UK tradespeople face hidden lead costs up to £500 a month

A new open dataset from Local Ladder says the UK’s biggest trade directories do not publish complete price lists, while tradespeople report paying far more than advertised entry prices. The tracker aims to show what shared-lead services actually cost and how many competitors may see each enquiry.

Why it matters: - UK tradespeople can face unpredictable lead costs that may run far beyond advertised starting prices. - The tracker says shared-lead directories can also spread one enquiry to multiple competitors, which can quickly dilute the value of each paid lead. - The dataset is free to reuse under a CC BY 4.0 licence, giving journalists and researchers a source they can verify and republish.

What happened: - Local Ladder published the UK Trade Lead Cost Tracker, a new open dataset covering Checkatrade, MyBuilder, Bark, Rated People and TrustATrader. - The Q3 2026 edition compiles 53 sourced data points from official pricing pages, terms and conditions, help centres, national press and tradespeople’s own reports. - The tracker says none of the five biggest UK trade directories publishes a complete price list. - The dataset is updated quarterly, and tradespeople can submit corrections that are reviewed within one working day.

The details: - Rated People and TrustATrader publish no prices at all and quote only by phone. - Checkatrade advertises plans from £30 a month plus VAT, but tradespeople in three separate 2026 forum threads reported bills of over £300, £390 and £500 a month on 12-month fixed contracts. - MyBuilder’s only published figure is lead fees starting “from £7,” but one tradesperson filmed on-screen fees of £540 and £940 for two large projects. - Bark cut the validity of its pre-paid credits from 12 months to 3 in November 2025. - Bark credits are non-refundable, and the per-credit price appears in its help centre rather than on its pricing page. - The tracker says directory leads are shared among up to 3 tradespeople on Rated People, up to 5 on Bark, and reportedly 10 to 20 or more members per enquiry on Checkatrade, which does not publish an official figure. - For comparison, the tracker includes Google Ads data showing a single top-of-page click costs between £0.90 and £16.37 across the ten biggest UK trades. - The full dataset, a CSV download and a print-ready infographic are available in the tracker and are free for editorial use with attribution.

Between the lines: - The gap between advertised entry prices and reported real-world bills suggests the headline price is often not the price tradespeople end up paying. - Side-by-side reporting of conflicting figures, rather than averaging them, makes the tracker more useful for scrutiny and comparison. - Local Ladder excluded several widely copied pricing claims after the original sources could no longer be found, signaling a focus on verifiable records over repeated claims. - Founder Elliot Blackler argues that tradespeople often sign 12-month contracts before seeing the full price, and says the gap between advertised and actual costs is the key story.

What's next: - Local Ladder will keep updating the tracker each quarter. - The company is inviting tradespeople to share what they pay so the dataset can be corrected and expanded. - Further per-trade breakdowns, the source list and additional quotes are available on request.

The bottom line: - For UK tradespeople, shared leads appear to be a high-variance cost with limited pricing transparency, and the tracker gives the clearest public snapshot yet of what those leads may actually cost.