MyBuilder Cost & Reviews (2026): Real Shortlist Fees, Ghost Leads & 5 Better Alternatives

At half past ten on a wet Tuesday morning in Stockport, Dave is on his knees in a cramped kitchen with his head stuck inside an airing cupboard. Outside, October rain is lashing against the bay window. Inside, Dave has got an LED inspection lamp hooked over a copper pipe and a magnetic filter spanner clamped onto a sludge-choked heating circuit. His hands are covered in black central heating magnetite and jointing compound. Right as he leans his weight into the spanner, his work trousers vibrate against his hip. It is the distinctive chime of the MyBuilder app: "Good news, you have been shortlisted!"

Dave lets go of the wrench, wipes his thumb on an old rag, and pulls his phone from his pocket. It is an inquiry for a full combi boiler replacement and system powerflush in Cheadle Hulme, three miles down the road. The homeowner wants an ancient back boiler ripped out and a new Worcester Bosch 30kW combi fitted before winter sets in. Dave looks at the alert banner. The moment the homeowner tapped his profile, MyBuilder's automated payment system charged his debit card thirty-six pounds plus VAT. That is forty-three pounds and twenty pence gone from his business account in a millisecond. But Dave cannot drop an open heating pipe, scramble out from behind a copper cylinder, and dial a telephone number while black system water is dripping into a bucket. By the time he tightens the compression fitting, packs his tools, washes his arms under a cold tap, and rings the number forty-five minutes later, the line rings out twice before clicking through to an answering machine.

When Dave finally gets hold of the homeowner on his drive home at five o'clock, the news is already stale.

"Thanks for getting back to me Dave, but another firm rang me within two minutes of shortlisting," the homeowner explains. "They're already booked in to measure up tomorrow morning, so I don't need any more visits for now."

Dave thanks him, hangs up, and stares through the windscreen at the rain. He has just parted with forty-three quid for the privilege of leaving a voicemail and having a sixty-second chat that went nowhere. While Dave was doing honest physical work with his tools in his hands, an office-based heating company with a desk dispatcher snapped up the lead before Dave could even wipe his palms. Dave paid forty-three pounds for a race he lost before he even knew he was running. Setting up an automated missed call text-back workflow and an instant front-desk bridge on your own number is how independent contractors stop burning money on these rigged broker sprints.

How the MyBuilder shortlist fee system actually works in 2026

If you talk to trades at the merchant counter, half of them prefer MyBuilder over Checkatrade or Rated People because there is no big annual contract. You do not have to sign a twelve-month direct debit for fifty quid a month just to have a profile. Setting up an account is free, and browsing jobs in your local patch costs nothing. You only pay when you get shortlisted. That sounds fair enough until you see how the billing engine operates in the real world.

When a homeowner posts a job, trades in that postcode read the description and tap "express interest". That initial step is free. But the homeowner then looks through the applicants and picks who they want to contact. The split second that homeowner clicks your name to add you to their shortlist, MyBuilder debits your registered bank card automatically.

You do not get to review the customer's phone number and decide whether you still want to buy it. You do not get an invoice at the end of the month that you can dispute. The money leaves your bank account instantly via continuous payment authority.

And those shortlist fees are not pocket change. If an odd-job handyman wants to rehang an interior door or reseal a shower tray, MyBuilder takes between two pounds fifty and six quid plus VAT. That feels light until you start doing real trade work. Swapping out bathroom taps or fixing an outside tap runs eight to sixteen quid. If you are a sparky fitting a modern dual RCD metal consumer unit or a plumber doing an annual boiler service and CP12 landlord check, the fee jumps between eighteen and thirty-two quid plus VAT.

Major construction and heating jobs bite deepest. Ripping out an old back boiler for a combi, rewiring a three-bed semi, skimming five ceilings, or knocking down a structural kitchen wall runs thirty-five to forty-eight quid plus VAT.

