Every tradesman has heard the pitch: join Checkatrade, get leads, grow your business. Some swear by it. Others have cancelled in frustration after months of paying for leads that went nowhere. The truth, as usual, is somewhere in the middle.
How Checkatrade Actually Works
Checkatrade is a directory. Homeowners search for a trade, see a list of vetted tradesmen, read reviews, and contact the ones they like. You pay a monthly membership plus, in many cases, per-lead fees on top.
The platform does the marketing to attract homeowners. You pay to be visible when those homeowners are looking. In theory, it's a fair exchange — they bring the customers, you pay for access.
The reality is more complicated. Understanding the full cost breakdown is essential before deciding whether it's worth your money.
When Checkatrade Works
Checkatrade can be genuinely useful in certain situations:
You're just starting out
If you have no website, no Google reviews, and no reputation to speak of, Checkatrade gives you a shortcut to visibility. Homeowners on the platform are actively looking for tradesmen, so you can get your first jobs without needing to build your own marketing.
You're in an area with low competition
In areas where there aren't many tradesmen on the platform for your trade, you can do well. Fewer competitors means more of the leads come to you, and there's less price pressure.
You need reviews quickly
Checkatrade's built-in review system makes it easy for customers to leave feedback. If you're trying to build a track record fast, the volume of review requests the platform sends out can help.
You treat it as a supplement, not your only source
Tradesmen who use Checkatrade alongside their own website, Google reviews, and word of mouth tend to view it more positively. It's one channel among several, not the whole strategy.
When Checkatrade Doesn't Work
For many tradesmen, the experience is less positive. Here's when it falls apart:
Your area is saturated
In cities and large towns, there might be dozens of plumbers, electricians, or builders on Checkatrade. Every lead you receive has also gone to three or four of them. You end up competing on price, which is a race to the bottom.
The maths don't add up
If you're paying £300 to £500 a month and winning two or three jobs from it, your cost per customer is extremely high. Many tradesmen don't sit down and do this calculation — they just know the phone isn't ringing enough to justify the spend.
You're building someone else's business
This is the biggest issue. Every review you collect on Checkatrade belongs to Checkatrade. Every bit of visibility you earn on the platform stays on the platform. If you cancel, it all vanishes. You've spent years and thousands of pounds building an asset that isn't yours.
Compare that to Google reviews, which stay with your business permanently and help you rank in search results whether or not you're paying anyone.
Lead quality drops over time
Many tradesmen report that lead quality declines the longer they're on the platform. Early on, the leads feel solid. Over time, more tyre-kickers, more people just collecting quotes, more jobs that don't go anywhere. Meanwhile, the fees keep going up.
The Real Maths: Is It Profitable?
Let's say you're paying £350 a month total (membership plus per-lead fees). Over a year, that's £4,200.
If your average job value is £500 and you win 8 jobs a month from Checkatrade, that's £4,000 in revenue from £350 in marketing. That works.
But if you're winning 2 jobs a month, that's £1,000 in revenue from £350 in spend. After materials, fuel for quoting, and your time, the profit from those Checkatrade jobs is thin.
The tradesmen who get the most from Checkatrade tend to be in higher-value trades (kitchen fitting, extensions, full bathroom installs) where one job covers months of fees. For smaller-ticket trades like handymen or general plumbing, the numbers are harder to make work.
Understanding what a good cost per lead looks like for your specific trade helps you judge whether any marketing channel is delivering.
What About Word of Mouth?
Many tradesmen rely on word of mouth and think the choice is between that and Checkatrade. But word of mouth has its own limitations — it's unpredictable, it doesn't scale, and it dries up when the economy slows.
The real alternative isn't word of mouth versus Checkatrade. It's building your own online presence so that when someone searches for your trade in your area, they find you directly — not through a platform that charges you for the introduction.
The Alternative: Owning Your Leads
The opposite of renting leads from a platform is owning them. That means:
- A proper website that ranks on Google for searches in your area
- A Google Business Profile that shows up in the map pack when someone searches "plumber near me"
- Google reviews that build trust before the customer even calls
- No per-lead fees — every call, every form submission comes directly to you
When a customer finds you this way, they've already chosen you. They're not comparing you against three other tradesmen on a platform. They've read your reviews, seen your work, and decided to call you specifically. Those leads convert at a much higher rate and you don't share them with anyone.
The upfront investment is typically less than a year of Checkatrade fees. And unlike Checkatrade, everything you build belongs to you and gets stronger over time.
The Honest Answer
Is Checkatrade worth it? It depends on your situation:
- Yes, temporarily — if you're new, have no online presence, and need jobs now
- Maybe — if you're in a low-competition area and the leads are profitable
- Probably not — if you're in a saturated area, the leads are shared, and you're spending hundreds a month without a clear return
- Definitely not as a long-term strategy — because you're building someone else's asset instead of your own
The smartest tradesmen use Checkatrade as a bridge while they build their own presence. Once the Google reviews are flowing, the website is ranking, and the phone is ringing from people who found them directly — they cancel the platform and keep the savings.
What to Do Next
Not sure whether you're getting a good return from Checkatrade — or whether your own online presence could replace it? We can show you exactly what customers see when they search for your trade in your area, and where the gaps are.
Get a free audit and find out what it would take to own your leads instead of renting them.
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