An App for Tradespeople: How Glatko Works

"Aplikacija za majstore" (an app for tradespeople) is a query that exists in the region: on 23.09.2026, Autocomplete continued it with Belgrade, Serbia, Novi Sad, Sarajevo and Croatia. For Montenegro there is no continuation. This article explains how a platform of that kind works here, from the tradesperson's side, and without marketing promises: the mechanism has been checked in the code itself, and the numbers are what they are.

What one job looks like, step by step

1. The client describes the job once. Category, municipality, description, photos if they want, deadline and urgency.
2. The request goes to tradespeople who cover that category and area. The radius you entered in your profile decides this: if it is still sitting untouched at 25 km, you will not even see a request from the coast.
3. You send a quote: the amount, the pricing method (hourly, per unit, fixed, estimate) and a message. A tradesperson can send one quote per request; you correct it by editing, not by sending a new one.
4. A request closes after four quotes at most. This is not a market square with twenty bidders; the fifth arrives too late.
5. The client compares the quotes and chooses, and the conversation continues in messages.

Blind bidding: what exactly it means

This is the part tradespeople care about most, so let us be precise: you do not see other people's quotes. That is not a promise in the terms of use but an access rule in the database: a tradesperson can read only the quote they sent themselves, while the client sees all the quotes on their request.

The practical consequences:

• You cannot undercut the competition, because you cannot see it. You set your price according to your job, not according to someone else's number.
• The lowest price does not automatically win. The client sees the amount, the pricing method and your message together; the text of the quote is part of the competition.
• Speed is measured. The time from the moment the request was sent to you until you send your quote is calculated automatically by the system and stored with the quote. You see your own figures, not other people's.

That is why a two-sentence quote and a quote that says exactly what is included in the price, what is not and how long it will take are not competing in the same league, even when the amount is the same.

What to write in a quote

Going by what clients ask for in their requests, four things do half the work:

1. A unit price (per m², per item, per hour) with a short explanation of how you arrived at the amount.
2. What is included and what is not: materials, removal, cleaning, the call-out.
3. The timeframe, and how many days' notice you need.
4. Whether you issue a fiscal receipt. The Tax Administration runs an electronic fiscalisation system, and for clients who rent out flats or run a business, that is a condition, not a detail.

Your profile is your quote before the quote

Before any quote reaches the client, they look at your profile. We went through all 43 profiles on the platform to see what people actually fill in: 26 have photos of their work, 21 a bio longer than 200 characters, 23 a published price, 2 a video introduction, and none a certificate. The median profile completeness is 50 out of 100.

In other words, four simple moves (five photos of finished work, five sentences about yourself, a starting price and one document) put you above most profiles without spending a single euro. You can check how your category looks to clients in the services overview, and for a specific town, open your own page, for example painters in Podgorica.

Honestly: how busy is this today

The numbers as of 23.09.2026, including the uncomfortable ones:

• 43 verified profiles on the platform, 36 of which joined as founding providers between May and September 2026.
• 25 requests have gone through the system, and a quote was sent on one of them. The rest expired without a single quote.
• 60 of 86 categories have exactly one professional, and six requests came in categories where there is nobody.
• Demand is coastal and seasonal: 13 requests from Budva, 8 of the 9 urgent ones also from Budva, and the curve climbs towards summer (April 2, May 11, June 12).

This is not the story of a platform swamped with work. It is a network under construction in which, right now, you have no competition in your category, and that is the only reason it is worth joining now rather than when it gets crowded.

Three mistakes that keep repeating

From what we see in the data, three things cost tradespeople jobs before a quote is even read:

1. An untouched radius. Twenty of the 43 profiles sit at exactly 25 km, which looks like the default value. Podgorica to Budva is about 60 km: with 25 km, a coastal request will not even show up for you.
2. An empty price list. Twenty profiles publish no price at all, while clients search in large numbers with queries containing the word "cijena" (price). A starting price is not a binding offer, but it is a reason for people to open your profile.
3. A profile without photos. Seventeen profiles have not a single photo of their work. In a trade where quality is visible, that is the most expensive empty field there is.

What the platform does not do

To avoid any misunderstanding: the platform does not guarantee work, does not charge you a commission per job in the first year and does not decide on the client's behalf. Nor does it do your checking for you: the verified-profile badge means the profile has been reviewed, not that a licence has been scanned. If you have a licence, insurance or a trade registration, upload them: at the moment not a single profile on the platform has a certificate uploaded, so it is the cheapest way to stand out.

How to sign up

Registering as a professional is free, and the whole flow from request to quote is described on the how it works page. Before you send your first quote, read where jobs are actually being opened, in the barometer by town, and how to reach clients outside the platform: how to find clients.