If you're a trade looking for work online, you've met them all — Checkatrade, Bark, MyBuilder, Rated People. They get a lot of stick on the trade forums, but they also win people work. Here's an honest breakdown of how each one charges and whether it's worth it.
Model: mainly a membership/directory — you pay a monthly or annual fee to be listed and vetted, and homeowners contact you. Upside: strong brand, homeowners trust the badge, and you're not paying per lead. Downside: the fee can be steep, you're listed next to every competitor, and value depends heavily on how many people in your area actually search it.
Model: pay-per-lead with credits. You buy credits, then spend them to respond to enquiries. Upside: lots of leads, fast. Downside: leads are shared — several trades buy the same one — and you spend credits to contact people who may never reply or were just price-checking. Costs add up quickly with no guarantee of work.
Model: similar — you pay (credits or fees) to access or shortlist for jobs homeowners post. Upside: the homeowner has actively posted a job, so intent is decent. Downside: again shared — multiple trades chase each job — so it's competitive and price-led, and you're paying for the privilege of competing.
Three of these four sell the same enquiry to several trades. That single fact drives most of the frustration: you pay up front, race four others to the phone, get beaten down on price, and win maybe one in five. It's not that the platforms are scams — it's that the shared model structurally works against your conversion rate. We dig into the numbers in exclusive vs shared leads.
For some trades, yes — especially early on when you need volume and reviews. But many established trades find the cost-per-won-job creeps up as competition grows. The test is simple: track what you actually spend to win one paying job on each platform, and compare. If the number's ugly, it's time to look at channels where you're not fighting over the same lead.
An exclusive lead feed flips the model — each lead goes to one trade in the area, for a flat monthly fee, with no per-lead credits to burn. You're the only quote, so you convert a far higher share and protect your price. CleanLeads does exactly that for a flat £79/month across every trade — with a free first week so you can compare it against whatever you're using now, risk-free.
One trade per area. Flat £79/month. Free first week.
Start your 7-day free trial