The best Checkatrade alternatives for builders in 2026
The best alternative depends on the work you want. For established extension builders, an exclusive lead generation service beats any directory, because nobody else quotes your enquiry. For small, quick jobs, MyBuilder or Rated People can still earn their keep. Here are six real options, compared honestly.
Most builders don't leave Checkatrade because the platform is bad. They leave because of what shared leads do to their margins: one homeowner enquiry, several members see it, five builders quote the same extension. Whoever prices lowest usually wins, and everyone else paid to lose.
That model is fine for the platform, because it sells the same enquiry more than once. It's a worse deal for you, especially on high-ticket work where a single quote takes an evening. Here's the full field, including our own service, first on the list, with our cards on the table.
Lewis's own take, including where Checkatrade still makes sense.
Alternative
Lead exclusivity
Pricing model
Best for
Unlimitely
✔ Exclusive: one builder per 30-mile area
Fixed price per lead, agreed up front
Established extension builders
Checkatrade
✗ Typically shared
Annual membership (varies by trade and area)
Directory visibility as one channel
MyBuilder
✗ Shared shortlist
Pay per shortlisted lead, no membership
Small, quick jobs
Rated People
✗ Shared with a handful of trades
Subscription plus per-lead credits
Occasional lead top-ups
Bark
✗ Shared with several professionals
Pay per credit to contact customers
Trades covering many service types
Google Local Services / Business Profile
Direct to you, but rivals appear alongside
Pay per lead / free profile
Builders with strong reviews
Your own marketing
✔ Exclusive by definition
Your time plus ad spend
Builders with time to learn
01
Unlimitely: exclusive extension leads
Full disclosure first: Unlimitely is our service, so weigh this entry accordingly. It's not a directory listing. You're buying a revenue system, the North Star Framework, installed for you: Meta ads that reach homeowners planning an extension before they hit a shared quote list, qualification on budget, job type and timeframe, and an AI that texts every enquiry the moment it lands, keeps following up, and books the serious ones into phone calls. You just take the call.
Every enquiry goes to you alone: one builder per 30-mile radius, at a fixed price per lead agreed before anything goes live. Every lead's name, number and details live in a dashboard you can see, and the leads are yours to keep, forever.
Best for: established extension builders who want a predictable pipeline of exclusive, qualified enquiries. Not for builders just starting out, or anyone shopping for the cheapest possible lead.
Pros
Every lead is exclusive: never shared, never sold twice
Enquiries pre-qualified on your own criteria
The AI chases every enquiry and books the calls for you
Month to month, pause or cancel whenever
Direct with the founder, not an account manager
Cons
One builder per area means your patch may be taken
Built for extension-type work, not odd jobs
Needs you to turn up for the calls the AI books
02
MyBuilder
MyBuilder flips the directory model: homeowners post a job, trades express interest, and you pay a fee when the homeowner shortlists you. There's no annual membership, so it's easy to dip in and out. The catch is the same one that pushes builders off Checkatrade: the homeowner usually shortlists several trades, so you're still quoting against competitors for a lead you paid for. Fees vary by job size; check their current rates.
Best for: small, quick jobs and builders who'd rather pay as they go than commit to a membership. We've compared the two models in full in Checkatrade vs MyBuilder.
Pros
No annual membership fee
Pay only when a homeowner shortlists you
Decent flow of small-job enquiries
Cons
Shortlists put you head-to-head with other trades
Bidding dynamic pushes prices down
You pay for shortlists you don't convert
03
Rated People
Rated People sits between the two: you pay a subscription, then spend credits on the leads you want to chase. Homeowner jobs are shared with a small number of trades rather than the whole directory, which softens the race but doesn't remove it. Lead quality is mixed, some enquiries ready to buy and others early-stage browsers, so budget for a hit rate, not a strike rate, and check their current rates, which vary by trade and area.
Best for: topping up a quiet month rather than carrying your whole pipeline.
