Checkatrade vs your own website: compare the cost of useful enquiries

Start with what you are actually buying

A directory profile sits within somebody else’s service. What it does for your business depends on the membership, visibility, categories and areas you have agreed. A website is a separate place to present your services, project evidence and enquiry process. It still needs visitors, whether they arrive through recommendations, local search, social posts, a van sign or paid promotion.

A new website does not come with an audience simply because it has gone live. Equally, paying for a listing does not tell you how many suitable customers will choose you. Start by identifying your actual problem: people cannot find you, people cannot judge whether you are right for the work, or enquiries arrive but do not turn into conversations. Those are different problems and may need different spending decisions.

• Need discovery: investigate where relevant customers already look.
• Need reassurance: show services, recent work and verifiable business information.
• Need better enquiries: clarify coverage, job type and the next step.
• Need better handling: fix response and follow-up before buying more attention.

Ask about the exact Checkatrade plan

Checkatrade’s current member guidance distinguishes Approved membership from plans that provide standard trade and location search visibility. It says Approved members can be found by business name but do not appear in standard search results. That matters if you assume any membership automatically brings people who are searching for a trade in your town. Check the current product description rather than relying on an old comparison article.

Ask for a written explanation of the specific plan, total charges and commitment you are considering. This guide does not publish a universal membership price: a number from another business or an older web page is not your quote. Keep the explanation with your budget notes so that you can compare what was promised with what you actually receive.

• Where can a homeowner find this profile on this plan?
• Which trade categories and areas are covered, and what changes cost extra?
• What charges apply, including tax, add-ons and any lead-related charges?
• What is the term, renewal process and cancellation notice?
• How are unsuitable enquiries handled under this agreement?
• What happens to profile access and permitted branding use if the membership ends?

Verify the visibility distinction in Checkatrade’s guidance on getting jobs.

Count the full website cost too

For a website, write down setup, recurring care, domain costs, content work and any paid promotion separately. Confirm ownership, access, cancellation and what can be transferred if you change suppliers. Do not assume that a website being described as “yours” answers every question about the domain, photographs, source files or hosting arrangement. Ask for the practical handover terms before buying.

Zece’s current starting offer is £149 setup plus £19 per month. At those starting rates, setup and twelve monthly payments total £377: £149 + (12 × £19). This is arithmetic using the advertised starting prices, not a complete quotation for every business. Confirm the agreed scope, applicable tax treatment and any separately charged items. Advertising spend is not included in that calculation.

Use our website quote comparison checklist to compare like-for-like scope.

See the current package and next step on our pricing page.

Work out the cost of suitable enquiries

Use the same time period for each channel and keep the original figures. An enquiry is suitable if it concerns work you offer, in an area you serve, on a timescale you can discuss. Define that before looking at the results. Otherwise it is easy to call every missed job a poor lead and hide a response problem, or count irrelevant messages as marketing success.

Here is a hypothetical example, not a Checkatrade tariff or a Zece customer result. A business spends £240 on one channel in a month. It receives 12 enquiries, of which six fit its services and coverage. Three become booked jobs. Its acquisition cost is £20 per enquiry, £40 per suitable enquiry and £80 per booked job. Each measure answers a different question.

• Cost per enquiry: £240 ÷ 12 = £20.
• Cost per suitable enquiry: £240 ÷ 6 = £40.
• Cost per booked job: £240 ÷ 3 = £80.
• If no jobs are booked, record £240 spent and zero bookings; a cost-per-booking figure cannot be calculated.

Keep a small enquiry log for a fair comparison

A private spreadsheet or notebook is enough to start. Give each enquiry one reference and record the date, source if known, service, general area, suitability, next action and outcome. Ask how the person heard about you naturally during the conversation. Do not add them twice because they first sent a directory message and then used your website form.

Write down why a job did not progress when the customer tells you. “Outside coverage”, “wanted a service we do not offer” and “could not reach us” suggest different changes. If you do not know, record “unknown” rather than inventing a reason. Keep customer details out of public reports and limit your working notes to what you need to manage the enquiry.

For gathering useful information without an intimidating first step, use our short enquiry-form brief.

Use a website and directory together when the roles make sense

For an illustrative building firm, a directory listing might introduce a homeowner to the company. The homeowner may then look for completed extensions, find the firm’s website and ask a specific question about a similar project. Both touchpoints helped. That is a reason to keep service descriptions, business details and genuine evidence consistent rather than arguing that only one channel deserves credit.

Check platform rules before republishing reviews or using membership badges. Link to verification where appropriate and keep claims current. On your own site, explain the work clearly and use a contact route you can monitor. Do not imply that a direct website enquiry prevents the customer from contacting other builders; people can compare firms regardless of how they found them.

If your site needs to explain larger projects clearly, see our approach to websites for builders.

For a different channel decision, read how Facebook and a website can work together.

Decide what to keep, improve or test next

If a paid channel regularly brings suitable work at a cost your business can support, keep that evidence in view. You do not need to cancel it just because you build a website. If it brings enquiries you cannot serve, first check coverage, categories and response handling. If you are buying visibility without understanding the plan, resolve that before adding more spend.

Choose a review date that respects the buying cycle and any contractual commitment. A bathroom or extension enquiry may take longer than a small repair to become a completed job. Review groups of enquiries that have had time to progress; do not compare a mature directory channel with a website launched yesterday and call the difference a reliable result. Start with a defined, affordable test and a working enquiry process.