Checkatrade vs TrustATrader: what each one costs and ties you into

Checkatrade vs TrustATrader comes down to two things: how sure you want to be of the price before you sign, and how many rivals you are happy to share a listing with. Checkatrade publishes its prices and renews automatically; TrustATrader publishes no price, does not renew automatically and caps each trade at ten traders per area.

Both are paid directories with a 12 month commitment, and on both the reviews you collect stay on their platform. If owning the reviews and the enquiries matters more to you than either badge, our web design page shows the other route.

We sell websites to trades, so we have an interest in that route. The facts below come from each company's own pages: TrustATrader's terms, FAQs and join page, read on 27 October 2026, and Checkatrade's pricing page and terms, checked on 15 September 2026. Where a figure is not published, this page says so.

How do Checkatrade and TrustATrader compare at a glance?

	Checkatrade	TrustATrader
How it charges	Monthly membership. Free £0, Approved £30 a month, Growth from £59 a month	One yearly membership fee, paid in advance. No charge per lead
Price published?	Yes, the three tiers. Growth is priced on your postcodes and leads	No. You apply online or ring for a quote
Contract	12 months, renewing automatically	12 months from the day you go live. No automatic renewal
Leaving early	Not possible after the first two business days. Cancelling the Direct Debit does not end it	Not possible once you are live. Fees are non-refundable, and the 14 day cooling-off period does not apply
Area caps	No published cap on members per area	No more than ten traders per trade in your area, with waiting lists in many areas
Entry rules	up to 12 checks before the tick	Five references, insurance documents, two years in the trade, legal qualifications
Lead sharing	Members report one enquiry reaching 10 to 20 or more trades (localadder.co.uk)	Homeowners pick from the listed traders; its app lets them contact up to four at once
Your reviews if you leave	Checkatrade may keep your listing and reviews up, found only by a search for your name	The terms do not say. Nothing gives you a right to take them

What does each one cost in 2026?

Checkatrade publishes a price and TrustATrader does not. On 15 September 2026 Checkatrade listed Free at £0, Approved at £30 a month and Growth from £59 a month. TrustATrader's FAQ says only "We charge a yearly fee for membership", and no page on its site shows a figure (checked 27 October 2026).

Checkatrade. The tier matters more than the headline. Approved only shows when someone searches for your business by name. To appear when a homeowner searches for your trade in your area you need a Fixed Plan under Growth, priced on your trade, your postcodes and the number of leads a year you ask for. Sponsored Listings, from £100 a month, are extra. Its pricing page and terms do not say whether the prices include VAT. Our Checkatrade cost guide has the full breakdown.

TrustATrader. The terms set one subscription fee, "calculated and payable annually on the anniversary of the start of your Subscription (unless otherwise stated) in advance". In a reply to a member on Trustpilot on 15 October 2026, TrustATrader said it does offer instalment plans. Either way you are committing to a year's fee.

Because TrustATrader publishes nothing, every figure you will read is someone else's:

Figure	Who says so	Date
£240 to £750 a year	localadder.co.uk tracker, labelled as an estimate built from two comparison sites	Verified 30 September 2026
£600 to £1,000 a year	Google's AI Overview for this search, citing comparison blogs	27 October 2026
£1,200 for a year, taken up front	Two members' one-star reviews on Trustpilot	24 July and 7 October 2026
£1,200 a year	A member's one-star review on the App Store	31 October 2022

Three members paying £1,200 sits above both estimates, so treat the estimates as a floor, not a quote. The only reliable figure is the one TrustATrader gives you for your trade and postcode, in writing.

How do the contracts, renewals and leaving compare?

Both hold you for 12 months. The difference is at the end: Checkatrade renews itself unless you stop it, and TrustATrader does not renew unless you agree to.

	Checkatrade	TrustATrader
Getting out at the start	two business days from the day you create your profile	None. The terms call it a business contract with no 14 day cooling-off period
Mid-term	You stay liable for the rest of the term. Cancelling the Direct Debit does not end it	"Once live on the Website you cannot cancel the membership agreement prior to the expiry of the 12 month membership period"
At the end	Renews for the same term unless the business owner phones, no earlier than 35 days before the renewal date	"We do not operate an automatic renewal system, we will contact you at the end of each year"
Refunds	Non-refundable, with pro-rated refunds only in set cases	Non-refundable. Its FAQ offers a pro-rata refund if it removes you after an unresolved complaint, but its terms say fees are non-refundable whatever the reason it ends you. Go by the terms
Them ending it	For cause, with no refund in those cases	Seven days after a written notice for unpaid fees, or for three upheld complaints

Checkatrade's renewal is the one that catches people. Our guide on how to cancel Checkatrade walks through the 35 days window. With TrustATrader, the thing to diary is the renewal call: decide before it comes whether the year paid.

One clause in TrustATrader's terms is worth reading twice. When the agreement ends "for any reason", you "must immediately cease to provide services to any customers and/or potential customers that have been referred to you via our Website", apart from work you have already started or agreed. The terms do not say whether that covers a membership that simply runs out. Ask before you sign.

Who gets the lead: area caps or open joining?