Pros
You choose which leads to spend credits on
Jobs shared with a limited number of trades
Covers most trade categories
Cons
Subscription plus credits adds up regardless of jobs won
Leads still shared, so you're rarely the only quote
Variable enquiry quality
04
Bark
Bark is a general services marketplace, everything from dog walkers to accountants, with building work as one category among hundreds. You buy credits to contact customers who've posted a request, you pay whether or not the customer replies, and the same request typically goes out to several professionals. For a builder it's the loosest fit on this list: the platform isn't built around trades, and the enquiries reflect that.
Best for: multi-service trades happy to sift a high volume of mixed-quality requests.
Pros
Pay as you go, no membership
High volume of requests
Cons
Credits spent even when customers never reply
Not trade-specific, so enquiry quality varies widely
Several professionals contact the same customer
05
Google Local Services & Google Business Profile
Two related plays. Google Local Services ads sit at the very top of search results, you pay per lead, and enquiries come straight to you by call or message rather than through a shared pool, though rival advertisers appear alongside you, so the homeowner may still ring three firms. Availability depends on your trade category and area.
A Google Business Profile, meanwhile, is free: reviews, photos and posts that catch homeowners searching "extension builder near me". Neither runs itself. Reviews and response speed decide who wins here.
Best for: builders with a strong review base who want search-driven enquiries alongside another channel.
Pros
Enquiries come direct to you, not resold
Business Profile costs nothing but time
Catches homeowners actively searching
Cons
Local Services availability varies by trade and area
Thin review profiles get buried
Search volume limits how far it scales
06
Doing your own marketing
Run your own Facebook ads, build your own landing page, follow up your own enquiries. Every lead is exclusive by definition, you own everything, and nothing on this list beats it on paper.
In practice it's a second trade: ad platforms punish inexperience with wasted spend, and the follow-up work lands on your evenings. Some builders genuinely enjoy it and do well. Most find the learning curve costs more than it saves.
Best for: builders with time to learn, budget to burn on testing, and the patience to treat marketing as a skill in its own right.
Pros
Fully exclusive leads, no middleman
Every pound of ad spend works for you alone
You build an asset you own
Cons
Steep, expensive learning curve
Eats evenings you could spend quoting or building
No one to answer for results but you
How to choose
Match the channel to the job size. If your bread and butter is small, fast work like repairs, garden walls and day-rate jobs, a shared-lead platform can pay its way, because quoting costs you minutes, not evenings.
If you're quoting £50k+ extensions, every shared enquiry means hours of survey and pricing work against four other builders, and the maths turns against you fast. We've broken that calculation down in Is Checkatrade worth it?
And if you're weighing the two big directories against each other, the honest answer is that they share the same flaw. See Checkatrade vs MyBuilder for the detail.
"We want you to be the best builder in your area. That's why we only take one." Lewis Ford, founder of Unlimitely
Find out if your area is still open
One builder per 30-mile radius. A free strategy call tells you straight whether yours is available.
What is the best alternative to Checkatrade for builders in the UK?+
For established builders who want exclusive enquiries, a dedicated lead generation service is the strongest alternative. Unlimitely, for example, supplies qualified home extension enquiries to one builder per 30-mile area, so no competitor ever quotes the same job. For small, quick jobs, MyBuilder and Rated People remain workable. Builders with strong Google reviews should also look at Google Local Services ads and a well-kept Google Business Profile.
Do Checkatrade alternatives share leads with other builders?+
Most do. MyBuilder, Rated People and Bark all pass the same homeowner enquiry to more than one tradesperson, so you end up quoting against other builders for a lead you paid for. The exceptions are exclusive lead generation services and your own marketing, where every enquiry comes to you alone.
Is it worth leaving Checkatrade completely?+
Not always. Many builders keep a directory profile for the visibility and the reviews while moving their main pipeline to an exclusive source. Run both side by side for a few months and compare the cost per job won, not the cost per lead, then decide.
How is Unlimitely different from Checkatrade?+
Checkatrade is a directory: you pay a membership and compete with other vetted members for shared enquiries. Unlimitely is a lead generation service: it runs Meta ad campaigns for one home extension builder per 30-mile area, qualifies every enquiry on budget, job type and timeframe, and its AI books qualified homeowners into a phone call with that builder alone, at a fixed price per lead agreed before anything goes live.
Get leads that are actually yours
Book a free strategy call and find out if your area is still available for exclusive extension leads.
Unlimitely