Checkatrade is a UK online directory where homeowners find and review tradespeople, from plumbers and electricians to roofers and landscapers. Trades pay a membership fee to be listed, and Checkatrade carries out checks on each business before it appears.
How Checkatrade works
A homeowner searches by trade and postcode, sees members who cover that area, and contacts one or more directly or through the site. Each member has a profile showing the services offered, the areas covered, photos of past work and customer reviews.
Before a business is listed, Checkatrade runs vetting checks. These typically cover identity, insurance and relevant qualifications or accreditations, though the exact checks vary by trade and change over time, so read Checkatrade’s own description of them at the time of writing (October 2026). Members pay a monthly fee, and the price depends on the trade and the size of the area they want to cover.
Reviews come from customers and are checked by Checkatrade before they are published. Members receive an overall score based on those reviews, and the platform encourages trades to ask every customer for one.
Why it matters
For a local trades business, Checkatrade does three jobs at once. It is a source of enquiries, because homeowners use it to find trades. It is a trust signal, because many customers recognise the name and the vetting behind it. And it is a strong local citation: a profile with your business name, contact details and service area on a well-known UK site.
Its reviews also reach customers who never search on the platform. Someone who finds you on Google may look you up on Checkatrade before picking up the phone, and a profile with plenty of recent, detailed reviews backs up what your website and Google Business Profile say.
What it does not do is replace your Google reviews. Checkatrade reviews do not appear as stars on your Google profile, and Google does not show star ratings in search results for reviews a business publishes about itself on its own site. You need both, and it pays not to send all your customers’ goodwill to one platform.
Common mistakes
- Different details on each platform. The business name, phone number and address on Checkatrade should match your website and Google profile, or the citation causes confusion rather than confidence.
- Asking for reviews in only one place. Sending every happy customer to Checkatrade and none to Google leaves you with few Google reviews, which weakens your position in the local pack.
- Treating the profile as finished. Old photos and a vague description waste a page that homeowners actually read before calling.
- Covering too wide an area. A bigger area usually costs more and brings enquiries from places you would rather not travel to.
- Not tracking where work comes from. Ask every new customer how they found you, so you can judge the membership against its cost.
How to act on it
If you are a member, audit your profile. Match the details to your Google Business Profile, rewrite the description in the words customers use, add recent photos of finished jobs, and check that the listed services and areas reflect the work you want more of. Linking from your website to your Checkatrade profile so visitors can read the reviews is fine and needs no special markup.
Then plan your review requests. A simple approach is to ask for a Google review first and offer Checkatrade as the alternative, so both profiles keep growing. If you are deciding whether to join, look at how many members already cover your postcode for your trade and how complete their profiles are, and compare it with similar platforms such as MyBuilder and Which? Trusted Traders. Whatever you choose, it works best alongside a sound SEO plan for trades and home services.