Checkatrade alternatives: seven options for UK trades, compared

This guide is for the tradesperson paying for Checkatrade, or being quoted for it, not for a homeowner looking for a plumber. Around 210 people a month in the UK search for 'checkatrade alternatives' and another 170 for 'checkatrade vs mybuilder' (DataForSEO, August 2026), and most of them are doing it with a renewal price in front of them.

None of the pages currently ranking for that search puts the options in one dated table with how each one charges and who it suits. So that is where this starts. Every price below was checked on the platform's own public pages on 28 August 2026; where a platform does not publish a figure, the table says so rather than guessing. Checkatrade's own cost and break-even maths are covered in Is Checkatrade worth it?, so this page spends its time on the alternatives.

The alternatives to Checkatrade at a glance

Platform	How it charges (checked 28 August 2026)	Vetting	Who it suits	The catch
Checkatrade	Paid membership. Cost and break-even covered in Is Checkatrade worth it?	Checks on joining, then public customer reviews on your profile	Newer traders who need a badge and reviews now; big towns and cities	You pay the same whether or not the phone rings
TrustATrader	Yearly membership fee with no charge per lead ('never pay for your leads'). Figure not published: apply online or call for a quote	Minimum five references, insurance documents, at least two years in your trade	Established traders who want a capped local list	Members are limited per trade per area, with waiting lists in many areas
MyBuilder	Free profile; you pay a fee when a homeowner shortlists you for a job. Figure not confirmed from its public pages	Reviews from completed jobs	Builders and renovation trades quoting bigger jobs	You pay to be shortlisted, not to win, and other traders are shortlisted for the same job
Rated People	'One fee. Unlimited leads': a flat monthly subscription aimed at trades that 'regularly quote under £4000'. Price not shown until you sign up or call	Reviews from completed jobs	Steady volume of smaller jobs	Unlimited 'is not available for some trades'; leads are shared with other members
Bark	Free to join; you buy credit packs and spend credits to respond to a request. Cost per response varies by service, job value and local demand; credits last three months. No pack prices published	Profile and public reviews	Trying lead-buying on a small budget; trades that sit alongside general services	Unused credits expire; several professionals can respond to one request
Which? Trusted Traders	One-off assessment £248, then £66 a month or £797 a year for a business with 0–3 staff (all including VAT)	Credit report, customer reference checks and a visit of about 90 minutes from a trading standards professional	Established firms selling to cautious homeowners	Highest entry bar; it is an endorsement scheme first and a lead source second
Yell	Paid marketing packages 'from £249 a month'; Amplify from £299 and Accelerate from £699 a month	None; it is advertising, not vetting	Firms that want someone else to run their marketing	Priced like a retainer, not a listing: compare it with your own site plus SEO
Google Business Profile	Free: 'add or claim your business at no charge'	None, but the reviews on it are public	Every trade, everywhere	Needs photos, replies and a steady flow of reviews, and it is still Google's platform, not yours
Your own website	One-off build plus hosting; no charge per enquiry. Market ranges in our cost guide	Whatever badges, registers and reviews you put on it	Any trade that wants enquiries it does not pay for one by one	Takes time to rank, and somebody has to keep it up to date

What each Checkatrade alternative actually charges

TrustATrader

TrustATrader is a yearly membership with no charge per lead. Its own wording is 'never pay for your leads', and it says 'memberships are limited per area so you get a fair share of leads'. The fee is not published on its public pages (checked 28 August 2026): you apply online or ring them and get a quote.

To join you need a minimum of five references, a copy of your insurance documents and at least two years' experience in your trade, and the site says that in many areas there is a waiting list. That cap is both the point and the catch. Fewer traders per area means a bigger share of the enquiries that come through, but there is no guarantee you can get on the list in the first place.

MyBuilder

MyBuilder turns the model round. A profile is free, and you pay when a homeowner shortlists you for a job they have posted. We could not confirm a current shortlist fee from MyBuilder's public pages on 28 August 2026, so no figure is printed here; ask for the fee for your trade and area before you rely on it.

The shape of the deal matters more than the number. You pay to be considered, other traders are shortlisted for the same job, and the win rate is on you. That suits builders and renovation trades quoting jobs in the thousands, where one win pays for a run of shortlists that went nowhere. It punishes trades quoting small jobs, because the fee is the same size whether the job is a fuse board or a loft conversion.

Rated People

Rated People sells a subscription: 'One fee. Unlimited leads', which its trade page describes as 'perfect for tradespeople who regularly quote under £4000' and notes 'is not available for some trades' (checked 28 August 2026). The monthly figure is not on the public page; you sign up or call to get it.

Unlimited leads sounds like the answer to pay-per-lead frustration, and for a trade doing a steady run of small jobs it can be. The leads are still shared with other members, though, and the plan is closed to some trades, so check yours is eligible before you compare it with anything else.

