Is Rated People worth it for NI tradespeople? A 2026 review

How Rated People pricing works in 2026

Rated People sits in the awkward middle between a pure membership platform like Checkatrade and a pure pay-per-lead platform like Bark. There is a monthly subscription, which gets you a profile and a small credit allowance each month, and you then spend credits on top to unlock the contact details of a homeowner who has posted a job. The credit cost of any specific lead is set by Rated People based on trade, job size and competition in your area, and you see the figure before you commit.

The figures above are ranges, not quotes. The real cost is not the credit price, it is what you spend to win one job, and on Rated People a single hire usually takes several paid contacts. Always ask for a written quote for your specific trade and postcodes before you sign up, and treat any introductory rate as a number that will move at renewal.

The Houzz ownership and what changed

Rated People was acquired by Houzz in 2017, and in 2026 it remains part of the Houzz Group rather than a standalone business. The Rated People brand still operates under its own name in the UK and the homeowner-facing product looks broadly familiar, but the corporate context is worth knowing because it shapes a couple of things you will notice as a member.

The first is cross-sell to Houzz Pro, the Houzz Group’s contractor management tool, which is pitched on top of the Rated People subscription rather than included. The second is the gradual shift in support: customer-facing support has moved further toward AI chat over the last year, and trades report longer routes to a human when a refund or billing query needs judgement. None of this makes the platform unusable, but it is the visible operational change since the acquisition and it explains a portion of the recent sentiment drop on review sites.

The “is Rated People dying” question

“Is Rated People dying” is a real search query in 2026, and the honest answer is no, but the lead-volume decline is real enough to take seriously before you commit. Through 2025 and into 2026 the recurring pattern in tradesperson reviews has been a meaningful drop in jobs coming through. Some long-standing members describe falling from four or five leads a day to one or two a week in the same trade and area.

The decline is uneven. High-volume general categories in dense English population centres still see steady job flow. NI sellers, niche categories, and trades that rely on lead frequency for cashflow have been the loudest about the change. Subscription pricing has moved in the opposite direction over the same period, which is what produces the “paying more for less” narrative on Trustpilot. The platform is not closing, but the trajectory is the single biggest reason to think twice before paying a higher tier upfront.

What real tradesmen say

Tradesperson reviews of Rated People cluster around a fairly consistent set of complaints. None are unique to the platform, but the frequency in late-2025 and 2026 reviews is worth understanding before you top up.

• Falling lead volume year on year. The most common 2026 complaint is simply that fewer jobs are coming through than a year ago, with no equivalent reduction in subscription cost.
• Credits burned on uncontactable homeowners. Tradespeople spend credits to unlock a contact, ring or message, and never hear back - the credit is debited at unlock, not at homeowner response.
• Subscription price moves upwards at renewal. Several members report subscription jumps without prior agreement, the most widely-cited example being a member reporting a move from around £18 to £154/mo on the same account.
• AI chatbot support. Customer service has shifted toward an automated chat front door, and reviewers report it as slow to escalate to a human when a real billing or refund issue needs judgement.
• Refund friction. Rated People does process refunds on clearly bad leads, but the bar is high and the process is reported as inconsistent, particularly on judgement calls.
• Lead exclusivity narrower than it looks. A typical job is shown to up to three trades, so even a real lead is a small bidding pool rather than yours alone.

Positive reviews exist as well, and the pattern is predictable: established sellers with strong response times and a long review history can still win a meaningful share of the leads they pay to unlock. The further you are from that profile, the harder the current maths gets.

Why Rated People struggles for NI tradespeople

Rated People is a UK-wide platform that was built around South-East England demand, and Northern Ireland has always been one of its smaller regions. The post-2022 lead-volume decline has hit NI harder than the platform-wide numbers suggest, because the NI homeowner pool was thin to begin with. NI tradespeople end up paying a subscription plus credits for access to a lead stream that is materially smaller than the platform marketing implies.

Category fit is a second issue. Oil-fired heating is the dominant NI home-heating fuel and Rated People is not built around OFTEC the way it is around Gas Safe. NI Building Control runs through eleven councils each with their own process, and the Phoenix and Firmus gas networks cover specific footprints rather than a single national grid. None of that is first-class on a UK-wide credit-buying platform. NI tradespeople are paying to compete against the GB credit pool for a customer base the platform does not specifically chase.

Where Rated People actively hurts NI tradespeople

The structural issues compound for NI tradespeople paying for a credit-based platform whose demand-side marketing is spent elsewhere. Rated People is the wrong choice if any of these apply to you:

• You are an NI sole trader and cannot afford to pay a subscription on top of credit spend in a quiet month - the fixed cost compounds the per-lead risk.
• You work in a specialist NI category such as oil-fired heating, where homeowner enquiries tend to go to local recommendation rather than UK-wide credit platforms.
• You need predictable monthly cost - credits already spent are non-refundable and the renewal price is not guaranteed.
• You cannot reliably respond to a new lead inside minutes - late responses lose to the two other trades the lead was shown to, and the credit is already spent either way.
• You want a customer relationship that starts on craft rather than price, and you do not want to be one of three on a comparison list every time.
• You are an established NI local trade who already gets most work through word-of-mouth and a Google Business Profile - the marginal Rated People lead does not justify the subscription plus credit cost.

How to stop using Rated People

Rated People runs on a rolling subscription, which makes leaving simpler than escaping a 12-month membership. The cleanest route is to turn off auto-renewal and credit top-ups in your account settings so no further charges are taken, stop responding to new leads, and let any remaining credit balance run down on jobs you genuinely want to bid on. Credits already on the account are generally non-refundable, so it usually makes sense to spend a residual balance down rather than abandon it.

To close the account fully and have your profile removed, contact Rated People support in writing and ask for closure, keep a copy of the email and the date. If you are disputing a specific charge - a subscription jump you did not agree to, credits debited for a verified-fake lead, a billing error - raise it through the standard support flow first and keep the message history. Statutory rights under the Consumer Rights Act still apply to any disputed charge even after you stop using the service.

The NI-built alternative: NI Trades

NI Trades is built in Northern Ireland by people who live and hire here. Our team is based in Bangor and Belfast, and we hire NI tradespeople ourselves. The directory is NI-only by design - we are not chasing a UK-wide credit pool we cannot serve, and we are not paying for marketing in regions our tradespeople do not work.

• Flat monthly fee: £30/month on the Listed plan, £55/month on the Featured plan. No credits to spend, no per-lead charges, no surprise subscription jumps.
• A maximum of three tradespeople are shown any one job - the same cap Rated People runs, but with no credit cost on top of the flat fee.
• No 12-month tie-in. You can cancel any time. A 3-month free trial is available for founding trades.
• Northern Ireland only - the audience and the demand are local rather than a slice of a UK-wide platform feeling the lead-volume decline.

The maths comparison is worth running for yourself. On Rated People, if you pay roughly £35 a month subscription and average £12 in credits per contact across five contacts a month, that is £95 a month or £1,140 a year before you win a single job, with no guarantee the lead volume stays where it is. At £55 a month on the Featured plan for twelve months that is £660 a year flat, with no credit risk and no subscription jump at renewal.

If you want to look at this side properly, see our plans and pricing, the Fair Billing Pledge (no per-lead charges, no contract lock-in, no surprise renewal price hikes), and the Founding Trades window if you want to lock in the founder rate.

Frequently asked questions

Pricing and terms on third-party platforms named in this article change frequently and vary by trade and region. Figures quoted here were validated against publicly-reported sources in May 2026. Always confirm current pricing directly with each provider before you sign anything.