Mitch vs paying for leads

Most tradesmen who sign up to a directory do it for the same reason: the diary has a hole in it. The enquiries arrive, but they sit on someone else's platform. Stop paying and the flow stops with it.

This page sets the three big UK names, Checkatrade, Rated People and TrustATrader, against the Google profile you keep building through Mitch.

What the UK sites say about joining

None of these publish a price you can plan around from their public pages, so treat the notes below as what each company says about itself, not as a quote.

Checkatrade. Its join page and its "What's New" page describe membership as a 12-month term, and the Opportunities Board lets you browse local leads for free and pay only for the ones you choose to answer. Get the term, the monthly figure and the VAT treatment in writing for your trade and postcode.

Rated People. Its own tradespeople page says earlier memberships were closed. The page offers a fixed lead plan, matched leads over a 12-month term, or an Opportunities Board account that is free until you unlock a lead. No prices appear, only a route to its sales team.

TrustATrader. Its join page says membership is limited in each area, so a place depends on who already holds one near you. It does not give a fee on that page.

MyBuilder and Bark. These work by a customer posting a job and tradespeople responding. We cover them separately on the Bark and MyBuilder page.

Side by side

Sole traders and the maths

If you work alone, a lead you cannot get to is money wasted, and an hour spent quoting is an hour not on the tools. So price a lead site by jobs won, not leads received. A made-up example: £300 of leads in a month, three jobs won, £100 of lead cost on each. Then look at the work itself. Was it the kind you want, or were you being undercut?

Mitch does not send you enquiries. It keeps your Google profile fed with fresh reviews and photos of real jobs, and Local and Complete draft a reply to each review for you to edit.

Twelve months on

A directory bill comes in every month, and the phone depends on it. Mitch is slower to show. Each finished job becomes a post, and on Local and above a review request, so a year in you have more reviews, more recent ones and a stack of jobs on show.

Mitch does not promise rankings and does not run ads. We will not tell you the phone will ring more.

Texting customers

A review request by text is a marketing-style message, so the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR) matter. The short version is that you need the person's agreement. Mitch asks for the customer's mobile number and a consent tick before anything is sent. For the detail, read the ICO's own PECR guidance rather than relying on a summary here.

When paying for leads is the better pick

• You have just started, with no Google reviews and no history to show.
• There is a gap in the diary this month and you need enquiries within days.
• You close most of the jobs you quote, so each one costs little.
• A place in your area is open on a limited-membership site, and you want it before a rival takes it.

Doing both

Nothing stops you keeping a directory listing while the Google profile builds. Every job from a lead can still become a Mitch post and a review request. Track the enquiries that come to you direct, and trim the lead spend only once that count holds steady. See the pricing page for the plans.