Checkatrade, MyBuilder, Rated People or Bark: which fits how you get work?

Traders argue about which lead platform is best, but the platforms differ most in something more practical: how you pay. One charges whether or not the phone rings. Two charge only when you put your hand up for a job. Picking well is mostly about matching the payment model to your diary, your job sizes, and how much fixed cost you're comfortable carrying. Here's how the four big ones work, checked against their own pages on 20 August 2026.

Checkatrade — the membership

Checkatrade is a paid directory with lead plans on top. There's no joining fee; the cheapest plan is £30 + VAT a month for a listing customers can find by name, and plans that send you leads are quoted individually — your trade, your postcode areas, the lead volume you want. Membership runs for 12 months, and members report lead-plan bills anywhere from around £100 to £500+ a month. The full numbers are in our Checkatrade cost guide.

What the model means in practice: you carry a fixed cost every month, quiet or busy. In return you get the directory presence, the vetting badge, and a flow of enquiries you've sized in advance. It rewards businesses that want steady volume and can answer enquiries quickly enough to convert their share — and it punishes signing up and forgetting, because the fee arrives whether you work the enquiries or not. Our worth-it guide covers how to judge that with your own numbers.

MyBuilder — pay when you're shortlisted

MyBuilder inverts the model. Joining is free. Homeowners post jobs — the site says 90,000+ a month — and you express interest in as many as you like, also free. You pay only when a customer shortlists you and the platform releases their contact details. MyBuilder doesn't publish a fee table; third-party guides report shortlist fees of roughly £5–£35 on everyday jobs, and more on large projects. Fees aren't refunded if you don't win the work.

In practice: no fixed cost, so a quiet month costs you nothing — this is the model for filling gaps rather than guaranteeing flow. The trade-off is that the customer controls the moment you pay. You're choosing jobs to chase, writing introductions, and paying at the point of contact, so your real cost lives in your hit rate: how often a shortlist becomes a job.

Rated People — the subscription

Rated People currently markets a subscription: one fee for unlimited leads, aimed at tradespeople who mostly quote jobs under £4,000, with the price quoted when you sign up. Two details matter. No more than three tradespeople can buy the same lead, so you're never one of ten quoting. And the unlimited plan isn't available for every trade — third-party guides also describe subscription-plus-credit arrangements, so establish exactly which model you're being offered before you commit.

In practice: it sits between the other two models. Like Checkatrade, there's an ongoing fee; like MyBuilder, you pick the specific jobs you go for. The three-buyer cap is the distinctive feature — fewer competitors per enquiry, at the price of a subscription that's paid whether you use it or not.

Bark — credits per contact

Bark sells credits. You get matched leads for free, see what each one costs in credits before committing, and spend credits only on the customers you want to contact — at which point you get their phone number and email. There's no commission and no compulsory monthly fee. Third-party trackers put credits at around £1.20 + VAT each, with a lead typically costing 5–20 credits, and note that since late 2025 credits expire three months after purchase — so a big pack you don't use isn't money in the bank. Bark says it returns your first pack's credits if you win no work from it; check the terms.

Two things set Bark apart. It's the widest platform by category — photographers, caterers, cleaners and valeters live there alongside the trades. And it's the most explicitly pay-as-you-go: every lead is a visible, priced decision.

How to choose

Match the model to your situation rather than the brand to your trade:

• You want steady, predictable enquiry flow and can commit to working it daily → the membership model (Checkatrade), sized properly and reviewed at renewal with real numbers.
• You want to fill gaps with no fixed cost → pay-as-you-go (MyBuilder, Bark). A quiet month costs nothing; a busy month, you simply stop chasing.
• You quote mid-sized domestic jobs and want fewer rivals per enquiry → Rated People's capped-competition subscription is the distinctive offer; confirm which plan your trade actually gets.
• You're a service business rather than a trade → Bark is the one of the four built for you.

And whichever you choose, the same two habits decide the outcome more than the platform does. Answer first — on every one of these, several businesses see the same job, and the fast, useful reply wins a share the slow one never sees. And track cost per won job, because "the platform is paid whether or not you win" is true of all four models, and only your own numbers tell you which one is earning its money.

Running more than one platform makes both habits harder — enquiries landing in more places, each with its own clock running. That's the mess grafter.ly exists for: forward an enquiry email from any of them and it becomes a job in one list, with the rest of your work, ready to quote from your phone.

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Sources. Platform mechanics are from each company's own pages, all checked 20 August 2026: Checkatrade's pricing guide and join page, MyBuilder's tradesperson registration page, Rated People's tradespeople signup page, and Bark's pricing page. Per-lead and credit figures are from third-party price trackers including Local Adder — reported figures rather than tariffs. Models and prices change; if you're reading much later, check the platform's current terms.