Head to head · Posting home service jobs · October 2026 research run
Bark vs Rated People
Bark and Rated People score within a point of each other on agent readiness, 16.5 (F) and 15.9 (F). Rated People leads on payments & pricing. Both do posting home service jobs.
Best home service and local trades marketplaces for AI agents · All 43 home services comparisons
Which one, for what
Bark F
Best for Customers who want quotes for local services across many categories, and professionals buying leads.
Ahead on
- Schema & documentation, 7 against 0
- Agent ergonomics, 5 against 0
Watch for
No public API or MCP server an outside agent can call for a household
Best for UK homeowners who want to post a job and hear back from several tradespeople.
Ahead on
- Payments & pricing, 30 against 20
Watch for
No public API or MCP server an outside agent can call
Score by category
| Category | Weight this run | Bark | Rated People | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reliability | 16%20 | 15 | 15 | even |
| Performance | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13%16.2 | 7 | 0 | Bark +7 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13%16.2 | 5 | 0 | Bark +5 |
| Security & auth | 14%17.5 | 0 | 0 | even |
| Payments & pricing | 10%12.5 | 20 | 30 | Rated People +10 |
| Task success | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7%8.8 | 54 | 54 | even |
| Transparency & trust | 7%8.8 | 49 | 51 | Rated People +2 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| Total | F 16.5/100 | F 15.9/100 |
Facts side by side
| Fact | Bark | Rated People |
|---|---|---|
| Kind | Platform | Platform |
| Vendor | Bark.com Global Limited | Averton Ltd (Checkatrade Group) |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | no (local only) |
| Transports | ||
| Auth | OAuth or key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Closed service under Bark's terms and conditions (Bark.com Global Limited) | Closed service under the Rated People Platform Terms of Use (Averton Ltd) |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | no | no |
| Last release | 2026-10-13 | 2026-10-13 |
| Terms last updated | 2025-09-05 | 2026-09-17 |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-02-09 | no date given |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | yes |
| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | yes | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice | yes | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | yes | not found in the text |
Verdicts
Bark
Bark matches customers with local professionals across home, events, lessons and business services, free for customers, with professionals paying in credits to respond. There is no public API or MCP server that acts for a household. A Bark app on Zapier lets a professional's automations search requests, buy leads and send quotes.
Rated People
Rated People lets UK homeowners post a job free and hear from tradespeople, and since September 2026 it belongs to Checkatrade Group. There is no public API or MCP server an outside agent can call today. Checkatrade's keyless MCP server is the nearest route, since Rated People jobs go to Checkatrade Group tradespeople.
Before you call either
Bark
- Don't plan to call Bark for a household. Hand the request to the person on bark.com or the app
- For a professional's own leads, use the Bark app on Zapier, and ask before any Purchase Bark step, which spends credits
- Tell a professional that credits expire 3 months after purchase
Rated People
- Don't plan to call Rated People from another agent. Hand the job post to the person, or use the Checkatrade listing's MCP server to find Checkatrade Group trades
- Tell the person that posting a job is free and that tradespeople will contact them to quote
Questions
Which is better for AI agents, Bark or Rated People?
Bark and Rated People score within a point of each other on agent readiness, 16.5 (F) and 15.9 (F). Rated People leads on payments & pricing.
Other comparisons with Bark or Rated People
- Bark vs Handy
- Bark vs Houzz
- Bark vs TrustATrader
- Bark vs Urban Company
- Handy vs Rated People
- Houzz vs Rated People
- Rated People vs TrustATrader
- Rated People vs Urban Company
- Airtasker vs Bark
- Airtasker vs Rated People
- Angi (including HomeAdvisor, now Angi Leads) vs Bark
- Angi (including HomeAdvisor, now Angi Leads) vs Rated People
- Bark vs Checkatrade
- Bark vs Taskrabbit Partner API
- Checkatrade vs Rated People
- Rated People vs Taskrabbit Partner API
Machine-readable
- This page as Markdown
/compare/bark-vs-rated-people.md· slim.min.md· JSON.json(or sendAccept: text/markdown) - Each listing in full
/api/v1/tools/bark.json·/api/v1/tools/rated-people.json - From a terminal
anchor compare bark rated-people(the CLI) - Over MCP
compare_tools {"a": "bark", "b": "rated-people"}at/mcp, no key