Checkatrade Membership: Vetting, Costs and Reviews

Checkatrade membership is a paid subscription (with a free profile tier alongside it) that puts a UK trade’s vetted profile, reviews and optional lead plan on checkatrade.com, and at the time of writing (November 2026) Checkatrade’s own pricing page lists a free profile, an Approved tier at £30 a month and Growth plans from £59 a month on a 12-month fixed term. Our take: decide whether you are buying leads or buying a badge before you join, because the two tiers behave very differently, and write the renewal date in your calendar on day one because the contract renews for another year unless you cancel in the window. If you only want a public record of your business details and reviews, the free tier and the free UK directories come first. This guide covers how to join, the vetting checks, what each tier costs on Checkatrade’s own pages, reviews, the guarantee, how to edit or cancel, and what it honestly does for local SEO.

What we could and could not read

Checkatrade’s join and pricing pages (on join.checkatrade.com, including the FAQs on the pricing page) opened normally, and we read them for this guide. Its main checkatrade.com pages (support articles, the twelve checks page, the guarantee terms and review guidelines) refused our fetch tools with an access error when we tried. For those pages we relied on search-result summaries of Checkatrade’s own pages, and we flag every such point below as wording we could not open in full. Several of those pages are over a year old, so dates and wording may have moved, and the pages sometimes disagree with each other. Read the linked page before you act on any single line.

How a UK trade joins Checkatrade

Checkatrade’s join page sets out five steps:

1. Tell it your trade and the type of work you want. The page lists trades such as builders, cleaners, electricians, landscapers, painters, plumbers and roofers.
2. Pick the postcode areas you want to work in.
3. Select how many leads you would like each year.
4. Complete a quick ID, address and documentation check to unlock your leads. This is the vetting step.
5. Pay a monthly fee for a regular flow of leads.

The page also says eligibility criteria and terms apply, that fixed plan memberships run for 12 months, and that you can speak to an advisor by phone. It does not list the eligibility criteria itself, so ask for them before you pay. Checkatrade presents itself as the UK’s number one trade directory on its pricing page, which is its own claim and a UK-focused one.

A practical note on timing. The pricing page FAQ says that once the checks and your profile are finished you can start taking work, often within 24 hours. Checkatrade help articles (as summarized in search results) say approval usually takes a few days depending on how fast your documents are reviewed, and that a profile can then take up to 24 hours to appear. Plan for a few days and have your documents ready in advance.

The vetting checks: what Checkatrade says it does

Checkatrade’s pricing page FAQ says “all of our members undertake up to 12 checks before they get our seal of approval”, covering identity, address, qualifications, company history, financial and credit records, director searches and customer experience. Its twelve checks page, which refused our tools, is summarized in search results as listing these checks:

• ID and proof of address
• Qualifications
• An open-source media check
• Personal and business county court judgment (CCJ) checks
• Company history and financial checks
• A duplicate-applicant check and a director search
• Reviews on third-party websites

Two details matter in practice. First, some checks apply only to certain categories: Checkatrade’s articles say proof of six months’ trading history applies to particular categories only. Second, insurance is described differently on different pages. The pricing page lists public liability insurance as optional, while an onboarding help page (as summarized in search results) says Checkatrade will ask for proof and add a note to your profile if you cannot provide it, and its platform terms say it requests PLI documents from Approved tradespeople. Ask which applies to your trade before you apply. Checkatrade also says it checks members regularly during membership, including asking for updated proof of qualifications, and that failing its Checkatrade Standard can lead to suspension or termination. Treat the list as indicative and the application form as the final word.

If you want a feel for how a vetted-trades profile fits with other home-service directories, our Angi, Houzz and Thumbtack guide compares the US equivalents.

