Pay-Per-Lead vs Subscription: Which Lead Model Suits You?
Both models charge you for a chance at the work. This guide compares when you pay, what you get for it and how to judge each one on your own figures.
The two main models
Both models charge you for a chance at the work. The real difference is when you pay, and who carries the risk when nothing comes of it.
Most paid lead services in the UK fall into one of two camps. Pay-per-lead platforms charge you each time you receive or unlock an enquiry. Subscription services charge a fixed monthly or annual fee for a listing, a profile or visibility to homeowners in your area. Plenty of platforms mix the two, and the details change often enough that you should always read the current terms before you sign anything.
Neither model is automatically good or bad value. They move the same risk around in different ways. On pay-per-lead, you carry the risk one enquiry at a time. On a subscription, you carry it up front, for the whole term.
This guide sets out how each model charges, what the published prices look like, how to compare them on your own numbers, and which kind of business each tends to suit. For the bigger picture of every route to work, start with the guide to getting more work as a contractor.
Side by side
How each model charges you
The labels vary from platform to platform. The underlying mechanics are fairly consistent.
Pay-per-lead
- You pay for each enquiry you receive or choose to unlock
- Your cost rises and falls with the number of enquiries
- Low commitment: you can usually stop when you want
- The same enquiry is commonly offered to more than one trade
- You pay whether or not the job goes ahead
- Easy to overspend in a busy month without noticing
Subscription
- You pay a fixed fee, monthly or annually
- The cost stays the same whether enquiries come or not
- Often a minimum term, sometimes paid up front
- Usually includes a profile, a listing or review display
- Predictable to budget, harder to walk away from mid-term
- Value depends on demand for your trade in your area
Published prices
What the main platforms publish
These are the ranges published for UK trades in 2026. Treat them as a starting point for comparison, not a quote.
Platform pricing as published by Trades Grow, One Base Media, Sleepless Tradesman and SwiftLead, 2026. Rates change, so check current pricing before relying on these figures. Google Ads figures as published by PositionWorks (2025 UK home services benchmarks, roofing) and Aimpro Digital (2026). Click prices vary by area, service and how well the account is run.
Risk
Where the risk sits in each model
On a pay-per-lead platform the risk is spread across every enquiry. Each one costs something, and each one might come to nothing: the customer was only gathering prices, went with someone else, or never answered the phone. Published prices for MyBuilder and Rated People sit at £15 to £60 per lead, and Bark at £6 to £30 per connection. None of those figures is large on its own. The question is how many you have to pay for before one turns into paid work.
On a subscription the risk sits up front. Checkatrade is published at £600 to £1,200 a year, generally paid in advance. That money is committed before a single enquiry arrives. If your area is busy and your reviews are strong, a fixed fee can work out cheap per job. If your area is quiet, or your trade is crowded on the platform, the fee stays the same and the return does not.
It also helps to be clear about what each fee buys. A per-lead fee buys a contact, not a customer. A subscription buys visibility, not work. Neither pays for the site visit, the quotation or the follow-up, and that is where much of the real cost of winning a job sits. We cover that side in the admin cost of winning work.
There is a second risk that is easier to miss: dependence. Both models only work while you keep paying. A view repeated across UK trade forums puts it bluntly, and it applies to both.
Platform pricing as published by Trades Grow, One Base Media, Sleepless Tradesman and SwiftLead, 2026. Rates change, so check current pricing before relying on these figures.
You're renting your leads. Stop paying and you vanish.A view repeated across UK trade forums
Before you sign
Six questions to ask any lead service
Put these to the sales team, and get the answers in writing where you can.
What exactly counts as a lead?
A phone number, a message, an unlocked contact, a customer who has shortlisted you? The definition decides what you are paying for. On some services you pay for contact details before you know whether the customer still wants the job.
How many other trades get it?
Ask directly how many businesses can receive or unlock the same enquiry. The answer changes your odds more than anything else on this list. Why it matters so much is covered in why shared leads don't convert.
What happens with bad leads?
Wrong number, wrong trade, outside your area, a customer who says they never asked. Check whether there is a credit or refund process, how you claim it and how long you have to do so.
What is the minimum term?
For subscriptions, check the length of the contract, the notice period and whether the fee is taken up front or monthly. Twelve-month terms are common, and leaving early can cost money.
Can I cap or pause spending?
On pay-per-lead, a spending cap stops a busy fortnight turning into a large bill. On a subscription, ask whether you can pause in your quiet months or when you are fully booked.
