Checkatrade alternatives, and whether it is worth it at all

The short version

• The directories differ mostly in how you pay, a flat membership versus paying per lead, and that difference matters more than the branding.
• Switching directories rarely fixes the underlying problem, which is that you are renting position in all of them.
• The comparison worth making is not Checkatrade versus MyBuilder. It is renting versus owning.
• If you are going to use one, use it as a tap while you build something of your own, and set yourself a date to review it.

I build websites for trades, so that is my bias and you should weigh what follows accordingly. I would rather say it than have you work it out halfway down the page.

Is Checkatrade worth it?

Sometimes, and mostly at the start.

If you are new, have no reviews, no website worth the name and no local reputation, a directory puts you in front of people this month. Nothing you build yourself works that fast. That is a real service and it is worth real money.

The problem is that the thing it is good at, instant visibility, is exactly the thing you need least once you are established. And by then the fee is often buying you enquiries that would have found you anyway.

So the question is less is it worth it and more is it still worth it, which is a question worth asking every year rather than once.

The alternatives, and what actually separates them

Four names come up. The branding is nearly interchangeable; the payment model is not, and that is the bit to look at.

MyBuilder

Pay per lead rather than a flat membership. You see a job, you pay to quote on it.

The appeal is obvious: no monthly fee in a quiet month. The catch is that costs scale with your success, and in a busy area you can spend a lot chasing jobs you do not win. It suits trades doing a smaller number of larger jobs, where one win covers a lot of quotes.

TrustATrader

Closer to Checkatrade’s model, a membership, vetting, a directory profile. Generally smaller reach, and that cuts both ways: fewer enquiries, but usually fewer members competing for each one.

Worth checking how many members already cover your postcode before assuming smaller means less crowded.

Rated People

Lead-credit based. You buy credits and spend them on jobs. Same economics as MyBuilder in practice, variable cost, and the discipline required is knowing which jobs not to spend on.

Google Business Profile

The one most trades never put on the list, which is odd, because it is free and it is where a great many people actually start looking.

It is not a directory you join. It is your own listing, the reviews belong to you, and it feeds the three map results that take most of the emergency and local calls. If you are comparing options and this is not on your list, the list is incomplete.

The comparison people actually need

Not Checkatrade versus MyBuilder. Renting versus owning.

Every directory on that list is the same shape underneath: you pay, you appear, you stop paying, you disappear. Moving from one to another changes the invoice, not the arrangement.

Read that table honestly and the directory wins the top row. That is not nothing, the top row is the one that pays your wages in February.

Which is why the answer for most trades is not “cancel everything”. It is: use the tap, and build the thing, and do not confuse one for the other.

Why switching usually disappoints

People switch directories after a bad quarter, and the new one starts well. Almost always.

That is not the new directory being better. It is that you are new on it, a fresh profile in a rotation, sometimes with a promotional position while you settle in. Six months later the enquiries look much like the old ones, and you have moved your reviews to a third party for the second time.

If you have already switched once and are thinking about switching again, that pattern is worth sitting with. The variable that keeps changing is not the one causing the problem.

What I would actually do

Three things, in this order, and none of them require cancelling anything on day one.

Get your Google Business Profile right. Correct primary category, an honest service area, real photographs added regularly. This is free and it moves faster than anything else on this list, often within weeks, because most trades have never set theirs up properly.

Ask every past customer for a review. Not future ones, the ones you have already worked for.

You have years of them in your phone and nobody ever asked, because there was nothing to ask with. This is what takes a profile from a handful of reviews to a serious-looking one in a couple of months rather than a couple of years.

Then build the website, with a page for each job type you actually want more of. This is the slow part, and it is the part that eventually replaces the fee.

Once the third thing is running, look at the directory invoice again and decide properly. You will be deciding from a position where you can afford to say no, which is the whole point.

If you would rather not do it yourself

That is what I do, the website, the profile, and the follow-up that catches enquiries when you are on a job. One price, no contract, and on a call I will tell you honestly if your trade does not have the search volume to make it worth it.

If it is the money side you are weighing up, I have written about what Checkatrade actually costs a tradesman and why nobody can quote you a single figure.