Software package

Tradesperson marketplace package

A ready-to-configure platform where trades apply with a category checklist, homeowners post jobs with photos and urgency, trades spend lead credits to express interest, homeowners shortlist and compare quotes, and completion confirmation unlocks the review, with a verifier queue and a dispute desk for your team.

Custom build Concept demo

Get a quote for this package

Who it is for

Built for

A good fit

Founders launching a local or regional trades platform, trade associations giving members a route to homeowners, and property or insurance businesses that already send work to a panel of trades and want it on a platform instead of a phone. It suits a team of two or three where one person verifies applications, one handles support and disputes, and the founder watches sign-ups, jobs posted and credits sold, with trades using it from a van on a phone and homeowners from a sofa.

Not the right fit

It is not for a single trades business that wants a website with a quote form, which is covered by the local-services packages. It is not for lead-generation operators who sell each request to a fixed number of providers without any hiring on the platform; that is the quote comparison package. It is also not a job management tool for the trade once hired: invoicing, scheduling and materials stay in their own tools.

The operational problem it solves

How it runs, step by step

Tuesday, eight in the morning.

A homeowner posts a job: leaking shower tray, two photos, postcode, "within the week".
The platform notifies the plumbers and bathroom fitters whose profiles are live and whose distance setting covers that postcode.
Four trades open the post on their phones; three spend a lead credit to express interest and the fourth decides it is too far.
The homeowner sees three profiles, each with a badge listing which checklist items were recorded and when, their review history from confirmed jobs, and a short message from each.
She shortlists two.

Both shortlisted trades submit a quote in the platform: a fixed figure, what it includes, and the earliest date.

Messages run through the platform with phone numbers masked until she hires.
She hires one on Wednesday; the other is told the job has gone and his credit is not returned, because the rule the founder set only returns credits on disputed leads.
The job is done on Friday; the trade marks it complete, the homeowner confirms on Saturday, and only then can she leave a review.
Meanwhile the verifier opens the queue: six new applications, one electrician whose register look-up came back without a match, which she sends back with a note.
The founder's dashboard shows jobs posted, interest per job, hire rate per category and credits sold this week.
One dispute is open: a homeowner says the work was not finished, and the admin sees the post, the quote, every message and both completion confirmations on a single timeline before deciding anything.

Features

What the package does

The package ships as modules that follow the two sides of the marketplace: trade onboarding and verification records, job posting and matching, interest, shortlist and quotes with lead credits, hire and completion, and reviews, disputes and moderation. Each module below lists what it does; the comparison table shows which package variant includes it.

Compliance and records

Trade onboarding with per-category checklistEach trade completes a checklist for its category, recorded as supplied with document and date.
Verifier queue with expiry remindersYour verifiers approve, return or decline submissions, and reminders go out before items expire.
Check-provider or trade-register look-upLook up check results and store them as returned. Available as an add-on.

Forms and requests

Homeowner job postHomeowners post a job with photos, postcode, description and urgency.

Listings and search

Matching by category and distance with alertsJobs are matched to trades by category and distance band, and matching trades receive job alerts.
Public trade profiles with badgesPublic profiles show each trade recorded badges and review history, drawn only from confirmed jobs.

Billing and payments

Interest against lead credits with a capTrades spend lead credits to show interest, and each job has a cap on how many can.
Commission on completionCharge commission on completion instead of, or alongside, lead credits. Available as an add-on.
Membership tier replacing creditsAn association membership tier replaces credits for its members. Available as an add-on.

Messaging and notifications

Shortlist, quotes and masked messagingHomeowners shortlist trades, receive quotes in the platform and message without revealing contact details.

Workflow and tasks

Hire, completion confirmation and reviewsBoth sides confirm completion, and only confirmed jobs can be reviewed.
Dispute queue with credit return rulesReview the full job timeline and apply your credit return rules.

Roles and permissions

Who does what

Platform admin
- Set trade categories, each with its own checklist and lead credit cost
- Set matching distance bands, interest caps per job and credit return rules
- See sign-ups, jobs posted, interest, hire rate and credits sold
- Suspend a trade or homeowner and configure credit bundle prices for your own platform
Verifier
- Work the queue of new and renewing trade applications
- See each checklist item with the document as supplied and any check-provider result and date
- Approve, return with a note or decline an application
- See expiry dates coming up and trigger a re-supply request
Support and disputes
- Open a dispute from a job and see its full timeline
- Return a lead credit or decline, with a reason recorded
- Hide a review pending investigation
- Message both parties through the platform
Tradesperson
- Apply with a profile and upload checklist documents per category
- Set categories and a distance band and receive job alerts
- Spend credits to express interest, submit quotes and message through masked contact
- Mark jobs complete, see reviews and buy credit bundles
Homeowner
- Post a job with photos, postcode, description and urgency
- See interested trades, their recorded badges and reviews, and build a shortlist
- Compare quotes, message and hire in the platform
- Confirm completion, leave a review and raise a dispute

Example screen

Concept demo

Concept demo of a tradesperson marketplace shortlist showing three trade profiles with recorded check badges, a submitted quote and a masked message thread.