Bark

Bark is a general services marketplace rather than a trades directory, and it is free to join. You buy credit packs up front and spend credits to respond to a customer request; follow-up messages are free, credits are valid for three months, and the cost of a response depends on 'the service, the value of the job, and the supply and demand in the area' (checked 28 August 2026). No pack prices are published on its pricing page. Bark does say it will return all your credits if your first pack wins nothing.

It suits trying lead-buying on a small budget, and trades that sit alongside general services such as gardening, cleaning and handyman work. The catch is that several professionals can respond to the same request and unused credits expire.

Which? Trusted Traders

Which? Trusted Traders is the most expensive to enter and the most thorough on vetting. For a business with 0–3 employees or subcontractors there is a one-off assessment fee of £248, then membership at £66 a month or £797 a year, all including VAT (checked 28 August 2026 on the Which? trader join page; bigger firms pay more). The assessment includes a credit report, customer reference checks and a visit of about 90 minutes from a trading standards professional who looks at your paperwork, staff and complaints process.

Treat it as an endorsement you can put on the van and the website, aimed at cautious homeowners, rather than a lead machine. How many enquiries come through the directory itself depends on how many people in your area use it.

Yell

Yell's business site no longer sells a trades listing so much as marketing packages that 'start from £249 a month', with Amplify from £299 a month and Accelerate from £699 a month (checked 28 August 2026). At those prices it is a marketing retainer, so compare it with what the same money would buy in your own website plus SEO for trades, not with a directory subscription.

Google Business Profile

Free. Google's own wording is that you can 'add or claim your business at no charge' and that once verified 'customers can find your business on Search and Maps' (checked 28 August 2026). For a trade this is the listing that shows up with a call button when someone searches for a plumber near them on their phone, and it carries your Google reviews, the ones a homeowner sees before they have clicked anything.

The catch is upkeep. It needs photos, replies to reviews and a steady flow of new ones, and it is still Google's platform, not yours: the rules change without notice and profiles do get suspended.

Your own website

Not free, and not a directory, but the only option here with no charge per enquiry and nothing that disappears when you stop paying a membership. You pay once to build it and a smaller amount to host and look after it; the UK market ranges are in our cost guide, and the page list that belongs on it is in what a tradesman website should include.

The catch is patience. A new site takes time to rank, so it works best started while the directory is still paying for itself, not the day after you cancel.

Which directory suits your trade?

The honest answer to 'which is the best tradesman website' is that it depends on how your customers buy, not on the platforms. Three things decide it: how urgent the job is, how much a typical job is worth, and whether your trade has a register that a homeowner already trusts.

Trade	How the customer buys	Where a directory helps	What usually does the job better
Plumbers and heating engineers	Leaks and no-heating calls go to whoever answers first; boiler installs are researched over days	A membership gives a new plumber a badge and reviews while the Google profile is thin	A phone-first site and Google profile for the urgent calls, with the Gas Safe number on every page. See websites for plumbers
Electricians	Mostly planned work (rewires, consumer units, EV chargers) that legally needs a competent person	Useful early on for the first reviews	A NICEIC or NAPIT registration shown with a checkable number does most of what a directory tick does. See websites for electricians
Roofers	Storm damage is urgent; re-roofs are quoted against several firms, and the roofing-leads search results are full of pay-per-lead vendors	Pay-per-shortlist gets expensive on the quotes you lose	Your own site with reviews and a competent-person scheme badge. Read how to get roofing leads and websites for roofers
Builders and construction firms	Big, slow jobs; the homeowner compares past work and asks around	Pay-when-shortlisted fits large job values	A site with real project pages and photos, plus word of mouth. See websites for construction firms
Landscapers and gardeners	Seasonal, and bought on photos of finished gardens	General marketplaces such as Bark list gardening alongside hundreds of other services	A gallery-led site and a Google profile full of photos; local Facebook groups for maintenance work. See websites for landscapers

Notice that in every row the directory helps most at the start. That is not a criticism of directories; it is what they are for. The mistake is treating a start-up cost as a permanent one.

Checkatrade or TrustATrader?

These are the two most often set against each other, and they are more alike than the others on this page: both are paid memberships with public reviews on your profile. The differences are the entry bar and the cap.

TrustATrader asks for five references, insurance documents and two years in the trade, limits the number of members per trade in each area, and charges one yearly fee with no charge per lead. Checkatrade is the one you can join without a waiting list; its cost and terms are in the worth-it guide.

The verdict: choose TrustATrader if you have the references, the two years and there is a slot in your area, because a fixed yearly fee with no lead charges and fewer local rivals on the list is the whole point. If you are newer than that, or your area is full, Checkatrade is the one you can start on now. Either way, the reviews you collect stay on their site, so collect the same ones on Google as you go.

Checkatrade or MyBuilder?

