Checkatrade, MyBuilder or your own website? Where tradespeople should put their effort

If you work in a trade, you’ve probably been asked to join a directory. Checkatrade, MyBuilder, Rated People and others all promise a steady supply of local jobs. Some tradespeople do well from them. Others pay every month and wonder where the work is.

The real question isn’t which one to pick. It’s where your time and money should go first.

How the directories charge

They make their money in two main ways.

A monthly membership. Checkatrade’s pricing page shows a free profile for collecting reviews, an “Approved” plan at £30 a month, and “Growth” plans, which bring in enquiries, from £59 a month. It also says memberships “are for 12 months”, so you’re committing to a year.

Paying per lead. Other sites charge when a customer shows interest in you. MyBuilder’s own help pages, for example, described a fee charged when a homeowner shortlists you for a job, whether or not you win it. Fees change, so always check the current price before you sign up.

Either way, it’s a cost every month you’re on there, and it stops working the day you stop paying.

You’re building on someone else’s land

This is the part most people don’t think about. Every review you collect and every photo you upload to a directory profile belongs to that platform’s world, not yours. You can’t take it with you, and you don’t control the rules.

Platforms rise and fall. Prices go up. The way they rank trades changes. A new site takes over and the old one goes quiet. Years of reviews on a platform that’s lost its customers aren’t worth much. When you build on someone else’s platform, they decide what it’s worth.

Your own website is the part you own

Your website is the one place online that’s entirely yours. Your address, your words, your photos, your reviews, your way of getting in touch. Nobody can change the rules on it, and nobody can switch it off because you stopped paying a membership. (If you’re not sure you own yours, our guide on who owns your website explains what to check.)

That means every hour you put into it keeps paying you back. A project you add this year is still winning you work in five years. Every review you point people to helps your own name, not a directory’s.

It also helps you on Google. Your website and your Google Business Profile work together, and Google says complete and accurate business information helps you show up in local results.

Use the directories, but point them home

None of this means you should never use a directory. They can be a useful way in, especially when you’re starting out or have gaps in the diary. The trick is to use them to build your own business, not theirs:

• Put your website address on every profile you’re allowed to, so people can see more of your work.
• Ask happy customers for a Google review too, not only a directory review. Google reviews show up next to your own name, on the map.
• Put your best work on your own site first, then share it to the directories.
• Treat the directory as a top-up, not the whole plan. If you’d struggle the month you stopped paying, that’s a sign to build up your own site.

Where to start

If you have no website yet, start there. It doesn’t need to be big: a page for each kind of work you do, photos of real jobs, your area, and an easy way to get in touch. Our guide on what a trades website should include covers the essentials, and you can see how we built one for a builder in Bury St Edmunds.

If you’d like a website built around your trade, have a look at websites for trades.