Checkatrade, MyBuilder or Your Own Customers: What Electricians Should Use

Checkatrade has three tiers. Free is £0 a month and gives you a free profile to collect reviews. Approved is £30 a month. Growth has prices from £59 a month, set by your trade, the postcode areas you pick and the number of leads you want each year. Checkatrade's support page says Approved members do not appear in standard search results.

MyBuilder is free to join and you can respond to as many leads as you like. Its sign-up page says: "If you're shortlisted, we charge you a fee for the customer's contact details."

Rated People is now part of Checkatrade Group. Its help page says memberships are closed and its leads go to Checkatrade tradespeople.

For the full price comparison, including Bark, read what Checkatrade, MyBuilder, Bark and Rated People cost in 2026.

An Approved profile establishes your presence on Checkatrade, but Checkatrade says Approved members do not appear in standard search results, so paid access is what brings job opportunities. For electrical work, Checkatrade says applicants need the qualifications required for regulated work and gives NICEIC or an equivalent body as its example. Its joining guidance also asks for public liability insurance.

That helps a customer understand your credentials, but it is not a substitute for explaining the scope, exclusions and certification attached to the job you are quoting. Measure results by job type and postcode, not by the number of contacts a dashboard shows. If you want to leave, Checkatrade's support page says you must call during the renewal window about a month before the 12-month term ends. Email and stopping the direct debit do not cancel it. Full steps are in how to cancel Checkatrade.

MyBuilder. Customers post work and you choose whether to respond. You are charged when a customer shortlists you, and a shortlist is an introduction, not a booked job. The model suits an electrician who is selective about job type, travel and likely value. Log every shortlist fee, not only the jobs you win, or a busy month can hide an acquisition cost that eats the margin.

MyJobQuote. It uses credits, through a rolling monthly subscription or pay as you go, and you decide which job details to unlock. It also asks electricians for evidence of relevant qualifications. Subscription credits are not savings if they push you to unlock weak-fit jobs.

Bark. A broader services marketplace where you spend credits to contact leads you choose. Bark says it takes no commission on work won.

TrustATrader. An annual membership directory rather than a per-lead marketplace. It says membership is limited by trade and area and that it charges no commission or lead fee. Which? Trusted Traders is an assessed endorsement, and its trader FAQ explains the assessment route, including arrangements for some scheme-registered electricians.

Judge a platform by the journey to paid work, not by notifications or profile views.

• Cost per usable enquiry: platform spend divided by enquiries that fit your trade, area and availability.
• Cost per quote: platform spend divided by quotes you could provide.
• Cost per won job: platform spend divided by jobs accepted.
• Profit after acquisition: the job's gross profit minus the platform cost attributed to winning it.
• Later value: repeat work and referrals from that customer, recorded separately from the first lead.

Run it over a fixed period long enough to include completed jobs and collected payments, with each platform in its own column. Take your fee, divide it by your net margin, and that is the extra revenue the platform must produce before it pays for itself. Record why you declined an opportunity too, because a low conversion rate can mean weak enquiries, the wrong service radius, slow response or a quote that missed the brief. If you cannot say where a won customer came from, you cannot make a sound renewal decision.

Lead platforms also push prices down when several electricians quote one job. Price at the going rate for your market rather than as the cheapest, because customers who pick the cheapest quote are the likeliest to query invoices. Reviews protect price: an electrician with many strong reviews wins enquiries at normal rates while a thin profile discounts to compensate.

BrightLocal's Local Consumer Review Survey 2026 found that 47% of consumers won't use a business with fewer than 20 reviews, and 31% now only use businesses rated 4.5 stars or higher, up from 17% the year before. A thin, low-rated profile is filtered out before a customer compares your quote with anyone else's, on Checkatrade and on Google alike.

Collect reviews from every completed job. On Checkatrade a customer submits the job first and then rates it, so walk them through it at the end of the job rather than sending a link later. Complete the profile with photos of recent work and all your qualifications and insurance, and respond to enquiries quickly.

A Business Profile is free to create, and Google says it can show your phone number and website on Search and Maps at no charge. Pair it with a complete, verified listing, a simple website with local service pages that target "[service] [town]" and a contact route you actually answer. A website is not a magic lead machine, but customers can return to the same address without finding you again inside someone else's marketplace.

Ownership matters most after the first job. Keep the customer's details with permission, record the work completed, follow up when it is useful, ask for a review and make it easy for them to come back or refer someone. Build referral relationships with other trades and past customers. The per-lead cost of these channels falls as they grow, while a platform fee repeats every year however established you are. For the full playbook, read how to get an electrician business onto page one of Google and 18 ways to get more electrician customers.

One owned advantage is answering fast, and you cannot answer every enquiry from the top of a ladder. Tradehand has an assistant, with automation on paid plans, that can draft and chase the quote and book the job in. Free includes the manual tools and the Assistant with £1 of usage a month: 5% of each payment Tradehand takes, card fees included. Paid plans from £19 a month, billed yearly. They add automation and more usage. Basic payment fees on your own jobs: From 1.25% + 20p, deducted automatically when the customer pays. Grow and Advanced have lower Tradehand payment fees. See how it works.

A platform makes sense for a new business without reviews, when you enter a new area with no reputation, or when you have capacity to fill quickly and cannot wait 6 to 12 months for search to work. It works best when you commit to collecting reviews and keeping the profile strong.

Own channels make more sense once you have traded for two years or more, have a base of past customers, collect Google reviews consistently, or find that Checkatrade shoppers get several quotes and convert poorly. For most electricians the best path is to use a platform for the first year or two while building Google reviews and a website, then move that spend into search or Google Ads. The goal is to own your lead generation rather than rent it.