The homeowner shortlist for a shower-tray job: three interested trades with their recorded checklist badges and dates, confirmed-job review counts, one quote already submitted and a masked message thread open with the second trade.

Scope and options

What is included and what is extra

In the base package

Trade onboarding with a per-category checklist recorded as supplied, with document and date
Verifier queue with approve, return and decline, and expiry reminders
Homeowner job post with photos, postcode, description and urgency
Matching by category and distance band with job alerts
Interest against lead credits, with an interest cap per job
Shortlist, in-platform quotes and masked messaging
Hire, two-sided completion confirmation and reviews from confirmed jobs only
Dispute queue with the full job timeline and credit return rules
Public trade profiles with recorded badges and review history

Common add-ons

Check-provider or trade-register look-up integration, with results stored as returned
Commission on completion instead of, or alongside, lead credits
Membership tier that replaces credits for an association
Native app for trades with push alerts

Needs custom work

Auto-matching without a homeowner shortlist
Insurance or property-management panels feeding jobs in bulk
Bespoke reporting on category demand and trade performance

See the custom development service

Ownership, maintenance and pricing

After the build

Deployment and ownership

The package runs on your own hosting or on hosting we manage; trades and homeowners use the mobile web version and your team uses a browser. You own the code and your data in either case. Trade profiles with their recorded checks, jobs, quotes, messages, credits and reviews can be exported at any time in standard formats, and nothing stops you moving the platform to another provider.

Maintenance

Maintenance is optional and scoped separately. When taken, it covers security updates, monitoring of job alerts, check-provider calls, credit payment callbacks and messaging, backups, and a monthly window for small changes such as a new category checklist or a changed credit rule. Larger changes, such as a new matching model, are quoted as change requests against the original scope.

Pricing model

Priced per proposal.

Sold as a one-off setup and customisation with optional monthly maintenance and hosting as separate recurring lines. The setup figure depends on the number of categories and checklists, the credit or commission model, which check providers are connected, the add-ons chosen and how many existing trade profiles are migrated. What your platform charges trades for credits or commission is your own commercial model and is collected by your platform through your payment provider; it is unrelated to what you pay us. Each line is itemised in the proposal so recurring costs are never hidden in the setup.

Software package

Custom build Concept demo

Variants

Custom Platform : quote for this variant

Trade onboarding with a per-category checklist recorded as supplied, with document and date
Verifier queue with approve, return and decline, and expiry reminders
Homeowner job post with photos, postcode, description and urgency
Matching by category and distance band with job alerts

Priced per proposal. A written proposal is the only binding figure.

Get a quote for this package Prefer a fully custom build?

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

Does "verified" mean the platform checked the trade?

The badge lists what was recorded and when: a document supplied by the trade or a result returned by a connected check provider. Your verifier decides whether to approve. The package never states that the platform itself has confirmed a qualification, and the badge wording is yours to set within that rule.

How do lead credits work?

You set the credit cost per category and sell bundles through your payment provider. A trade spends a credit to express interest; the credit is only returned under the rules you set, such as a lead your admin marks as disputed. Credits, spends and returns appear on the trade dashboard and in your reports.

Can homeowners and trades swap phone numbers?

Messages run inside the platform with numbers and emails masked until the homeowner hires. After hire the details are released, and the message history stays attached to the job for any later dispute.

Who can leave a review?

Only a homeowner on a job where both sides confirmed completion. Reviews can be hidden by your support role while a dispute is open, and the review history on a profile shows the number of confirmed jobs it is drawn from.

What happens in a dispute?

Either side raises one from the job. Your support role sees the post, interest, quotes, messages and completion confirmations on one timeline, records a decision and, where relevant, returns a credit or suspends an account. The package records and organises this; it does not arbitrate on your behalf.

Is this a finished product I can see running?

Not yet. The readiness badge shows the real state: the package is a custom build assembled from our multi-vendor, forms, orders, messaging and directory modules for each marketplace, and the screen on this page is a labelled concept demo rather than a live client platform. Anything beyond the listed options is scoped as custom tradesperson marketplace development.

Get a quote for Tradesperson marketplace package

Tell us about your locations, the people who will use it and the add-ons you need. We reply with a clear, competitive proposal.