The fact that Checkatrade are consumer focussed and spend vast amounts of money on advertising on TV and radio to attract consumers to the website is one of the main reasons tradesmen should be drawn to the service. By focussing on the consumer Checkatrade are actually serving the tradesmen as best they can by generating brand awareness and customers for their tradesmen. Rated people are probably to second most popular trade recommendation site in the UK.
They turn the Checkatrade model on its head by focussing on the tradesman. The site does a great job of vetting the customers for the tradesmen by asking lots of questions about the type of job, specific details of the jobs and even qualifies when the job is needed and the customers budget.
What this means for the tradesmen is they only incur costs when they see the right job, in the right location at the right price. It also means less time is wasted providing quotes for people who are maybe contacting lots and lots of companies as only 3 tradesmen can buy the details of the job.
The site seems to work very well, however for consumers we feel that it lacks the ability to easily search and contact tradesmen based on their feedback. It does however send the customer the profiles of the tradesmen so they can check the previous feedback from other customers before choosing which one to hire. Like Checkatrade, TrustATrader is also focused on vetting tradesmen and then advertising their services online for consumers to search.
They are very similar to Checkatrade and also advertise regularly on TV and Radio. TrustATrader are also very consumer focussed, however they seem to have a few unique selling points for tradesmen which we think Checkatrade should look into too.
They allow tradesmen to take card payments with no monthly fees, they limit membership in each area to prevent too much competition and they offer a text a trader service too. They seem to generally do a better job of selling their services to traders too making them look more appealing for those looking to join. It is a slightly smaller challenger with a very similar offering. However in terms of vetting customers and jobs it does not seem to be anywhere near as detailed as Rated People.
Rated People represents tens of thousands of individual tradies , making them one of the bigger fish in the industry. Reputation-wise, they seem to weather the market well.
The company has faced criticism over how they enable people to list through their service. They offer minimal vetting compared to the likes of Checkatrade. However, they still offer credit vetting and encourage TrustMark registration , which is hardly wrong advice. The graph above is what is can see using Ahrefs tools, below is the stats from RP website. By using their own analytics their stats are IMO likely to be accurate.
This all adds up to a site that gets a lot of regular visits, and these visitors tend to stick around. Rated People aims to give tradespeople access to everything they need to get regular work. The biggest selling point for Rated People is that it puts your average trade person in touch with local people with genuine job leads.
Each job lead gives a professional tradesperson the chance to reach out with a quote. Instead, you can proactively reach out to customers and jobs that play into your experience, services and availability. It means you have a lot of control over a job and can set a good price for your time and effort. As you might expect, Rated People has its own app that paying tradespeople can use to manage their jobs. This means all you ever need to do is tap on the icon on your home screen and access potential leads you might want to contact.
What sets Rated People apart from other directories is that it offers two services when it comes to apps. This system is likely to be worth the price you pay if you struggle to keep track of paying clients or job lists on your own. If you have a job or lead outside of the app or site, you can add it into the same tracker to keep track of everything from one interface.
Beyond this, if you sign up as an annual customer with Rated People, you can claim discounts off high street brands and even the fuel and tools you need to actually provide a good service. For the price you pay in a monthly subscription model, these freebies are fairly lucrative.
In the background, Rated People actively markets your business. They do this by advertising via search engines and showing up in local search results. As explained above, they have an impressive reach, and visitors tend to stick around.
Equifax vetting is generally a quick identity and finance screening. This takes place to ensure you are who you say you are. Here are the top lead numbers you can expect for specific jobs on the site, based on day figures in July As you can see, gardeners, builders, carpenters and painters tend to get more leads than most. However, keep in mind this is during a summer period, and these job rates may vary throughout the year.
In fact, there are two — one for local tradespeople and one for potential customers. If you want to search for specific leads or go more in-depth, you can. This price seems to be fairly competitive as-is, compared to services such as Checkatrade that charge more for the year on the whole. MyBuilder, for example, tends to be the biggest competing company for value for money. They offer the cheapest rates and free signup. Essentially, the money you pay each month gives you access to leads.
