01 / The short answerWho is best when the money is yours
Lead Pronto scores highest for small UK businesses (7.0/10), because it publishes per-lead prices, charges nothing until a lead arrives, and offers exclusive rather than shared enquiries. MyBuilder (6.7) is the best trade platform, since you pay only when a customer shortlists you rather than for the right to be listed. Sopro (6.6) is the step up once you are spending seriously, and Pearl Lemon Leads (6.5) the cheapest genuine agency option at month-to-month terms.
The bigger point is that most small businesses hire a supplier before they have the two things that make any supplier work: a budget that clears the minimum threshold, and the ability to ring a new enquiry within five minutes. Fix the second one first. It is free, and it moves conversion more than changing supplier ever will.
Five things to know before you spend anything
- A £20 shared lead really costs about £200 per won job. Half never answer, and the ones who do are comparing three to five quotes. The full arithmetic is in section 08.
- Below roughly £2,000 a month of media, a third or more of every pound goes to the agency, because minimum fees do not scale down. That ratio, not the headline fee, is what decides whether an agency makes sense for you.
- Responding in five minutes makes you 21 times more likely to qualify a lead than waiting thirty. The average business takes 42 to 47 hours. This is the one competitive advantage a small business gets for free.
- Seven of the ten platforms here will not publish a full price. Only three do. Every quote requires a sales call, which tells you how those calls are designed to go.
- Bark credits now expire after three months, changed from twelve in November 2025, and are not refundable. The discount for buying a big pack is now a bet you will spend it inside 90 days.
I have spent fifteen years buying paid traffic for enquiry-led UK businesses, and I run a PPC lead generation company. That means I have a stake in this market, which I have declared throughout. It also means I have watched a lot of small businesses spend money badly, usually in the same three ways: buying leads they cannot follow up fast enough, signing twelve-month directory contracts in a quiet month, and hiring an agency on a budget too small for the agency to do anything useful with.
This guide covers suppliers that will genuinely work with a small budget. If you are a larger business, or you sell to other businesses at higher deal values, the best B2B lead generation companies guide covers that market instead.
02 / MethodSeven criteria, weighted for small budgets
These criteria differ from the ones I use for larger buyers. A small business does not usually fail because reporting was shallow. It fails because it committed money it could not get back, to leads it was competing for, in a month that turned out to be quiet.
| Criterion | Weight | What earns a high score |
|---|---|---|
| Cost to start | 20% | You can begin meaningfully for a few hundred pounds rather than a few thousand |
| Risk if it fails | 20% | No long lock-in, no minimum term, and money stops when you stop |
| Lead exclusivity | 15% | The enquiry is yours, not shared with three to five competitors |
| Pricing transparency | 15% | A real number published on the website, not revealed during a sales call |
| Speed to first lead | 10% | Working days from signing to a usable enquiry |
| Asset ownership | 10% | Reviews, rankings, data and creative stay with you when you leave |
| Support & reporting | 10% | A human who answers, and figures you can act on |
On the prices in this guide
Where a supplier publishes a price I have used it and said so. Where they do not, I have used the best available third-party evidence, mostly tradesperson-reported figures and independent trackers, and labelled it as such. Prices for directory platforms vary by trade and postcode and are frequently only revealed during sign-up. All figures exclude VAT unless stated. Every range is a starting point, not a quote.
03 / At a glanceThe full comparison
Two different products sit in this table. Platforms sell you access to enquiries other people generated. Agencies build something for you. Compare within a group before comparing across.
