Pay Per Job vs Subscription: Which Pays More for Roofers?

Two Models, Opposite Risk Structures

The two dominant ways to buy roofing leads in the UK are monthly subscriptions and pay-per-job. On the surface they serve the same purpose, connecting you with customers who need a roofer. In practice, they operate on opposite financial logic, and the difference matters more than most roofers realise when they sign up.

The subscription model charges you regardless of results. The pay-per-job model charges you only on results. That single distinction has consequences for cash flow, risk exposure, and what actually happens in practice across the year.

How Monthly Subscriptions Work in Practice

Subscription platforms, Checkatrade is the most prominent example, charge a monthly fee for access to their marketplace. You create a profile, collect reviews, and appear in search results when customers look for a roofer. The platform drives traffic to the marketplace; you convert that traffic into booked work.

Fees vary by platform and tier. A Checkatrade subscription for a roofer typically runs £80-£200/month depending on region and package. MyBuilder and Rated People operate on a credits or subscription hybrid where you pay to claim leads as they come in.

The structural issue with subscriptions is that the platform gets paid before you do, and independently of whether you do. In a good month with twelve genuine calls and eight conversions, the subscription looks like good value. In January, during a dry spell, when you receive three calls and win one job, you have paid £160 for a single job. The fee does not adjust.

There is also the question of what kind of leads subscriptions actually generate. Directory platforms are designed for customers who are browsing and comparing. They attract planned project enquiries and quote-gathering behaviour more naturally than genuine emergencies. A customer with an active roof leak at 8pm does not typically open Checkatrade, browse profiles, and fill in a contact form. They search Google for a phone number and call whoever answers.

How Pay-Per-Job Works in Practice

Pay-per-job inverts the risk structure. You pay a flat fee per confirmed job, not per call, not per month. The platform absorbs the cost of generating, filtering, and routing the call, and only recovers its fee after you have won the job and the customer has confirmed their choice.

This means: if you take a holiday, your platform costs that week are zero. If January is quiet and you win two jobs instead of your usual six, you pay for two jobs instead of six. There is no ongoing overhead from the platform in months where results are below average.

The per-job fee is higher than the implied cost-per-lead on a subscription in a good month. A subscription at £120/month delivering eight jobs implies £15 per job. A pay-per-job fee is typically £40-£100 per confirmed job. But this comparison is only valid if the subscription reliably delivers eight confirmed jobs every month, which requires consistent call volume, consistent conversion, and no slow months. Real trading conditions are not that stable.

The Cash Flow Comparison, A Real Scenario

Consider two roofers, both targeting six confirmed emergency callout jobs per month from their lead generation.

Roofer A is on a subscription at £140/month. Over a year, their monthly job wins from the platform are: 8, 7, 4, 3, 2, 5, 9, 8, 6, 5, 3, 4, an average of 5.3, close to target. Annual platform cost: £1,680. Annual jobs won: 64. Implied cost per job: £26.25. This looks reasonable.

But look at February (3 jobs, £47/job), March (2 jobs, £70/job), and November (3 jobs, £47/job). In the three weakest months, Roofer A pays premium-equivalent rates for jobs that arrived inconsistently. More importantly, the £140 has left their account in those months regardless. It is a fixed cost that runs through quiet periods, cash flow crunches, illness, and holidays.

Roofer B is on pay-per-job at £80 per confirmed job. Their same monthly job pattern would cost: £640, £560, £320, £240, £160, £400, £720, £640, £480, £400, £240, £320. Annual cost: £5,120. Annual jobs won: 64. Implied cost per job: £80.

Roofer A's headline fee per job looks cheaper, but only because the annual average flatters what actually happens month to month. In the three worst months of that year, they paid £47-70 per job from a platform that gave them no guarantee those jobs would arrive. In the two months with just 2-3 wins, the subscription effectively ran at a loss. Every pound of that £1,680 left their account regardless of results, regardless of whether they were ill, on holiday, or simply in a quiet period.

Roofer B never paid for a job they didn't win. In their slowest month, two jobs. They paid £160. Roofer A paid £140 that same month and won two jobs from shared leads where three other roofers were calling the same customer.

Pay-per-job costs more per win in a strong month. It costs nothing when things are quiet. For a sole trader or small team with real overhead and variable income, that asymmetry is worth more than the average implied-cost comparison suggests. The subscription model transfers all demand risk to you. Pay-per-job keeps it with the platform, which is the only party that can actually influence how much demand arrives.

What Roofers on Subscription Platforms Actually Complain About

The persistent complaint from roofers on subscription platforms is not that leads don't arrive. It is that too many leads are poor quality or shared with too many competitors. You pay the monthly fee, receive a call, call the customer, and find out they have already spoken to three others. The ensuing dynamic is a price competition you didn't know you were entering when the notification arrived.

Emergency leads on subscription platforms are also rarely exclusive. The directory model is designed to give customers choice. A customer with storm damage who finds Checkatrade is browsing multiple profiles simultaneously. They are not waiting for a single call.

GetTheCall's live routing operates differently from resold contact details. The customer calls a tracked number; nearby eligible available roofers ring at once and the first to answer connects privately. Other members do not receive the customer's contact details to call back, and GetTheCall does not resell the connected conversation.

When to Use Each Model

Subscription platforms make commercial sense for non-emergency, planned work. A customer planning a full re-roof in spring, researching contractors in January, and comparing reviews and prices over several weeks, this is an ideal subscription lead. The customer's research behaviour matches the platform's directory model.

Pay-per-job is better suited to emergency callouts, where the customer has an active problem, time pressure, and no appetite to comparison shop. The implied cost per job is higher, but the callout revenue is also higher, conversion is simpler, and there is no downside risk in slow months.

Most established roofers who run both alongside each other find the two models complement rather than compete: subscription for planned volume, pay-per-job for emergency premium. See how GetTheCall's pay-per-job roofing works in practice.