Is MyBuilder or Checkatrade cheaper for a tradesperson?

It depends on volume. MyBuilder has no monthly fee and charges per shortlist, reported from about £7 and typically £5 to £35, so quiet months cost nothing. Checkatrade charges a membership published from £30 a month plus VAT on a twelve-month term. On an £18 average shortlist fee the crossover is around two introductions a month. On Taskerama there is no shortlist fee and no membership: you pay a service fee only when a job is completed and paid, and 0% commission on customers you bring yourself.

Is Checkatrade or MyBuilder better for homeowners?

Both are free to you and neither holds your money. MyBuilder brings interested trades to you after you post; Checkatrade lets you browse a vetted directory, with documented checks including ID and insurance. For jobs you can describe and price up front, Taskerama gives you a fixed price agreed before work starts and holds your payment until you confirm the job is done.

How does Rated People compare with Checkatrade?

Rated People is a hybrid of both models: roughly £35 plus VAT a month billed annually plus roughly £15 plus VAT per lead as reported in 2026, on a twelve-month auto-renewing term, with prices roughly doubling during 2025. Checkatrade is a membership only on its entry tier. The hybrid means you carry a monthly floor and a per-lead cost. Commission on win, as on Taskerama, carries neither.

MyBuilder vs Checkatrade (2026): pay per shortlist or pay per month?

MyBuilder and Checkatrade both connect UK homeowners to tradespeople, both are free to the homeowner, and neither holds your money. The difference is in how the tradesperson pays, and that shapes who you end up talking to.

Taskerama is a fixed-price task marketplace, so this page also shows how a third model, paying only when you win, compares with both.

The one-line difference

MyBuilder charges per introduction. Checkatrade charges per month.

On MyBuilder a trade pays only when a homeowner shortlists them, so a quiet month costs nothing. On Checkatrade a trade pays a membership whether the phone rings or not, and appears in a browsable, vetted directory.

Side by side, as published or reported September 2026

	MyBuilder	Checkatrade
Model	Pay per shortlist	Monthly membership
Monthly cost to the trade	£0	Published from £30 + VAT for the entry tier; from £59 for the tier including leads; members report £80 to £500 depending on trade and postcode
Per-lead cost to the trade	From about £7, typically £5 to £35, more on large jobs	None on the entry tier, which carries no lead stream
Contract	None	12 months
Cost to the homeowner	Free	Free
How you find a trade	Post a job, trades express interest, you shortlist	Browse the directory and call
Vetting	Trade checks and reviews	Vetting, ID and an insurance check; members must hold their own public liability cover
Money held until the job is done	No	No
Trustpilot, September 2026	4.3 from 56,352 reviews	4.6 from 86,167 reviews

What each actually costs a tradesperson

This is the decision, and it is arithmetic.

MyBuilder is variable. If shortlists cost you an average of £18, a figure one group of trades cited after several of them were charged for the same job, then six shortlists a month is £108, and two is £36. You pay in the months you are busy. You also pay whether or not the shortlist becomes work, which is the main complaint: a well-documented pattern in trade reviews is several trades each being charged for the same job.

Checkatrade is fixed. The entry membership is published from £30 a month plus VAT, roughly £36 including VAT, and does not include a lead stream: you are paying to be findable, not to be sent work. The tier that includes leads is published from £59 a month plus VAT. Real prices depend on trade and postcode, and members report a wide spread. The twelve-month term is the thing to weigh: a quiet quarter is not something you can exit.

The break-even

Assume an average MyBuilder shortlist fee of £18 including VAT, and Checkatrade entry membership at about £36 including VAT.

Introductions per month	MyBuilder cost	Checkatrade entry membership
1	£18	£36
2	£36	£36
4	£72	£36
8	£144	£36

On these assumptions the crossover is around two introductions a month. Below that, pay-per-shortlist is cheaper. Above it, the membership is, but only if the membership actually generates those introductions, and the entry tier is explicitly not a lead stream. Run the same table with your own numbers before you sign anything, because both sides of it move with trade and postcode.

