The prices on their own pages
| Route | What you pay | When you pay |
|---|---|---|
| Bark | £1.80 per credit at the standard UK rate. Packs lower the price per credit. The lead shows its credit cost first. | When you choose to respond. Credits bought from 1 November 2025 expire after three months. |
| MyBuilder | No joining or membership fee. Lead fee shown on the job, and it can start from £7. | When the homeowner shortlists you. The fee is not adjusted after you respond. |
| Rated People | Do not plan on a 2025 membership price. | Trade reports say accounts closed on 16 September 2026. Confirm before you rely on this. |
| Google Ads | Whatever the clicks cost, plus a management fee if you have one. Published click ranges are in the trade studies, not in this table. | Google bills the clicks. You bill yourself for the fee. A click is earlier than a shortlist. |
Bark’s help page says the number of credits depends on the lead, and that you see it before you respond. It does not publish a national “this job is 12 credits”. Anyone who tells you a typical Bark lead is a fixed pound figure has multiplied £1.80 by a credit count they observed, not by a tariff in the help centre. Use the count on the lead in front of you.
MyBuilder is the opposite shape. The 28 October 2024 fees article is still the one the help centre served: nothing until a shortlist, and no membership. The calculation article adds the floor, “can start from £7”, and says the fee depends on what the customer entered, such as size and materials. A £7 minimum is not a prediction. The same article says the fee will not be changed after you respond, so the moment to refuse a job is before you send the message, not after you have seen the customer’s phone number.
Rated People, stated carefully
Two trade sites, Local Adder and Book a Builder UK, report that Rated People Limited closed every trade account on 16 September 2026, that a winding-up resolution was passed, and that on 17 September 2026 Checkatrade Group bought selected assets, including the brand and the website, and not the memberships. They cite Companies House and the companies’ own announcements. This page has not copied the filing. If you were a member, the practical questions are whether you were charged after 16 September, whether your reviews are still visible, and whether a homeowner enquiry now expects a Checkatrade membership. Those answers belong to the emails you were sent and to the live sites, not to a 2025 price guide that still says £35 a month.
For the worksheet, Rated People is a closed column unless you are reconciling a bill from before that date.
One illustration of the trap
Made-up counts. You spend 10 Bark credits on a lead. At £1.80 that is £18, and you knew the £18 before you pressed respond. You do this five times in a month, £90, and you win one job. The cost per won job from Bark is £90 before any credits that expired unused. Over the same month, Google Ads costs £400 of clicks plus a fee and produces one won job or three. You cannot know which channel won by staring at £18 versus a £6 click. You can know by the end of the sheet.
Put both on the lead sheet with the source filled in. A job that started on Bark and then searched your name must not be counted twice. The comparison method is the same one used for Checkatrade: fees in, won jobs only, same weeks.
What to do with a quote this week
- For Bark, write down the credits on the next five leads you would have bought, times £1.80 or your pack rate. Note the expiry date on the balance.
- For MyBuilder, write the fee shown on the job before you reply. If the fee is a large share of the gross profit, do not reply.
- For Google Ads, take last month’s invoice, not a blog’s click range. The ranges are a bracket. The invoice is the bill.
- Count won jobs by source. If a source has no won jobs, its cost per won job is the whole spend, not zero.
A joiner in rural Scotland and a bathroom fitter in Birmingham will see different MyBuilder fees and different Google Ads clicks. Bark’s £1.80 is the UK credit price on the help page, and the credits per lead still move with the job. Fill the sheet with your towns. The column headings travel.
Price five leads before you buy a pack
A credit pack lowers the price per credit. It also leaves you holding credits. Bark’s help page says credits bought from 1 November 2025 expire three months after purchase. A cheaper credit you never spend is not a saving.
- Open the next five leads you would actually answer. Write the credits shown on each one.
- Multiply by £1.80, then again by whatever pack rate you are being offered. The gap is the discount. The total is the money.
- Ask what one won job from those five would have to leave after labour and materials. If the answer is “more than the job is worth”, do not buy the pack to make the credits feel cheaper.
- Put the expiry date on the same note. Credits still there a week before they die are part of this month’s cost, even if you did not respond to anything.
MyBuilder does not have this trap, because there is no pack and no fee until a shortlist. The trap there is replying to a fee that is already a large share of the job. Refuse it on the screen that shows the fee, before the homeowner’s number is shared.
Keep a line for the leads you priced and did not take. Date, the job they described, the credit cost on the screen, and “did not respond”. Those rows are part of the pack even though you were never shortlisted. A pack that looks cheap at the till is expensive if four of the five leads were the wrong job and the credits still expire. On MyBuilder the same line is the fee you saw and walked away from, which cost nothing and still tells you the jobs that platform is sending.