Then HMRC slaps twenty percent VAT on top. A thirty-five pound shortlist fee for a kitchen rewire actually pulls forty-two quid out of your bank. If you get shortlisted on four decent-sized jobs in a week, you have spent nearly one hundred and seventy quid before you have priced a single meter of cable. If you want to see how this compares to other platforms, read our breakdown on is Checkatrade worth it and our guide on Rated People cost and reviews.

The multi-trade shortlist stack and the sixty-second sprint

The biggest catch on MyBuilder is not just the price of a single shortlist fee. It is what happens to that lead behind the scenes.

MyBuilder allows homeowners to shortlist up to three separate tradespeople for the exact same job. For the homeowner, that sounds great because they get three competitive quotes to compare. For MyBuilder, it is a brilliant business model because they can sell one single job posting three times over. If three trades get shortlisted for a boiler install at thirty-six quid plus VAT, MyBuilder pockets one hundred and eight pounds plus VAT from a single free form.

For the tradesman working on the tools, this multi-shortlist system creates an impossible sprint.

When the homeowner taps shortlist, three trades get notified at the exact same second.

Firm A is a regional firm with three vans and a full-time receptionist sitting at a computer screen in an industrial estate. The receptionist has a headset on and dials the homeowner's mobile within twenty-five seconds of the ping. The customer answers, discusses the problem, and books an engineer to come round at eight o'clock tomorrow morning.

Firm B is a sole trader who happens to be sitting in his van in a supermarket car park eating a sandwich. He sees the alert drop, finishes his mouthful, and calls the homeowner ninety seconds later. The homeowner is slightly taken aback by getting two calls so quickly, but agrees to let Firm B pop in tomorrow lunchtime for a second opinion.

Firm C is you. You are on site with a drill in your hand, crawling through loft insulation, or welding copper under a sink. You cannot hear your phone buzz over the noise of an SDS hammer drill, or you cannot take off your protective gloves. When you pack away your tools and ring the customer forty minutes later, the customer picks up and says: "Sorry mate, two other lads have already called and I've booked two visits for tomorrow. I don't want anyone else coming round."

You paid forty-two pounds with VAT. Firm A paid forty-two pounds. Firm B paid forty-two pounds. But your forty-two quid went straight into the bin because you were doing your job instead of staring at a mobile screen. Working sole traders lose this speed sprint eight times out of ten. Comparing this with Bark leads cost and reviews or checking Thumbtack cost per lead reviews shows the exact same pattern: working craftsmen subsidise fast office callers.

Why ghost leads and price-checkers drain your account

Talk to any tradesman who cancelled their MyBuilder account, and the conversation always turns to ghost leads.

Posting on MyBuilder is completely free for homeowners. They do not have to verify property ownership, enter a payment card, or pay a five-pound deposit. Anyone with a smartphone and a web browser can post an inquiry in forty seconds. Because there is zero barrier to entry, a huge chunk of job postings are tyre-kickers who have no intention of hiring.

Take private tenants. A young couple renting a flat in Bramhall has a leaking radiator valve or a cracked shower tray. Their landlord or letting agent is dragging their heels. To put pressure on the landlord, the tenant posts on MyBuilder, gets shortlisted with two plumbers, and asks for quotes so they can email them to the landlord. You pay sixteen quid for the shortlist, drive over to take a look, and write up an estimate, only for the landlord to send his own handyman round three days later.

Then you get weekend DIYers. A bloke wants to tile his hallway or change four radiator valves himself on Saturday. He has no idea what materials or labor are worth, so he posts on MyBuilder to find out what a professional would charge. Once he gets two prices, he heads down to Screwfix to buy the parts and never replies to your messages.

Then you get sticker-shock dropouts. A homeowner dreams of opening up their kitchen with a steel RSJ and new bi-fold doors. They imagine it costs three grand. When two builders explain that structural calcs, steel beams, padstones, building control inspections, and plastering will cost twelve to fifteen grand, the homeowner panics and stops answering their phone.