| # | Company | Score | Type | Real UK cost | Shared? | Commitment |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lead ProntoLiverpool | 7.0 | Pay per lead | From £150/lead B2B solarResidential typically £20 to £60 | Exclusive option | None |
| 2 | MyBuilderPlatform | 6.7 | Pay per shortlist | From £7, typically £5 to £35£50+ on large projects | 3 to 6 quote | None |
| 3 | SoproBrighton | 6.6 | Managed outbound | From £3,000/moPublished | Exclusive | None stated |
| 4 | Pearl Lemon LeadsLondon | 6.5 | Agency | Est. £1,000 to £3,000/mo | Exclusive | Month to month |
| 5 | Paragon Sales SolutionsDerby | 6.2 | Outsourced SDR | From ~£1,800/mo per SDR | Exclusive | Short |
| 6 | BarkPlatform | 5.3 | Pay per lead credits | Credits £1.80, leads ~£7 to £40 | ~5 pros | None, credits expire |
| 7 | TrustATraderPlatform | 5.2 | Directory | ~£20 to £120/moVaries by trade and area | Lower competition | Rolling |
| 8 | Rated PeoplePlatform | 5.0 | Subscription plus leads | From ~£20 to £30/mo + ~£15/lead | 3 to 5 quote | Rolling |
| 9 | CheckatradePlatform | 4.3 | Subscription | Growth from £59/moMembers report £80 to £500/mo | 3 to 4 quote | 12 months fixed |
| 10 | YellPlatform | 3.7 | Packages | ~£50 to £500+/mo | Varies | 12 months, then rolls |
| - | The Lead Gen CompanyOursDeclared interest, unranked | 7.7 | PPC managed | £500/mo + ad spendPublished | Exclusive | Rolling |
Declared interest, and the honest caveat
The Lead Gen Company is my company, so it sits outside the ranking. It scores well on exclusivity, transparency and low commitment, and it scores badly on the criterion that matters most to the smallest businesses: cost to start. The fee is £500 a month, but you also need media budget on top, so realistic minimum monthly outlay is around £1,200. If you are a sole trader looking to spend £200 this month, MyBuilder at £7 a shortlist is a more honest answer than I am, and you should ignore my score entirely.
04 / PlatformsWhere you buy other people's enquiries
These sell access to leads they generated. You get speed and no build cost, and you give up exclusivity and any asset you might have owned. Reviews earned on a platform stay on that platform if you leave. Reviews on a Google Business Profile are yours permanently, which is the single biggest structural argument against making a directory your only channel.
MyBuilder
Best platform, because you pay only on genuine interest
What it is. Homeowners post a job, tradespeople browse and send a free expression of interest, and you pay only when the customer actively shortlists you and releases their contact details. Operating since 2008, it holds one of the deepest verified review datasets in the UK trades market.
Why it beats the subscription platforms. The customer has to demonstrate intent before any money leaves your account. That single design decision removes the worst failure mode in this category, which is paying a fixed monthly fee through a quiet month and receiving nothing. Nobody else in the platform group does this.
Pricing. No monthly fee. Shortlist fees are officially from £7 and typically £5 to £35 for everyday jobs, rising above £50 on large projects. Fees are non-refundable whether or not you win the work, and most tradespeople win their first job after being shortlisted somewhere between four and eight times, so budget £60 to £250 to land the first one.
Strengths
- No monthly fee, so quiet months cost nothing
- You choose which jobs to pursue rather than taking a feed
- Customers post detail, so leads are better qualified than average
- Deep verified review history builds trust quickly
Considerations
- Three to six trades typically quote the same job
- Fees are non-refundable even when you lose
- Reviews stay on MyBuilder if you leave
- Volume is lower than Checkatrade outside major cities
Bark
Broadest category coverage, weakest lead economics
What it is. A customer submits a request, Bark matches it to relevant professionals, and you buy credits to unlock the contact details. It covers well over a thousand service categories, far beyond traditional trades, which makes it the only realistic platform for tutors, photographers, coaches and other niche services.
The economics you need to understand. Bark's own policy states that a customer failing to answer does not make a lead invalid, and user reports suggest more than half of purchased leads never respond. Each lead goes to around five professionals. That combination is what pushes the true cost per won job far above the sticker price, as section 08 sets out.
Pricing. Credits are published at £1.80 plus VAT. Most leads cost five to twenty credits, so roughly £7 to £40, with small domestic jobs at the low end and large projects above £40. Since November 2025 credits expire three months after purchase rather than twelve, and unused credits are not refunded, so bulk discounts now carry a use-it-or-lose-it clock.