TrustATrader caps the list and Checkatrade does not publish a cap. TrustATrader's terms promise no more than ten entries in the trade category you choose, in your area, at any one time, and its FAQ says many areas have waiting lists.

That changes what a lead is. On TrustATrader you are not sent leads. A homeowner searches, sees up to ten traders in your trade, reads the reviews and rings or texts the ones they like. Its terms include Textatrader, which sends you the caller's name and number, and its app lets a homeowner contact up to four traders at once. You pay nothing per enquiry, and your profile, photos and reviews decide how many you get.

On Checkatrade's Fixed Plan, Checkatrade gives you an estimate of the leads to expect, and its product terms say that estimate is not binding. It publishes no limit on how many members share an area. Members report enquiries reaching 10 to 20 or more trades (localadder.co.uk tracker); Checkatrade gives no figure of its own.

A cap only helps if you are on the list. If your trade and area are full on TrustATrader, the choice is made for you.

What does it take to get in?

TrustATrader's bar is the more specific one. Its FAQ asks for:

1. A minimum of five references.
2. A copy of your insurance documents. The terms require valid public liability insurance for the trade you list, kept in force.
3. A minimum of two years' experience in your trade.
4. Every qualification the law requires for your work. Electricians and gas engineers must show their registrations.
5. A signed copy of its terms and an information form.

It aims to have you live within two to three weeks. Checkatrade says members complete up to 12 checks before they get the tick. If you fail Checkatrade's vetting, its terms allow an application fee of £250 excluding VAT.

TrustATrader also polices you once you are in. A customer rating under 60% that its team finds justified is a strike, and three strikes end the membership. A justified rating under 40% can end it at once.

What happens to your reviews if you leave?

On both, the reviews stay with the platform. Neither gives you a way to take them to your own site.

Checkatrade's master service terms (last updated 4 October 2025) say that when the agreement ends it may keep your listing and reviews on its site, found only when someone searches for your business name, with a note that you are no longer a member. Approved members must take Checkatrade's reviews off their paperwork, website and other business materials.

TrustATrader's terms do not mention reviews after you leave. They do say your access to the site ends and you must take its logo off your vans, paperwork and website. TrustATrader's review process page says a trader can remove "himself from our advertising", but not what happens to the reviews.

So collect Google reviews alongside either one. A Google Business Profile is free and its reviews stay with your business whatever you pay anyone else.

What does a job won cost on each?

The fee you pay divided by the jobs it brings in. That is the only number that settles it, and neither platform can give it to you in advance.

Here is the same sum on both, with example inputs: a trade that gets four enquiries a month from the directory and wins one in four, so one job a month.

• Checkatrade Growth at its published floor of £59 a month costs £708 a year, so £59 for each job won. A real Growth quote can be higher, because the price rises with your postcodes and lead estimate.
• TrustATrader at the reported £240 to £750 a year costs £20 to £62.50 for each job won. At the £1,200 three members reported, it is £100.

Halve the enquiries and both figures double. That is why the lead count matters more than the fee: ask each one what members in your trade and area typically get, and write the answer down.

The calculator above opens on TrustATrader. To run Checkatrade on the same job, open the lead cost calculator set to Checkatrade Growth at £59 a month, then put in your real quote.

Checkatrade or TrustATrader: which suits your trade?

TrustATrader suits you if you have been trading two years or more, have five customers who will vouch for you, and there is a free slot for your trade in your area. A known yearly fee, no charge per lead and no more than nine rivals on the list is the point of it. The risk is paying the year up front and finding your area brings few calls.

Checkatrade suits you if you need to start now, cannot wait for a slot, or want a published price to compare. The risks are the automatic renewal and sharing enquiries with an uncapped number of members. Our guide to whether Checkatrade is worth it works through whether the membership pays.

Before you sign either:

1. Get the price in writing for your trade and postcodes, with and without VAT.
2. Ask how many members are already listed for your trade in your area, and how many enquiries a typical member there gets in a month.
3. Ask what happens to your reviews and profile when you leave.
4. Put the renewal date, or the renewal call, in your diary the day you sign.

Rated People has gone: does that change the choice?

A little. Rated People Limited went into creditors' voluntary liquidation on 16 September 2026 (Companies House, company 05540422). Rated People's own pages say its memberships closed before Checkatrade Group bought the brand and website, and that jobs posted there now go to Checkatrade members. Our guide to what happened to Rated People covers what that means for former members.

So one fewer separate directory is selling memberships, and its jobs now feed Checkatrade's network. TrustATrader is still its own business: Companies House shows it is owned by Trustatrader Group Limited, which is controlled by individuals rather than another platform. That does not make either one a better buy. The terms above still decide it. If you are leaning towards TrustATrader, our guide to whether TrustATrader is worth it looks at what members say and what its Trustpilot score measures.

Is there an option where the reviews stay yours?

Yes: your own website and a Google Business Profile. Neither caps your area or renews itself, and the reviews and enquiries stay with your business when you stop paying a directory.

You can use a directory to fill the diary while your own site and Google profile build up. If you do, keep asking every happy customer for a Google review as well, so that when the year ends you still have something that is yours. Our Checkatrade alternatives guide compares the other routes, and Checkatrade vs MyBuilder covers paying per introduction instead.