Checkatrade vs Building Your Own Customer Base: Honest Comparison

Checkatrade is the UK's largest trade directory, with over 40,000 tradespeople listed and millions of customer searches per year. For electricians, it offers:

• A profile page showing your qualifications, insurance, and customer reviews
• Visibility to customers searching for electricians in your area
• A lead generation mechanism — customers submit jobs and you receive the details
• A review system linked to actual jobs (reviews are verified against submitted jobs)
• Marketing support including a website badge

The cost:

Checkatrade fees vary and are not always published transparently. Current pricing typically involves a membership fee of £800–£1,200/year for a sole trader, with variations based on trade category and region. Some plans include lead credits; others charge per lead additionally.

The honest question to ask: how many jobs do you need to win from Checkatrade to cover the membership fee, and how does that compare to what you could achieve investing the same effort (and money) into building your own channels?

Let's work through the numbers for a typical domestic electrician:

Scenario: £1,000/year Checkatrade membership

• You need roughly £5,000–£7,000 in additional revenue to justify the membership (assuming 20–25% net margin)
• At an average job value of £350 (mix of EICRs, consumer units, fault finding), you need 14–20 additional jobs per year from Checkatrade
• That's roughly 1–2 jobs per month

Is 1–2 extra jobs per month realistic from a good Checkatrade profile? For most electricians with 20+ reviews and a 4.8+ rating, yes — often significantly more. For a new profile with few reviews, considerably less.

The key variable is your review count and rating. A Checkatrade profile with 50+ verified reviews at 4.9 stars generates meaningful enquiries. A profile with 8 reviews at 4.4 is largely invisible to discriminating customers.

The maths tend to work best for businesses that:

• Actively collect Checkatrade reviews from every completed job (not just occasional ones)
• Respond quickly to enquiries received through the platform
• Have a reasonably complete profile with qualifications and photos

The alternative to paying Checkatrade is investing the same time and money in building channels you own. The key owned channels:

Google Business Profile + reviews

Free to create and maintain. A GBP with 50+ reviews at 4.9 stars drives significant local search visibility. Investment: time to collect reviews and occasional updates. No per-lead cost. Builds compounding value over time.

Website with local SEO

A simple website targeting "[service] [town]" keywords costs £10–£20/month to host. One-time SEO investment of £300–£600 to optimise your key pages. Ongoing maintenance is minimal. Once ranking, generates free leads indefinitely.

Referral programme

Asking existing customers for referrals and offering a modest incentive. Cost: almost nothing. A well-executed referral programme from 100 past customers can generate 10–20 additional jobs per year.

The advantage of owned channels:

Your GBP, website, and referral network have compound value. Each additional review makes you more visible. Each satisfied customer who refers a friend adds to your base. The per-lead cost decreases over time as the asset base grows. Compare this to Checkatrade, where you pay the same membership every year regardless of how established you are.

Checkatrade makes sense if:

• You're a new business without an established customer base or reviews
• You're entering a new service area where you don't have existing reputation
• You have capacity you need to fill quickly and can't wait 6–12 months for SEO to kick in
• You're committed to actively collecting reviews and maintaining a strong profile
• Your average job value is high enough that each converted lead significantly exceeds the effective cost per lead

Own channels make more sense if:

• You've been in business 2+ years and have a base of past customers to work from
• You're already collecting Google reviews consistently
• Your conversion rate from Checkatrade leads is poor (Checkatrade shoppers tend to get multiple quotes)
• Your membership cost is high relative to your average job value

The optimal strategy for most electricians:

Use Checkatrade for the first 1–2 years to fill capacity while building your Google reviews and website presence. As your owned channels strengthen, reduce reliance on Checkatrade and invest that money in SEO or Google Ads instead. The goal is to own your lead generation rather than renting it.

If you're on Checkatrade, maximise it:

• Get reviews on every job — Checkatrade reviews require customers to submit a job first, then rate it. Walk customers through the process at the end of the job rather than sending a link later. Consistent review collection is the single biggest driver of enquiry volume on the platform
• Complete your profile — upload photos of recent work, add all your qualifications and insurance details, write a genuine bio. Profiles that look complete and professional convert better
• Respond to enquiries within minutes — Checkatrade enquiries are time-sensitive. Being the first tradesperson to respond to a lead converts at much higher rates than responding hours later
• Track your ROI — note every job that comes from Checkatrade and the revenue it generates. Review the numbers every 6 months. If you're not covering the membership cost 3x over, it's not worth renewing