Is MyBuilder worth it for tradesmen in 2026?

MyBuilder won't bill you £1,500 a year up front the way Checkatrade can, and for a lot of trades that's the appeal: no membership, you only pay when you want to quote on a job. But pay-per-lead isn't the same as cheap. You're charged to contact a homeowner whether you win the work or not, you're often one of several trades quoting on the same job, and your real cost per booked job is the lead price divided by how often you actually win.

So is it worth it? For some trades, in some areas, as a short-term tap you can turn on and off, yes. As the thing you build a business on, no. This is the honest version: what MyBuilder really costs in 2026, what you get for it, the catch nobody mentions when they tell you to sign up, who it genuinely suits, and the cheaper route that ends with leads you own instead of rent.

What MyBuilder actually costs in 2026

MyBuilder charges no monthly membership and instead bills per lead, with the cost set by job size, from a few pounds for a small job up to around £30 or more for a large project.

Pay-per-lead, not a subscription

The headline difference from Checkatrade is that MyBuilder doesn't lock you into an annual fee. You pay only when you choose to contact a homeowner about a job, and the price scales with the size of the work. MyBuilder's own how-it-works pages set out this pay-as-you-go model. For a trade who wants to dip in and out, that flexibility is the real selling point, and it's a genuine one.

The real cost is per job won, not per lead

A lead that costs a tenner looks cheap until you remember you pay it whether or not you win the work. If you quote on five jobs at a tenner each and land one, that job cost you fifty quid in leads, not ten. The number that matters isn't the lead price on the screen, it's the lead price divided by your win rate. On a competitive platform where several trades quote the same job, that win rate is rarely as high as you'd hope.

How it stacks up against Checkatrade

Checkatrade can run past £1,000 plus VAT a year as a fixed membership, so MyBuilder is usually cheaper to test and far cheaper if you only want the odd job. But cheaper to start isn't the same as better value. We lay the two side by side in Checkatrade versus your own website and in is Checkatrade worth it; the per-lead model just moves where the cost lands, it doesn't remove it.

What you get for your money

For your per-lead spend MyBuilder gives you access to homeowners actively posting jobs, a profile with reviews, and a verification badge, which can bring real work to a trade with no other channels switched on.

Access to live, posted jobs

The genuine value is reach. Homeowners post real jobs they want doing, and you can put yourself in front of them without waiting to be found on Google. For a newer trade with no reviews and no website yet, that's a way to get the phone ringing while you build everything else. Used like that, as a starter tap, MyBuilder does what it says.

A profile, reviews and a badge

You build a MyBuilder profile with past work and customer reviews, and the platform's verification and vetting give a nervous homeowner some reassurance. That trust layer is part of what you're paying for. The snag, covered below, is that the trust you build there is locked to their platform, not carried with you, so it stops working the day you stop paying.

It works while you're not looking

Unlike chasing every job yourself, the platform keeps surfacing leads in the background. For a one-man band with no time for marketing, that convenience has a value. The question is whether renting that convenience indefinitely beats spending the same money once on channels that keep working for free, which is where the verdict turns.

The catch nobody mentions

The catch with MyBuilder is that you compete on price for shared leads you pay for either way, and every review and bit of reputation you build stays on the platform rather than transferring to you.

You're competing on price

When several trades can quote the same posted job, the homeowner often picks on price, and a race to the bottom is no way to run a business. You can win plenty of work and still squeeze your own margins doing it. The trades who do well respond within minutes and have a strong review profile, so they're the obvious choice, but that's a high bar to clear on every lead you pay for.

The reviews aren't yours

This is the one that costs trades the most and gets mentioned the least. Years of five-star reviews on MyBuilder belong to MyBuilder. Stop paying and that reputation doesn't follow you to Google or your own site; you start again. Google reviews and testimonials on a website you own stay yours whatever you do next. Building your name somewhere you control is the difference between an asset and a rental.

Read the cancellation terms

Before you lean on any platform, know how you leave it and what you keep. Citizens Advice has clear guidance on consumer contracts and your rights worth a read before you commit spend. With pay-per-lead the lock-in is softer than an annual membership, but the deeper tie is the reputation you can't take with you, so don't make the platform the only place your good name lives.

Who MyBuilder genuinely suits

MyBuilder suits newer trades with no other lead source yet, trades who want occasional fill-in work without an annual commitment, and those in busy urban areas where enough jobs are posted to make the per-lead spend pay back.

The trade just starting out

If you've no reviews, no website and no word of mouth yet, MyBuilder gets you in front of paying customers from day one. As a way to land your first jobs and earn your first reviews while you build owned channels, it earns its place. The mistake is treating that starter phase as permanent rather than as the bridge it should be.

The trade who wants it occasional

Because there's no membership, MyBuilder works for a trade who's mostly booked on word of mouth but wants to top up a quiet week. You turn it on, quote a couple of jobs, turn it off. That on-off flexibility is something an annual subscription can't match, and for fill-in work it's a fair tool.

The trade in a busy patch

In a dense urban area with lots of jobs posted, the volume can be high enough that even a modest win rate pays back the lead costs. In a quiet rural patch with few postings, the same spend buys far less. Your area decides a lot here, so judge it on your own postcode, not on someone else's results.

The honest verdict, and the cheaper route you own

The verdict: MyBuilder is a reasonable short-term tap but a poor long-term plan, because a free Google Business Profile, reviews and a website you own win cheaper, warmer work over time without a per-lead charge.

Use it as a bridge, not a home

The sensible play is to use MyBuilder to keep work coming while you build the channels that don't charge per lead, then wind down the spend as they take over. Track what each lead actually costs you per job won. The month your own Google, reviews and referrals are filling the diary is the month the per-lead spend stops earning its keep. We map out those free channels in how to get leads without paying Checkatrade.

What owning it looks like

A free Google Business Profile puts you on Maps. Steady Google reviews lift you up the local pack and stay yours. A website you own, from £395 as a one-off with optional hosting at £20/month, catches the searches and closes the customer. None of it charges per lead, and over a year it costs less than a quarter on most platforms while building something you keep. The tradesman website cost page has the figures.

The bottom line: stop renting your reputation

MyBuilder can pay its way for a season. It shouldn't be where your business lives, because the work and the reviews never become yours. I'll build you a free mockup of your actual business before you pay anything, so you can see the site your leads should point at. A one-pager is £395 (founding price; £500 after the first 10 clients), a full site £595, no contract, usually live in about a week. Apply at sitework.uk/#apply.