What Checkatrade published
These are the lines on join.checkatrade.com/pricing/ when we read it on 15 November 2026. They are not a quote for your trade.
| Plan | Price on the page | What the page says you get |
|---|---|---|
| Free | £0 a month | A profile and reviews. |
| Approved | £30 a month | The tick, review requests, job tools, and what they describe as the directory. The page also says partner savings of up to £1,500. That saving is not cash toward leads. |
| Growth | From £59 a month | Enquiries sized to the lead volume you choose, direct booking, higher placement described as £100 to £200 of credit, and Checkatrade Pay with fees from 1.29% to 1.79%. |
The page then asks for four things before you are on a lead plan: your trade, the work you want, the postcode areas, and how many leads you want in a year. “From £59” is the start of that form, not the direct debit.
VAT is easy to get wrong. The pricing page showed “£30/month” and “Prices from £59/mo” without the words “plus VAT” next to them. Checkatrade’s own article, Is Checkatrade worth it?, says basic plans start from around £30 plus VAT. Ask which figure is on the contract. Other websites publish member-reported bills of a few hundred pounds a month. Those reports are not on Checkatrade’s pricing page, so they stay out of this article. Your quote is the figure that goes in the worksheet.
The pricing page also says members undertake up to 12 checks, from identity and insurance through to a customer-experience check. Public liability insurance is marked optional there. Passing the checks is not the same thing as receiving enquiries.
The worksheet
Use the same weeks and the same meaning of a won job on both sides. A won job is one you were paid for, or that is firmly sold. A lead, a shortlist and a survey are earlier steps. The method is the one on Google Ads or bought leads.
| Line | Checkatrade | Google Ads |
|---|---|---|
| Months measured | Same dates | Same dates |
| Membership or media | The quote, not “from £59” | What you paid Google |
| Other fees | VAT if you cannot reclaim it, Pay fees if you used them | Management fee, VAT if you cannot reclaim it, call tracking if you pay for it |
| Enquiries received | From the membership | Calls and forms from the ads |
| In area and the right job | Your rule | The same rule |
| Won jobs | Paid or firmly sold | Paid or firmly sold |
| Cost per won job | All-in spend ÷ won jobs | All-in spend ÷ won jobs |
| Shared with other firms? | Write what Checkatrade told you | The searcher can phone several firms. You are not promised an exclusive. |
| What you keep if you leave | Ask what happens to reviews and the remaining term | The Google Ads account, if you hold Admin. See who owns the account. |
An illustration, so the division is obvious
These counts are made up. They are here because a headline monthly fee hides the jobs.
Illustration, not a member’s bill and not a recommendation. A Growth quote of £200 a month plus VAT at 20% is £240. Over three months that is £720. Six won jobs is £120 a won job. Two won jobs is £360 a won job. The membership line did not change.
On the Google Ads side, take the same three months. Suppose you paid Google £1,000 a month and a £299 management fee plus VAT (£358.80). All-in is about £1,358.80 a month, or £4,076.40 over the quarter. Twelve won jobs is about £340 a won job. Six won jobs is about £679. The ads can be the more expensive route. They can also be the one you can shrink next month, because you are not inside a lead-volume plan sized for the year.
Put your quote in the left column before you believe either paragraph. A London plumber and a heating engineer in rural Cumbria will not be offered the same Growth price, and they will not pay the same amount for a click. The worksheet still has one shape.
How to run a fair month
- Export or write down every Checkatrade enquiry and every Google Ads enquiry for the same four or five weeks.
- Mark in area, right job, booked and won with the lead sheet. One outcome each.
- Add the fees, including VAT you cannot reclaim. Leave out partner discounts and “up to £1,500” of savings. Those are not jobs.
- Divide. Then look at speed. If Checkatrade leads sit until the next morning and Google Ads calls are answered in the van, you have not compared the channels. You have compared your follow-up.
Checkatrade Pay, at 1.29% to 1.79% on the pricing page, belongs in the sum only for the jobs you actually took payment on that way. It is a small line. It is still a line.
If you are pricing the Google Ads side for a particular trade, use the published click ranges rather than a national average. The plumbing and heating study is the first of those: Google Ads cost for plumbers and heating engineers.
Watch for the person who starts on Checkatrade and then searches your company name. That Google click is the same job, not a second win, and it is not evidence that cold searches are cheap. Put your name on its own line in the search terms habit, and keep it out of both cost-per-won-job figures. One paid job, one source.
Ask these before you accept the quote
The pricing page will not answer all of this. The quote, or the person who sends it, should. Write the answers next to the worksheet so a later bill can be checked against what you were told.
