By Boiler Quotes Editorial Team · Updated 21 August 2026
Four Different Models
Before naming anyone, it helps to separate the models, because most of the confusion in this market comes from comparing across them.
- Pay per lead. You pay a set price for each enquiry. No standing cost. You are typically one of a capped number of firms quoting.
- Directory membership. A monthly or annual fee buys a profile and a review history, and you compete with every other member on the page. Some directories charge for enquiries on top of the fee, so check whether you are paying once or twice before comparing the headline price with anything else.
- Credit or bidding marketplaces. You buy credits and spend them to contact a customer who has posted a job. Several tradespeople usually buy the same job.
- Your own generation. Not a provider at all, but the alternative every provider competes against. Covered in boiler lead generation for installers.
The Main Options
Pricing in this market moves, and is often quoted per trade and per area. The table gives the shape of each offer rather than figures that would be stale within months. Verify current numbers directly before committing to anything.
| Provider | Model | Pricing approach | Exclusivity | Commitment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| BoilerQuotes | Pay per lead | From £8 + VAT, priced by job type | Capped at 3 installers | None. Order what you want, stop when you like |
| Boiler Guide | Pay per lead, boiler specialist | Per enquiry | Shared, cap varies | None |
| Checkatrade | Directory membership plus lead fees | From £30 + VAT a month, plus a charge per lead | Shared, and your profile competes with every member | Typically annual |
| MyBuilder | Credit based, you buy job contacts | Credits per job, priced by job size | Limited number per job | None, pay as you go |
| Rated People | Credit or subscription | Lead fees, plus optional plans | Shared, cap varies | Varies by plan |
| Bark | Credit based, all trades | Credits per lead | Shared, several respond | None, pay as you go |
The models above are stable enough to plan around. The numbers are not: lead prices, credit values and how many installers a job goes to all move, and most of them are not published. Treat the table as a map of how each provider charges rather than what it charges, and get the current figures from the provider before you commit to anything.
Two things are worth saying plainly about that table. BoilerQuotes is our own service, so treat our row as the one to scrutinise hardest rather than the one to trust most. And every cell marked for verification is marked because we will not publish a competitor’s price we have not confirmed, which is the standard worth holding any round-up to, including this one.
Buying boiler leads? BoilerQuotes sells enquiries from its own site and ads from £8 + VAT, priced by job type. No membership fee and no contract. See how it works for installers.
Specialists and Generalists
A meaningful split in that list is between providers that only handle heating and providers that cover every trade.
Specialists ask boiler-specific questions: whether it is a combi or a system, how many bathrooms, whether the customer owns the property. That produces enquiries you can quote from, and it filters out work you do not do.
Generalists cover everything from dog walking to loft conversions. The volume is larger and the qualification is necessarily shallower, because a form that has to serve every trade cannot ask about yours in depth.
Neither is better in the abstract. If you also fit bathrooms and take general plumbing work, a generalist covers more of what you do. If you only fit boilers, a shallow enquiry costs you time on the phone working out whether it is a job at all.
How to Choose
Rather than a ranking, here are the criteria that actually separate these for a boiler installer. Score whatever you are considering against all six.
- Cost per job won, not cost per lead. Multiply the lead price by how many leads you need to win one job. A £15 lead you win one in fifteen times is dearer than a £40 lead you win one in five.
- Is the sharing capped, and at what number? A stated cap lets you calculate your odds. No stated cap means you cannot.
- What happens when a lead is bad? Get the credit policy and the claim window in writing. Every provider sends the occasional dead number. They differ in what they do about it.
- What is the commitment? A monthly fee or an annual term changes the calculation completely, because you carry that cost through your quiet months as well as your busy ones.
- Where does the enquiry come from? A provider generating enquiries on its own site and advertising is a different proposition from one reselling aggregated data. Ask directly.
- Does it match your patch? National volume is irrelevant if there is little of it in your postcodes. Ask about your specific areas rather than the national picture.
What to Ask on the Sales Call
Every provider on that list will happily talk to you. These are the questions that produce answers you can actually compare, and the answers worth being wary of.
- "How many other installers get this enquiry?" A number is a good answer. "It varies" is not. Ask for the maximum, not the average, because the average hides the bad weeks.
- "Where does the enquiry come from?" You want to hear about their own website and their own advertising. If the answer involves partner networks or data providers, ask whether the customer will recognise the brand when you ring.
- "How old is it when it reaches me?" Minutes is what you want. Anything measured in days is a different product.
- "What exactly gets credited, and how long have I got?" Ask for the grounds in writing. A wrong number and a customer who simply chose somebody else are very different things, and only one of them is usually creditable anywhere.
- "Can I pick my postcodes, and what is the volume in mine?" National volume figures are not an answer to this question.
- "What happens if I want to stop?" Any hesitation here tells you about the contract before you have read it.
- "Is the price different for installations and service calls?" A single flat price across both means one of them is badly mispriced for you.
Write the answers down. Three months later, when you are working out whether it paid, the gap between what you were told and what happened is the most useful thing you will have.
What "Exclusive" Usually Means
Exclusivity is the most abused word in this market, so it is worth being precise about what to check.
Genuinely exclusive means the enquiry goes to you and nobody else, ever. It costs considerably more, and it should, because you are buying the whole opportunity rather than a share of it.
What is often sold as exclusive is narrower than it sounds: exclusive within a postcode, exclusive for a period of time before it is released to others, or exclusive to you among that provider’s customers while the same homeowner is filling in three other websites. None of those are wrong to sell, but they are not the same thing, and the price should reflect which one you are getting.
The practical test is to ask what stops the same homeowner reaching another installer through a different route. If the honest answer is nothing, then what you are buying is a head start rather than exclusivity, and a head start is worth having but is worth less.
Run a Test Before You Scale
Whatever you choose, buy a small batch first and measure it. Track four numbers for every enquiry: whether you reached the customer, whether they were qualified, whether you quoted, and whether you won. Thirty leads will tell you more about a provider than any amount of reading will.
That is also the strongest practical argument for starting with something that carries no commitment. You can run the test without buying a year of anything first.
For the arithmetic behind all of this, see how much boiler leads cost.
BoilerQuotes runs on the same maths set out above: a fixed price per enquiry, a cap of three installers on any one job, and every enquiry called and verified before it is passed on, so you are not paying to find out whether the number works. Check coverage in your postcodes.
