Is Rated People worth it in 2026?

If you’re searching for Rated People reviews to decide whether to join, most of what you’ll find is out of date. Rated People has changed completely this autumn, and the reviews, comparison tables and forum threads written before September 2026 describe a membership you can no longer buy.

Here’s what has happened, taken from Rated People’s own pages read on 2 October 2026, what it means if you were a member, and what it means if you were thinking of joining.

What has happened to Rated People

Rated People’s announcement, dated 17 September 2026, says Checkatrade Group “has completed the acquisition of selected Rated People assets, including the brand and website”. Its sign-up page for tradespeople now says:

• “Rated People is now part of Checkatrade Group.”
• “Rated People closed all memberships before it became part of Checkatrade.”
• “Leads submitted through the platform will now be routed to Checkatrade tradespeople.”
• “You need to join Checkatrade to continue accessing Rated People leads.”

So homeowners can still post jobs on Rated People, and those jobs still go to trades. They just go to Checkatrade’s trades now.

If you were a Rated People member

The pages answer the questions most members will have:

Question	What Rated People’s pages say (checked 2 October 2026)
My membership	“Rated People closed all memberships before it became part of Checkatrade.”
My old leads	They “will no longer be accessible through your Rated People account”. If you’re eligible to receive your old jobs, contacts and invoices, Checkatrade will have emailed you with how to get them.
My reviews	“Your existing reviews stay where they are.”
Questions about my past membership	Go to the liquidators: “liquidators S&W should be contacted regarding any questions about your past membership”, at [email protected]
Keeping the leads coming	Join Checkatrade

Two practical things to do now:

1. Save your old customer details if you’re offered them. Past customers are the cheapest work you’ll ever get, and a list you can’t open is no use. If you were sent access instructions, use them.
2. Don’t rely on reviews you can’t move. Your Rated People reviews stay where they are, but you can’t take them anywhere. Start asking every customer for a review on your own Google listing, where they stay yours whatever happens to any directory. Our guide to getting more Google reviews has the texts to send.

If you were thinking of joining

You can’t join Rated People. You’d be joining Checkatrade. Rated People’s page offers two routes:

• A fixed lead plan. “We send matched leads to you automatically throughout the year, similar to how Rated People worked.” The price is set on a call: “one of our team will talk you through pricing based on your trade and area.” The plan is a “Fixed price for 12 months”, and “The fixed lead plan runs on a 12-month term.”
• The Opportunities Board. “Creating an account is free; you only pay when you choose to unlock a lead.” You see live jobs in your area and pay for the ones you want, “no subscription needed”, according to Rated People’s page. Checkatrade’s own terms, as we set out in our Checkatrade guide, say a paid membership is needed to use the Opportunities Board, so ask which applies to you before you count on it.

Rated People’s announcement also says Checkatrade membership “starts at £30 per month”. On Checkatrade’s own pricing page, read the same day, £30 a month is the Approved plan, and the plan described as “a regular flow of leads for a fixed monthly cost” is Growth, “from £59” a month, priced by your trade, your postcodes and how many leads a year you want. So check which plan you’re actually being offered on the call, and what it includes.

We’ve gone through Checkatrade’s costs, contract and cancellation rules in full in is Checkatrade worth it for tradesmen. The short version: paid memberships are for 12 months, so the real cost is at least twelve monthly payments, not one.

So, is Rated People worth it?

As a separate choice, the question has gone away. If Rated People used to work for you, the leads still exist, but you now get them by paying Checkatrade, on Checkatrade’s terms. If you’ve never used it, you’re simply deciding whether to join Checkatrade.

Before you agree to a 12-month fixed plan, do the sum you’d do for any lead site:

1. Get the full price in writing: the monthly fee, VAT, and anything on top.
2. Multiply by 12, because that’s the term.
3. Ask how many leads to expect for your trade and area, and how many other trades each lead goes to.
4. Work out how many jobs you’d need to win from those leads to cover the year’s cost, at your real profit per job, not the price.
5. Track every job won from it from day one, so you can decide at renewal with numbers rather than a feeling.

If the sales call can’t give you enough to do steps 3 and 4, ask whether you can try the Opportunities Board first, paying per lead, before you commit to 12 months.

The alternatives

If you’ve lost your Rated People membership and don’t want to move to Checkatrade, these are the main options. Each works differently.

• MyBuilder. No membership. Responding to jobs is free, and you pay a shortlist fee, which “can start from £7” excluding VAT, when a customer shares their details with you, whether or not you win. Full breakdown: is MyBuilder worth it.
• TrustATrader. A membership with “No commission rates” and “Never pay for your leads”, and it says “Memberships are limited per area”. It doesn’t publish its price, so get a quote.
• Bark. Pay-per-contact credits, with a request able to go to several professionals. See is Bark worth it for tradesmen.
• Your own Google listing and website. No fee per lead, and the customer who finds you there rings you, not five firms.

All four lead sites are compared side by side, from their own terms, in Checkatrade vs TrustATrader vs MyBuilder vs Rated People.

What happened to Rated People is the lesson

Some trades built a lot of their work on Rated People. Then the memberships closed, the leads moved to another company, and the reviews stayed behind on a site they no longer pay for. None of that was the trades’ decision.

That’s the risk with any directory: you’re renting a spot on someone else’s site, and they can change the price, the terms or the whole business. Your own Google listing, your own reviews and your own website don’t disappear when a company is sold.

What we have seen

In the 60 days to 1 October 2026, 71 people got in touch with Luke and Dan’s, a tree surgery firm, about 36 real enquiries a month: 31 rang and 22 filled in their website form. They were 1st of 17 on Google’s list for “tree surgeon” in Royal Wootton Bassett on 19 September 2026. Read their case study.

Those enquiries came to Luke and Dan’s own number and their own website, not through a directory. That’s the kind of work that doesn’t change hands when a lead site does. If your listing isn’t bringing in calls yet, start with how to rank higher on Google Maps.

How we do it, and why it works

We build the part nobody can take away from you:

• Found: your Google listing set up and worked every week, a review asked for after every job (on your own listing, so they’re yours for good), and a website built to be called.
• Answered: calls ring you, as they always have. A missed call from a mobile gets a text back in your name, every form and message gets a reply in your name, anyone who goes quiet is followed up, and every quote is chased to a yes or a no.
• Counted: after each enquiry, a text asks whether you won it and for how much. Once a month, one page: what came in, what you won, what it was worth, so you can put us next to Checkatrade or anyone else in pounds.

You pay nothing until you’ve won £500 of work through us. Then it’s from £500 a month, any month the work you win through us comes to less than £500 is free, and there’s no contract, just 30 days’ notice. Your listing, reviews and customer list are always yours, and the website and domain are too once you’ve been with us 90 days or paid a first invoice.

The free check shows who Google lists for your trade in your town, where you sit, and whether your town is still free.