WorkMate is free at launch — what that means for you

WorkMate is free at launch — what that means for you

WorkMate does not charge anyone to use it right now. No service fee for customers, no commission for providers. This is a deliberate choice for our first phase, not a temporary discount — and here is exactly what it does and does not mean.

For customers

You pay the price you agree with your provider, with nothing added on top. When a provider quotes you €200, you pay €200. There is no booking fee, no service fee, no platform charge bolted onto checkout. The quote is the price.

What you still get, free, is the part that matters most: Protected Payment. When you accept a quote, your card is authorised but no money moves until the work is marked complete. You have time to confirm the job before funds release, and a dispute window if something goes wrong. Free at launch does not mean unprotected — the protection is the product.

For providers

You pay no WorkMate commission and no mandatory subscription while we grow. You quote a price, you do the work, and the agreed amount is released to your Stripe Connect balance with nothing deducted by WorkMate.

No lead-buying, either. You are not paying to pitch on jobs that were resold to several other tradespeople. You see real jobs from real customers in your county, and you quote on the ones you want.

Why we are doing it

A marketplace is only useful when both sides show up. Charging fees on day one — before there is a steady stream of jobs for providers, or a deep bench of providers for customers — would be taxing the very people we need to attract. So we are putting growth first. The goal of this phase is trust and volume, not revenue.

What changes later, and how you will hear about it

At some point WorkMate will introduce charges, because a platform that never earns anything cannot keep the lights on or keep improving. When that happens it will be a small, transparent customer service fee and a per-job provider commission — the kind of model marketplaces like ours run on, benchmarked to stay competitive.

The one commitment attached to that: we will announce it in advance. No silent switch, no surprise line on a receipt you were never told about. Until then, post a job or send a quote — it costs nothing.

— Oguzhan