Angi vs Thumbtack: are the leads worth paying for, and which one fits your trade?

The phone has been quiet for two weeks, and a sales rep says Angi or Thumbtack can fix that by Friday. Maybe they can. The real question is what a signed job costs you once you add up every lead that never called back.

This post compares Angi vs Thumbtack the way a contractor should: how each one charges, what counts as a lead, whether the lead goes to other contractors too, what people who used them report, and the simple math that tells you if either one pays for your trade.

First, what I know firsthand and what I do not. I never used Angi or HomeAdvisor. Everything about Angi below comes from Angi's own help pages, the FTC, and contractors who wrote about it publicly. I did use Thumbtack early on, before it was a pay-per-lead situation. If I remember right, I paid somewhere around $50 to $150 when I made contact with a client, I believe to send them an estimate or quote. I got some decent leads out of it. I had the budget for it, so I used it. My view is the same today: if you have the budget, it is worth trying something. Just measure it.

Angi vs Thumbtack, side by side.

Both platforms sell you a chance to talk to a homeowner. Neither sells you a job. Here is how they compare on the points that decide your cost, from each company's own pages, checked on October 19, 2026.

If you want the short version: Thumbtack gives you more control over price and budget up front with no contract. Angi can feed you volume faster, but read every line of a subscription before you sign. Which one is cheaper for you depends on your trade, your town, and how fast you call back.

How Angi charges, and what counts as a lead.

Angi splits homeowner requests into two buckets, and the difference matters for your bill.

• Opportunities are requests that match your services and area, or sit just outside it. You can review the project and the lead fee before you show interest.
• Leads happen when you and the homeowner have both shown interest. That is when Angi charges the lead fee and gives you the homeowner's name, location, project details, and contact info.

Three details from Angi's help pages are worth reading twice:

1. Automatic leads count toward your monthly budget. Opportunities you accept do not. If you accept Opportunities, those fees are charged on top of your budget or subscription.
2. You pay for leads whether or not you open or respond to them. A lead that sits in the app over a busy weekend still costs you.
3. Leads are not guaranteed jobs. Angi says so directly and tells pros to follow up quickly.

On credits, Angi's help center lists reasons such as invalid contact information or a duplicate lead for the same homeowner within 45 days. The lead has to be under 45 days old, you need to have called within 24 hours, and your account cannot have an overdue balance. Annual subscribers can report a concern but are not eligible for lead credits. If you sign a 12-month deal, you give up the credit option, so weigh that before a rep talks you into the discount.

Some history matters here. In April 2023 the FTC finalized an order against HomeAdvisor, which the FTC describes as a company affiliated with Angi. The FTC had alleged that HomeAdvisor made false, misleading, or unsupported claims about the quality and source of the leads it sold to service providers. The order requires HomeAdvisor to pay up to $7.2 million for redress. That order is about past marketing claims and does not tell you how good your leads will be today. It is a good reason to read the terms yourself and track every dollar.

How Thumbtack charges contractors.

Thumbtack for contractors works on a set-your-price model. According to its pro page, there is no charge to join and no annual or membership fee. You set your pricing and your budget for leads, and that setting decides how many leads you receive. Customers choose pros directly, and Thumbtack says competition per lead is limited.

Thumbtack does not publish a standard lead price for each trade on that page. Third-party figures float around. An ad agency called Minyona reported $10 to $50 per contact in its 2026 landscaping guide. That is a vendor estimate we have not verified, and your trade could land well outside it.

A few practical points:

• Your profile is your sales pitch. If the customer picks the pro, your photos, reviews, and response time are what get you picked. Fill it out completely before you spend a dollar.
• Set a weekly budget you can afford to lose while you learn. It is easier to raise a budget after a good month than to recover from a bad one.
• Pricing changes. What I paid years ago tells you nothing about today. Check the current price for your trade and town in your own account.

Are Angi leads worth it? Run the math.

The price of a lead tells you very little. The number that matters is what you paid for each job you actually signed. One formula covers it:

Here is an example with made-up round numbers, so you can follow the math. Do not read it as a benchmark. Say a lead costs you $60 and you close one in eight, or 12.5%. Your cost per signed job is $60 ÷ 0.125 = $480. If your average job leaves $2,000 in gross profit, that can work. If your average job is a $400 repair, it does not.

Now change one thing. Say faster callbacks lift your close rate to one in five, or 20%. Same $60 lead, and your cost per signed job drops to $300. Speed changes the answer more than the platform does.

To run it on your own books:

1. Pull every lead you paid for in the last 60 to 90 days, from each platform separately.
2. Count how many became signed jobs. Signed, with a deposit, counts. A site visit does not.
3. Divide what you spent by the signed jobs. That is your real cost per job for that platform.
4. Compare it to your gross profit per job, and to your other lead sources.

Tekton Growth, my agency, built a free cost per lead calculator that does this math for you. For how marketplaces compare with Local Services Ads, Google Ads, Meta, and SEO, read best lead generation for contractors: what each source costs per job.

What contractors report about Angi and Thumbtack.

These are individual stories, posted publicly, and linked so you can read them in full. People with bad experiences post more often than people with good ones, so treat this as a list of things to watch for, and no verdict.

• Angi, July 2025. A contractor on Reddit's r/Contractor wrote that over about eight months on a $300 a month budget, he did three jobs from Angi, spent $2,533, and brought in $1,240. He also described leads that never answered, and an early cancellation fee on his 12-month contract.
• Angi, August 2026. A business owner on r/smallbusiness wrote that 31 leads between late May and early August turned into two small jobs, with each lead costing roughly $56 to $64.
• Thumbtack, August 2025. In an r/Contractor thread, a commenter said that if you use a lead service at all, Thumbtack was his pick. He reported paying $10 to $30 a lead, said the customer picks you, and said that when he was the only pro picked, he usually got the job.

The pattern across these stories is the same one the math shows. Leads that go unanswered, or that several contractors chase, drive the cost per job up fast. Contracts make it harder to stop when the numbers go bad.

Spend less on shared leads over time.

Marketplaces can be a fine bridge while your own marketing warms up. The goal is to make sure they never become the only source you have, because you do not own them and the price can change.

1. Set a stop-loss before you start. Write down the highest cost per signed job you will accept. Review it every 30 days and cap or drop the platform if it goes over.
2. Answer fast, every time. Angi tells pros to follow up quickly. Turn on notifications, and decide who calls back when you are on a job.
3. Read the contract before the discount. Ask about term length, auto-renewal, cancellation fees, and credit eligibility in writing.
4. Build leads you own on the side. Your Google Business Profile and reviews send calls that only go to you. Start with how to get more Google reviews as a contractor.
5. Track every source in one place. A shared spreadsheet with lead source, date, called back, and signed is enough to start.

If you want to know whether there is enough demand in your area to make your own marketing worth it, run the free Market Demand Scan. It shows what local search demand and competition look like before you spend more on leads.

Questions contractors ask.