Bark (AU) vs ServiceSeeking

London-based services marketplace: pros spend credits to respond to customer requests, with up to five pros per request

⚠ The London company that runs Bark's Australian site has no accreditation on its BBB profile, which is listed under an Austin, Texas address. The profile showed 85 complaints closed in the last three years when checked on 30 September 2026. Under Bark's own terms you spend credits to respond before you can reach the customer, up to five pros can contact the same customer, credits are returned only for an invalid phone number, a non-working email or contact details that are not the requester's, reported within 7 days, and credits bought from 1 November 2025 expire after 3 months.

Bark is an online services marketplace founded in the UK by Kai Feller and Andrew Michael, headquartered in London and majority-owned by private equity firm EMK Capital since 2022. Its Australian site covers business, events, health, home, legal, lessons and pet services as well as trades. Customers post a request for free, pros spend credits to respond, and Bark's terms say a maximum of five professionals will contact the customer on a general request; Bark takes no commission on the job.

Pros

• + No commission on the job; one fee to respond and follow-up messages are free
• + Paying to respond unlocks the customer's phone number and email
• + One-time Get Hired Guarantee re-adds the first starter pack's credits if it wins no work
• + Covers many service categories beyond the trades

Cons

• − You pay before you know whether the customer will reply
• − Up to five pros can contact the same customer
• − Credits bought from 1 November 2025 expire after 3 months (previously 12)
• − Credits are returned only for an invalid phone number, a non-working email or contact details that are not the requester's, reported within 7 days

Australian job-lead marketplace: lead subscriptions from AU$129 a month, no commission on work won

⚠ In July 2020 the Federal Court ordered Service Seeking Pty Ltd to pay a $600,000 penalty for misleading online reviews, in a case brought by the ACCC. From July 2016 to November 2018 its Fast Feedback feature let businesses draft their own reviews, which were published automatically if the customer did not respond within three days; about 17,000 were published that way. Service Seeking admitted liability, and the court also ordered injunctions, corrective notices and a compliance program.

ServiceSeeking is an Australian marketplace, run by Service Seeking Pty Ltd since 2007, where customers post jobs and businesses quote on them across trades, household, business and creative services. Businesses list for free and pay for a lead subscription; ServiceSeeking says it sent 267,220 job leads to local businesses in the last 12 months. It charges no commission on work won.

Pros

• + Published entry price: lead subscriptions from AU$129 a month including GST
• + No commission: once you have a customer's contact details you can deal with them on or off the platform
• + Average daily budget, with unused budget rolling over to the next day
• + Auto-recharge can be turned off to cap spend at the initial subscription

Cons

• − Federal Court penalty in 2020 over misleading reviews published from 2016 to 2018
• − No free trial as standard
• − Actual price varies by industry and location and is shown only inside the account