- Judge any lead source on cost per booked job, not cost per lead — shared leads multiply the real cost.
- Third-party reviews commonly report Checkatrade membership from roughly £60–120+ per month, with lead costs on top varying by trade and area.
- Response speed and follow-up decide who wins a shared lead — the firm that answers first usually quotes first.
The question behind the question
When a trade business asks whether Checkatrade is worth it, the real question is: what does a booked, quotable job actually cost me from this channel? Membership fees and per-lead prices are only inputs. The output that pays wages is a homeowner with a confirmed appointment.
That distinction matters because directory leads are usually shared. If the same homeowner is passed to three or four firms, your real cost per booked job is several times your cost per lead — before you count the time spent chasing people who never answer.
What Checkatrade costs, according to published reviews
Checkatrade does not publish one flat price; costs depend on trade, area, and package. Independent reviews and cost breakdowns commonly report membership from around £60–120+ per month, with some firms reporting substantially higher renewal quotes, plus per-lead or per-contact costs that vary widely by trade.
Treat any specific number as a snapshot: prices change, and your quote will depend on your patch. The point of this article is not the exact figure — it is the arithmetic you should run on whatever figure you are quoted.
The cost-per-booked-job worked example
Illustrative maths, using round numbers you can swap for your own. Say a lead costs £25 and is shared with three other firms. You reach half the leads you buy, quote half of the ones you reach, and win a third of the jobs you quote. That is 24 leads (£600) for one won job — £600 per job won, not £25.
Now run the same maths on an exclusive, pre-qualified appointment. If you pay per booked survey and the homeowner is qualified on area, timing, job type and intent before it lands in your calendar, the cost per booked job is the price you paid — there is no sharing multiplier and no chasing time.
Neither model is automatically right. High-volume, low-ticket repair work can absorb shared leads. Big-ticket work — boiler replacements, bathrooms, roofs — is exactly where the sharing multiplier hurts most, because one lost job is hundreds or thousands of pounds of margin.
When Checkatrade is worth it
A directory membership can earn its keep when you are new to an area and need review credibility, when your trade has high search volume on the platform, and when you have someone free to answer the phone and chase every enquiry within minutes.
The reviews and the profile page also act as social proof that supports all your other marketing — homeowners who found you elsewhere often check your directory reviews before calling back.
Why response speed decides shared leads
On any shared platform, the firm that responds first usually gets the conversation, and the firm that follows up until the homeowner decides usually gets the job. If calls ring out while your team is on the tools, you are paying for leads your competitors win.
That is a fixable operations problem, whatever platform you use: answer every call including after hours, qualify quickly, and chase every enquiry until it books or says no. It is also the part most trade businesses under-invest in, because it is nobody's job.
The alternative model: pay for the booked survey, not the lead
MyTradeBuddy runs the opposite model to a directory: exclusive demand generated for one business per area, every enquiry answered and qualified by AI, followed up by phone, SMS and email until it books or says no — and you pay per booked survey, not per lead.
The honest trade-off: you give up the directory's review ecosystem and brand traffic, and you gain exclusivity, qualification, and a cost that only lands when a survey is in your calendar. For big-ticket trades, that usually changes the maths decisively — run your own numbers with the worked example above.
Frequently asked questions
There is no single published price — costs depend on trade, area and package. Independent cost breakdowns commonly report membership from roughly £60–120+ per month with lead costs on top, and some firms report significantly higher renewal quotes. Always work from your own written quote.
Cost per lead is the wrong metric on its own. A £25 shared lead sold to four firms can easily become £600 per won job once contact rates, quote rates and win rates are counted. Judge every channel on cost per booked job instead.
Enquiries via directories are typically shared or contestable — the same homeowner can contact or be matched with several member firms. That sharing is the main reason cost per booked job runs far above cost per lead.
The main alternatives are building your own channel (Google Business Profile, reviews, local SEO — slower but owned) or paying for outcomes instead of leads. MyTradeBuddy's model is the latter: exclusive enquiries, AI qualification and follow-up, priced per booked survey.
Checkatrade does not take a commission on the value of each completed job. You pay to be a member — independent breakdowns commonly report membership from around £60–120+ per month depending on trade, area and package — with per-lead or per-contact charges on top. The number that matters is what those add up to per job you actually win, which runs far above the per-lead price when enquiries are shared between firms.
Yes — Checkatrade is a paid membership, not a free listing. There is no single published price: it depends on your trade, your area and the package you are quoted, and independent cost breakdowns commonly report membership from roughly £60–120+ per month with lead costs on top. Treat any figure you read as a snapshot and run the cost-per-booked-job maths on the quote you are actually given.