All three sell you the chance to quote rather than the work itself. That is the thing to hold on to while comparing them, because it explains every difference between them: what varies is how many other trades get the same chance, how much that chance costs, and how well filtered the customer was before it reached you.
How each one works
MyBuilder
Customers post a job in some detail and tradespeople express interest; the customer then chooses who to talk to. Because the customer writes a real description and reads real replies, it tends to suit larger, considered jobs where the decision is made on written detail rather than on who rang first. Reviews carry weight, so it rewards trades who have been on it a while.
Rated People
Leads are pushed out to a set number of trades quickly. Speed of response matters a great deal — the same job arriving with three other people means the first credible reply has an advantage that has nothing to do with being the best person for it. Suits trades who can answer a phone during the day, punishes those who cannot.
Bark
The broadest of the three and not trade-specific — it covers everything from plumbing to photography. The filter is correspondingly lighter, so lead quality varies most and competition per job tends to be highest. The volume is real; so is the proportion of enquiries that were never going to become jobs.
The comparison that matters
Not cost per lead. Cost per won job. A £5 lead shared with five trades and a £25 lead shared with two are not remotely the same product, and only the second number tells you which is cheaper for your business.
Track it for one quarter: every lead paid for, every job won, every pound of profit. Divide the spend by the jobs. Most trades who do this find one platform is carrying the results and the others are noise — but which one differs by trade and by region, which is why nobody can tell you the answer in advance.
Three things to watch on any of them
- You pay whether or not you win. Budget for the losses. If you win one job in five, the true cost of that job is five leads, not one.
- Speed beats suitability. On the faster platforms, the trade who replies within ten minutes frequently wins over the trade who was better for the job. Decide whether you can genuinely play that game before you buy into it.
- The reviews are theirs. The reputation you build lives on their platform and does not move with you. Collect Google reviews in parallel, from the same happy customers.
Where they fit
Lead platforms are good at filling a gap this month and poor at being the whole strategy for three years. Used deliberately — to fill quiet weeks, or to break into a new area or service — they are a reasonable tool. Used as the only channel, they set your prices for you.
We have written honest accounts of moving on from each: MyBuilder, Rated People and Bark. And if you want the thing that keeps working when you stop paying any of them, we’ll rebuild your homepage free in 48 hours.