Certio and Tradehand both produce BS 7671 certificates, but they charge in opposite ways. Certio is a dedicated certification app on a flat subscription: Free, Starter at £4.99 a month or Pro at £9.99 a month (certio.uk, checked 1 October 2026). Tradehand has no subscription and instead takes 5% of the invoices it collects for you, with call answering, quoting, booking and invoice chasing bundled in (tradehand.com, checked 1 October 2026). If you mainly want certificates done quickly on site, Certio is the cheaper tool once more than about £200 a month of your invoicing would run through Tradehand. If you want the front office handled as well, the 5% may be worth paying.
- Different products. Certio is an electrical certification app. Tradehand is a trades marketplace and job platform that also writes certificates.
- Different pricing. Certio is a flat £4.99 or £9.99 a month, with a Free plan. Tradehand is 5% of invoices it collects, with no monthly fee.
- Break-even is low. Certio Pro costs £119.88 a year. Tradehand's 5% passes that at roughly £200 of collected invoices a month.
- Capture on site. Certio fills the circuit schedule from a board photo, takes readings by voice and reads a Megger MFT-X1 screen by camera (MFT-X1 only at present). Tradehand's own comparison lists no AI board or circuit scanning.
- Admin. Tradehand answers calls and messages, quotes, books and chases payment. Certio does none of the call handling.
- All competitor facts below are from tradehand.com and its App Store listing on 1 October 2026. Check them again before you buy.
What is the difference between Certio and Tradehand?
They solve different problems. Certio exists to get an EICR, EIC, Minor Works certificate or PAT testing record finished and issued. It is made by Certio Software Ltd and was built by a working UK electrician, so the whole app is shaped around the schedule of test results.
Tradehand describes itself as "the UK marketplace for finding and booking local tradespeople", with an assistant that runs the job from first call to final payment. Its site says it is operated by OUTSIDE HQ LTD (company number 13895333, incorporated 4 February 2022) and serves electricians, plumbers, gas engineers and multi-trade firms in the UK only. The same page says its marketplace hub lists 7,819 UK electricians. Certificates are one module inside that wider job platform, alongside gas records such as the CP12.
So the real question is not which has the better EICR form. It is whether you want a tool for the testing and paperwork, or someone else's system sitting between you and your customers from first call to payment.
How do Certio and Tradehand compare feature by feature?
| Certio | Tradehand | |
|---|---|---|
| Type of product | Dedicated electrical certification app | Trades marketplace and job-management app with an assistant |
| Company | Certio Software Ltd | OUTSIDE HQ LTD (13895333) |
| Trades served | Electricians | Electricians, plumbers, gas engineers, multi-trade firms |
| Electrical certificates | EICR, EIC, Minor Works, PAT testing records | EICR, EIC, Minor Works, EV charge-point, earthing and bonding, domestic fire alarm commissioning, portable and fixed appliance test |
| Other records | None (electrical only) | Landlord gas safety record (CP12), boiler service record |
| Board photo to circuit schedule | Yes, AI reads the board photo | Not offered: its own comparison lists "No AI board or circuit scanning" |
| Getting readings in | Live Megger MFT-X1 screen reading by phone camera (MFT-X1 only at present); voice dictation | Entered in the app; no instrument or voice capture described |
| Observation wording | AI-suggested C1/C2/C3/FI wording for you to accept or edit | C1, C2, C3 and FI codes supported; no AI wording described |
| Calls and messages answered | No | Yes: phone, SMS, email and web chat, 24/7 |
| Quotes and invoices | On Pro | Included; the assistant writes and chases them |
| Platforms | iPhone app, Android (direct download while the Google Play listing is in review), web | iOS, Android, web |
| Pricing | Free plan; Starter £4.99/month; Pro £9.99/month; 7-day free trial on paid plans | No monthly fee; 5% of invoices Tradehand collects |
Sources: certio.uk and tradehand.com (pricing, certificates, EICR and "best EICR software" pages, the last one updated 30 September 2026), all checked on 1 October 2026. Where the Tradehand column says "not described", that means its public pages do not mention the feature, not that we have tested the app and found it missing.
What does each one cost over a year?
This is where the two models pull apart. A flat subscription costs the same in a quiet month and a busy one. A percentage costs nothing in a quiet month and scales with every pound you collect.
| Invoices collected through Tradehand each month | Tradehand at 5%, per year | Certio Starter, per year | Certio Pro, per year |
|---|---|---|---|
| £0 (certificates only) | £0 | £59.88 | £119.88 |
| £200 | £120 | £59.88 | £119.88 |
| £1,000 | £600 | £59.88 | £119.88 |
| £3,000 | £1,800 | £59.88 | £119.88 |
| £5,000 | £3,000 | £59.88 | £119.88 |
| £8,000 | £4,800 | £59.88 | £119.88 |
Two honest caveats. First, on Tradehand's published terms the certificate software costs nothing if no invoices are collected through it, and Certio's Free plan is also £0, with a small Certio mark on the PDFs and the AI features switched off. Second, the 5% is not all margin for Tradehand: it says standard card processing is included in the 5%, so you keep 95% of each standard card payment.
