Last Updated on June 18, 2026
What They Cost, How Leads Are Shared, and What to Check Before You Sign
Executive Summary
Checkatrade, Bark, Yell, MyBuilder and the rest of the UK directory and lead platforms sell the same promise: pay us and the customers turn up. For some businesses that promise holds. For many it does not, and the difference usually comes down to three things almost nobody checks before signing: how the platform charges, how many competitors receive the same lead, and how hard the contract is to leave.
We reviewed ten platforms UK small businesses commonly pay for. Only three publish their full prices. The rest require a sales call, which tells you something about how those conversations are designed to go. This page sets out what each platform charges, where the figures come from, and the maths to run before you commit.
Key Takeaways
- Pricing opacity is the norm. Checkatrade publishes only its £30 plus VAT entry tier, while Yell, Rated People, TrustATrader and Bark’s true per-lead costs all require a sales conversation or vary by job.
- Shared leads change the maths completely. Bark sells each lead to up to 5 professionals and Rated People to up to 3, so your real cost per won job is the lead price multiplied by every lead you lose.
- Bark’s credit change in November 2025 was a quiet price rise. Credits now expire after 3 months instead of 12, and unused credits are not refunded.
- 12-month minimum terms are standard at Checkatrade, TrustATrader and Trustpilot (paid upfront), and Yell contracts have the worst documented cancellation friction of the group.
- Your reviews live on rented ground. Profiles and reviews on Checkatrade and similar platforms disappear when you stop paying. Google Business Profile reviews are free and permanent.
- Directories can still work, but as a deliberate, measured channel with a known cost per acquired customer, not as a substitute for owning your own presence.
Contents
The Three Ways These Platforms Charge
Every platform on this page uses one of three pricing models, and the model matters more than the headline price.
Subscription. You pay a fixed monthly or annual fee for a listing and the enquiries come direct to you. TrustATrader, Which? Trusted Traders and the basic Checkatrade tier work this way. Your cost is predictable, but so is the risk: you pay whether or not the phone rings.
Pay per lead. You pay nothing to join and buy each enquiry individually. Bark and MyBuilder work this way. The risk shifts to lead quality: you pay whether or not the customer replies, and on Bark and MyBuilder the fee is non-refundable in most cases.
Hybrid. A monthly fee plus per-lead charges on top. Checkatrade’s higher tiers and Rated People use this model. It is the most expensive structure when it goes wrong, because you carry both the fixed cost and the variable one.
Platform-by-Platform Pricing
Figures marked “published” come directly from the platform’s own pricing pages or help centre, checked in June 2026. Figures marked “reported” come from third-party reviews and member accounts, because the platform does not publish a price list. Treat reported figures as a guide for the conversation, not a guarantee.
| Platform | Model | Cost | Lead Sharing | Minimum Term |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Checkatrade | Subscription + lead fees | From £30 +VAT/month for a name-search listing with no leads (published). Active members report £100 to £300/month all-in, with lead fees of £5 to £40 by job type (reported) | Reportedly shared with 3 to 4 trades in busy areas | 12 months |
| Yell | Subscription + managed ads | No price list published. Premium listings reported at £30 to £100+/month; managed PPC from £200/month plus ad spend (reported) | Not shared, but enquiries depend on listing visibility | 12 months, then rolling with one month’s notice |
| Bark | Pay per lead (credits) | £1.80 +VAT per credit (published). Leads cost roughly 4 to 30 credits, so about £5 to £40+ each (reported) | Up to 5 professionals per lead (published) | None, but credits expire 3 months after purchase |
| MyBuilder | Pay per shortlist | Free to join and express interest. Non-refundable fee when a homeowner shortlists you: roughly £2 to £35 for typical jobs, £50+ for bathrooms, around £100 for extensions (reported) | Several trades can be shortlisted for one job | None |
| Rated People | Subscription + lead credits | No current price list published. Historically around £35 +VAT/month plus an average £15 +VAT per lead (reported, dated). A newer Unlimited plan covers jobs up to £4,000 for a fixed fee (published, price on application) | Maximum 3 tradespeople per lead (published) | 12 months (reported) |
| TrustATrader | Annual subscription | Yearly fee, amount not published. Members report £600 to £1,000+ per year (reported) | Not shared. Membership capped per trade, per area | 12 months |
| Which? Trusted Traders | Assessment + endorsement | £248 assessment, then £66/month (0-3 staff), £86/month (4-9) or £114/month (10-19), all including VAT (published) | Not a lead marketplace; customers contact you direct | Monthly or annual |
| Trustpilot (business plans) | Review software subscription | Free tier, then £89, £289 or £779 per month, billed upfront annually (published) | Not applicable | 12 months, paid upfront |
| Houzz Pro | Software + advertising | £139/month for the Pro plan, advertising from £119/month on top (published) | Advertising buys placement, not leads | Annual, starts when the 30-day trial ends |
| Google Business Profile | Free | £0 | Enquiries come straight to you | None |
Published figures checked against provider pricing pages, help centres and terms in June 2026. Reported figures are third-party estimates and member accounts where no price list exists. Prices exclude VAT unless stated.
