Is Checkatrade Worth It? (And Do You Still Need Your Own Website?)

The honest answer: lead platforms can be well worth the money, especially early on. But they're renting you customers. A website and Google listing you own are how you build something that keeps working without a monthly fee attached to every job.

This guide compares the two fairly and explains how most successful trades end up using both.

How the main platforms charge (2026)

Prices change often and vary by trade and area, so treat these as rough guides and check before you sign up. Figures are based on Whito's UK trade directory cost research and the platforms' published pricing.

On pay-per-lead platforms, the customer is usually sent to several tradespeople at once. You're paying for the chance to quote, not for the job.

What lead platforms do well

To be fair, they have real strengths:

• Instant trust. A vetted badge and reviews on a name customers know help a new business win work fast.
• Work from day one. No waiting months for Google rankings.
• They handle the marketing. You don't need to know anything about SEO or ads.
• Good for filling gaps. Useful for quiet weeks or when you're expanding into a new area.

If you're just starting, a lead platform can be a sensible way to get going.

Where they fall short

You're competing on price

Many platform leads go to three or four trades at once. That pushes quotes down and makes customers shop around. Customers who find you directly, through Google or a recommendation, are usually less price-driven, because they've already picked you.

Every job has a cost attached

On pay-per-lead sites, you pay for leads you don't win. On membership sites, you pay every month whether it's busy or quiet. Either way, the cost never goes away.

You don't own the customer relationship

Your reviews live on their site. If you leave, they stay behind. If the platform changes its fees, rules or how it ranks members, you just have to accept it.

Customers may remember the platform, not you

Ask a customer a year later who did their roof. Plenty will say "someone off Checkatrade". That makes repeat work and referrals harder to win.

What your own website (and Google listing) does differently

Your own website, paired with a well-run Google Business Profile, works differently:

• The enquiries are exclusive. The customer contacted you, not four of you.
• The cost doesn't rise with every job. After the build, it's a small fixed monthly cost however many enquiries it brings.
• It keeps working. Pages and reviews you build this year still bring work in years from now.
• You own it all. Your reviews on Google, your site, your domain, your customer list.
• You can charge properly. You can show your best work, explain your process and set expectations before the first call, so customers arrive ready to pay for quality.

The downside: it takes time. A new site and Google profile usually take 3 to 6 months to bring in a steady flow of local enquiries, depending on your trade and area.

Doing the maths

Here's a simple way to compare, using your own numbers.

Platform: If you pay £100 a month and get 10 leads, you win 3 jobs, and each job costs you about £33. On pay-per-lead at £25 a lead, winning 1 in 4 means each job costs about £100.

Website: A £1,500 site plus £50 a month over two years costs £2,700. If it brings in just 4 jobs a month once it's ranking, that's around 80 jobs over the second year alone, roughly £34 a job, and the cost per job keeps falling the longer it runs.

The real difference shows in year three, four and five. The platform costs the same every year. The website gets cheaper per job.

The approach that works for most trades

You don't have to choose. The trades that do best usually:

1. Use a platform to get going, and collect reviews quickly.
2. Set up their Google Business Profile properly from day one, and ask every customer, including platform customers, for a Google review.
3. Build their own website with a page for each service and area. (Here's how we approach web design for tradesmen.)
4. Put their own details on everything: van, invoices, cards, follow-up messages. That way repeat customers and referrals come direct.
5. Cut back on the platform once Google and the website are bringing in enough direct work, and keep it for quiet spells or new areas.

The aim isn't to quit Checkatrade tomorrow. It's to make sure that in a year or two, most of your work comes from channels you own.

Is Checkatrade worth it?

It can be, especially if:

• you're new and need reviews and trust quickly
• you work in a trade where customers look for a vetted badge
• you're in an area with plenty of members' jobs and not too much competition

It's less worth it if most of your work already comes from referrals and Google, or if you're paying a lot and winning few jobs. Track it for three months: how many leads, how many jobs, how much each job cost you.

Ready to start building work you own?

If you're starting a new business, our Launch Package gets you a logo, a 20-page website and Local SEO in one go, so you're building your own enquiries from day one.

Already established and leaning too hard on a platform? Get a free video audit. We'll look at your Google listing, your website and a local competitor, and show you where direct enquiries could come from.