Strengths
- Widest category coverage of any UK platform
- No monthly commitment, buy only what you use
- Fastest route to a first enquiry, often same day
- Useful for testing demand in a new service area
Considerations
- Roughly half of paid leads reportedly never respond, and that is not refundable
- Around five professionals receive the same enquiry
- Credits expire after three months, changed in November 2025
- Customers report being called by five to ten businesses within the hour
TrustATrader
Less competition per lead, less volume with it
What it is. A vetted trade directory on a monthly subscription, smaller than Checkatrade in consumer reach. Reported costs range from roughly £20 to £55 a month at the lower end up to £70 to £120 depending on trade and location, on rolling rather than fixed terms in most cases.
Who it works for. Trades in areas where Checkatrade is crowded, or regions where TrustATrader happens to have stronger homeowner recognition. Lower competition per enquiry is a real advantage, but it comes packaged with lower enquiry volume, so it is best treated as a short paid trial rather than a primary channel.
Pricing. Not fully published. Members report annual minimum terms on some plans that cannot be exited without paying out, so confirm in writing what leaving early costs before you sign anything.
Strengths
- Fewer trades chasing the same enquiry
- Lower monthly cost than Checkatrade in most areas
- Vetting gives homeowners some confidence
- Mostly rolling terms rather than fixed annual
Considerations
- Materially lower consumer footprint, so lower volume
- Prices vary by trade and postcode and are not fully published
- Some plans carry annual minimum terms
- Reviews and profile do not transfer if you leave
Rated People
Subscription plus per-lead, the most expensive shape when it goes wrong
What it is. A hybrid model: a monthly subscription from around £20 to £30 plus VAT, with per-lead fees averaging about £15 on top. Higher tiers bundle lead credits into the monthly cost.
Why the hybrid shape scores badly. You carry a fixed cost and a variable one simultaneously. In a good month that is fine. In a quiet month you pay the subscription and receive nothing, and in a busy month the lead fees climb on top. Reports suggest it performs better for plumbers and electricians than for general builders.
Pricing. Partially published. Treat any figure you see as an entry tier and ask for the total including lead fees for your specific trade and postcode before committing.
Strengths
- Low entry subscription compared with Checkatrade
- Established brand with reasonable homeowner recognition
- Rolling terms in most cases
- Works reasonably for reactive trades
Considerations
- Fixed and variable costs stack, which is the worst structure in a quiet month
- Enquiries shared with three to five trades
- Weaker fit for general building work
- Full cost only clear after a sales conversation
Checkatrade
Strongest consumer brand, hardest contract to leave
What it is. The UK's best-known trade directory, backed by heavy television advertising, with vetting and background checks that give homeowners real confidence. Plans run from a free profile to Approved at £30 a month plus VAT, with lead-generating Growth plans from £59 a month, all on twelve-month fixed terms.
Why the score is low despite the brand. Two of the seven criteria are near the floor. The twelve-month fixed term means a bad quarter cannot be exited, and members report real bills of £80 to £500 a month against a £59 headline, with the full price only revealed during sign-up. Third-party analyses put typical annual spend at £1,200 to £2,000 and above. That is £960 to £6,000 committed before a single job is won.
Who it still suits. New trade businesses that need work quickly and can absorb the fixed cost, in mainstream trades and areas where Checkatrade has strong homeowner awareness. For established firms, the same budget put into a Google Business Profile and local search builds enquiries you are not renting.
Strengths
- Highest consumer awareness of any UK trade platform
- Vetting and the approved badge carry genuine weight
- Enquiries come to you rather than needing to be chased
- Good volume in mainstream trades
Considerations
- Twelve-month fixed term with no exit if it underperforms
- Real cost is frequently several times the published entry price
- Full pricing only revealed during sign-up
- Customers routinely compare three to four quotes and often choose on price
Yell
Hardest to recommend on current evidence
What it is. A directory and digital marketing packager selling listings alongside websites, search and advertising services, with packages reported from around £50 to over £500 a month.
