The prices on Checkatrade's own page
These figures are from Checkatrade’s pricing page, opened on 27 October 2026. Free is described as a profile for collecting reviews. Approved, at £30 a month, is described as the plan for the Checkatrade tick and the tools, including when you are fully booked and not chasing more work. Growth, from £59 a month, is the card that talks about a stream of enquiries, customers booking from your profile, and a higher place in their search.
| Plan | Price shown | What that page says it is for |
|---|---|---|
| Free | £0 a month | A profile, so you can collect and show reviews. |
| Approved | £30 a month | The tick, review requests, job tools and a directory listing. Their FAQ on the page says this is the plan when you are not focused on getting more work. |
| Growth | From £59 a month | Enquiries on top of Approved, bookings from search or your profile, and the extras listed on the card. You then pick trade, postcodes and how many leads you want in a year. |
Under the cards, the same page asks for your trade, the postcodes, and how many leads you want in a year, then a fixed monthly cost. The number on the card is where their list starts. The number for a plumber in one town, or a roofer in another, is the quote after those choices. We are not going to guess it.
Their join page, opened the same day, does not print £30 or £59. It says you choose a plan and a number of job enquiries, and that the leads come at a monthly cost. Customers can call you, request a quote, or book from your profile.
The two pages were advertising a free period, and not the same one. The join page said two months free on fixed-plan memberships. The pricing page said the first month free. Both say eligibility and terms apply, and that fixed-plan memberships are for 12 months. Use the offer on the screen in front of you. The master terms, updated 13 October 2026, say the fees are the ones in your confirmation email, and that advertising is illustration rather than the contract.
How the membership is charged
The fixed-plan product terms, last updated 19 December 2024, say Checkatrade invoices that fee in advance, every month, from on or just after the day you start. Payment is due when the invoice arrives. In those terms a lead is a contact they send you: a call, a message, a quote request, or a click through to your website. They will estimate how many leads to expect. The estimate is not a promise, and they can stop once you reach it. How many you actually get depends on reviews, the postcodes, how complete the profile is, the season and demand.
The plain-English summary on the master terms says you do not receive leads unless you buy pay-as-you-go or a fixed plan. That matches the pricing page: £30 is described as the reputation plan, and “from £59” is the card about enquiries.
VAT is not pinned down across their public pages. The pricing page does not say whether £30 and £59 include it. Their blog on the monthly cost, last updated 19 December 2024, says the most basic plan starts from £30 plus VAT, and the FAQ there says the same. Further down, the same article says they charge VAT and that VAT is included in the monthly amount members pay. Those two lines do not agree. The blog also says a VAT-registered firm can reclaim the VAT. Use the quote, then the invoice.
On a joining fee, that blog says there isn’t one, and that members only pay a monthly fee. The master terms define an application fee of £250 excluding VAT that they may charge for the vetting checks, and they say that fee is non-refundable. “May” is their word. It is not something we can say every firm pays. Their summary says the fee detail sits in the confirmation email.
If a fee is overdue, those terms allow interest and a late-payment charge of £40. That is a charge for a missed payment. It is not part of the monthly price.
What else to count
The figure on the card is the start of the sum, not the end of it.
- The term. The cancellation help page, marked updated 09/26, says most memberships run for a fixed 12 months. The join page and the pricing page say the same for fixed plans. The master terms say the length is whatever your confirmation email states, and that it renews for the same length unless you cancel in the window. If you are offered 12 months, count twelve payments, not one.
- Credits, if you use the Opportunities Board. This is extra. You buy credits up front and spend them when you choose to unlock a lead. The support page, marked updated 09/26, says bundles of 10, 25, 50 or 100, a lower cost per credit on the bigger bundles, and that credits last six months and do not roll over. Unlocking, on that page, buys the contact details and the chance to quote, not the job. A lead with bad details, or one that does not look genuine, can be raised and reviewed against their lead quality policy. The product terms, effective 15 May 2026, say purchased credits do not expire, that promotional credits may, and that credits are non-refundable once bought except where the law says otherwise. Used credits are not returned if the customer does not go ahead. The help page and the terms do not say the same thing about expiry. Neither prints a price in pounds. The app shows the cost before you buy, and the credits before you unlock. Add what you actually paid.
- Checkatrade Pay.The Growth card says fees from 1.29% to 1.79% if you take the customer’s money that way. That is the cost of the payment tool, separate from the membership.
- Other products. The renewals page says sponsored listings, directories and trade priority cards sit outside the core membership, with their own cancellation terms. We did not find a separate price for them on the join page, the pricing page, or that renewals page. The terms index lists a product document for each.
- A renewal price that moves.The renewals page says the price may be updated each year, with the new figure in the messages about a month ahead. The master terms say they may increase the fees at renewal with at least 30 days’ notice.
- The enquiry you answered the next day.That line is not on Checkatrade’s invoice. It still belongs in your sum, because a lead you paid to receive and never answered cannot become a paid job. The missed enquiry calculator runs that from your own counts.
