Bark, Checkatrade and MyBuilder Leads: What Trades Pay

Bark charges credits to respond to a customer, at £1.80 a credit plus VAT, and sets the number of credits lead by lead. MyBuilder is free to join and charges a shortlist fee, from £7 excluding VAT, only when a customer shares their details with you, while Checkatrade sells plans at £0, £30 and from £59 a month, with leads on a 12-month fixed plan, pay as you go or credits.

That's what each platform published on 2 November 2026. None of them publishes what a lead in your trade typically costs, and each charges at a different step, so the number worth comparing is what you pay for each job you win. The worked example below shows how to get it.

How do Bark, Checkatrade and MyBuilder charge for leads?

The prices aren't like for like. A Bark response, a MyBuilder shortlist and a Checkatrade lead, which can be a phone call or a click through to your website, are different steps towards a job.

How much do Bark leads cost?

Bark's help centre puts its current price at £1.80 a credit, and its terms add VAT on top. Every lead shows its cost in credits before you respond. Bark sets that number from the service, the size and scope of the job, the location and how ready the customer is to hire. In pounds, a lead costs its credits times £1.80, plus VAT: a lead shown at 10 credits would cost £18 plus VAT.

Bigger packs lower the price per credit, and so do credit pack subscriptions, set up through Bark's customer success team. Credits bought since 1 November 2025 expire three months after purchase, and unused credits can't be refunded.

How does Bark lead generation work?

A customer posts a request, and Bark sends matching leads to professionals for free. You pay only when you respond. Under Bark's terms, a customer can send a general request to up to five professionals, or contact one professional directly, and responding to either costs credits. Some leads carry a "1st to respond" signal, which means no other professional has contacted that customer yet.

Can you get Bark leads for free?

You can see Bark leads for free, but you can't respond without spending credits. There are two ways to get credits back, and neither pays out cash.

• Credit returns. Bark's terms let you return the credits for a general request within seven days if the phone number is invalid, the email bounces or the details aren't the customer's. Its help centre's credit return policy lists more reasons, such as the wrong service, misleading details and duplicate charges, and allows 14 days from purchase, at Bark's discretion. A customer who hired someone else, or never replied, doesn't qualify. Our comparison of lead replacement policies sets Bark's terms beside 13 other sellers'.
• The Starter Pack guarantee. If you buy a Starter Pack, use all of its credits and aren't hired by anyone you contacted, you can ask once for the same number of credits back.

If a lead isn't for you, Bark's "Not interested" button passes on it without spending credits.

How much does MyBuilder charge for leads?

MyBuilder charges no joining or membership fee. It charges a lead fee, which its terms call a shortlist fee, each time a customer shortlists you and their contact details are shared with you. Expressing interest in a job is free, as often as you like.

The fee is shown on each lead, excluding VAT, before you do anything that could share the customer's details. MyBuilder's terms say it's set from the likely size, value and location of the job, and its help centre says it can start from £7 and won't change after you respond. You pay it whether or not you win the job, invoiced weekly and taken from your card.

When a job is posted, MyBuilder alerts local tradespeople, and the customer can also invite up to ten tradespeople directly. The customer then decides whom to shortlist from your message and profile. We didn't find a published limit on how many trades one customer can shortlist.

Refunds are at MyBuilder's discretion and only as account credit towards future shortlist fees. For shortlists issued from 25 July 2026, its credit policy covers wrong or dead contact details, the wrong type of work, a duplicate shortlist and people looking for work. For a customer you can't reach, you must have contacted them within 48 hours, including a message through MyBuilder, and ask 7 to 20 days after the shortlist. Sponsored placement costs a monthly fee, priced on request.

Does Checkatrade charge per lead?

On one of its plans, yes. Checkatrade's plans for trades are Free at £0, Approved at £30 a month and Growth from £59 a month. Approved adds its vetting checks, the Checkatrade tick and job tools, but no monthly leads. Growth adds leads, as a fixed plan or pay as you go.

• Pay as you go. You set a monthly budget and pay for each lead, which can be a phone call, a message, a quote request or a click through to your website. The fee varies with the job value, channel, location, season and demand, and the current range is shown only in the members' area. You can be charged up to 120% of your budget in a month, billed in arrears, and Checkatrade may ask for a refundable deposit, typically a month's budget.
• Fixed plan. A set fee, invoiced monthly in advance, for 12 months, with an estimate of leads that isn't binding. Plans renew automatically for the same period unless notice is given before the renewal date.
• Opportunities Board. Leads that paying members haven't taken after a short delay, typically four hours, go on a board where you unlock them with credits. Credits come in bundles of 10, 25, 50 or 100 and last six months, but the price isn't on the public page. Each lead can be unlocked by a limited number of trades. Credits aren't refunded because a customer didn't go ahead, though an invalid lead is reviewed and its credits returned where appropriate.

On both lead plans, Checkatrade's terms say how many leads you get depends partly on your reviews, your areas and your profile. Its master terms also allow a non-refundable application fee of £250 plus VAT for vetting. Past the plan prices, the fees per lead and per credit are shown only to members, so that's where the public information stops.

What about Rated People and TrustATrader?