Why it ranks last. Contracts run twelve months and then roll, and complaints about continued billing after cancellation are well documented, with one critical analysis reporting a third of customers leaving each year. Consumer traffic to the platform has fallen sharply, and for several trades a basic listing without a premium product attached is reported as not worth renewing. On the two criteria weighted highest here, cost to start and risk if it fails, it scores worst of any supplier in this guide.
If you are already on it. Get any cancellation confirmed in writing, keep the confirmation, and diarise the notice window rather than trusting a phone conversation.
Strengths
- Long-established brand with some residual recognition
- Bundles website and search services in one place
- Account management for businesses that want a single contact
- Can suit sectors where competitors have abandoned the channel
Considerations
- Twelve-month contracts that then roll automatically
- Well-documented complaints about billing after cancellation
- Consumer traffic has declined substantially
- No published pricing at all
05 / AgenciesWhere you pay someone to build you something
These cost more up front and produce an exclusive enquiry rather than one shared with four competitors. Most also leave you with an asset: ad accounts, landing pages, rankings or data. The trade-off is a higher monthly floor, and a slower start.
Lead Pronto
Best overall for small business, because you pay per result
What it is. A UK pay-per-lead agency covering solar, insulation, windows and doors, boilers, heat pumps, roofing, driveways, mortgages and legal. It generates and qualifies the enquiry, then delivers it live. Both exclusive and shared options exist, and it also sells booked appointments rather than raw enquiries.
Why it tops this particular list. It combines the two things small businesses need most and rarely get together: published prices and no retainer. The commercial model puts delivery risk on the supplier, which matters far more when the budget is your own money than when it is a marketing department's.
Pricing. Published from £150 per lead and £250 per booked appointment for commercial and industrial solar. Residential home improvement enquiries in the wider UK market typically run £20 to £60 depending on vertical and exclusivity. Publishing any per-lead figure at all puts it ahead of most of the field.
Strengths
- Per-lead and per-appointment prices published openly
- No retainer, so cost tracks what you actually receive
- Exclusive option removes the race against four competitors
- Fast start, often within days
Considerations
- You do not own the acquisition channel or the data behind it
- Limited to the verticals it covers
- Reporting is lighter than a managed campaign gives you
- Audit consent records, since consumer lead generation attracts regulatory attention
Sopro
The step up once you are spending seriously
What it is. A managed prospecting service running email with LinkedIn and phone layered on, aimed at B2B. Sopro builds the audience, writes the sequences, sends from infrastructure it owns and warms, and passes replies through a reporting portal.
Why it appears in a small business guide. Because the honest answer to "when should I graduate from platforms" is a specific number, and this is roughly it. At £3,000 a month with no minimum contract, it is the lowest-risk entry into properly managed outbound for a small business that sells to other businesses. Cost to start scores 3, which is the lowest here, and that is the whole caveat.
Pricing. Published entry of around £3,000 a month with no minimum contract. Independent write-ups put the working range nearer £3,000 to £6,000. Budget three months before judging it.
Strengths
- No minimum contract despite the size of the fee
- Entry price published, unlike most competitors
- In-house compliance function and verified data
- Exclusive enquiries with no bidding war
Considerations
- Out of reach for most genuinely small businesses
- You rent the sending domains and keep none at exit
- B2B only, so no use to a consumer-facing trade
- Three-month ramp before output is representative
Pearl Lemon Leads
Cheapest genuine agency, month to month
What it is. A London agency running multichannel outbound across email, LinkedIn and phone, with an SEO background folded in. It works month to month and is generally willing to take smaller budgets than most agencies on any comparable list.
Who it works for. Small B2B firms, consultancies and agencies wanting to find out whether outbound works for them before committing. Treat it as a paid experiment with a written question: does anyone in this segment reply, and does a reply ever become a meeting worth having.