Checkatrade membership cost: Free, Approved and Growth

At the time of writing (November 2026), Checkatrade’s pricing page shows this ladder:

	Free	Approved	Growth
Price	£0 a month	£30 a month	From £59 a month
What it is	A free profile to collect reviews	The vetted, ticked listing	Approved plus leads and booking tools
Profile page and reviews	Business profile page, collect and display reviews	Yes	Yes
Checkatrade tick	Not listed	Yes	Yes
One-click review requests	Not listed	Yes	Yes
Job tools	Not listed	AI job management tools, quote-to-booking tools, emails, chats and calls in one app	Yes (includes everything in Approved)
Leads and booking	Not listed	Not listed on the pricing page	Flexible lead plans, direct booking from search or profile, £100-£200 search-ranking credit, profile insights
Payments	Not listed	Not listed	Checkatrade Pay, with fees listed as 1.29%-1.79%
Partner savings	Not listed	Up to £1,500 in partner savings	Yes

Points worth reading twice:

• Growth is the lead product. Checkatrade says you choose your trade, postcode areas and yearly lead volume for a fixed monthly cost, but the page does not publish a price per lead or lead numbers. Your quote depends on trade and area, so the real figure is what Checkatrade shows you at sign-up.
• Approved is the badge. A Checkatrade support article about the Approved membership, as summarized in search results, says Approved members do not appear in standard search results, so you should not expect leads from location or trade searches, though homeowners can still find you by business name. The pricing page, by contrast, lists “Appear in the UK’s No. 1 Trade Directory” under Approved, with an asterisk pointing to eligibility criteria and terms. Because the two pages read differently, ask exactly where an Approved profile appears before you pay.
• 12 months is the commitment. The pricing page footnote reads “Fixed Plan Memberships only. Memberships are for 12 months.”
• Promotions vary by page. The pricing page advertises the first month free and the join page advertises the first two months free, both subject to terms. The offer you get depends on the page you sign up through, so screenshot what you were promised.
• VAT and fees are not on the pricing page. It does not mention VAT, a joining fee or a setup fee. Checkatrade help articles that appeared in search results (we could not open them) describe the basic plan as “£30 + VAT” a month with no joining fee, which suggests VAT is added on top, but those articles are dated and the pricing page is silent, so confirm both on your order summary.

Compare that structure with free alternatives in our free business listing sites guide before you commit to a year.

Reviews on Checkatrade

The join page says reviews can be requested automatically or sent as a one-click request at any time, and defines “verified” as the reviewer having verified their review by SMS, email or phone call. Checkatrade’s support pages, as summarized in search results, add that every review goes through a verification and fraud detection process before it is published, using checks such as SMS confirmation, account history and platform activity, and that reviews which pass are normally published within 24 hours.

What you can and cannot do about a review, per Checkatrade’s review guidelines for trades and support article on understanding and managing reviews, as summarized in search results:

• You can report a review in the Trade App if it breaches the Review Guidelines, for example a fake review or inappropriate or defamatory content. Reports must be made within three months of publication.
• Checkatrade says it will not remove a review simply because you disagree with it, and it does not handle disputes between trades and customers directly.
• For defamatory reviews there is a separate notice and takedown process.
• Reviews are treated as a permanent part of a profile and are removed only in very limited circumstances. The reviewer owns the review and decides whether to edit it.
• Checkatrade also says it is a serious breach of its policy to offer a refund or repair on condition that a customer removes or changes a review.

The practical advice is to reply politely and build volume. Our guide to getting more Google reviews applies here too, because a handful of reviews on one site rarely settles a homeowner’s decision.

The Checkatrade guarantee

Checkatrade’s guarantee terms page refused our tools, so we are relying on search-result summaries of it. They describe a free, discretionary guarantee for homeowners if work does not meet Checkatrade’s standards or reasonable industry standards, with the most Checkatrade will pay set at £1,000 in total. The claim period differs between its pages: one says 6 months for jobs completed on or after 29 January 2026 (12 months before that), and an older terms page still says 12 months. As a trade, read the current terms before you advertise the guarantee, and do not describe it as your own warranty.

Edit your Checkatrade profile

Checkatrade’s account management support page, as summarized in search results, says contact details such as phone, email and company name are changed under My Details in the Trade App, and the profile description is edited under My Profile. It also says that if your documents expire your profile may be hidden until you update them. Menu names differ slightly between Checkatrade’s pages, so check the current app. Checkatrade also says a profile is hidden from searches when a membership payment is missed or a direct debit is cancelled, and that an Availability switch in the app can hide it on purpose. Whatever you change, match it to your website and Google Business Profile exactly. If you are not sure the details are consistent, our free NAP checker shows what the open web says about your business name, address and phone, and our duplicate listings guide explains how to clean up the rest.

