Checkatrade vs MyBuilder: Which Is Better for Tradespeople in 2026?

Checkatrade and MyBuilder charge in opposite ways, and that decides most of this comparison. Checkatrade is a subscription on a 12-month contract. MyBuilder takes nothing until a homeowner shortlists you, then charges a fee for that one lead.

So MyBuilder is cheaper to try and easier to leave. Checkatrade has the bigger audience and can fill a diary faster, and you pay for a year whether it does or not.

Which is better for you comes down to two numbers: your gross profit on a typical job, and how many leads you turn into work. This page puts the sourced figures for both side by side. They all sit in my UK Trade Lead Cost Tracker, re-verified on 30 September 2026.

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 about directories in general. Neither platform has paid to appear here or seen this page.

Checkatrade vs MyBuilder at a Glance

	Checkatrade	MyBuilder
How it charges	Monthly subscription	Fee each time a homeowner shortlists you
Official price	£30 a month (Approved), “from £59” (Growth), plus VAT	£0 to join, lead fees “from £7”
What members report	£80–£500 a month	£5–£35 a lead; £540 and £940 filmed on two large jobs
Contract	12 months fixed	None
Trades per lead	10–20+ reported on plan leads	3–5 reported
Cost per won job	~£95–£375	~£25–£280
Estimated UK Google traffic	About 2.4 million visits a month	About 460,000 visits a month
Trustpilot	4.7 from about 88,000 reviews	4.3 from about 56,500 reviews
Publishes a full price list	No	No

Traffic figures are DataForSEO organic estimates from September 2026. Trustpilot scores were retrieved on 30 September 2026. Everything else is sourced line by line in the tracker.

How Each One Charges

Checkatrade charges for a year of access, and MyBuilder charges for one introduction at a time.

On Checkatrade you pay a fixed monthly fee tied to your trade, your postcode and an estimated number of leads. The £30 Approved plan is a listing with no lead stream, and the Growth plans that send enquiries start “from £59”. The real quote only appears once you enter your trade and postcode in the sign-up flow.

On MyBuilder you join for free and express interest in jobs for free. When a homeowner shortlists you, MyBuilder charges the lead fee and releases their contact details. The fee is shown before you respond and is not adjusted afterwards.

One consequence follows from that. A quiet month on Checkatrade costs the same as a busy one, while a quiet month on MyBuilder costs nothing.

The full price records are in my Checkatrade cost breakdown and MyBuilder cost guide, and what tradespeople report on the shortlist model is in the MyBuilder review.

What a Won Job Costs on Each

A lead is not a job, so cost per lead is the wrong comparison. Reported conversion on shared leads runs from 1 job in 5 to 1 in 10, and that turns a cheap lead into an expensive job quickly.

	Checkatrade	MyBuilder
Cost per lead	£19–£37.50, from two real 2025 quotes	£5–£35 on everyday jobs
Leads per won job	5 to 10 reported	5 to 8 reported
Fees per won job	~£95–£375	~£25–£280
Committed before the first lead	£1,200–£2,000+ for the year	£0

The Checkatrade figures come from two quotes tradespeople posted in 2025: £150 a month for an estimated 4 leads, and £129 plus VAT for an estimated 7 to 8. The MyBuilder range is five leads at £5 on the cheap end and eight at £35 on the dear end.

Set those against your own job. A plumber clearing £600 on a boiler swap can carry £187 in fees, and a handyman on a £90 call-out cannot carry any of these numbers.

One warning on MyBuilder. Fees scale with the value of the job, and one member filmed shortlist charges of £540 and £940 on two large projects. Check the fee on every job before you express interest.

Who Else Gets the Same Lead

Neither platform sells you an enquiry that is yours alone.

MyBuilder is reported to shortlist three to five trades for each job. The homeowner picks the shortlist from the trades who expressed interest, so you are one of a handful they chose.

Checkatrade publishes no figure. Third-party analyses put a plan enquiry in front of ten to twenty or more members, and one Screwfix Community member was told he would be competing with 23 other businesses in his category and area.

That difference changes how you have to work. On a Checkatrade plan lead, the trade who rings back first usually wins, which suits a firm with someone on the phone all day. On MyBuilder the homeowner has already read your profile and chosen you, so reviews and a good introduction message carry more weight than speed.