Pricing. Not published, typically quoted at £1,000 to £3,000 a month on a rolling basis. The month-to-month structure is the real product here: you can stop after sixty days having spent low four figures rather than being locked into a year.
Strengths
- Month-to-month terms keep the downside small
- Lowest realistic entry among genuine agencies
- Fast deployment, often within a fortnight
- Search and outbound handled together
Considerations
- No published pricing
- Less structured than larger agencies, so define success up front
- Reporting depth is modest
- Breadth of services can come at the cost of depth
Paragon Sales Solutions
Best for SMEs that need someone on the phone
What it is. A Derby sales agency running telemarketing alongside SEO, paid ads, social and email, founded in 2018 with several thousand campaigns delivered. It serves the segment most UK lists skip: firms turning over £500,000 to £5m that need pipeline but cannot justify a £5,000 retainer.
Who it works for. Owner-managed businesses making a first move into outsourced lead generation, and firms wanting calling and digital from one supplier rather than stitched together. Reporting is straightforward: calls made, conversations had, meetings booked. That simplicity is a strength if you want execution and a limitation if you want strategic guidance.
Pricing. Reported from around £1,800 a month per SDR, with comparable UK SME telemarketing engagements running £1,000 to £3,000 a month for part-time caller resource. A partial resource, meaning someone spending 30% to 50% of their week on your account, is common and sensible at this level.
Strengths
- Realistic entry point for smaller UK businesses
- Calling and digital under one roof
- Clear, simple reporting on the metrics that matter
- Shorter commitments than enterprise agencies
Considerations
- Limited strategic depth on messaging and targeting
- Generalist breadth means no single vertical advantage
- Primarily UK-focused, so limited international experience
- Ask exactly who calls your account and what else they cover
The Lead Gen Company
Paid search on a flat fee, with everything owned by you
This is my own business. It is scored against the same seven criteria and excluded from the ranked positions. Read it as a description of a model, not an endorsement to take at face value.
What it is. A lead generation agency running paid search and paid social on a flat monthly fee rather than a percentage of ad spend. Published fees are £500 a month for a single-location business and £1,250 for national campaigns, both on top of your media budget. There is also a pay-per-lead option where enquiries are generated and telephone-qualified before they reach you.
Who it works for. Businesses whose customers already search for what they sell, and who want to own the ad accounts, landing pages and data rather than rent them. Asset ownership scores 9 here against 2 for every directory platform, which over three years is the difference between building something and renting it.
Where it fails for the smallest businesses. The £500 fee is only part of it. Add media and the realistic floor is around £1,200 a month, which rules out a large share of the people reading a guide about small business lead generation. If that is you, the platforms above are the right answer this month, and this becomes relevant later.
Strengths
- Fees published, and never a percentage of your media spend
- You own the ad accounts, landing pages, creative and data outright
- Exclusive enquiries rather than shared with four competitors
- Rolling terms with no minimum commitment
Considerations
- Realistic floor of around £1,200 a month all in
- Only works where search demand already exists
- Two to three weeks of build before the first lead
- I wrote this guide, so weigh the score accordingly
Not sure whether your budget is big enough yet?
Tell me your average job value and what you can spend. You get an honest answer, including when the answer is to stay on a platform for another six months.
06 / MoneyWhat lead generation costs a small UK business
Five models, and the one you pick matters more than which supplier inside it you choose.
| Model | Typical UK cost | You pay when | Risk sits with | Best when |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pay per lead or shortlist | £5 to £60 consumer£30 to £150 B2B | A lead arrives | Supplier | Cash is tight and you can follow up instantly |
| Directory subscription | £20 to £500/mo | Every month, regardless | You | Volume is reliable and you can absorb quiet months |
| Subscription plus per lead | £20 to £30/mo + £15/lead | Both | You | Rarely the best shape for a small business |
| Managed PPC on a flat fee | £500 to £1,250/mo + media | Monthly | Shared | People already search for what you sell |
| Outbound retainer | £1,000 to £3,000/mo | Monthly | You | You sell B2B and nobody is searching yet |
07 / New analysisThe fee ratio that decides whether an agency makes sense
Agencies quote a monthly fee. What matters at small budgets is what share of your total outlay that fee represents, because minimum fees do not scale down. A £500 minimum is reasonable against £5,000 of media and absurd against £500.