That second point matters. Take a £250 EICR paid by card. Tradehand keeps £12.50. Stripe's published UK rate for standard UK cards is 1.5% plus 20p, which is £3.95 on the same payment. The remaining £8.55 is what you are paying for the assistant on that job. Twenty jobs like that a month is £171 a month for the admin layer, on top of card costs you would pay anyway. If the customer would have paid by bank transfer, the card saving is nil and the whole £12.50 is the fee, so check how Tradehand treats bank transfer and cash before you sign up. For how the rest of the market prices, see Best Electrical Certification Software UK 2026: 8 Apps Compared.
What does Tradehand's 5% actually pay for?
It pays for work that most one-man bands do themselves at nine at night. According to tradehand.com, the assistant answers every call and message, writes and sends the quote, chases it until the customer answers, books the job, takes payment through Stripe on a job page in your business's name and chases unpaid invoices. The pricing page adds that there is no fee where nothing is collected, and no contract.
If you are losing jobs because you cannot pick up the phone on a ladder, that has real value and a certification app will not fix it. If your work comes from agents, contractors and repeat customers who email you, you would be paying 5% for a receptionist you do not need. Our guide to Electrician Invoicing and Quoting Basics covers doing that side yourself, and How to Price an EICR: A Method for Electricians shows how thin the margin on a domestic EICR already is before anyone takes a percentage.
How does each handle getting readings onto the certificate?
On a ten-way board the form is not the slow part. Writing out circuits and copying readings is. IET Guidance Note 3 sets the sequence, with continuity, insulation resistance, polarity, earth fault loop impedance and RCD tests in order, and every value has to end up in the right column of the schedule.
Certio attacks that step three ways: an AI circuit schedule built from a photo of the board, voice dictation of readings, and live reading of the Megger MFT-X1 screen by phone camera. The camera reading works with the Megger MFT-X1 only at present, with more instruments to follow. It also suggests C1, C2, C3 and FI observation wording, which you accept, edit or reject. The classification remains the inspector's call, guided by Electrical Safety First's Best Practice Guide 4.
Tradehand's public pages describe drafting the record in the app, signing it and saving the PDF with the job. They do not describe voice entry or instrument capture, and its own round-up lists the lack of AI board scanning as a con. For a refresher on the columns themselves, see How to Fill In a Schedule of Test Results, Column by Column and EICR Observation Codes Explained: C1, C2, C3 and FI.
Which BS 7671 edition do the forms follow?
BS 7671:2018+A4:2026 was published on 15 April 2026, and Amendment 2 is withdrawn on 15 October 2026. Tradehand states that its EICR follows the BS 7671:2018+A4:2026 model forms. Certio's forms follow the current BS 7671:2018 model forms, and the app is being updated for Amendment 4 before Amendment 2 is withdrawn.
Do not take either statement on trust, including ours. The IET publishes the model forms, so open a sample PDF from whichever app you are trialling and check it against them section by section. Your scheme assessor looks at the certificates you issue, so it is your name on the declaration, not the software's. Digital vs Paper Electrical Certificates: What Schemes Accept sets out what changes on the Amendment 4 forms.
Who should choose Tradehand and who should choose Certio?
Tradehand suits you if you are a sole trader who misses calls, dislikes chasing money, takes most payments by card and is comfortable with a platform handling customer contact in your name. It also suits multi-trade firms that need gas records and electrical certificates in one place.
Certio suits you if certificates are the bottleneck: you do several EICRs a week, you want circuits and readings captured quickly on site, and you would rather pay a fixed £59.88 or £119.88 a year than a share of turnover. An electrician collecting £5,000 a month would pay £3,000 a year at 5%, which is around 25 times the cost of Certio Pro.
Both together is a workable set-up: certificates in Certio, calls and payment through Tradehand, with the PDF attached to the job. You accept some double entry of customer details in return.
For other head-to-heads, see Certio vs Quickler: WhatsApp Reports or a Certificate App?, Certio vs Checker App: Certificate App or Job Manager? and Certio vs Electrical Certificate App: Which Suits You?.
What should you check before committing to either?
- What counts as "collected". Ask Tradehand whether the 5% applies to bank transfers, cash and invoices you raised yourself, and what Klarna costs, since its site says Klarna carries its own charge.
- Getting your certificates out. You need copies for years, not months. Dwelling work can carry a 15-year liability window under the Defective Premises Act, so confirm you can export every PDF if you leave. See Electrical Certificate Retention and GDPR for Electricians.
- Who speaks to your customer. With an assistant answering in your business's name, read a few of its replies before you let it loose on a letting agent.
- The form itself. Compare a sample EICR with the IET model form, including the schedule of inspections.
- Track record. Tradehand's own comparison notes that it is newer than Pro Certs, EasyCert and iCertifi, with a shorter track record. Certio is new too. Trial both on a real job before moving your records, and use the checklist in Electrical Certification Software: What to Look For (Buyer's Guide).
How Certio helps
Certio produces the EICR, EIC, Minor Works certificate and PAT records on the BS 7671 model forms and turns them into branded PDFs. Photograph the consumer unit and the circuit schedule drafts itself; point the phone camera at a Megger MFT-X1 and the reading goes straight into the schedule of test results, or dictate it while your hands stay on the probes. Suggested observation wording with the regulation reference is there for you to check and confirm. The judgement stays yours; the typing goes. Starter is free for 7 days, then £4.99 a month.