What Checkatrade costs, and what you get for it
Checkatrade sells UK trades a monthly membership, typically quoted between £60 and £150 a month plus VAT depending on the trade, the area and how many categories you list under, with a 12 month term and a vetting check at the start. What you buy is a listing inside somebody else's search results, alongside every competitor in your postcode, and the membership stops the day you stop paying.
- Last measured
- September 2026
- Written for
- checkatrade cost
- Searched a month
- 590
Checkatrade does not publish one price, because there is not one. The quote depends on your trade, your postcode, how many categories you want to appear in, and what the sales conversation produces. The band above is what trades report paying and what the published tiers imply. Ask for the figure in writing, with VAT, before the vetting starts.
What the money buys
- A vetted badge, which is worth something real to a homeowner who has never heard of you.
- A profile inside a site that already ranks for your trade and your town, so you borrow its position.
- A review system customers already trust, and reviews that stay on Checkatrade rather than on your own site.
- A stream of leads that are sent to several trades at once, which is why the phone call you get is usually a price comparison.
What it does not buy
It does not buy you an asset. A Checkatrade profile is rented, it ranks under the directory's name rather than yours, and the reviews on it do not transfer anywhere. On the day you leave, the work it was producing stops and nothing you have built stays with you.
It also does not remove the competition from the page. The whole design of a directory is that the customer compares 3 of you, which is a fine deal for the customer and a margin problem for the trade.
When it is worth it
A directory membership is worth it when you are starting from nothing, have no reviews and no local reputation, and need work this month rather than next quarter. It buys you instant standing in front of people who would otherwise have no reason to ring you, and that is a real thing to buy.
When a site of your own is cheaper
The arithmetic is simple once you write it down. A year of Checkatrade at £100 a month plus VAT is around £1,440, and at the end of it you own nothing. A year of our cheapest plan is £564 with VAT in, and at the end of it you own a site that carries your name, your reviews and your towns, ranks under your own domain, and keeps working whether you renew or not. Most trades we speak to end up doing both for a year and then dropping the directory.
The one thing to avoid is doing neither, which is where most of the high street is: reachable only through a phone number somebody has to already have.