| Your media budget | Typical agency fee | Total monthly | Share going to management | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| £500 | £500 | £1,000 | 50% | Do not hire an agency |
| £1,000 | £500 | £1,500 | 33% | Borderline |
| £2,000 | £500 | £2,500 | 20% | Starts to make sense |
| £3,000 | £600 | £3,600 | 17% | Reasonable |
| £5,000 | £750 | £5,750 | 13% | Good value if they are good |
| £10,000 | £1,250 | £11,250 | 11% | Efficient |
The crossover sits at roughly £2,000 a month of media. Below that, half or a third of your money buys expertise rather than customers, and the expertise cannot overcome the small budget. Above it, a competent agency has enough spend to work with and the ratio starts justifying itself.
Why percentage-of-spend fees are worse, not better, when you are small
A 15% management fee on £1,000 of spend is £150 a month, which no agency can service properly, so they impose a minimum anyway. You end up paying the minimum while being told you are on a percentage. Worse, the model rewards your agency for spending more of your money. A flat fee removes that conflict entirely, and at small budgets it is almost always the cheaper structure. Ask for the fee in pounds, not percent, and ask what the minimum is.
08 / New analysisWhat a shared lead actually costs per won job
The advertised price of a shared lead is not its cost. Two things happen between paying and earning, and both are documented rather than theoretical.
First, a large share never respond. Bark's own policy states that a customer not answering does not qualify as an invalid lead, and user reports suggest more than half of paid leads go nowhere. Second, each enquiry goes to around five professionals, so even a live lead is a one-in-five contest before anyone has seen your quote.
That is not an argument against shared leads. At £200 to acquire a customer, a £2,000 bathroom refit still works comfortably. It is an argument against modelling them as though they cost £20. Run your own version with your real numbers before deciding a platform is too expensive or cheap enough.
| Platform structure | What you commit | Cost in a quiet month | Worst case |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pay per shortlist | Nothing | £0 | Fees on jobs you lose |
| Pay per lead credits | Credit purchase | £0 to spend | Credits expire unused after 3 months |
| Rolling subscription | One month | £20 to £120 | Cancel and lose the profile |
| Fixed 12-month subscription | A full year | £59 to £500 | £708 to £6,000 committed before a job is won |
09 / New analysisThe one advantage a small business gets for free
Every other lever in this guide costs money. This one costs attention, and it beats most of them.
The gap between what the research recommends and what businesses do is enormous, and it is an operational problem rather than a motivation problem. Large competitors are slow because a lead has to pass through a routing system, a queue and a rota before anyone dials. A sole trader with a phone in their pocket has none of that friction.
Three findings worth acting on. Businesses with a written response-time rule respond within fifteen minutes at nearly twice the rate of those without: 54.9% against 29.5%. The odds of qualifying drop roughly tenfold once you pass five minutes. And the average salesperson gives up after 1.3 attempts, while the numbers support six to eight attempts across the first forty-eight hours.
What this is worth in pounds
If you buy ten shared leads a month at £20 and win one, your cost per customer is £200. Being consistently first to respond, in a market where 78% buy from the first caller and most competitors take hours, plausibly moves you from one win to two. Same £200 of spend, cost per customer halves to £100. No supplier on this page will hand you a saving that size, and it is available this afternoon.
10 / New analysisThe three-month test
Before choosing a supplier, work out whether you should be hiring one at all. Two calculations, five minutes.
Step one, your ceiling. What is the most you can pay for a lead and still profit?