Pause or cancel Checkatrade

Checkatrade’s cancellation support page, as summarized in search results, says:

• Most memberships run a fixed 12-month term.
• You can cancel only in the renewal window, described as the month leading up to your renewal date.
• If you miss it, the membership renews for another 12 months and charges apply.
• Stopping your direct debit does not cancel the contract, and speaking to the Checkatrade team is the only formal route. Replying to a renewal email or text does not cancel it either.
• Early cancellation is not normally possible during the fixed term.
• Its platform terms say that when a membership ends you lose access to the platform, including your invoices and quotes, so download them first.

It also points you to your own membership contract or confirmation email for the exact dates. There is no pause option in anything we could read. The free tier is the nearest thing to a fallback if you leave, if you still qualify for it.

Is there a free Checkatrade profile?

Checkatrade’s free accounts page, as summarized in search results, says non-members can create a free business account and profile so more people can find them, see their work and read reviews. Non-members do not get the phone and message buttons that vetted members get, so the free profile is closer to a placeholder that collects reviews than a lead source. The pricing page’s free tier is described similarly (a free profile to collect reviews). One pricing-page line says Checkatrade creates your business profile once you complete its 12 checks, so the pages are not perfectly aligned on when a free profile exists. Check the current sign-up flow on the day.

Does a Checkatrade listing help local SEO?

Here is what is defensible, and what is not. Checkatrade is on 11 of our trades and home-service citation lists (position 5 on them), and our catalog labels it paid (Checkatrade’s pricing page also lists a free profile tier, so freemium describes it more fully). It carries a domain rating of 74 in our catalog (a third-party backlink metric), so it sits among the stronger UK trade directories we track. A profile there is a public record of your name, address, phone and website on a trusted domain, which is what a citation is for. No independent source we found publishes a Checkatrade profile as a confirmed Google ranking factor, so the honest benefit is indirect: one more consistent place where customers and search engines can confirm you exist, plus the trust that comes from verified reviews.

Paying changes the lead flow and the badge, not your position in Google’s map results. If your goal is purely local SEO, the free route delivers the citation, and the paid tier is a sales decision. You can see where Checkatrade sits next to the other UK sites we rank on our United Kingdom citation sites page, and on the tradespersons citation list.

Free UK alternatives to Checkatrade

None of these is a Checkatrade replacement for lead generation, but each gives you a public record of your details at no cost:

• Google Business Profile. The foundation of local search for a trade, and where most customers read your reviews first.
• Bing Places. Free to claim, and it can import from Google.
• OpenStreetMap. A free, community-edited map whose data many apps read. See how to add your business to OpenStreetMap.
• Foursquare. Free to add or claim.
• The free Checkatrade profile, if open to you, to collect reviews without a subscription.

Other UK trade directories exist, such as MyBuilder and Rated People, which our electricians guide names alongside Checkatrade; check each one’s own pages for what it charges and what it promises.

A short checklist before you join

• Decide whether you want leads (Growth) or the badge (Approved), and ask where an Approved profile shows up.
• Get the eligibility criteria, the VAT treatment and any setup fee in writing.
• Note the renewal date and the cancellation window the day you sign.
• Have photo ID, proof of address, qualifications and public liability insurance ready.
• Keep your name, address and phone identical to your website and Google Business Profile.
• Screenshot the promotion you were offered.

Common mistakes with a Checkatrade membership

• Buying Approved and expecting leads. Check where the profile appears, because Checkatrade’s own pages differ.
• Stopping the direct debit to cancel. It does not end the contract.
• Missing the renewal window. Miss it and you are in for another 12 months.
• Arguing with a review in public. Checkatrade will not remove a review because you disagree; a calm reply works better.
• Quoting the guarantee as your own. It applies to work booked through Checkatrade, under its terms.