Contract and Getting Out

MyBuilder has no contract, no minimum term and no subscription. You stop by not expressing interest in any more jobs.

Checkatrade memberships run for 12 months, fixed. The small print on its pricing page says “Memberships are for 12 months”, and members posting in 2026 describe being held to the full term after the leads dried up. One business paying £390 a month asked Reddit how to get out and was told it could not.

The current offer of a free first month does not change that. It is a discount of about 8% on a year you have signed for.

If you are already in a Checkatrade contract and want out, I wrote a separate guide on how to cancel Checkatrade.

Checkatrade’s New Pay-Per-Lead Option

In 2026 Checkatrade added something that looks a lot like MyBuilder. The Opportunities Board is a feed of leads that members browse for free and unlock with credits, and a lead comes off the board once three trades have unlocked it.

Three things separate it from MyBuilder.

• When you pay. On the board you pay to see the customer’s details. On MyBuilder you pay after the customer has picked you.
• What you know in advance. MyBuilder shows a fee in pounds before you respond. Checkatrade shows a cost in credits, and does not publish what a credit costs.
• Which leads you get. Board leads are the ones Checkatrade’s plan members did not take up, typically posted after about four hours.

Credits are sold in bundles of 10, 25, 50 or 100 and expire after six months. They are returned only if a lead is invalid.

Audience and Reputation

Checkatrade is the bigger platform by a wide margin. Its site draws an estimated 2.4 million UK visits a month from Google against roughly 460,000 for MyBuilder.

Some of Checkatrade’s traffic is people reading its cost guides and not hiring anyone, so the real gap in homeowners looking for a trade is smaller than five to one. It is still large, and years of television advertising mean most homeowners know the name.

On Trustpilot, Checkatrade scores 4.7 and MyBuilder 4.3. Both scores mix homeowners rating a tradesperson with tradespeople rating the platform, so neither tells you much about what membership is like.

What the Rated People Takeover Changes

Rated People closed to tradespeople on 16 September 2026, and Checkatrade Group bought the brand and website. Jobs posted on Rated People now go to Checkatrade members. The full story is in my guide to what happened to Rated People.

For this comparison it means two things. A Checkatrade membership now brings enquiries from two brands, and MyBuilder is now the main pay-per-shortlist alternative that Checkatrade does not own. The other pay-as-you-go option is covered in my Bark review.

Whether the extra jobs show up as more leads on your plan or a higher quote at renewal is not yet known. I will record what members report in the January 2027 edition of the tracker.

Which Should You Choose?

MyBuilder suits you if:

• You want to test a directory without committing to a year
• Your work comes mostly from word of mouth and you need to fill gaps
• You can write a good introduction and have reviews to back it up
• You are disciplined about checking the fee on every job

Checkatrade suits you if:

• Your diary is empty and you need volume quickly
• You work in a busy urban postcode
• Your jobs clear £300 or more in gross profit
• Someone can answer the phone within minutes, all day
• You can afford £1,200 to £2,000 or more for the year if it does not work

Neither suits you if your typical job is a small call-out. On £90 of work, no version of the maths above leaves you a profit.

Can You Use Both?

Yes. I have found no rule on either platform against it, and trades in the forums describe running both.

Start with MyBuilder, because it costs nothing to be there. Give it two months and work out your real cost per won job.

Then get a written Checkatrade quote with the estimated number of leads in it, and run the same sum. If the Checkatrade figure is not clearly better, you have your answer without signing anything.

Whichever you use, note where every enquiry came from. Without that record you are guessing when the renewal comes round.

The Third Option

Both platforms sell you a place in somebody else’s queue. The enquiry is shared, and the reviews you earn stay on their website when you leave.

The alternative is the one both of them depend on, which is ranking on Google. Advertisers pay £1.54 to £6.18 for a single top-of-page click on “builders near me” (Google Ads data, September 2026), and the map pack above those adverts charges nothing per click.

That is what I sell, so weigh my bias, then check the figures in the tracker. If neither platform suits, the Checkatrade alternatives guide prices every other route. My trade guides for builders, plumbers, electricians and roofers show what ranking involves for each.

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.