When this happens, you go into your MyBuilder account to request a refund. But MyBuilder's refund policy is notoriously strict.

Their rule is simple: if the homeowner's telephone number and details were successfully delivered to your dashboard, you do not get a refund. It does not matter if the customer refuses to pick up their phone, ignores five WhatsApp messages, or tells you they changed their mind. MyBuilder considers the service delivered because you received their contact details. The only time MyBuilder routinely approves a refund is if the customer writes directly through the platform messenger saying "I have cancelled this job and will not be hiring anyone", or if the telephone number was completely fake or disconnected. If the customer just ghosts you, the money is gone for good.

What landing one paying job really costs on MyBuilder

To understand the true cost of using MyBuilder, you cannot look at a single twenty-pound fee. You have to look at the total math across a normal working month.

Take Darren, an independent heating and plumbing engineer working across Sheffield and Rotherham.

In September, Darren wants to keep his diary full of boiler servicing and heating repairs. Over four weeks, Darren gets shortlisted for twelve jobs on MyBuilder.

Two of them are combi boiler replacements at thirty-eight quid plus VAT each. Four are boiler breakdown diagnostics at twenty-two quid plus VAT each. Four are radiator replacements and valve repairs at fourteen quid plus VAT each. Two are simple bathroom tap and toilet siphon repairs at nine quid plus VAT each.

Across those twelve jobs, MyBuilder automatically debits Darren's bank card for £285.60 plus VAT. That is a total cash outlay of £342.72.

Now watch what happens to those twelve inquiries in the real world.

Five of the jobs are complete ghost leads. Two customers never answer the phone or reply to texts. One was a tenant whose landlord stepped in. One says she posted by mistake. One decided to replace their own tap after watching a YouTube video. Darren loses £136 on leads that never existed.

Four of the jobs are lost to the sixty-second sprint. Darren was on a boiler install in Rotherham when the alerts dropped. By the time he called back at four in the afternoon, two local firms with dedicated office staff had already visited or booked the slots. That is another £115 down the drain.

That leaves Darren with three genuine homeowners who actually answer his call and invite him round to quote.

Darren spends three separate evenings driving through Sheffield traffic between six and eight at night to inspect the boilers, measure up pipe runs, and drink lukewarm tea. He spends another two hours at his kitchen table typing up detailed quotes on his laptop.

One customer says his price is too high and goes with an uninsured lad who quoted cash in hand. Another customer says they have to delay the work until after Christmas. One single customer books Darren to replace their combi boiler for £2,400 all in.

Darren won the job. But look at what it cost him to win that single customer. He paid £342.72 in automatic MyBuilder shortlist fees, thirty-five quid in van diesel driving to three evening site visits, and eight hours of unpaid evening travel, quoting, and phone callbacks.

Darren spent £377.72 in hard cash and an entire working day of his personal life to land one boiler installation. On a job where his gross profit after buying the boiler, flue, magnetic filter, and chemicals is around £800, nearly half his profit vanished into lead fees and diesel before he turned a single brass valve. Using our contractor estimate template and learning how to ask for payment politely protects your margins, but paying four hundred quid to win one job is a terrible way to run a trade business.

How Dave books jobs in 90 seconds without broker fees

The most profitable trades in the UK have stopped relying on lead platforms altogether. Instead of paying brokers for shared leads, they put their own business phone number and Google profile front and center, letting Susan AI run their front desk around the clock.

Take Dave in Stockport. Instead of refreshing MyBuilder between jobs, Dave puts his local phone number and a direct WhatsApp button on his van livery, his website, and his Google Business Profile.

At 7:45pm on a Thursday, a homeowner named Claire in Bramhall notices her boiler pressure has dropped to zero and the digital screen is flashing an F22 fault code. Claire finds Dave on Google Maps and clicks his WhatsApp button while Dave is having dinner with his kids.