Read the description before you spend the credits. Refuse it on that screen when the postcode is one you will not travel to, when they need someone tonight and you cannot go, or when the trade is not yours. Responding is what the credit is for. A message sent to “just check” is a credit spent. The words are already in the lead. You do not need a reply to know it is the wrong job.
Questions from owners
How much does a Bark lead cost?
Bark’s UK help page, read on 15 November 2026, prices a credit at £1.80 at the standard rate, with packs cheaper per credit. Each lead costs a number of credits, and that number is shown before you respond. A lead is not £1.80. Multiply £1.80 by the credits on that lead, then remember you pay whether or not you win the job.
Do Bark credits expire?
Yes. Bark’s help page says credits bought from 1 November 2025 expire three months after purchase. Credits bought before that date were given 12 months. Unused credits are a cost even when you won nothing.
How much does MyBuilder cost?
MyBuilder’s fees article, dated 28 October 2024, says there is no joining fee and no membership fee. You pay when a homeowner shortlists you. The calculation article says the fee is shown before you respond, can start from £7, and is not changed afterwards. The fee on a large job can be far above £7. Read the number on the job, not the floor.
Is a MyBuilder shortlist the same as a booked job?
No. A shortlist means the homeowner wants you to contact them, and that is when the fee is charged. You can still lose the quote. MyBuilder’s own fee article says the platform is designed so that jobs you win cover the fees over time, including leads you do not win. That is their claim. Your worksheet is the check.
Can I still buy Rated People leads?
Not on the terms people were sold in 2025, if the September 2026 reports are right. Local Adder and Book a Builder UK both write that Rated People Limited closed trade accounts on 16 September 2026 and that Checkatrade Group bought the brand and the website, not the memberships. We have not reproduced a Companies House filing on this page. Look up Rated People Limited yourself, and look at the live site, before you budget for it. Homeowner jobs that still arrive under that name are described, in those reports, as going to Checkatrade members.
How do I compare any of them with Google Ads?
Same weeks, same won job, all fees in. For Bark, add every credit you spent, including expired ones and leads you lost. For MyBuilder, add every shortlist fee. For Google Ads, add the media bill and the management fee. Divide each by won jobs. A £15 lead shared with other firms can cost more per won job than a £10 click you answered first.
Are these prices the same across the UK?
Bark says the credit price varies by country and shows £1.80 on the en-GB article. MyBuilder shows the fee on the individual job, so a loft in London and a fence in rural Wales are not the same fee. Google Ads clicks vary by town as well. The worksheet is national. The numbers you type in are local.
Should I stop the directories if Google Ads is running?
Only after a month on the same sheet. Directories can be the better route for planned work you can quote in the evening. They are a poor route if you pay for shortlists you never phone back. The follow-up has to be equal or you are not comparing the channel.
Should I buy a cheaper Bark credit pack before I have used any leads?
Not until you have priced the leads you would actually answer. A pack lowers the price per credit, and credits bought from 1 November 2025 expire three months after purchase. Write the credits on the next few leads times your rate, including the pack rate, and see what one won job would have to be worth. Unused credits that expire are part of the cost.
Should I record Bark leads I did not respond to?
Yes. Write the date, the job, the credit cost on the screen, and that you did not respond. Credits bought from 1 November 2025 still expire three months after purchase, so an unused credit is part of the pack. On MyBuilder the same note is the fee you saw and refused, which cost nothing and still shows what the platform is sending.
Where the figures come from
Checked on 15 November 2026 unless a source prints its own date.
- What is a credit and how much does it cost?. Bark Help Centre, en-GB, read 15 November 2026. £1.80 per credit at the standard rate. Packs can cost less per credit. Credits bought from 1 November 2025 expire three months after purchase. The credit cost is shown on the lead before you respond.
- What are the fees?. MyBuilder Support, dated 28 October 2024 on the article, still the text served on 15 November 2026. You pay when a homeowner shortlists you. No joining fee and no membership fee.
- How are lead fees calculated?. MyBuilder Support, read 15 November 2026. Fee shown before you respond, can start from £7, not adjusted after you respond.
- Rated People has closed to tradespeople. Local Adder’s report: trade accounts closed 16 September 2026 and Checkatrade Group bought the brand and website. This is a secondary report. Confirm on Rated People’s site and at Companies House.
- Rated People liquidation. Book a Builder UK’s account of the same dates. Again, a secondary report, not the filing itself.