Checkatrade vs MyBuilder: how each one charges a tradesperson

Checkatrade vs MyBuilder comes down to one question: do you want to pay a fixed amount every month whether or not the phone rings, or pay each time a customer's details land in your inbox whether or not you win the job?

That is the whole difference. Everything else follows from it.

Checkatrade's prices come from its own pricing page and terms, checked on 15 September 2026. MyBuilder's come from its tradesperson terms and conditions, read on 17 September 2026. Where a figure is not published, this page says so instead of repeating a number from a forum.

The two charging models

	Checkatrade	MyBuilder
Joining	Free profile at £0. Paid tiers: Approved £30 a month, Growth from £59 a month	Free to join and list
What you pay for	Time on the platform. The fee is the same in a quiet month	Each time a customer's contact details are shared with you after you express interest in a job
When the money is due	Monthly in advance, on a 12 month contract	Invoiced at least weekly, collected automatically from your card
If you win nothing	You still pay the monthly fee	You still pay every shortlist fee. The terms say it is not necessary for you to be awarded the job for the fee to be payable
If the work dries up	You pay to the end of the 12 months	You can stop expressing interest and pay nothing
VAT	Not stated on the pricing page or in the terms	Shortlist fees are shown excluding VAT

What Checkatrade actually sells you

The tier matters more than the price. An Approved profile at £30 a month only appears when somebody searches for your business by name. To come up when a homeowner searches for your trade in your area, you need a Fixed Plan, which is part of Growth, from £59 a month.

A Growth price is built from your trade, the postcode areas you choose and how many leads a year you ask for. Checkatrade gives you an estimate of the leads, and its Fixed Plan terms say that estimate is not binding and that it can stop sending leads once you reach it. A lead there includes a click through to your own website, not only a phone call.

The full breakdown is in our Checkatrade cost guide.

What MyBuilder actually sells you

A homeowner posts a job. MyBuilder shows it to relevant tradespeople. You express interest, the customer's contact details are shared, and at that moment the shortlist fee becomes payable. The fee is shown before you act and is "calculated based on the likely size, value and location of the Job", so a bathroom refit costs more to be introduced to than a door rehang.

Three things in the terms are worth knowing before you start:

• You pay for the introduction, not the job. MyBuilder states it cannot influence the outcome and does not guarantee you will be able to quote or secure the work.
• Going around the fee ends the account. Sharing your contact details before being shortlisted, or steering a customer off the platform to avoid the fee, is grounds for termination.
• Speed is a ranking factor. MyBuilder publishes its ranking parameters in order: relevance, distance, customer feedback, and how many replies you sent in the week before the job was posted. New accounts get a randomised lift for their first two months. There is also an optional monthly fee for sponsored placement above the normal ranking, and MyBuilder does not publish what that costs.

The contract, and getting out

	Checkatrade	MyBuilder
Term	12 months, renewing automatically	No membership term in the tradesperson terms
How you leave	The business owner must phone, no earlier than 35 days before the renewal date. Email does not count	Stop expressing interest. Settle your invoices
Stopping the payment	Cancelling the Direct Debit does not end the contract. You stay liable for the full remaining fees	Invoices are collected by card; a failed or reclaimed payment can carry a £20 plus VAT admin fee
Late payment	Fees remain payable, including during a suspension	Interest at 4% above the Bank of England base rate, and the account can be suspended once an invoice is 15 days overdue
Them ending it	For cause, with no refund in those cases	At least 30 days' notice normally, sooner for fraud, danger to customers or repeated breaches. The MyBuilder logo must come off your marketing within 28 days

Our guide on how to cancel Checkatrade walks through the 35 day window in detail.

When it goes wrong: refunds and extra fees

Neither platform gives money back easily.

Checkatrade: fees are non-refundable unless the agreement says otherwise. You get a pro-rated refund only in specific cases, such as Checkatrade ending the agreement on 30 days' notice, or you ending it because of a material breach or a fee rise the agreement does not allow. Fail the vetting checks and it can charge a £250 excluding VAT application fee.

MyBuilder: any refund is at its sole discretion, and it is given as account credit rather than cash. That credit cannot be transferred to another account and expires 12 months from issue if no expiry date is set. Shortlist fees are described in the terms as non-refundable.

Which suits which trade

The sum is the same for both, but the inputs differ.

Checkatrade suits you if your work is steady and repetitive, your job values are modest, and you can spread a fixed monthly fee across a decent number of calls. A quiet month is the risk.

MyBuilder suits you if your jobs are worth enough that one win pays for several introductions, and you answer quickly. Losing four quotes in a row is the risk, because you paid for all four.

Do this before signing either:

1. Write down the profit, not the price, of a typical job.
2. Decide how many of those you need each month to cover the fee, or how many introductions you can afford to lose before one win stops paying for itself.
3. Ask for the figure in writing: the Growth price and lead estimate from Checkatrade, or a few example shortlist fees for your trade and area from MyBuilder.
4. Check what happens in your quiet season, because that is when a 12 month contract hurts and a pay-per-introduction model does not.

MyBuilder says 90,000 homeowners a month use it, which its own footnote defines as the average number of jobs posted from January to December 2025. Volume is not the same as suitable work, so judge it on the jobs you see in your trade and postcode during a trial, not on the headline.

The option neither of them sells

Both platforms rent you access to customers who found the platform, not you. The alternative is to own the thing customers find: a website with a page for each job you want, a Google Business Profile, and reviews that stay yours when you stop paying anyone.

Most trades we build for end up with both for a while, using a directory to fill gaps while their own site and profile take over the baseline. The difference is that one of them keeps working after you cancel it.