Werkspot: what a lead really costs

Why you won't find this math anywhere independent

Google "Werkspot costs" and the top results are largely written by competing platforms that would like you to switch. They have an interest in making Werkspot look expensive. Werkspot itself mostly shows the price per lead; what a won job costs you, you have to work out yourself. This piece just does that math, using the numbers Werkspot publishes itself.

How Werkspot's pricing model works

You pay an amount per lead, and depending on your agreement, subscription costs may get added on top; this varies by tradesperson, so go by your own contract. A lead is the moment a customer's contact details land with you after your response. Werkspot's FAQ lists lead prices from 3 to 75 euros, depending on the job.

The lead price is always shown before you respond, and that amount is fixed. So you know upfront what a response costs you. What you don't know upfront is how many of those responses turn into a job.

What determines the lead price

Werkspot itself states that the lead price is variable and based on things like trade, surface area, quantity (think doors, window frames, walls and/or stairs) and material. A customer wanting three doors painted produces a different lead price than a customer wanting an entire staircase plastered.

The customer largely decides what you pay, through their intake form. If they describe the job as bigger, the lead costs more, even if the actual work turns out smaller or the customer isn't even sure yet.

You pay even if you don't get the job

Most tradespeople only really feel this after a few invoices land. Werkspot has its own help article on it, titled as the question of why you pay when you weren't selected. Their answer is that the lead fee is owed the moment the contact details reach you. Whether you get the job after that is a separate matter. Costs are billed monthly.

Often it isn't even about your quote. A customer asks three or four tradespeople at once, picks one, and leaves the rest hanging. For what you can do about that, see what to do when a customer doesn't reply after your quote. But by then, you've already paid for the lead.

The math that actually matters

A single lead price tells you little about what Werkspot really costs you. The formula: lead price times the number of leads you need for one won job, plus whatever else is on your monthly invoice.

A worked example, with assumptions you should swap for your own numbers. Say you pay 20 euros per lead on average and win one job for every four leads. That one job costs you 80 euros in leads. Win one in six, and it's 120 euros. And that's per job, every month, for as long as you're on the platform.

So pull your invoices from the last three months. Add up all the lead fees and subscription costs, then divide by the number of jobs you landed through Werkspot. That one number is what a customer costs you there. Chances are you've never actually done that math.

Compare it with what your own findability costs

Put that number next to the cost of getting found on your own. A website with a solid Google listing costs money once, then almost nothing after. With me that's EUR 1,200 flat, excl. VAT, ready in 2-3 weeks, hosting included. The only recurring cost is your domain in your own name, about 15 euros a year.

The difference is in the direction of the spending. On Werkspot, you pay per customer, forever. Your own site, you pay once, and every customer who finds you through Google or a referral after that costs you nothing extra. How you build that stream is covered in more jobs without Werkspot.

To be fair: a website doesn't produce leads from day one. The first weeks bring in little. So for most tradespeople, the smart move is to keep Werkspot running, build your own findability alongside it, and only scale the platform back once your own phone is ringing often enough.

When Werkspot does make sense

Werkspot has a real purpose. If you're just starting out, have no network, and your schedule is empty, it buys you work you wouldn't otherwise have. It's also a solid tool if you're moving into a new region or need to fill a gap in your planning.

It starts to pinch once the platform becomes your only channel and your schedule is already full. Then you're paying acquisition costs every month for jobs you'd partly have gotten anyway, and competing on price with three others on the same lead. That's the situation this piece is written for.