Checkatrade costs the average tradesperson over £100 a month. For that, you get shared leads, price-driven customers, and a presence that vanishes the moment you stop paying. Google is free — and the leads it sends belong to you forever. So why are most trades still paying Checkatrade?
Let's be clear from the start: Checkatrade, Bark, MyBuilder, and similar platforms aren't scams. They work, after a fashion. But there's a fundamental difference between how they work and how Google works — and understanding that difference is probably the most important thing you can do for the long-term health of your trade business.
This article breaks it down honestly. Not to tell you what to do, but to make sure you're making a decision based on what's actually happening, not what the marketing tells you.
When a homeowner uses Checkatrade, they search for a trade in their area. They see a list of businesses — you and everyone else who's paid to be there. They might contact two, three, or five of you. You're not getting an exclusive lead. You're getting a chance to compete for one.
The customer on Checkatrade is often a price-shopper. The platform encourages quotes, comparison, and reviews — which means the business that wins is frequently the cheapest, not the best. If you've built your reputation on quality and reliability rather than undercutting everyone, you're fighting with one hand tied behind your back.
And here's the part that should bother every tradesperson who uses these platforms: the moment you stop paying, every review you've collected, every profile you've built, every bit of visibility you've earned — it's gone. You don't own any of it. Checkatrade owns it. You were renting.
Think of Checkatrade like renting a chair in a barber shop. While you're paying, you've got somewhere to sit and cut hair. The moment you stop paying, you're out — and someone else is in your chair. The customers weren't yours. The reputation wasn't yours. The chair wasn't yours.
When a homeowner searches "plumber near me" or "emergency electrician Stoke" on Google, they see three results in a map at the top of the page — the Local Pack. Below that, more organic results. The businesses in those spots didn't pay to be there. They earned it.
Google decides who appears based on a set of signals: how complete and active your Google Business Profile is, how many genuine reviews you have and how recently, whether your business information is consistent across the web, and how relevant your content is to the search. None of these require an ongoing subscription to Google. They require work — but work you do once and that compounds over time.
The customer searching on Google is also a fundamentally different kind of customer. They're not browsing a marketplace. They're looking for someone specific, often urgently. They've already decided to hire a trade — they just need to find the right one. That's a warmer, more committed lead than someone clicking through a comparison site.
Here's the clearest way to think about it.
Checkatrade is renting. You pay every month. The moment you stop, the visibility stops. The reviews stay on their platform, not yours. The leads you generated came through their system, not through any asset you own. Stop paying and start from zero.
Google is building. The work you put into your Google presence — your profile, your reviews, your content, your citations — compounds. A review from 2024 still helps you in 2026. A well-optimised profile doesn't need to be rebuilt every month. If you stop doing anything at all, your rankings won't drop overnight. You've built something that belongs to you.
That's the ownership question every tradesperson should ask themselves: if I stopped paying or stopped working on my marketing tomorrow, what would I have left? With Checkatrade, the answer is nothing. With Google, the answer is everything you've built.
We'll pull your real Google listing data — your rating and review count — show how that compares to a typical competitor in your area, and tell you what we'd look at first. Free, no obligation, no hard sell.
This is the objection most trades raise: "But I've got 200 reviews on Checkatrade. That's valuable."
It is valuable — but only while you're paying, and only on Checkatrade. Those reviews don't help you on Google. They don't help you when someone finds your website directly. They don't help you if you ever want to move away from the platform. They're locked in.
Google reviews, by contrast, appear next to your listing in Google Maps and Google Search — the places people are already looking. They contribute to your local ranking. They follow you as long as your Google Business Profile exists. And crucially, they're visible to anyone searching for your trade in your area, whether they've ever heard of Checkatrade or not.
If you have 200 Checkatrade reviews and 3 Google reviews, you're putting your best social proof where the fewest people will see it.
Here's where we'll be straight with you: Checkatrade and Google aren't mutually exclusive. There are trades who use both sensibly — particularly during the early months of building a Google presence, when the inbound leads haven't started flowing yet. Checkatrade can fill the gap while Google compounds.
The problem isn't using Checkatrade. The problem is relying on it exclusively, or treating it as your long-term strategy, when it's structurally a short-term tactic. Every month you spend only on Checkatrade is a month you're not building anything permanent.
The trades doing best long-term are the ones who used Checkatrade to keep the work flowing while they built their Google presence — and then, gradually, stopped needing Checkatrade at all. That's the right use of it: a bridge, not a destination.
The honest answer is that it takes consistent, unglamorous effort over several months — not overnight results. The main things that drive local Google rankings for trades are:
A complete, active Google Business Profile. Every field filled in, photos uploaded regularly, posts published at least once a week, and someone responding to every review. This is the single most important thing.
A steady stream of genuine Google reviews. Not bought, not faked — real reviews from real customers, requested consistently after every job. Volume and recency both matter.
Consistent business information across the web. Your name, address, and phone number need to be identical on Yell, Thomson Local, your website, Facebook, and anywhere else you appear. Inconsistencies confuse Google and suppress your ranking.
A fast, mobile-first website. Not a complex one — just one that loads quickly, explains clearly what you do and where you work, and makes it easy to call you.
None of this is technically difficult. All of it requires time and consistency. Which is exactly why most tradespeople don't do it — and exactly why the ones who do end up at the top of the results, taking all the calls.
Checkatrade solves a short-term problem (get leads now) while creating a long-term vulnerability (you never own the asset). Google solves both — but it takes longer to get there. The question isn't which one works. It's which one builds something that belongs to you.
If you're currently on Checkatrade and considering your options, the smartest move isn't to cancel it tomorrow. It's to start building your Google presence in parallel, with the goal of reducing and eventually eliminating your dependence on paid lead platforms. Give yourself six months to build the foundation — and then reassess whether the monthly Checkatrade fee is still worth paying.
Start with your Google Business Profile. Make sure it's claimed, fully completed, and that you're actively collecting reviews from happy customers. That one step, done properly, will move the needle faster than almost anything else you can do.
If you want help knowing where your Google presence currently stands — what's working, what's missing, and what would move you up the rankings — we offer a free audit. No charge, no obligation, and no waffle. Just a clear picture of where you are and what's possible.