Max cost per lead = (average job value × gross margin) ÷ (leads per sale × payback multiple)
A £2,000 average job at 40% margin returns £800. If you close one lead in four and want £3 of gross profit for every £1 spent acquiring, your ceiling is £800 ÷ (4 × 3) = £67 per lead. Anything above that loses money at your current conversion rate.
Step two, the floor. What does a real test cost?
Ten leads a month at £67 is £670 of media. Add a £500 agency fee and you are at roughly £1,170 a month. Nothing in paid acquisition tells you anything useful in under three months, because the first month is build and learning. So the honest entry price for hiring an agency is about £3,500 committed over three months.
The rule
If you cannot commit roughly £3,500 over three months without it hurting, do not hire an agency yet. Use pay-per-lead platforms where the money stops when you stop, get your Google Business Profile and reviews working, and fix your response time. Come back to agencies when the number is affordable, because an underfunded campaign does not produce a small result. It produces no result and a conclusion that the channel does not work for you, which is usually wrong.
11 / Before you pay anyoneThree things to do first
None of these cost money, and all of them make whatever you buy afterwards work better.
- Google Business Profile, properly filled in. It is free and it captures the highest-intent local searches that exist. Someone typing "emergency electrician Bristol" is ready to book, not price fishing, and when they call you directly there is no platform taking a cut and no competing quote arriving at the same moment. Building enough reviews to rank strongly takes three to six months, which is exactly why you start it before you need it.
- Reviews you own. Reviews earned on Checkatrade, Bark, MyBuilder or TrustATrader stay on those platforms if you leave. Google reviews attach to your profile permanently. If you are going to ask a happy customer for one review, ask for the one you keep.
- A written response-time rule. One line: every new enquiry gets a call within five minutes during working hours, and an acknowledgement plus a 9am call if it lands overnight. Businesses with a written rule respond within fifteen minutes at nearly twice the rate of those without.
Once those are in place, paid channels compound rather than replace. If people are already searching for what you sell, PPC lead generation is usually the cheapest exclusive lead you can buy. If nobody is searching, you need outbound, and the platform route will not help you.
12 / QuestionsWhat small business owners ask
How much does lead generation cost for a small business in the UK?
Pay-per-lead platforms cost roughly £5 to £60 per consumer enquiry and £30 to £150 for B2B. Trade directory subscriptions run £20 to £500 a month depending on trade and postcode. Managed paid search costs £500 to £1,250 a month in fees plus your media budget. Outbound agency retainers start around £1,000 to £3,000 a month. The realistic minimum for a proper three-month agency test is about £3,500 in total.
Which lead generation company is best for a small business?
On the seven criteria used here, Lead Pronto scores highest at 7.0 out of 10 because it publishes per-lead prices, charges no retainer and offers exclusive enquiries. MyBuilder is the strongest platform at 6.7, since you pay only when a customer shortlists you rather than for the right to be listed. Pearl Lemon Leads at 6.5 is the cheapest genuine agency on month-to-month terms. The right answer depends on whether your customers already search for what you sell.
Is Checkatrade worth it for a small business?
It depends on your stage. Checkatrade has the strongest consumer recognition of any UK trade platform, and for a new trade business needing work quickly it can work as a short-term channel. The problems are the twelve-month fixed term and the gap between the £59 headline and the £80 to £500 a month members report paying, with the real figure only revealed at sign-up. That is £960 to £6,000 committed before a single job is won. For established firms, the same budget spent on a Google Business Profile and local search builds enquiries you are not renting.
How much does a Bark lead really cost?
Credits are published at £1.80 plus VAT and most leads cost five to twenty credits, so roughly £7 to £40. The real figure is higher. Bark's policy states a customer not answering does not make a lead invalid, and user reports suggest more than half never respond. Each enquiry goes to around five professionals. Buying ten leads at £20, with half responding and a one-in-five win rate, produces one job for £200. Credits bought since November 2025 also expire after three months and are not refundable.
Should I use a lead generation agency or buy leads?
