Rated People Cost & Reviews (2026): Real Lead Prices, Credit Traps & 5 Better Alternatives

At nine o'clock on a cold Thursday morning in Bromley, Gary is wedged between roof rafters in a dark Victorian loft. He has got a rechargeable headtorch strapped around his beanie and a set of insulated pliers in his hand, tracing a damaged ring-main cable that tripped a family's downstairs sockets. Below him, fiberglass insulation dust hangs in the beam of his light. Inside his work trousers, his phone gives off the sharp double-ping of a new lead notification from the Rated People app.

Gary balances his pliers on a ceiling joist, pulls his phone from his pocket, and squints at the screen. It is an inquiry for a full consumer unit replacement and electrical safety check on a semi-detached house in Chislehurst, barely two miles down the road. Rated People displays the headline details: old rewireable fuse board, tripping intermittently, homeowner wanting a modern dual RCD metal consumer unit fitted next week. To unlock the homeowner's mobile number, address, and email, the app demands thirty-two pounds plus VAT. Having already committed to a monthly subscription with forty pounds of prepaid credits, Gary taps the unlock button. But he cannot scramble out of a loft hatch, climb down an access ladder, and dial a number while holding an active test meter without leaving the customer below in the dark. By the time he finishes clipping the cables, descends the ladder, washes the plaster dust off his hands, and dials the number eighteen minutes later, the line rings five times before clicking over to a woman's voice.

"Oh, thanks for calling mate, but I've already had two other sparkies ring me about ten minutes ago," she says politely. "One of them is coming round at five today to quote, so I'm sorted for now."

Gary thanks her, hangs up, and stares at his phone screen. He has just parted with thirty-eight pounds and forty pence including VAT for eighty seconds of conversation that went nowhere. While Gary was doing honest physical work with his tools in his hands, two competing firms — one with an office receptionist sitting at a desktop computer, and another who happened to be parked outside a builders merchant — jumped on the inquiry within forty seconds of it going live. Gary paid thirty-eight quid for the privilege of being the third caller. 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 races.

How the subscription and lead credit charges really work in 2026

Most lads first hear from Rated People when a sales rep rings their mobile while they are sitting in a builders merchant car park eating a bacon roll. The chat sounds grand. They tell you thousands of local homeowners post repair jobs in your postcode patch every single week. You just pick what you fancy, skip what you don't, and keep your diary packed.

The sting lands on your bank statement the second you hand over your card details. You might think you can just buy leads when work goes quiet in November, but that is not how they operate. Instead, they hit you with two separate bills.

To start with, you have to pay a monthly direct debit just to keep your profile live on the screen. In 2026, those memberships run between twenty and fifty-five quid a month plus VAT. And almost every package locks you into a twelve-month contract. If you realise after six weeks that the inquiries in your patch are rubbish, you cannot just tap a button and walk away. Cancel your direct debit, and their finance team sends threatening letters chasing the remaining payments. If you want to see how other platforms handle contracts, take a look at our breakdown on is Checkatrade worth it and our guide on Bark leads cost and reviews.

And that membership fee gives you zero phone numbers. Not one. It just lets you look at job descriptions while you sit in traffic. To actually get a homeowner on the phone, you have to buy the ticket.

A fifteen-quid ticket might sound harmless until you see what you are buying. Cleaners and decorators usually pay fourteen to twenty-six quid plus VAT just to pitch for a domestic spruce-up. If the job only pays two hundred quid all in, giving twenty-five quid to a lead site before you even buy emulsion or diesel leaves a sour taste. Painting an exterior or spraying kitchen doors jumps straight up to forty or fifty quid.

Plumbing callouts bite harder. Fixing a weeping ball valve or unblocking a toilet runs sixteen to thirty-two quid plus VAT. Boiler breakdowns and heating repairs bounce between twenty-eight and forty-five quid. If a combi boiler is completely shot and needs replacing, you are looking at forty-eight to seventy-eight quid plus VAT just to unlock the name. Spending sixty quid with VAT on someone who might already be talking to British Gas or two other local lads is proper gambling.

Electricians get hit with the same math. Adding three sockets in a utility room costs fifteen to twenty-eight quid. Board changes and EV points run thirty to fifty quid. A four-bed rewire can reach ninety-five quid plus VAT.

Roofers and general builders get rinsed worst of all. Replacing a couple of ridge tiles is twenty to thirty-eight quid, while loft conversions and kitchen extensions can hit a hundred and ten quid plus VAT.

Then HMRC slaps twenty percent VAT on top of every purchase. You think you are spending fifty quid, but sixty pounds leaves your account.

The rule of three and why the sixty-second sprint punishes working trades

Rated People tells homeowners that up to three tradespeople will quote on their job. Homeowners like having choices, and Rated People loves it because they can sell one customer request three times and pull in over ninety quid from a single web form.

For the tradesman on the tools, this three-way split creates a vicious race against the clock.

The moment a homeowner hits submit, an alert pings out to every contractor covering that postcode. If three trades buy the lead, all three get the customer's phone number at the exact same second.

