For tradespeople
Flat fee. No paying for silence.
Three quotes on posted jobs a month, free. Pro is £12.99 a month, and that is the whole price. No lead fees, no credits that expire, and when you lose a job you are told, so you are not sat waiting on a customer who chose someone else on Tuesday.
The comparison
What the others charge, written down
Every directory hides its price until you have handed over your details. Here is what we could find, next to ours.
| Feature | Hard Hat Way | Checkatrade | MyBuilder | Bark |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly cost | Free, or Pro £12.99 a month | Approved £30 a month, Growth from £59. Real price hidden until you sign up. 12-month contract. Members report £80 to £500 a month | No membership | No membership |
| Per-lead fee | None | None, the subscription is the fee | £5 to £35 per shortlist | Credit packs, £7 to £40 per lead |
| Refund if the customer never opens it | Yes, the unused quote slot is refunded | No | No, non-refundable | No, and credits expire after 3 months |
| Told when you lose | Yes | No | No | No |
| Who rates you | Your own trade, on real jobs | Customers | Customers | Customers |
Competitor figures from their public pricing pages and what their members report, September 2026. If any of it is wrong, tell us and we will change it.
Not just a directory
The app you'd open anyway
Most trade apps get opened when you need a job and closed the second you have one. This one is where the trade actually hangs about.
Community feed
Post your work, follow trades you rate, and get a thumbs up from people who know what a proper job looks like. Filter by trade. No adverts between the posts.
The Cabin
The brew room. Jokes, banter, games and the laugh you need between shifts. Nothing to do with finding work, which is rather the point.
Competitions
Top Trade of the Week for the best work posted, Bodge of the Week for the worst you have found, and Hard Hat Heist for a bit of fun. Voted on by the trade.
Tools
The tools to run your work
ProQuote
Branded PDF quotes with regional pricing across 20 trades.
TradeCalc
Offline calculators for bricks, blocks, mortar, area and volume.
Trade Docs
RAMS, risk assessments and method statements in minutes.
Job Manager
Diary, clock-in and the jobs you have on, in one place.
Watermark
Put your name on your photos before someone else does.
Weather
Site forecast so you know before you load the van.
Trade-to-trade work
Need a hand on Thursday?
Post the day, the rate and the postcode in the Work tab. Nearby trades see it and get in touch. No fee, no middleman, just a labourer or a second pair of hands when you need one.
Verified trade
Documents checked by a bricklayer, not an algorithm
Send your insurance, qualifications and ID and Stu checks them himself. Pass and you get the blue tick on your profile, which customers see on every quote you send.
Meet the founder
22 years on the trowel. No investors. No boardroom.
Stu Crompton is a bricklayer from Wigan with 1.6 million followers who watch him lay bricks properly. He paid the directories, got nothing back, and taught himself to code. Hard Hat Way went live on the App Store after 114 days and on Android 25 days later: 139 consecutive days, between shifts.
“I paid the directories for years and got silence back. This is the app I wanted when I was starting out, so I built it.”
Straight answers
Is Hard Hat Way free for tradespeople?
Yes. It is free to download and use. You get 3 quotes on posted jobs a month, unlimited direct requests from your profile, and the whole community side. Pro at £12.99 a month removes the quote limit and adds the paid tools. Nothing on the free tier expires.
Do you charge per lead?
No. There are no lead fees and no bidding wars. You quote the jobs that suit you at your price. You never pay just to see or reply to a job, and if a customer never opens your quote the slot is refunded.
How do I build my reputation on Hard Hat Way?
Your standing, called SiteCred, is earned from other tradespeople on the quality of the real work you post. It is not bought and it is not a star rating. Do proper work, post it, and other trades in your field decide.
Which trades is it for?
Every trade. Bricklayers, plumbers, electricians, joiners, plasterers, roofers, landscapers, tilers, groundworkers, painters and decorators and more. If you take pride in your work, it is for you.
Do I have to be in a big city to find work?
No. Job Radar lets you set your own area and radius, so you are told when a matching job lands near you wherever you are based.
Who built Hard Hat Way?
Stu Crompton, a bricklayer with 22 years on the tools, who taught himself to code and built the app he wished had existed when he started out.
Free to download. Free to quote.
Three quotes a month on the house. Upgrade when it is paying for itself, not before.