Is Checkatrade worth it? What it costs and what you get

Most trades ask whether Checkatrade is worth it after they have already seen the price, not before. The honest answer is that it depends on three numbers you can find out in an afternoon: what you will really pay over 12 months, what one won job earns you, and how many enquiries you turn into jobs. This guide gives you Checkatrade's published prices, what the contract says, what the membership includes, and the break-even sum. Every Checkatrade price and term comes from its own pages, checked on 1 October 2026, and we mark anything we could not verify.

What Checkatrade charges

Checkatrade publishes three tiers on its pricing page. The entry prices are public. The price of the plan that sends leads is not, because Checkatrade sets it from your trade, the postcode areas you pick and how many leads a year you want.

One thing to check in writing: Checkatrade's own guide to membership ROI says the basic package builds your profile but you will not appear in search results, and that to appear you choose a lead volume. The pricing page also lists directory presence under Approved. Ask Checkatrade which one applies to the plan you are quoted.

"From £59" is a starting point, not a typical bill. Checkatrade's guide says larger memberships cost more depending on lead volume and coverage area, and that trades in high-demand areas may pay more. Members report much higher bills in public forum threads, from about £80 to £500 a month, collected by the Local Ladder cost tracker. We have not verified those figures and they are not Checkatrade's prices. Treat them as a sign of how wide the range runs, then get your own quote.

VAT is the line to ask about

Checkatrade's guide describes entry plans as "£30 + VAT", but the pricing page does not say whether VAT applies to each plan. VAT adds 20% (the GOV.UK standard rate). If you are VAT-registered you can reclaim it. If you are a sole trader under the registration threshold, you cannot, so £59 a month becomes £70.80 and a year costs £849.60. Ask for the price with and without VAT in writing.

What the 12-month contract means

This is where the monthly price misleads. Checkatrade's pricing page states that Fixed Plan memberships are for 12 months, and its renewals support page spells out the terms:

• The membership renews automatically every 12 months. You get reminders about 35, 14 and 7 days before.
• To change or cancel, you must phone Checkatrade during your renewal window. Replying to a renewal email or text does not cancel it.
• Cancelling your Direct Debit does not cancel the membership or your obligation to pay for the 12-month term.
• If you cancel, your profile comes off public listings on the renewal date and you stop appearing in searches and receiving leads.
• If you rejoin later, only a limited number of your previous reviews may reappear on the new profile.

So budget for the year, not the month. A £59 plan is a £708 commitment before VAT, and a £150 plan is £1,800.

What you get for the money

Checkatrade does real work for some trades, and it is fair to say so. According to its own pricing page, members complete up to 12 checks before getting the tick, including identity, proof of address, qualifications and a personal and business CCJ check. It also claims more than 48,000 member trades. Those claims are Checkatrade's own and we have not audited them.

• A recognised trust mark. A homeowner who has never heard of your business can still recognise the tick. That matters most when you are new and have no reviews anywhere else.
• Verified reviews on a platform homeowners already search. Reviews on a directory profile stay on that directory. They do not add to your own Google Business Profile.
• Leads with no marketing to run. On a lead plan you choose your trade, your postcodes and a yearly lead volume, then pay a fixed monthly amount. You do not manage ad accounts or a website.
• Extras. Job management tools, Checkatrade Pay and partner discounts (Checkatrade says up to £1,500 a year in average savings, which we have not verified).

What Checkatrade does not promise

• A guaranteed number of leads. Checkatrade describes its fixed plans as a set volume of leads for a set monthly amount, and its own lead-generation guidance says leads are never guaranteed. Ask what happens when you use up the yearly allowance, and what happens if Checkatrade delivers fewer.
• Exclusive enquiries. Checkatrade publishes no figure for how many members see the same enquiry. Third-party write-ups put it anywhere from a handful to 10 to 20 or more, and none of those figures is verifiable. A homeowner browsing the directory sees several profiles side by side, so plan on competing for the job.
• Ownership of what you build. Your reviews and profile live on Checkatrade. Leave, and the profile goes with them.

The break-even sum

Whether Checkatrade is worth it comes down to one division: a year of fees divided by the gross profit on a typical won job. The answer is how many jobs you must win just to get your money back. The table runs the sum for four example bills. The monthly figures are illustrative, not quotes, and exclude VAT.

Now convert wins into enquiries. If you need 4 won jobs a year and you win one enquiry in four, you need about 16 enquiries across the year, or roughly 1 or 2 a month, just to break even. Your own win rate is the number nobody can give you, which is why the cost calculator lets you enter your fee, your enquiries, your job value and your win rate, and shows the maths in full.

The same test applies to every channel, including ours. Google Ads management from £495 a month plus the £500 a month minimum ad spend is £995 a month. That recovers on one £1,500 gross-profit job or four £300 jobs, with ad spend paid straight to Google at cost and enquiries that belong to you alone. It costs more per month than a Checkatrade starter plan, so the comparison that matters is cost per won job, not the monthly fee.

Questions to put to Checkatrade before you sign

1. What is my exact monthly price, with and without VAT, for my trade and postcodes?
2. How many leads a year does that price assume, and is that number an estimate or a commitment?
3. What happens when I use up the allowance, and what happens if you deliver fewer leads than the estimate?
4. How many other members can receive the same enquiry in my category and area?
5. Does my plan put me in trade and area search results, or only when someone searches my business name?
6. What is the exact date I can cancel, and what is the notice process? Ask for the renewal date and the cancellation route in writing.

When Checkatrade is worth it, and when it is not

This is our judgement from the figures above, not a Checkatrade statistic.

If the sum does not work

You do not have to choose between Checkatrade and nothing. Most trades build channels they own alongside a directory and taper the directory as those channels grow. Start with a Google Business Profile and local SEO, add Google Ads for enquiries you do not share, and keep every review on an account you control. Our Checkatrade alternative page compares the two models side by side, Checkatrade vs Bark covers the other big directory, and own your leads vs renting them explains the economics. Our fees are on the pricing page, month-to-month, with 14 days' notice.

Sources & method

Checkatrade facts come from its own pages, read on 1 October 2026: the pricing page (join.checkatrade.com/pricing) for plan names, published prices, inclusions, the 12-month term, the 12 vetting checks, Checkatrade Pay fees and the 48,000+ member claim; the support page on membership renewals (checkatrade.com/support/trade/renewals/membership-renewals, created November 2025) for auto-renewal, the phone-only cancellation route, the Direct Debit point and the review treatment on rejoining; the Checkatrade blog guide "Is Checkatrade worth it?" (updated May 2026) for the "from around £30 + VAT" wording, the cost drivers and the statement that basic plans do not appear in search; and the Checkatrade blog on fixed membership and lead generation for the set-volume description and "leads are never guaranteed". The 20% VAT rate is the GOV.UK standard rate (gov.uk/vat-rates). Member-reported bills of about £80 to £500 a month come from the Local Ladder Checkatrade cost tracker (localadder.co.uk, published 31 July 2026, updated 8 September 2026), and the 10 to 20 or more members-per-enquiry estimate appears in third-party write-ups including Local Ladder and OptiMAX; we could not verify either, and Checkatrade publishes no equivalent figure. The break-even table is Scalepoint's own arithmetic on example bills, and the gross-profit figures are examples, not industry averages. Our own pricing comes from our pricing page. Checkatrade changes its terms, so confirm current prices and terms with Checkatrade before you sign.