The cost of customers you can contact depends on location, budget, demand, and how big the job actually is. Therefore, more lucrative customers are going to cost you more money per contact. Rated People further back this up by only letting three tradespeople bid for each job. That means your prospective customers have two other quotes to consider, making the field pretty small.
At the time of writing, there are over 11, reviews! I always recommend you look for a review or two from users of the service. Remember, however, that people tend to leave a review when they have a bad experience. It might be a fairly personal review, too, so keep things in perspective.
The Trust Pilot feedback mainly scores Rated People well for ease of use as well as the speed of the connection. Many reviewers also claim that the site offers a good selection of tradies from the customer perspective, while reviews from tradespeople seem to be a little split. Constantly getting No answer and refunds. Tried and failed many times to get my money back but talking to a brick wall.
Managers didn't have the courage to speak to me. Only good for picking up a random time filling job. Giving them one star is way too much, steer well clear they are a rip off!!!
Very poor company, Shocking leads. The leads are expensive. Total waste of money. Product quality: It's good for what it is, some jobs can turn into good ones, some not so good, the product range is impressive though and their app. Seems to be full of people who just want to know what their dreams will cost. Never mind the fact that we have to pay for the lead. When I first started out I used rated people to help get me going.
I did get some alright jobs from it but generally found it was people wanting things done for nothing and not much flexibility on start dates. Fine if your sat at home with no work and don't mind working for peanuts. Rated people are thieves. Trades people beware. They take your money and refuse refunds.
The leads are fake! Dont bother. You will never see your money again, much better companies to work with out there. We were with Rated People for a long time. Eventually it was not worth our while to carry on using this site as it was too pricey for the return. Felt like there were fake job posts and disputes are not dealt with. Will not be using again. Used to use Rated People but soon found out that the leads weren't realistic or properly vetted.
Spent a lot of time and money on this service without any realistic return. They generate a hell of a lot of leads, but they are not realistic at all. The consumer is led to believe that they can dictate price to a tradesman, This is not the way forward.
This product is a race to the bottom expensive for no guarantees and no backup for the trades. I would not recommend this site to anyone. They are just after your money. Other than that good app and ideal to fill in work. I have taken a looking into rated people in the past. The leads provided are generally priced unreasonably low.
Possibly down to the expectations of the customer, however beating in mind we have to pay for the lead, not secured work, perhaps they should be doing something to make these more realistic for the work required. Another company just out there to try and make money. Rope you in to a 12 month contract then took the money out my account 4 days in a row then wondered why I went to the bank to stop them taking funds. I use this to fill diary for quiet periods, Easy enough to use, Although struggle to get them to add extra categories, They are not giving homeowners realistic price ranges, I use Bark too and they give clients a price range so they are aware, instead of asking homeowners to choose a budget that is NOT realistic with industry standard prices, Ive found customer services very helpful, but only up to when trying to put a claim in for an invalid enquiry, Thats when they become very difficult to deal with.
Used these as gap fillers when starting out. Customers rarely responded to calls or emails. Meaning a total loss to myself. Reported this to Customer service to be told nothing they could do it, some you win, some you lose. Not worth the hassle. Spend the monthly fee on marketing. I used these as a customer when needing other trades to assist in property refurbs. Found useful for finding motivated available trades persons but just have to be careful on who you select I used rated people when I first relocate back up north , it served a purpose until I was established , I can say what it is like now but it worked ok for me , for what I needed.
Just started with these guys and they are good as long as you keep on top of the contact with customer. Found that i didn't win one job I went for as people were going in so cheap it made it impossible to compete. Used rated people when work was slow during take off the staff were freindly and leads were strong and value for money was there once I signed up for a subscription. Used for a few months, alot of chancers on there testing the water and fishing.