Contractor A is an outfit with an office person sitting at a desk. They ring the customer within thirty seconds. The customer picks up, describes the problem, and books a site visit for Tuesday.

Contractor B is a lad parked up at a petrol station having a brew. He calls ninety seconds later. The customer is surprised to get another call so fast, but agrees to take a second quote on Wednesday morning.

Contractor C is you. You are up a ladder with a tube of silicone, pulling cables through floor joists, or soldering a 22mm copper pipe under a floorboard. You cannot safely grab your phone with filthy hands. When you finally get down from the ladder twenty minutes later and ring the number, the customer is already sorted. They tell you they have already booked two visits and do not need anyone else.

You paid thirty-five pounds, just like Contractor A. But because you were actually busy working with your hands, your money went straight down the drain. Over a month, a working tradesman loses this race eight times out of ten. That is why so many contractors look at alternatives like Google Local Services Ads cost per lead or check out Thumbtack cost per lead reviews to see how different networks share inquiries.

Why half your paid leads turn out to be tyre-kickers

Ask any lad down at the trade counter why they stopped buying leads, and they will tell you the same thing: dead numbers and tyre-kickers. Posting a job on Rated People costs a homeowner absolutely nothing. They do not have to put down a deposit, verify a card, or prove they own the property.

Because posting is totally free, you end up paying for inquiries that were never going to turn into paid work.

Look at private renters. A tenant has an issue with an old shower or a broken cooker. The landlord is dragging their heels, so the tenant hops on Rated People to get three formal quotes to wave under their landlord's nose. You pay thirty quid for the lead, spend twenty minutes on the phone, and write up an estimate, only for the landlord to send his own cousin round with a toolbox.

Then you get weekend DIYers. A bloke wants to lay laminate flooring or swap a radiator himself on Sunday, but he wants to know what a tradesman would charge so he can tell his mates in the pub how much cash he saved.

Then you get homeowners dreaming about a forty-grand kitchen knock-through with five hundred quid in their savings account. Once three builders ring and explain what structural steel and building control actually cost, the homeowner gets scared and stops picking up the phone.

When you spend thirty quid on a lead and find out the phone is dead or the customer refuses to answer, you try to dispute it. But Rated People's credit policy is like pulling teeth. Their support team almost always says no. Their view is that you paid for the contact information, not a guaranteed job. If the customer ignores your calls or changes their mind, you take the loss. Over a couple of months, you can easily blow four or five hundred quid on leads that were dead from the start.

What winning one single job actually costs when you do the maths

To see whether Rated People makes financial sense, you cannot just look at the price of an individual lead. You have to tally up what you spent across a whole month to land one paying customer.

Picture Mick running a plumbing firm in Leeds.

His monthly membership costs forty-five quid plus VAT, which is fifty-four pounds.

Over the month, he buys ten repair leads to fill gaps in his calendar. At twenty-eight quid plus VAT each, that comes to three hundred and thirty-six pounds with the tax included.

Mick has handed over three hundred and ninety pounds before turning a single screw.

Now watch what happens to those ten inquiries. Four are complete write-offs. Two never pick up their phones, one is a tenant whose landlord refused the repair, and one says they posted by mistake.

Three of the leads get snapped up by bigger firms who rang thirty seconds after the alert dropped while Mick was soldering copper pipe under a floorboard.

That leaves Mick with three homeowners who actually pick up the phone and let him pop round.

So Mick spends three evenings driving through Leeds traffic, having awkward chats in hallways, and typing up estimates at his kitchen table. Two clients go cold or pick someone who works for peanuts. One customer books him for an immersion heater replacement.

Mick won the work. But winning that one job cost him three hundred and ninety quid in platform fees, thirty quid in van diesel, and three wasted evenings away from his kids. On a four-hundred-quid job, his entire profit vanished before he unpacked his tools. Using our contractor estimate template and reading up on how to ask for payment politely helps you close work cleanly, but no template can fix upside-down lead economics.

How Gary books jobs in 90 seconds without buying leads

The sharpest trades in the country have stopped buying third-party leads altogether. They point customers straight at their own Google Maps profile, and let Susan AI manage the phone and WhatsApp while they work.

Take Gary, an electrician covering Romford and Brentwood.

A local homeowner named Sarah has her downstairs sockets cut out whenever the tumble dryer kicks in. She finds Gary on Google Maps and clicks his WhatsApp button at 8:15pm while Gary is eating dinner.

Sarah takes a snapshot of her consumer unit and sends it across.

Sarah writes back: "Tomorrow morning please."

Sarah taps the link, pays with Apple Pay in ten seconds, and gets a receipt in the chat.

Susan AI puts the job straight into Gary's calendar with the address, the photo of the tripped switch, and the paid deposit. When Gary 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 a lead broker.

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 — eighty quid callout, forty 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 M6. Once that's done, leave it alone.

When someone rings with water coming through a 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 job notes 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 A38 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 a weeping radiator 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 Rated People 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 Southampton 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.

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.

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.

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.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

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