Home Concierge vs Checkatrade vs MyBuilder: What's the Difference?

When you need work done on your home, you have options. Checkatrade and MyBuilder are the names most people reach for first. Here's an honest look at what each actually gives you — and where they fall short.

The same starting point, very different experiences

Three ways to find a tradesperson. Only one takes responsibility for what happens next.

Every homeowner searching for a tradesperson starts in the same place: uncertainty. You need someone reliable, someone who will turn up, do the job properly, and treat your home with care. The question is how you find them — and what happens once you do.

Checkatrade and MyBuilder are the dominant platforms in the UK home services market. Between them they list hundreds of thousands of tradespeople and handle millions of searches every year. They are well-known, widely used, and genuinely useful — up to a point.

That point is where the search ends and the management begins.

What Checkatrade actually is

A directory. A large, well-funded, heavily marketed directory.

Checkatrade lists tradespeople who have passed a background and identity check and agreed to its terms of service. Homeowners can search by trade and postcode, read reviews, and contact tradespeople directly. That's the service. Once you've made contact, Checkatrade's involvement ends.

You source the tradesperson. You vet them beyond the basic platform check. You manage the quotes. You coordinate the scheduling. You oversee the work. You handle any problems that arise. Checkatrade is not a party to any of that. If the work is poor, if the tradesperson doesn't turn up, if the project runs over — that is between you and the contractor.

The reviews help. They are not a substitute for proper vetting, and they are certainly not accountability.

What MyBuilder actually is

A lead generation platform. For tradespeople, not for you.

MyBuilder works differently from Checkatrade. You post a job, tradespeople in your area express interest, and you choose who to invite to quote. It's a reverse marketplace — the job goes to the platform, the tradespeople come to you.

The model has appeal. You're not cold-calling from a list; interested tradespeople are signalling availability. But the fundamental dynamic is the same as Checkatrade: once you've selected someone, you manage everything yourself. MyBuilder facilitates the introduction. It does not coordinate the project, vet tradespeople beyond basic registration, or carry any responsibility for the outcome.

It also creates a specific problem on multi-trade projects. You post a job for a plumber. You post a separate job for a tiler. A separate one for an electrician. Three separate processes, three separate relationships to manage, and nobody thinking about how they fit together.

The real cost of "free"

Checkatrade and MyBuilder don't charge you. But they're not free.

The platforms themselves cost nothing to use as a homeowner. That looks like a saving compared to a service that charges a coordination fee. It isn't — not when you account for what you're actually taking on.

Sourcing, vetting, quoting, and managing a single-trade job takes time. On a multi-trade project it takes a significant amount of time — evenings spent chasing, weekends given over to site visits, working days interrupted by calls from contractors with questions or problems. That time has a value. So does the stress.

There's also the less visible cost: the overrun that adds two weeks to a project because nobody was managing the sequencing. The snagging issue that never gets properly resolved because there's no single person accountable for the outcome. The job that has to be redone because the quote was cheap and the work reflected it.

The coordination fee built into an Aleia Home project is offset by trade pricing on materials, by projects that run to schedule, and by work that is signed off properly rather than accepted reluctantly.

Where Checkatrade and MyBuilder are the right choice

An honest answer.

For small, straightforward, single-trade jobs — a boiler service, a tap that needs a new washer, a fence panel that has blown down — Checkatrade and MyBuilder are entirely appropriate. The job is simple, the risk is low, and the management overhead is minimal. Use the platforms, read the reviews, make a call.

The equation changes when the job is complex, when multiple trades are involved, when the standard of finish matters, or when you simply don't have the time to manage it yourself. That is where a coordination layer earns its place.

Why there is no direct competitor to Aleia Home in SE London

The gap in the market is real.

Premium home concierge services exist in central London — Concierge Group, Attaché, and a handful of others serve super-prime postcodes in Mayfair, Kensington, and Chelsea. They are excellent services, built for a specific client and a specific geography.

SE London and Kent is different. Blackheath, Greenwich, Bromley, Sevenoaks, Chislehurst, Dartford — these are areas with a high concentration of affluent, time-poor homeowners and a housing stock that demands quality trades. But no premium concierge service was operating here. The only options were the national directories — which is precisely why Aleia Home was founded.

Same problem. Different levels of involvement.

The bottom line

Checkatrade and MyBuilder solve the discovery problem. They help you find a tradesperson. Everything after that is yours to manage.

Aleia Home solves the whole problem. We find the right person, coordinate the work, manage the project, and take accountability for the result. You make one call. We handle everything from there.

If you're weighing up your options for a home project in SE London or Kent, we're happy to talk it through. No obligation, no sales pitch — just an honest conversation about whether Aleia Home is the right fit for what you need.