We build websites, so you can guess which way we are inclined to lean. That is exactly why this page is a method rather than a verdict: a directory membership is worth it for some trades and not for others, and the only way to know which you are is to work out four numbers. Most tradespeople have never worked them out, which is the actual problem.
The four numbers
- What you pay a year. The subscription plus VAT plus any extras. One number.
- How many enquiries it produced. Not how many leads the dashboard claims — how many people actually contacted you because of it.
- What proportion you won. Of those enquiries, how many became jobs.
- Average profit per job. Profit, not turnover. What was left after materials and your time at the rate you would charge anyone.
Multiply the last three together and compare with the first. That is the whole calculation, and it takes ten minutes once you have the data.
Getting the data
You almost certainly do not have it, because the dashboard measures the directory’s activity rather than your outcomes. So: for three months, ask every single caller how they found you, and write it in a notebook or a note on your phone. Nothing more sophisticated than that.
Three months is enough to see a pattern and short enough that you will actually do it. The results routinely surprise people in both directions — plenty of trades discover the directory is carrying them, and plenty discover most of their work was word of mouth all along and the subscription was insurance against a fear rather than a source of jobs.
The trap in the arithmetic
There is one way the sums can come out positive and still be telling you something is wrong. If the directory pays only because you are quoting low to beat the other trades on the same listing, then the membership is working and your business is not. A lead you win by being the cheapest of five is not the same asset as a lead you win by being the one the customer specifically wanted.
Check it directly: is your average job value on directory work lower than on word-of-mouth work? If it is meaningfully lower, the number you should be comparing is not the subscription against the profit, but the profit against what those same hours would have earned at your normal rate.
Why it produces less than it used to
Two structural things, neither of them about any particular directory. More members compete for the same searches each year. And customers increasingly begin at Google or an AI assistant rather than at a directory — which means the directory is one answer among several rather than the place people start.
That trend is the real reason to own something alongside whatever you rent. It is not an argument for cancelling; it is an argument against depending on a single channel you do not control.
What to do with your answer
- If it pays comfortably: keep it, and put the surplus into the things that compound — a Google profile, reviews, a website — so that you are choosing to stay rather than needing to.
- If it is marginal: build the alternatives first and re-measure next year. Do not cancel into a vacuum.
- If it plainly does not pay: our page on switching from Checkatrade is an honest account of what changes and what does not, and the alternatives sets out where the work comes from instead.
Whichever it is, the piece you own should exist. We’ll rebuild your homepage free in 48 hours so you can see what that looks like before committing to anything.