Checkatrade vs MyBuilder vs Bark vs TrustATrader: Which One Pays Back?

Checkatrade vs MyBuilder vs Bark vs TrustATrader, side by side

Checkatrade, MyBuilder, Bark and TrustATrader all promise you work, and each one charges for it in a different way.

One sells a monthly plan. One charges when a homeowner shortlists you. One sells credits you spend on leads. One takes a yearly fee up front.

That makes them hard to compare, and it makes “which one pays back?” a fair question with no one-line answer.

This piece lays the four out as each one publishes them: how you pay, who else sees the job, and what you sign up to. Then it shows how to work out which one pays back for you.

The prices and terms below were checked between 30 September and 15 October 2026.

How do Checkatrade, MyBuilder, Bark and TrustATrader compare?

They differ in how you pay, how many other trades see the job, and how long you’re tied in.

Here is each one in a line, from its own pages and terms where we could read them, and from independent guides where we couldn’t.

Platform	How you pay	Who else sees the job	Contract
Checkatrade	Free at £0 a month, Approved at £30 a month, Growth “from £59/mo”	Not published by Checkatrade	12 months, renewing automatically, according to one independent guide to its terms
MyBuilder	No joining or membership fee; a lead fee when a homeowner shortlists you, from £7	Several can be shortlisted, according to Whito; MyBuilder’s how-it-works page gives no number	No contract terms on the pages we read; no joining or membership fee
Bark	Prepaid credits; each lead shows its credit cost before you respond	A maximum of five professionals per request, under Bark’s terms	Credits expire three months after purchase; optional subscriptions renew automatically
TrustATrader	A yearly fee, paid up front; the price isn’t published	No more than ten traders per trade category; customers are told to contact two or three	12 months, no early cancellation, no automatic renewal

Which one is cheapest? Nobody can say from the price lists alone. Two charge whether the phone rings or not, and two charge per lead, whether you win the job or not.

So cheapest depends on how many of those leads turn into paid work for you.

Checkatrade: a monthly plan, from free to “from £59”

Checkatrade publishes three plans for trades: Free at £0 a month, Approved at £30 a month and Growth at “Prices from £59/mo”.

Growth is the plan built around customer enquiries, and “from” means £59 is the starting price. Local Search North says the real figure is set by your trade, the postcodes you cover and how many enquiries you want. We’ve set out the full price page, and what it leaves out, in how much Checkatrade costs a UK trades business.

Checkatrade also publishes its own size. In a January 2025 response published on gov.uk, it says “Over 50,000 British small businesses rely on Checkatrade for income”.

Who else sees a Checkatrade job? Checkatrade does not publish how many members an enquiry is shared with. Independent guides don’t agree on it either, so ask before you sign.

One independent guide to its member terms, from Websites for Tradespeople, reports a 12-month contract that renews automatically, which only the business owner can stop, by phone. Ask Checkatrade to confirm that in writing before you sign.

If you’re a plumber weighing it up, we’ve covered that decision on its own in is Checkatrade worth it for plumbers?

MyBuilder: pay when you’re shortlisted

MyBuilder works the other way round. There’s nothing to pay to join, and nothing monthly.

Its help centre puts it plainly: “You only pay a fee when the homeowner shortlists you.”

The fee depends on the job. MyBuilder says it’s based on what the customer enters, such as surface area, quantity and material.

The same page says the fee is “always stated before you respond to a customer and can start from £7”, and that it will never be adjusted after you’ve responded.

Whito, a trades marketing firm that tracks directory costs, reports shortlist fees of roughly £2 to £35 for typical jobs, £50 or more for bathrooms and around £100 for extensions. Whito also reports the fee is non-refundable in most cases.

Do you pay if you don’t get the job? Yes. The fee is charged at the shortlist stage.

MyBuilder says the platform is designed so the income from jobs you carry out covers your lead fees over time, including the leads that don’t work out.

How many other trades are on that shortlist? MyBuilder’s own how-it-works page doesn’t give a number.

Bark: credits you spend on leads

Bark runs on prepaid credits. You buy them in advance, and each lead costs a set number of credits to respond to.

Bark’s help centre says “The credit cost is always visible on the lead before you respond”, and that the number of credits depends on the type of service and the size of the job.

Bark doesn’t put a pound figure in its terms. Whito reports £1.80 plus VAT a credit, and both Whito and Local Search North report leads costing roughly £5 to £40 each.

Who else sees a Bark lead? Bark’s own customer terms answer this one.

Bark’s Customer Terms, clause 2.5(a): “a maximum of five Professionals will contact you directly”.

That’s a maximum, so fewer may respond. It’s the only cap per request we found published: Checkatrade gives no number, and nor does MyBuilder’s how-it-works page.

Credits also have a shelf life now.

Credits bought from 1 November 2025 expire three months after purchase, down from 12 months before that. Bark’s terms say expired credits “will not be refunded or extended”.

Bark’s terms set a 7-day window to claim credits back on a lead, and a return comes back as credits, never cash.

Bark also sells an “elite pro” subscription that renews automatically. Bark’s terms give no price for it. Whito reports it isn’t published, and puts it at roughly £20 to £30 a month.

TrustATrader: one yearly fee, leads included

TrustATrader’s own terms describe its website as “a directory only”. You pay once a year, and its join page says “Never pay for your leads”.

Its FAQ confirms “We charge a yearly fee for membership”, but the price isn’t on its join page or in its terms. Whito reports members paying £600 to £1,000 or more a year.

What do you sign up to? TrustATrader’s trader terms say the fee is paid annually, up front, and that you “cannot cancel the membership agreement prior to the expiry of the 12 month membership period”.

It doesn’t renew on its own, either. The terms say TrustATrader will “contact you at the end of each year of your annual membership to discuss your renewal”.

It also limits the competition. The terms allow no more than ten entries in your trade category, and the FAQ tells customers to contact “at least two or three traders”.

TrustATrader says it gets over 700,000 searches a month. It doesn’t publish how many of those become enquiries.

So which lead platform pays back?

The one where each won job costs you a small slice of its profit. Only your own numbers can show which platform that is, and the sum is simple.

Add up one quarter’s spend on the platform: the membership, the lead fees or the credits. Divide it by the jobs you won from it. That’s what each won job cost you.

Then set it against the profit on a typical job of that size. If the cost per won job is a small slice of the profit, the platform is paying back. If it’s eating most of it, it isn’t.

Which model suits which business? A monthly or yearly fee costs the same in a quiet month as a busy one. Pay-per-lead costs more the more leads you pay for, including the ones you lose.

That’s why the same platform can pay back for one roofer and drain another in the next town.

Every paid lead plan is rented

All four are a stall in someone else’s market.

A good stall can do well. It’s only yours while you pay the rent, though, and the enquiries stop when the payments do.

What stays yours is different. Reviews on your own Google Business Profile stay on your profile. Your own website keeps answering searches. Neither one sends a renewal letter.

That’s the part we build for trades businesses: the reviews and Google Maps presence that can keep bringing calls after a platform contract ends.

Roofers can see the same rent-or-own choice laid out on our leads for roofers page, and our prices are on our website, every level.

Want to see where your own business stands first? The free Visibility Scorecard takes about four minutes and shows where you’re losing work today.

None of this means you should cancel a platform that’s paying back. Keep it while it earns, and build the thing you own alongside it, so you choose whether to renew.

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