofers show what ranking involves for each trade, with the search volumes behind it.

I audit trade businesses’ local visibility for free: a grid showing where you rank across your area, who is above you, and the three changes worth making first. No obligation, and you keep it either way. See where you rank and I’ll run yours.