Rated People announced on 17 September 2026 that it had joined Checkatrade Group. Every job posted on Rated People is now matched with a tradesperson from Checkatrade's network, so getting those jobs means joining Checkatrade. Its help page for tradespeople describes a free account where you pay only to unlock a lead, and a fixed lead plan priced on your trade and area over 12 months. It doesn't publish prices.

TrustATrader is a membership directory. It says members never pay for their leads and pay no commission, and it limits memberships in each area. It doesn't publish the membership price.

What does one won job cost on each model?

Whichever platform or supplier you use, the sum is the same:

Cost per won job = (lead spend in the month + fixed fees in the month) ÷ jobs won that month

What changes is the step you pay for. Bark charges when you respond, MyBuilder when you're shortlisted, Checkatrade per lead or per month, and a lead supplier per lead delivered.

The table takes one window fitter's month through each model. Every number in it is invented to show the arithmetic. None is a price that Bark, MyBuilder, Checkatrade, POCKLA or anyone else charges, and none is a measured result. Each paid step costs the same invented £20, except the exclusive lead at £40, so the differences come from when each model charges.

The invented assumptions: on every model, you win one job in three real conversations. Half the customers you respond to, and half of pay-as-you-go leads, become a conversation. Three in four customers who shortlisted you, or whose enquiry was sold to you alone, pick up. The monthly plan gives you six conversations.

On these numbers, paying when shortlisted is cheapest per job and the exclusive lead is dearest. That ranking comes from the inputs, and one change moves it:

• If the shortlist fees on your jobs were £40, not £20, that row would be £160 a job, level with the exclusive lead.
• If the monthly plan brought three jobs, it would be £100 a job. If it brought none, the £300 would still be spent.
• If you won one job in five conversations, not three, every per-step row would rise by two-thirds, and paying to respond would cost £200 a job.

Now use your own numbers: the credits on the Bark leads you actually responded to, times £1.80 plus VAT; the shortlist fees on your MyBuilder invoices; your Checkatrade plan and lead fees, where pay-as-you-go campaigns show an average cost per lead; and each supplier's price per lead. Then count conversations and jobs from each source for three months. Our guide to working out cost per job sets out the sum stage by stage.

How does that compare with buying exclusive leads?

A lead supplier runs the ads, collects the enquiry and sells it to you. On a marketplace, the customer posts a job or finds you, and the platform charges you to make or receive contact.

An exclusive lead is sold once, to one buyer, so you aren't one of several trades replying to the same request. On Bark, a general request can draw up to five responses; on Checkatrade's Opportunities Board, a lead can go to more than one trade; on MyBuilder, the customer can shortlist several. The trade-off is that one buyer carries the whole cost of finding that customer, and you pay per lead whether or not it becomes a job.

On the platforms, your reviews also shape what you get: Checkatrade's terms tie lead volume partly to your reviews and profile, and MyBuilder's ranking weighs customer feedback. A supplier's price per lead is set by things like your criteria, area and volume instead, which matters most to a firm new to an area.

Some lead suppliers publish a starting price: Lead Pronto's exclusive window and door leads start from £15 excluding VAT, PoweredLeads' solar and heat pump leads from £45 per accepted lead, and POCKLA publishes an indicative range for each sector. Our comparison of UK lead generation companies sets suppliers side by side, and our guide to exclusive vs shared leads covers how to check a lead really is exclusive.

Is Bark, Checkatrade or MyBuilder worth it for your firm?

It depends on how you sell and how fast you respond. These rules of thumb follow from how each one charges:

• Bark fits a firm that sifts leads quickly, responds within minutes and spends its credits inside three months. You pay before the customer replies, so it rewards fast, selective responders.
• MyBuilder fits a trade with strong reviews that writes a good first message, because the customer picks whom to shortlist. You pay only when picked, but whether or not you win.
• Checkatrade fits a firm that wants a vetted directory listing and steady inbound work, and can commit to a 12-month fixed plan or manage a monthly budget.
• Exclusive leads fit installers selling larger, considered jobs, such as solar panels, replacement windows or a conservatory, who call back fast and would rather compete on the survey than on who replied first. They also suit a firm without many reviews yet.

Buying leads of any kind is the wrong move if your diary is full, if nobody can call back the same day, or if your measured cost per job is more than you make on a job.

Before you sign up anywhere, ask:

• What triggers the charge: a response, a shortlist, a lead or a month?
• Is the price shown before you commit, and is VAT on top?
• How many other trades can reach the same customer?
• What counts as a bad lead, how long do you have to report it, and is it credit or cash?
• How long is the term, does it renew automatically, and when do credits expire?

How we checked

We read each platform's own pricing pages, terms and help or support centres on 2 November 2026, and linked every page we used. We didn't sign up, buy credits or contact any platform. Prices and terms change, so check them before you sign up.

If you run one of these platforms and something here is wrong or out of date, email team@pockla.com and we'll correct it.

Where POCKLA fits

POCKLA isn't a marketplace. It sells qualified web leads to UK home-improvement installers, and each lead is sold once, to one buyer. Indicative prices per qualified web lead are £20–£50 for solar, windows and doors, conservatories, air source heat pumps and flooring, £20–£80 for insulation and £100–£300 for home extensions: ranges, not quotes, with the exact price agreed on a call, as the pricing page sets out. There's no setup fee, monthly fee or minimum term, and invalid numbers are returned with no time limit. Leads are followed up on WhatsApp or by SMS and go into any CRM or POCKLA Desk.