Has improved as if you cant contact the customer you can appeal to get your money back. Absolutely terrible, race to the bottom. All these lead selling sites are the same, worst possible customers. Just want the cheapest option. Absolutely dire, was a member some years ago, potential customers have little or no idea of reasonable costs for their projects, lead prices are a joke ; it's bottom of the barrel, avoid.
Customers seem to have unrealistic ideas of prices and some don't even allow you to quote. The main features of Rated People are accessible through apps that you can download and use on your Android or iPhone smartphone. There are separate apps for tradesmen and for homeowners. Look out for the Trades app which is the one for tradesmen. A couple of notable ones are the chat feature, where you can send messages to homeowners directly from the app. The lead is just that — an opportunity to quote, meet customers, and sell yourself as the right person for the job.
In the unfortunate circumstance that a homeowner does not allow you to quote or is not contactable, you can receive credit back for a failed lead. Bear in mind that Rated People does not accept all requests for credit, partly due to fraudulent misuse of the service in the past.
There is some benefit to the information that the homeowner provides when they fill out a job request, since they define their maximum budget in the job profile that they fill out; the only downside is that if the proposed quote exceeds their expectations after inspecting the job, then your work may be rejected. The pro of using Rated People is that jobs leads are served on a first-come-first-serve basis. This is great if your hands are too full to take more projects than you can handle or are out of service for a period of time.
Whilst Rated People gives more power and control to the Tradesman, it also means that Tradespeople have to be proactive in securing leads and subsequently offering a quote that the customer can agree on. Signing up with Check A Trade is the simplest between the 2 services.
In the last step, Check A Trade can help you with setting up, which can include a face-to-face consultation. The majority of the legwork, online, will be ensuring that your profile is a shining example of professionalism and high reputation. The only way that a homeowner would be more willing to pick you for a quote over others in the same area is if your profile stands out from the competition.
Check A Trade has a mobile app catered towards the homeowner, with no offerings for the tradesman as of March That said, the website is mobile-responsive and does everything a tradesperson would need on their mobile phone. Check A Trade more closely resembles a traditional directory where users can search for and contact Tradespeople directly.
Furthermore, people who hold more than one business in different specialities may be forced to pay separate subscriptions to be listed in the search results for different trades.
Check A Trade is the simplest of the two services for both the homeowner and the tradesman. Due to this, homeowners in urgent need of a tradesman may be more inclined to want to search for and contact the tradesman directly instead of filling out the requirements for a job in a form, like the case with Rated People.
Check A Trade costs are more straightforward. Whilst this might look relatively more costly than Rated People, the value depends on how many jobs you take from advertising on the website. The company was purchased from the original owner, Kevin Byrne, who no longer is involved with the company.
Although Check A Trade retains independence and is run separately from Homeserve, the pricing structure has changed with numerous customers being unhappy with a price hike. The comments on this blog, for example, is proof of members being dissatisfied with these changes:. That being said, Check A Trade did advertise a money back guarantee service, which may no longer is applicable but would have alleviated some of the concerns of users regarding price hikes.
This is in contrast to Check A Trade, which offers a full money back guarantee if you can satisfy the full guarantee terms and conditions, which includes submitting three feedback reports each month. Rated People gives more financial freedom to the Tradesman and initial costs are cheaper, however this can be offset by the fact that work is not guaranteed nor are refunds guaranteed.
This is understandable, since the large majority of reviews are from homeowners, which the site is more geared towards. That said, given that 8 out 10 tradespeople renew their subscription with Check A Trade, this means that tradesmen are also satisfied with the service.
The higher frequency of reviews for Rated People suggest that Rated People is more widely known and on average is rated highly as well. On the Check A Trade website, the number of reviews are proudly displayed on the front page. Check A Trade has a designated Checkatrade testimonial page however like Rated People it is carefully curated for obvious marketing reasons. Testimonial of The Rated People service from a Tradesman. Rated People and Check A Trade are 13 and 19 years old, having been founded in and respectively.
Due to this, both are highly established brands and their growth has been consistent over the years.
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