Cost per lead and cost per paid job
Cost per lead is what you paid Checkatrade that month, divided by the enquiries that reached you. Include the membership, any application fee you were actually charged, credits you spent, and credits that expired unused if yours expire. A customer who rang and also sent a message is still one enquiry.
Cost per paid job is the same spend, divided by the jobs you were paid for from those enquiries. This is the figure that says whether the membership earned its keep. Cost per lead can look tidy while cost per job does not, which is what happens when most of the enquiries never become work.
Set cost per paid job against what you keep on that sort of job after materials and labour, and before this marketing cost. The price on the customer’s quote is the wrong comparison.
Run it for two or three months. One quiet month, or one large boiler swap, will swing a single month around. The same method, written out for electricians and usable for any trade, is on is Checkatrade worth it for electricians.
A worked example with made-up numbers
Illustrative example. Every number below was invented so the arithmetic is easy to follow. This is not a Checkatrade price, not a client, and not a result.
Sketch, not a person: a one-van firm. In this made-up month the membership costs £160. That £160 is not the £30, and not the £59, on Checkatrade’s pricing page. Eight enquiries reach the firm. Cost per lead is £160 ÷ 8, which is £20. Two become paid jobs. Cost per paid job is £160 ÷ 2, which is £80.
Say the firm keeps £350 on a typical job after materials, before this marketing cost. That £350 is also made up. Two jobs are £700. Take off the £160 and £540 is left, on these figures.
Same sketch, a second made-up month. Still £160, still eight enquiries. The replies go out the next day. One paid job falls out the bottom. Cost per paid job is now £160. One job at £350 leaves £190. Nothing about a published Checkatrade price changed. The reply did.
Credits, if any were bought, go on top of the £160 before the division. This sketch leaves them out. Put your invoice and your diary in the boxes.
A fair way to look at it
Checkatrade is one way to be in front of people who are already looking for a tradesperson. On the plan that includes leads, they can call, ask for a quote, or book from your profile. Your own website, a Google listing and a referral are different bills. MyBuilder charges in a different shape again. None of that tells you, from the outside, that Checkatrade is a poor buy or a good one.
The fair test is your sheet. Work you wanted, in the area you cover, a cost per paid job under what you keep, and a reply while the customer is still choosing. Two or three months, then decide. Leaving is a separate step, and it has a window, which is next.
Checkatrade alternatives for UK trades goes through the other channels. Checkatrade vs MyBuilder vs Rated People is the three-way comparison. Missed call text back is the bit about the calls you cannot take on the tools.
How to cancel or leave
This is what Checkatrade publishes, checked on 27 October 2026. The detail is in the master terms (updated 13 October 2026) and the cancellation help page (marked updated 09/26). If a line here is coarser than your confirmation email, the email wins.
- You have two business days from the start date to cancel without paying anything further. Their summary says that is the case whichever membership you are on.
- After that, the help page says you cannot normally cancel partway through a fixed term. The membership runs to the end of the period you agreed.
- To stop the next period, the business owner calls 0333 014 6190. The summary says that call is no earlier than 35 days before the renewal date, and no later than the renewal date. Email does not do it. Replying to the renewal message does not do it. Cancelling the direct debit does not do it, and their terms say the fees for the rest of the term can still be owed.
- Miss the window and it renews for another period of the same length. Where the term is 12 months, the help page says the new term is another 12 months, and the charges apply.
- The renewals page also gives 02394 219 599 if you want to talk about changing the plan or cancelling. If your own renewal message has a direct number, use that one.
- Sponsored listings, directories and trade priority cards have different cancellation terms. Ask about them on the same call.
On money back: the master terms say fees already paid are non-refundable unless the agreement itself allows a refund. A pro-rata refund is written in for some endings, including where Checkatrade ends the agreement on 30 days’ notice, or where you end it because of a serious problem on their side. The help page says any refund is worked out from your account, and that a legitimate pro-rata refund, where one is due, comes back once the membership is closed. Whether that is your situation is in your contract, not on this page.
Shoogly sits on top of whatever you already pay for
Shoogly does not replace Checkatrade, and we are not asking you to leave it. The membership, your website, or a missed call can all land in one place. The reply goes out in your voice within minutes. It asks what the job is, where, when, and for a photo where that helps, then puts the qualified enquiry on your phone for you to book. A missed call is texted back in seconds from a background number, so the number on the van stays yours. It never gives a price and it never promises a day.
There is a one-off build and a flat monthly figure, agreed on a call once we have seen how your enquiries arrive. We do not publish the price. Three months minimum on the monthly side, then 30 days’ notice, and a 60-day money-back guarantee on the build. If the volume is too small to be worth it, we would rather say so on the call.
The electrician page is one trade version of that reply. The same job for other trades is linked below. The calculator is where you put your own missed-enquiry numbers, separate from the Checkatrade invoice.