What is included beyond the lead?
Review display, a profile page, dispute handling, a badge. Decide which of these you would pay for on their own. If the honest answer is none of them, judge the service purely on the work it produces.
Your own numbers
How to compare the two models properly
Published prices tell you very little until you set them against your own results. This takes a few months of honest record-keeping.
Log every enquiry by source
Every enquiry, where it came from and what it cost. A notebook or a simple spreadsheet is enough. The point is to stop relying on memory, which always remembers the good jobs.
Record what happened next
Did you speak to the customer? Did you visit? Did you quote? Did you win? Each drop-off point tells you something different, about the service and about your own process.
Add up the full cost for the period
Per-lead fees, or the share of the subscription for those months, plus any add-ons. For the honest figure, include your time on visits and quotes that went nowhere.
Divide by jobs won
That gives you a cost per job won for each source, which is the only figure worth comparing. The method is set out step by step in true cost per job won, and what is cost per lead explains why the headline price misleads.
Set it against your margin
A service that costs less per lead can still cost more per job. Compare the cost per job won with what you actually make on a typical job from that source, then decide whether to keep paying.
Cash flow
How each model fits the way work actually comes in
Construction work is seasonal and uneven. Roofers get busy after bad weather; plenty of trades see a slow patch after Christmas. The two models behave very differently across that cycle.
Pay-per-lead is flexible. When you are fully booked you can stop buying, and when it goes quiet you can buy more. The catch is that a quiet month for you is often a quiet month for every other trade in your area, so the enquiries you buy then tend to be the most contested.
A subscription is steady. It costs the same in January as in June, which makes it easy to budget and hard to adjust. It suits a business with consistent capacity that wants to be visible all year. It suits a business that is booked up for months at a time much less well, because you keep paying for visibility you cannot use.
If cash flow is tight, an annual fee paid in advance is a real commitment, not a line item. Be honest about whether you could absorb it if the first few months were slow. For budgeting across all your channels, see how much should I spend on marketing.
Who each suits
Matching the model to your business
Pay-per-lead tends to suit contractors who can respond to enquiries within minutes, who want to test a platform without committing to a year, and who have the discipline to track results and cut spending when it isn't working. It suits people who are good on the phone and quick to quote.
Subscriptions tend to suit established firms with a strong review history, steady capacity, and a trade and area where homeowners use the platform heavily. The fixed fee rewards businesses that keep winning work from the profile month after month.
Neither suits a contractor who is on the tools all day and cannot answer the phone, quote quickly or chase customers. In both models the service ends when the enquiry is delivered. If you are weighing up specific platforms, Checkatrade vs MyBuilder vs Rated People compares the three most common, and our review of Bark for tradespeople covers the per-connection model in detail.
A third option
Models where you pay nothing up front
Pay-per-lead and subscription are not the only structures. Some arrangements charge the contractor nothing to receive the work and earn only when a job goes ahead. Referral arrangements work this way, and so do coordinated contractor networks.
Mortaro runs one of these. We generate the enquiries ourselves and appoint one contractor from the network to each enquiry; it is never shared or sold on. You price the job at trade rate, we add our fee on top in the customer's quotation, and you are paid your rate in full. There is no membership, subscription or per-lead charge. How that works commercially is set out in no upfront lead fees, explained, and the structure itself in how contractor networks work.
It will not suit everyone. If you want to own every customer relationship end to end, or you cannot commit to responding the same day, a network will frustrate you. And we do not promise volume: it depends on your area, your trade and your track record.
Straight answers
Pay-per-lead and subscription questions
Is pay-per-lead cheaper than a subscription?
It depends on your volume and how often you win, not on the headline price. A per-lead fee looks small but repeats with every enquiry; a subscription looks large but is fixed. Work out cost per job won for each on your own figures before deciding.
Can I use both at once?
Yes, and many contractors do. Track the sources separately so you can see which one is paying for itself. Running two services without tracking them just doubles the cost of not knowing.
What if I'm paying and not getting enquiries?
Check the contract terms, the notice period and any credit policy first, then raise it in writing. What to do when a lead company takes money and sends no leads covers the steps.
Are platform prices fixed?
No. Pricing and terms change, and ranges vary by trade and area. The figures on this page are published ranges from 2026. Check the platform's current terms before relying on them.
For contractors
Tell us about your business
Your trade, the areas you cover and the size of work you take on. A person reads every enquiry, and if it looks like a fit we will send you the full application.