Reference, updated August 2026
Alternatives to Checkatrade for UK trades
There are five realistic ways to get work that are not Checkatrade, and one of them is us. This page treats all five the same way, including the ones that cost nothing and the one that competes with what we sell.
How to read the numbers on this page. Pricing models described here come from each platform's published information as at August 2026. Where a cost varies by job value or region we say so rather than quoting a single figure. We discuss large national platforms by name and factually. We do not name individual local firms, ours or anyone else's.
Other directories and lead platforms
The main national alternatives are Bark, MyBuilder, Rated People, TrustATrader and Yell. They differ mostly in how they charge, and that difference matters more than the branding.
- Pay per lead or per credit. Bark and Rated People work this way. You pay to contact an enquiry whether or not you win it, and the enquiry is usually shared with several trades.
- Pay per shortlist or per job. MyBuilder charges around the point of being shortlisted rather than a flat monthly fee, so cost tracks activity.
- Monthly subscription. TrustATrader and Checkatrade sit here. A predictable bill that arrives whether the month was busy or dead.
- Directory listing. Yell and similar. Visibility inside their site, historically sold on annual contracts.
The honest summary is that all of them rent you access to demand they control. That is not a criticism, it is the product. Judge them on cost per won job over a full year, not on the monthly fee and not on the first month.
Google Business Profile, which is free and usually underused
For most trades this is the highest intent free asset available. It is what appears in the map results when somebody searches for your trade near them, and it costs nothing to hold. Most profiles we look at are half finished: no service list, three photographs, no posts, and reviews that stopped eighteen months ago.
- Complete every field, including services, service areas and hours.
- Add photographs regularly. A profile that looks active gets treated as active.
- Ask for a review at the end of every job, while you are still standing there.
- Answer every review, including the poor ones, in a flat and factual tone.
If you do one thing after reading this page, do this one. We charge £195 to set a profile up properly, and we would rather you did it yourself for nothing than left it half done.
Your own website
This is what we sell, so weigh it accordingly. A site you own is the only channel where the visibility, the reviews you point at it and the enquiry route all belong to you. It is also the slowest to start working. Local search rankings take months, not weeks, and anyone who tells you otherwise is selling something.
The realistic position is that a site is a poor emergency measure and a good long term asset. If you need work next Tuesday, a directory or a van livery will do more. If you want to stop paying rent on your own demand, this is the route.
Word of mouth and local groups
Still the largest source of trade work in the UK by a distance, and the cheapest. It is not a strategy you can switch on, but it can be made to compound.
- Local Facebook groups where recommendations get asked for weekly. Being the name that gets typed costs nothing and works.
- Referral arrangements with adjacent trades. Electricians and plumbers, roofers and builders, joiners and kitchen fitters.
- The van, the uniform and a card left on the kitchen worktop. Unfashionable and effective.
- A follow up message six months after a job. Almost nobody does it.
What word of mouth cannot do is answer the person who has just moved into the area and has nobody to ask. That person searches, and searching is where the other four routes live.
So which one
Most trades that are steady run two or three at once: word of mouth as the base, a properly finished Google Business Profile, and either a site they own or a membership they keep under review. The mistake is not choosing the wrong one. It is having exactly one, and having it be one somebody else controls.
Which alternative is worth your time depends on who is doing the buying. Commercial buyers filter on accreditation rather than reviews, as set out in websites for fire and security contractors. Homeowners buying on photographs behave differently again, which is the subject of websites for driveways and landscaping and websites for windows and doors.
What it costs
Every price is on the site. None of it is behind a call.
£595
Refresh. You have a site, we rebuild it properly.
£999
New Site. The whole thing, built from scratch.
£1,995
Local. The service and area pages that do the ranking.
From £45
A month for a plan, if you want one. Care £45, Growth £295, Growth+ £695.
Read next
What Checkatrade actually costs
The published tiers, what members report paying, and the parts that are not about price.
Renting against owning
One, three and five year arithmetic, including when renting is the better call.
What a tradesman website actually costs
Rental, one-off, agency and DIY. Real ranges, and where our prices sit inside them.