Speedi isn't a Checkatrade alternative. It's the layer on top.
If you're already on Checkatrade, MyBuilder or Rated People, we're not asking you to leave them. They do a job Speedi doesn't do — and Speedi does one they can't.
Every few months another platform turns up and tells tradespeople to abandon the one they are on. It is a tiring pitch and it is usually a bad deal, because the thing you would be abandoning took years to build.
So this is not that.
If you have eleven years of Checkatrade reviews, a MyBuilder history, a Rated People profile or a Which? Trusted Trader badge, keep them. They are doing something Speedi does not do, and they are doing it better than a new platform could.
What those platforms actually do
Three things, broadly, and all three matter.
They vet. Somebody checked your insurance, your references, your registrations. A customer who has never met you can see that a third party stood behind you.
They hold your reputation. Years of reviews from real jobs, in a place customers already trust and already search.
They generate enquiries. Somebody describes a job and it reaches trades who can do it.
Speedi does none of those things. We do not vet anybody, we do not host reviews, and we are not a place where you buy leads. If somebody needs to know you are competent and insured before they let you in the house, a vetted profile answers that and we do not.
The one thing none of them can tell anybody
Here is the gap, and it is not a criticism — it is just not what a directory is for.
A review tells somebody you were good in March. A vetted badge tells them you are legitimate. Neither can tell them whether you can come out this afternoon.
That is the question most customers are actually asking. Not "is this person any good" — they have usually satisfied themselves on that in thirty seconds — but "can anyone come today". And the way that question gets answered right now is by ringing six people and hoping.
Meanwhile you have a gap at half two because somebody cancelled, and there is no way on any of those platforms to say so. A directory profile is a fixed thing. It says the same words on the Tuesday you are flat out and the Thursday you have nothing on.
The extra layer
Speedi is that missing field: are you free right now, and did you say so yourself.
You set a traffic light — green, amber, red — and it expires on a timer, so a green light means the last couple of hours rather than whenever the profile was written. Customers see a live map of who is genuinely available. They can also follow you, and be told the moment you go green, which is how a cancellation gets filled by somebody who already wanted you.
And you can link your existing profiles straight onto your Speedi page — Checkatrade, Trustpilot, Google, Rated People, MyBuilder, Which? Trusted Traders. We do not copy your reviews or put our own score next to them. Somebody who finds you on Speedi and wants to check you out goes and reads them where you earned them.
Reputation where you built it. Availability where it is useful. They are different jobs.
Why this is not a land grab
Worth being plain about the business model, because that is usually where the catch is.
Speedi is free to appear on and free to show your availability. There is no subscription and no minimum term. You pay only when you accept a customer, and from that moment the two of you deal with each other direct — we take no commission on the job and add no fee to what the customer pays.
That means there is no version of this where being on Speedi costs you money for a quiet month. If you never accept anybody, you never pay anything.
So should you leave Checkatrade?
Not on our account. If it is working for you, it is working for you — and if it is not, that is a decision about that platform rather than about this one.
What we would say is that the question those platforms answer and the question Speedi answers are different, and most trades are currently only answering one of them.
Add the layer: Get Speedi Pro — free to show your availability, no subscription.
Already on? Link your Checkatrade and Trustpilot to your profile so your reviews come with you.