The third column: paying only when you win

On Taskerama a lost quote costs nothing and a quiet month costs nothing. There is no shortlist fee, no subscription and no contract. You pay a service fee only when a job is completed and paid: 20% plus VAT, falling to 12.5% plus VAT as your 30-day earnings rise. Customers you bring yourself cost 0% commission, with a 2.9% plus 20p processing charge. The full ladder is on our fees page.

Rated People, the hybrid

Worth including because it is the hybrid of the two, and the search for one of these usually turns it up. As reported in 2026: roughly £35 plus VAT a month billed annually, plus roughly £15 plus VAT per lead in a £15 to £40 range, with an "unlimited" tier reported around £72 a month. Twelve-month term, auto-renewing. Prices roughly doubled during 2025.

A hybrid means you carry both risks: the monthly floor in quiet months and the per-lead cost in busy ones. If you try it, buy the shortest commitment available and measure it.

What each gives a homeowner

Both are free to you and neither holds your money. On the two things that most protect a customer, a fixed price agreed in advance and funds held until the job is done, they are the same: you get neither, and you arrange payment directly with the trade.

On MyBuilder you describe the job, trades express interest, you shortlist a few, and they visit and quote.

On Checkatrade you browse the directory and form a shortlist yourself. The documented vetting includes ID and an insurance check, and members must carry their own public liability cover.

On both, reviews on a paid directory are reviews of paying members. The most common homeowner complaint about Checkatrade in our sample was that ratings felt undifferentiated, and trades on both platforms describe pressure around negative reviews. Read the three-star reviews and ask for two recent references you can ring.

On Taskerama, you get both of the protections the directories leave out: a fixed price agreed before work starts, and your money held until you confirm the job is done. Every fee is on the offer before you accept, refunds go to your card, and you can message taskers privately before you hire.

By job size

Smaller jobs, a door, a shelf, a couple of hours of handyman work. Many directory members do not take these, because the introduction economics do not work for them. A fixed-price marketplace is the right shape: post it on Taskerama and compare offers.
Mid-sized jobs you can describe clearly, a fence panel, a room repaint, a run of flat-pack. Fixed price still works when the job can be scoped. Add photos and measurements, answer questions, and agree the price before anyone starts, with your payment held until it is done.
Structural and regulated work, an extension, a roof, a rewire, anything involving gas. Get three written quotes in person, take references, and check the relevant registration yourself. Taskerama does not list gas work, and lists notifiable electrical work only for taskers with a verified registration. Our guide to checking a tradesperson covers what to verify.

What the complaints say about each

Both platforms have strong overall scores and a consistent seam of trade complaints underneath them. In our September 2026 sample of visible one-star reviews:

MyBuilder: most were tradespeople on lead fees: charged when shortlisted regardless of outcome, several trades charged for the same job, stale listings, and no refunds.
Checkatrade: most were on the contract and lead quality: the twelve-month lock-in, auto-renewal, annual price rises, and thin leads relative to the monthly cost.

These are the predictable failure modes of each model rather than evidence that either company behaves badly. A per-introduction model produces "I paid and got nothing" complaints; a subscription produces "I paid all year for this" complaints. Commission on win avoids both, because you pay only when you have been paid.

Why trades add Taskerama

Nothing to join, nothing to quote, and no leads or credits for sale.
No monthly fee and no contract, so a quiet month costs nothing.
0% commission on customers you bring yourself.
The service fee falls as you earn more, from 20% to 12.5% plus VAT.
Payment is held before you start and released when the customer confirms the job is done.
ID verification and checked badges for DBS, trade licence, waste carrier and insurance, so your credentials show on your profile.
Payment stays on hold if either side opens a dispute.

Join Taskerama as a tasker free and pay nothing until you are paid. Homeowners with a job to do can post a task and compare fixed-price offers.

MyBuilder, Checkatrade and Rated People do not publish full price lists. Figures here are from 2026 third-party price trackers with stated verification dates and from published entry pricing, gathered 5 September 2026, and vary by trade and postcode. Trustpilot scores and review counts were read on 5 September 2026. Taskerama figures are from our fees page. Prices in this category change frequently, so get a written quote for your trade and area before committing to anything, particularly anything with a twelve-month term.