Where each one fits
MyBuilder
Trades who would rather pay nothing in a quiet month and who win a high share of the jobs they are shortlisted for.
Watch out for: The fee scales with the job, so the jobs worth winning are the ones that cost most to chase, and you pay it before you know whether the work is yours. See the full comparison with MyBuilder.
Checkatrade
Established trades with enough steady volume that a fixed monthly cost works out cheaper per job than paying per lead.
Watch out for: The cost is fixed and the work is not. A quiet January costs the same as a busy June. See the full comparison with Checkatrade.
Bark
Trades who can respond within minutes, and anyone working outside home trades, which Bark also covers.
Watch out for: You are buying the right to contact somebody who did not ask for your call, alongside several others who bought the same right. See the full comparison with Bark.
Rated People
Trades wanting a long-established national platform and steady lead flow in areas where the newer platforms are thin.
Watch out for: You pay twice, once to be on the platform and again for each job you want to quote on, and both are payable whether or not you win. See the full comparison with Rated People.
TrustATrader
Trades who want a directory listing and review history without a separate charge every time they quote.
Watch out for: There is no public price list, so you cannot compare the cost against anything else until you have been quoted for your trade and area.
The last row of the table is not a platform and gets a section of its own below, because it is the one every trade on this page already has access to and most are not using properly.
What a shortlist fee costs per job won
Divide the fee by the share of shortlists you convert. That is the real price of the job you won.
- A £60 fee at one win in three: £180 for the job you won.
- A £6 fee at one win in three: £18 for the job you won.
Same platform, same win rate, an order of magnitude apart, which is why a builder and a handyman can hold opposite opinions of it and both be right. Against a membership the sum is a different one: what you pay in a month divided by the jobs it won you, with the fee still payable in the months it wins you none. Do both with your own figures from the last three months rather than from your best one.
The work nobody shortlists you for
Every route here skips the shortlist entirely, because the customer already knows who they want. They are slower to build than paying to appear on a list, and they keep working in the months you win nothing.
- The customers you have already worked for. A returning customer does not weigh you against two other quotes. Being the person they call back is worth more than being first on a list, and it costs nothing.
- A Google Business Profile. Free, and yours rather than rented. It is what shows up for your trade and their town, and the reviews on it survive you leaving any platform.
- Reviews collected on the day. Ask at the end of the job, in person, pointed at your own profile. Reviews left on a platform stay on that platform and stop being visible when you go.
- Local community groups. Recommendations in town and village groups come from being useful in them over months, not from advertising in them once.
Choosing by the size of the job
- Large jobs: extensions, roofs, full rewires. The fee is trivial against the job, so judge on lead quality instead. What to watch is how many prices the customer is gathering, because a fee paid for a one in five chance is a fee paid four times out of five.
- Small jobs: repairs, single rooms, half days. Any flat fee is a large share of the work. This is where a capped percentage behaves differently: 2% of a £100 job is £2, and the cap only binds on jobs large enough for £10 to be immaterial.
- Emergency work. Shortlisting takes time a customer with a leak does not have. Speed-driven work suits paying per lead, or being the number already saved in somebody's phone.
- Quiet months. Nothing is owed on a shortlist platform when nothing happens. Weigh that honestly before moving to a subscription, because a membership is payable in January as well as June.
What none of them change
MyBuilder charges to put you on a list, a membership charges to be on the platform at all, and a lead fee charges to make contact. Every one of them is collected before the customer has chosen, so on a job three trades quote for, the platform is paid three times and two of those payments bought nothing for the person who made them.
Ace Services is a UK home services marketplace built the other way round. Quoting costs £0 always and there is no subscription: none. A success fee of 2% of the accepted quote, minimum £2 and maximum £10, is charged only when a customer accepts your quote. A job is capped at three tradespeople, and the customer's details go to the one they accept rather than to everybody who quoted.
Two honest limits, because you would find them out in week one anyway. The platform is younger than the names above, so there is less work flowing through it today than through a long-established national one, and there is no directory profile with years of reviews to inherit. It costs nothing to quote, so it is something to add alongside what you use now and judge on the jobs it wins you, not a reason to cancel anything on day one.
See what Ace Services costs a tradesperson, or read the full comparison with MyBuilder.
Common questions
Is there an alternative to MyBuilder with no shortlist fee?
Yes, though most move the charge rather than remove it. Checkatrade and TrustATrader charge a membership instead, so quoting is unlimited and the cost is the same whether you work or not. Bark charges for each lead you respond to. Ace Services charges nothing to quote and a success fee of 2% of the accepted quote, minimum £2 and maximum £10, only when a customer accepts.
Do I pay on MyBuilder if I do not win the job?
Yes. The fee falls when a customer shortlists you, which happens before anybody is hired, so it is payable whether or not the work comes to you. That is the fee to compare against the alternatives: a membership is payable in advance and a lead fee is payable to make contact, and all three are collected before the customer decides.
Why do small jobs get fewer quotes where quoting costs money?
Because the tradesperson does the sum first. Where a fee is charged to quote or to be shortlisted, a small job can carry a fee worth a tenth of the work, so trades skip it and price their time somewhere better. The customer sees a slow response and assumes nobody wants small jobs. Where quoting is free, that calculation never happens.
Which alternative is best for large jobs?
For work in the thousands, the fee stops being the deciding factor and lead quality takes over, so a platform with a large national pool of customers is worth more than a cheap one. The thing to keep an eye on is how many other trades are quoting: a fee paid for a one in five chance costs you five times its face value per job won, whatever the platform calls it.
Is a monthly subscription better than a shortlist fee?
Only if your volume is steady. A membership is a bet on being busy: it is cheaper per job the more work it brings and costs the same in the months it brings none. A shortlist fee is a bet on your conversion rate and costs nothing in a quiet month. Work out both with your own numbers from the last three months before moving from one to the other.
What does Ace Services charge a tradesperson?
Nothing to quote and no subscription. A success fee of 2% of the accepted quote, minimum £2 and maximum £10, is charged only when a customer accepts your quote. A job is capped at three tradespeople, and the customer's details go to the one they accept rather than to everybody who quoted.
Can I be on MyBuilder and another platform at the same time?
Yes. The figure to keep an eye on is your total fixed cost, since anything charged monthly is owed whether or not it produces work. Adding a platform that charges only on the job you win does not raise it, so it can be tested alongside what you already use rather than instead of it.