- Is the monthly figure plus VAT, and is that the figure on the contract? The pricing page we read did not print “plus VAT” beside £30. Their own article did.
- Which postcodes and which trades are inside the price? A quote for one town is not a quote for the county.
- How many other firms are offered the same enquiry? If they will not say, write “not stated” rather than assuming you are the only one.
- What happens to unused lead volume, and to reviews, if you leave before the term ends?
- Which enquiries from the last month would you have refused? Price the plan against jobs you would have taken, not against the number of notifications.
Then run the same five ideas at the Google Ads column: VAT, the towns, whether the searcher can phone several firms, what you keep if you leave, and which clicks were the wrong job. The account-ownership guide is the “what you keep” answer on the Google side.
Score the last ten notifications before you renew. This mix is made up, so you can see the division. Yours will differ.
| What they were | Count | Goes into the cost per won job? |
|---|---|---|
| Outside the postcodes you bought | 3 | No. They are a reason to tighten the quote. |
| Wrong trade | 2 | No. |
| The same person who already called from Google Ads | 1 | No. One job, one source. |
| Right job, quoted, not won | 2 | No. A quote is not a paid job. |
| Paid | 2 | Yes. Divide the month’s membership by these two, not by ten. |
Questions from owners
How much does Checkatrade cost in the UK?
On 15 November 2026 the pricing page listed Free at £0 a month, Approved at £30 a month, and Growth from £59 a month. Growth is not a single national price. Checkatrade asks for your trade, the postcode areas and how many leads you want over a year, then quotes. Confirm VAT on that quote. Their own article describes basic plans as from around £30 plus VAT.
Does the £30 plan include leads?
Approved, at £30 a month on that page, is the reputation plan: the tick, reviews, and tools. The steps on the same page say you pick postcodes and a yearly lead volume to “get a regular flow of leads for a fixed monthly cost”, which is the Growth description, priced from £59 a month. Read your own quote before assuming £30 includes enquiries.
Are Checkatrade leads exclusive?
Checkatrade’s pricing page does not state how many other members receive the same enquiry. Do not invent a number. Ask, on the quote, whether an enquiry is shared and with how many businesses, and write the answer on the worksheet.
What should I include in the Checkatrade cost?
The monthly membership for the months you are measuring, VAT if you cannot reclaim it, Checkatrade Pay fees if you take payment that way (published from 1.29% to 1.79% on Growth), and any extra such as the £100 to £200 search credit mentioned on the pricing page if you are actually paying for it. Then divide by jobs you were paid for.
What should I include on the Google Ads side?
Everything you paid Google, plus management or software you would not have paid without the ads, plus VAT you cannot reclaim. A click is not a job. Use the same won-job definition as on the Checkatrade side, over the same weeks.
Is Google Ads always cheaper per job?
No. A firm that already wins well from Checkatrade, answers quickly, and has a modest quote can be cheaper there. A firm that pays for a year of membership and wins two jobs is expensive, whatever the monthly headline was. Run the same month both ways before you cancel either.
Does this apply outside England?
Checkatrade sells to trades across the UK, and the pricing page asks for your postcode areas, so a quote in Cornwall, the Central Belt or Belfast can differ from a quote in London. Google Ads clicks differ by town as well. Use your quote and your towns. A national “from £59” cannot stand in for either.
Can I use both?
Yes, if the sheet keeps the sources apart. A job that came from Checkatrade must not also be credited to Google Ads. Double counting is how both channels look cheaper than they are.
What should I ask Checkatrade before I accept a Growth quote?
Ask whether the monthly figure is plus VAT, which postcodes and trades it covers, how many other firms see the same enquiry, and what happens to unused lead volume and to your reviews if you leave early. Then mark which of last month’s enquiries you would have refused, and price the plan against jobs you would have taken. Write “not stated” where they will not answer, and do not fill the gap with a figure from another website.
Where the figures come from
Checked on 15 November 2026 unless a source prints its own date.
- Checkatrade pricing. Free £0 a month, Approved £30 a month, Growth from £59 a month. Pay fees from 1.29% to 1.79%. Quote depends on trade, postcodes and yearly lead volume. Page read 15 November 2026. The page’s own modified time was 9 February 2026.
- Is Checkatrade worth it?. Checkatrade’s own article. Basic plans “from around £30 + VAT per month”. The pricing page itself did not print “+ VAT” beside £30 when we read it.
- Google Ads or bought leads. Local PPC Experts. Same definition of a won job on both routes. Illustrative £600 and £450 examples on that page are illustrations.