The single most expensive misunderstanding in this market is treating the price of a lead as the price of a customer. On the pay-per-lead platforms, one homeowner enquiry is sold to several businesses at once. Every business pays. One wins the job, or sometimes nobody does, because the homeowner was only gathering prices.
What a Real Month Costs
Sticker prices understate real spend because membership and lead fees stack. A worked example published by a UK lead-generation firm for a plumber on Checkatrade’s mid tiers: around £100 in membership plus 15 leads at roughly £20 each, about £400 in the month, or £4,800 a year. With typical win rates that put the real cost per acquired customer at £80 to £200.
That number is not automatically bad. A plumber whose average job is £450 can make £150 acquisition costs work comfortably. The point is that almost nobody on these platforms knows their number, because the spend arrives as dozens of small charges rather than one visible bill. Add it up quarterly, divide by jobs won, and compare it against what a customer is worth to you. Our UK cost per lead benchmarks show what businesses in your sector typically pay so you can tell whether your number is competitive.
Contract Terms and Red Flags
- 12-month lock-ins with no mid-term exit. Checkatrade, TrustATrader and Rated People members report annual minimum terms you cannot leave without paying out. Trustpilot’s business plans are billed upfront for the year. Ask in writing what leaving early costs before you sign.
- Cancellation friction at Yell. Yell contracts run 12 months and then roll. Complaints about continued billing after cancellation are well documented, and one critical analysis reported a third of customers leaving each year. Get any cancellation confirmed in writing.
- Bark’s credit expiry. Since November 2025, Bark credits expire 3 months after purchase instead of 12, and unused credits are not refunded. Buying a large discounted credit pack now carries a use-it-or-lose-it clock.
- Paying win or lose. MyBuilder’s shortlist fee is charged the moment a homeowner shortlists you, whether or not you get the job, and it is non-refundable. Factor lost shortlists into your cost per job.
- Rented reputation. Years of reviews on Checkatrade or Bark vanish from public view if you stop paying. Reviews on your Google Business Profile cost nothing and stay yours. Wherever you collect reviews, collect them on Google too.
- Quote-only pricing. When a platform will not publish prices, the price is negotiable and the first quote is rarely the best one. Treat sales-call pricing as an opening position.
When Directories Make Sense
- You are new and have no reviews anywhere. A directory can generate your first jobs and first reviews faster than SEO will. Use it deliberately for 6 to 12 months while you build your own presence, not as a permanent dependency.
- You have spare capacity that costs you money. If a quiet Tuesday costs you £300 in idle wages, a £20 lead that fills it is cheap, even at a modest win rate.
- The platform caps your competition. TrustATrader limits members per trade per area. If you hold the only roofing slot in your town, that listing behaves like an asset rather than an auction.
- You track cost per won job and it beats your alternatives. If your directory customer costs £120 and your Google Ads customer costs £180, keep the directory. The test is measurement, not sentiment.
The Free Alternative
Every platform on this page is competing with a free product. Nearly all local customers now search online, Google reports that 76% of people who search for something nearby on a smartphone visit a business within a day, and a complete Google Business Profile costs nothing. Reviews collected there persist whether or not you ever pay anyone.
The honest comparison is not directories versus nothing. It is directories versus a properly set up Google profile, a website that converts, and a habit of asking every happy customer for a review. Most trades businesses that feel trapped on lead platforms are paying monthly for visibility they could increasingly own outright. What a basic website actually costs is covered in our UK website design cost research.
Methodology
Pricing was collected in June 2026 from provider sources where published: Checkatrade’s own cost guidance, Bark’s help centre and terms, Rated People’s published plan pages, MyBuilder’s support documentation, Which? Trusted Traders’ join page, Trustpilot’s UK business pricing page, Houzz Pro’s UK pricing page and TrustATrader’s FAQ. Where platforms do not publish prices, we used third-party reviews, member accounts and trade forum reports, and marked every such figure as reported. We could not find a credible independent survey measuring what percentage of members make money on these platforms, so this page makes no such claim.
Whito has no affiliate relationship with any platform named on this page. All prices exclude VAT unless stated.
What to Do Next
Before signing any directory contract, work out what a customer is worth to you and what you currently pay to acquire one. Our cost per lead benchmarks and the UK Marketing Cost Index give you the comparison figures. If most of your budget already goes to one platform, price up what owning your presence would cost instead, starting with our website cost data.