Claire snaps a photo of her Vaillant boiler and sends it across.

Claire writes back: "Tomorrow morning please."

Claire taps the link, pays with Apple Pay in ten seconds, and gets a receipt in the chat with Dave's Gas Safe registration number.

Susan AI puts the job straight into Dave's calendar with the address, the photo of the Vaillant boiler, and the paid deposit. When Dave gets into his van on Friday morning, the job is booked, paid, and ready to go. He did not type a single word on his phone, and he did not pay a penny to MyBuilder.

Setting it up in twenty minutes from your van cab

Setting it up doesn't take an IT degree. You link your phone number and connect your channels while sitting in a car park with a pasty. Put your real prices in — seventy-five quid callout, thirty-five quid deposit, whatever your rate is. Don't let it quote jobs thirty miles away either; plug your postcodes in so you don't spend half your life stuck in roadworks on the M60. Once that's done, leave it alone.

When someone rings with water pouring through a kitchen ceiling, they get a text back before they've even put the phone down. They send a photo of the split pipe, pay fifty quid on card, and the job card gets created with the customer's address and the photo attached.

Look at how most lads run their firms. Half of them still keep customer numbers on grease-stained cardboard in the footwell. Cost is zero, but you spend your Sunday evening typing invoices and squinting at your own handwriting. And any customer who rings while you're driving down the A6 just calls another contractor.

Some try phone answering companies. They charge you a couple of hundred quid a month to take messages. The problem is they know nothing about boilers or consumer units. They can't look at pictures of an F22 fault code or quote a callout fee, so you're still stuck doing phone callbacks at seven at night.

Hooking Susan into your number cuts out the middleman. She answers calls within seconds, checks photos of the fault on WhatsApp, tells them your standard callout price, and takes an Apple Pay deposit while your boots stay on site.

Five better alternatives to MyBuilder for tradesmen in 2026

Look at your options if you want off the lead-buying hamster wheel.

Take Google Maps first. Half the plumbers in Stockport survive entirely on local maps searches because when an immersion heater blows, nobody spends twenty minutes filling out forms on directory sites. They open their phone in a panic and tap whoever has forty five-star reviews. Putting up photos of your liveried Transit van and asking every happy customer for a review before you drive off costs you zero pence. Hook that up to a phone answering service for tradesmen, and you bag the job before your competitor finishes eating his pasty.

Then there is Google Local Services Ads. If you are going to spend money on advertising, do it where you only pay when an actual human being rings your mobile. You get the green Google Guaranteed tick next to your trading name, and if some tyre-kicker calls from forty miles outside your patch or rings by mistake, Google lets you challenge the recording and refunds the money to your card. Check our guide on Google Local Services Ads cost per lead for full numbers.

Checkatrade still pulls volume in plenty of counties. You still have to stomach that twelve-month direct debit, but homeowners ring your mobile after checking your feedback instead of setting off a three-way sprint on an app. Compare the models in our breakdown of is Checkatrade worth it.

Bark works well for occasional gap-filling. Buy fifty quid of credit tokens when work goes quiet in February, pick up two jobs, and close your wallet. No direct debit handcuffs. Learn more in our review of Bark leads cost and reviews.

And finally, Susan AI. Hook Susan into your existing phone number and WhatsApp for $50 a month after a 7-day free trial. While you are under a bath fitting waste pipe, Susan picks up calls in four seconds, asks for photos, quotes your callout fee, and takes a thirty-pound card deposit so the customer stops ringing around. If you still use MyBuilder occasionally, Susan connects to your alerts and replies on WhatsApp in eight seconds flat. See our playbook on MyBuilder leads WhatsApp automation to see how it works.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

If you want to stop losing jobs while working on site, check out our transparent pricing plans, read our MyBuilder leads WhatsApp automation guide, or explore playbooks for plumbers, trades, and cleaning businesses.