This is a different comparison, because the two charge in opposite ways. Checkatrade is a fixed membership you pay whether or not work comes in. MyBuilder is free to list on and charges when a homeowner shortlists you.

That makes job value the deciding factor. A trade doing many small jobs wants a fixed fee spread across lots of calls; a trade quoting extensions and renovations wants to pay only when it is in the running, because one win covers the shortlists that went nowhere. If most of your jobs are a few hundred pounds, MyBuilder's model gets expensive; if most are in the thousands, Checkatrade's flat fee is the wrong shape and MyBuilder's is the right one.

Free alternatives to Checkatrade

'Checkatrade alternatives free' is one of the related searches Google shows under this query, so here is the honest list.

• Google Business Profile. Free to claim, shows on Search and Maps with a call button, and carries your Google reviews. If you do one thing on this page, do this.
• Local Facebook groups. Free, and where a lot of small-job and maintenance work is asked for by name. Answer questions, post finished jobs, do not spam.
• Nextdoor. Free, neighbourhood-level, and useful for the trades people recommend to each other: gardeners, decorators, handymen.
• Referrals you ask for. Free. A card left with the invoice asking for a Google review and a recommendation costs pennies and compounds.
• MyBuilder and Bark. Free to list on; you only pay when you respond to a request or get shortlisted, so a profile costs nothing to hold.
• Your own website. Not free to build, but free per enquiry. Over a few years that is the difference that matters, and our cost guide has the market figures.

What you keep when you leave

The threads that rank for this search voice a lot of 'fair deal' frustration about directories, but none of them explains the asset question, which is the one that decides whether a membership is worth renewing.

If you leave...	What stays with them	What you keep
A directory (any of them)	Your profile, every review on it, your position in their search, the history of enquiries	The customers whose numbers you saved, and the reviews you also collected on Google
Google Business Profile	Nothing; there is nothing to pay and nothing to cancel	The profile, its reviews, its photos and its position, for as long as it stays verified
Your own website	Nothing, if the domain is registered in your name and you have the files	The domain, the pages, the rankings, the reviews and badges you display

The one line to check before you sign anything, including with a web designer: whose name is the domain registered in? If it is not yours, you do not own the website, whatever the invoice says. The cost guide covers the three ownership models and the questions to ask.

Trust without the tick: what does a directory badge's job on your own site

The reason a new trader joins a directory is that a homeowner does not know them and wants somebody to have checked. Your trade probably already has a register that does that job, and it is free to show.

• Gas Safe Register for anyone doing gas work. It is the legal requirement, and a homeowner can check your number on the register in under a minute. Put the number on every page, not just the footer.
• NICEIC or NAPIT for electricians. These are the competent person schemes that let you self-certify notifiable work under Part P; show the registration number and link to the scheme's checker.
• TrustMark, the government-endorsed quality scheme, where you hold it.
• Competent person schemes for specific work, such as CompetentRoofer for roofing and FENSA for windows and doors, where they apply.
• Public liability insurance. Say that you hold it and for how much; homeowners ask.
• Google reviews, pulled onto the site from your Business Profile so the count is live rather than typed in.
• Photos of your own jobs, with the town and the job type. Stock photos of a man in a hard hat convince nobody.

Put together on one site, that list answers the same question as a directory tick, 'has anybody checked this person', without a membership fee and without the answer living on somebody else's page.

When Checkatrade is still the right answer

This is not a hatchet job, and there are real cases where a paid directory is the right call.

• You are new and have no reviews. A badge and a first page of public reviews is worth paying for, because nothing else on this page gives you that in the first month.
• You have moved to a new area where nobody knows you and your Google profile starts from zero.
• You are in a big city where a new website takes longer to rank against firms that have been there for years, and you need work in the meantime.
• Your customers ask for it by name. Some do. If the jobs you want keep coming with 'are you on Checkatrade', that is your answer.
• The membership is paying for itself. If you have tracked where your jobs come from and the maths works, keep it. The worth-it guide walks through that maths.

The point is to know which of those applies to you, and to build the free and owned options at the same time so that the directory is a choice next year rather than a habit.

A five-minute way to decide

1. Work out your typical job value. Under a few hundred pounds points to a fixed fee or a free listing; in the thousands points to pay-when-shortlisted or your own site.
2. Check your area. Ring TrustATrader and ask whether your trade has a slot; search your trade plus your town on Google and count how many reviews the firms in the map results have. That tells you how hard the free route will be.
3. Set a cost per enquiry you can live with, and put every option on this page against it, including the membership you already pay for.
4. Ask about ownership before money moves. What stays with them if you leave? Whose name is the domain in?
5. Claim your Google Business Profile today whatever else you decide, and start the website while the directory is still paying for itself.

Whichever way you go, the reviews, the badges and the phone number should end up on something you own.