# Bark vs Rated People

> Bark and Rated People score within a point of each other for posting home service jobs, 16.5 and 15.9 out of 100. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bark-vs-rated-people
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bark-vs-rated-people.md (~1,900 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bark-vs-rated-people.min.md (~580 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bark-vs-rated-people.json (this page as data, same URL with Accept: application/json)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (full text: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- Updated: 2026-10-14

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.

- Bark: grade F, 16.5/100, rank #1048 of 1076. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/bark.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/bark.json
- Rated People: grade F, 15.9/100, rank #1050 of 1076. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/rated-people.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/rated-people.json
- Best home service and local trades marketplaces for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/home-services/index.md
- All 43 home services comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/home-services/index.md

## Which one, for what

### Bark (F)

Good 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

### Rated People (F)

Good 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 | Bark | Rated People | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 15 | 15 | even |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 7 | 0 | Bark +7 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 5 | 0 | Bark +5 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 0 | 0 | even |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 20 | 30 | Rated People +10 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 54 | 54 | even |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 49 | 51 | Rated People +2 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **16.5 · F** | **15.9 · F** | |

## 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

1. Don't plan to call Bark for a household. Hand the request to the person on bark.com or the app
2. For a professional's own leads, use the Bark app on Zapier, and ask before any Purchase Bark step, which spends credits
3. Tell a professional that credits expire 3 months after purchase

### Rated People

1. 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
2. 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.


## For agents

- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bark-vs-rated-people.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bark-vs-rated-people.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "bark", "b": "rated-people"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare bark rated-people`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/bark.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/rated-people.json

## Other comparisons with Bark or Rated People

- [Bark vs Handy](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bark-vs-handy.md)
- [Bark vs Houzz](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bark-vs-houzz.md)
- [Bark vs TrustATrader](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bark-vs-trustatrader.md)
- [Bark vs Urban Company](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bark-vs-urban-company.md)
- [Handy vs Rated People](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/handy-vs-rated-people.md)
- [Houzz vs Rated People](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/houzz-vs-rated-people.md)
- [Rated People vs TrustATrader](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/rated-people-vs-trustatrader.md)
- [Rated People vs Urban Company](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/rated-people-vs-urban-company.md)
- [Airtasker vs Bark](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/airtasker-vs-bark.md)
- [Airtasker vs Rated People](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/airtasker-vs-rated-people.md)
- [Angi (including HomeAdvisor, now Angi Leads) vs Bark](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/angi-vs-bark.md)
- [Angi (including HomeAdvisor, now Angi Leads) vs Rated People](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/angi-vs-rated-people.md)
- [Bark vs Checkatrade](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bark-vs-checkatrade.md)
- [Bark vs Taskrabbit Partner API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/bark-vs-taskrabbit.md)
- [Checkatrade vs Rated People](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/checkatrade-vs-rated-people.md)
- [Rated People vs Taskrabbit Partner API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/rated-people-vs-taskrabbit.md)