Which is better, Checkatrade or Rated People?

Neither platform is better outright, because they work on different models. Checkatrade is a vetted membership directory: trades pay a monthly fee, pass identity and insurance checks, and build a review history that can stretch back years. Rated People is a job-matching service: you post the job, tradespeople pay for the lead, and a handful come back to quote. Checkatrade suits browsing long track records. Rated People suits getting quotes moving quickly.

Be clear about what reviews on either can tell you: whether a firm turns up, communicates and leaves people happy enough to type something afterwards. And what they cannot: whether the plastering is still flat two winters on, whether the price crept mid-job, or whether the account you are reading fronts a rotating cast of subcontractors. Reviews also skew towards small jobs, so a wall of praise for fence repairs says little about how a firm would run a kitchen extension. Both platforms are paid by the trades, not by you, so read the vetting claims with that in mind.

Whichever you use, run the same checks afterwards. Ask for addresses of two or three comparable completed jobs and speak to the owners directly, off the platform. Confirm public liability insurance in the company's registered name, then check that name at Companies House for age and any dissolved firms behind it. Get an itemised written quote before anyone starts. However you found us, I would expect you to do all of that with All Well too, and a builder who bristles at those checks has answered your question for you.