Buy leads while your budget is small, because the money stops when you stop and the supplier carries the delivery risk. Move to an agency once you can commit around £2,000 a month of media, which is where the management fee drops to about a fifth of your total outlay rather than a third or half. The other advantage of an agency is ownership: you keep the ad accounts, landing pages and data, whereas platform leads and reviews stay with the platform.
What is a good cost per lead for a small business?
Work out your own ceiling rather than using a benchmark. Take your average job value, multiply by gross margin, then divide by the number of leads it takes to win one sale multiplied by your target payback. A £2,000 job at 40% margin, closing one lead in four, with a three-to-one payback target, gives a maximum of £67 per lead. Any supplier above that is selling you a loss at your current conversion rate, and improving conversion raises the ceiling faster than negotiating price.
How fast should I respond to a new lead?
Within five minutes. Research consistently shows responding at five minutes makes you around 21 times more likely to qualify a lead than waiting thirty, and roughly 78% of customers buy from whoever responds first. The average business takes 42 to 47 hours, and one 2026 benchmark of 573 businesses found 74% miss the five-minute window entirely. Writing down a response-time rule helps: businesses with one respond inside fifteen minutes at nearly twice the rate of those without.
Are shared leads worth buying?
Yes, if you can call within minutes every time and your job value supports the true cost. A shared lead typically goes to three to five businesses, so even a live enquiry is a one-in-five contest. Model it at roughly ten times the sticker price to account for non-responders and lost quotes, then check that number against your maximum cost per lead. If your follow-up is next-day, buy exclusive leads or do not buy at all, because you are funding your competitors' quotes.
What free lead generation should I do first?
Set up and fully complete a Google Business Profile, then ask happy customers for Google reviews rather than platform reviews, because Google reviews stay with you permanently while directory reviews do not. Then write a one-line response-time rule and stick to it. Those three things cost nothing, take three to six months to build momentum, and make every paid channel you add afterwards convert better.
13 / TransparencyMethod, limitations and sources
How this guide was built
Suppliers were selected on one test: would they realistically work with a business spending under £3,000 a month. That deliberately excludes most of the agencies that appear in general UK lead generation lists, and deliberately includes trade platforms that such lists ignore. Each was scored against the seven weighted criteria in section 02, using published prices where available and independent trackers, tradesperson-reported figures and platform help-centre policies where not.
Limitations worth stating. Scores are my judgement, informed by fifteen years of buying and selling paid acquisition, not a controlled study. Platform pricing varies substantially by trade and postcode, and most is only revealed during sign-up, so treat every figure as indicative. The worked calculations use stated assumptions that will not match your business; the method matters more than my inputs. No supplier paid to appear, no links are affiliate links, and The Lead Gen Company is my own business and sits outside the ranking.
Corrections. If you work at one of these companies and a figure is wrong, send the correct number and the page it is published on, and this guide will be updated with the change noted.
Sources
- Bark help centre, published credit pricing and lead validity policy
- Bark credit expiry change, November 2025
- Checkatrade published plan tiers and 12-month terms, 2026
- Independent UK trade lead cost trackers, July and August 2026
- MyBuilder published shortlist fee structure
- Tradesperson-reported platform costs across Checkatrade, Bark, MyBuilder and Rated People
- MIT and InsideSales Lead Response Management study
- Harvard Business Review lead response research
- Blazeo 2026 Speed-to-Lead Benchmark, 573 businesses
- Velocity and XANT lead response datasets
- Lead Pronto, published per-lead and per-appointment pricing
- Sopro, published pricing page
- Third-party agency pricing reports for Paragon and Pearl Lemon Leads
- UK Google Ads benchmarks 2026, cost per lead by sector
Want a second opinion before you commit?
Send me your average job value, what you can spend and where your enquiries come from now. You get the maths back, including when the honest answer is to spend nothing this month.
Related reading: the best lead generation companies in the UK covers the whole market including larger suppliers, and the best B2B lead generation companies covers business-to-business specialists. If you want to talk about lead generation for your own business, the form at the top of this page is the fastest route.