Thumbtack charges you per lead, with no membership fee, and you set the price you will pay for each job type. Angi Leads charges an annual membership plus a fee for every match, and Angi's own annual report says you pay that fee whether or not you end up doing the job. If you are new and have no reviews, Thumbtack is the cheaper place to buy a few jobs while you build channels you own. If you are established, neither platform beats a lead that only you receive.
This page is for the contractor paying for leads. Both platforms want your money, and one of them has an FTC order on file for how it sold leads to people like you. Below: how each one bills, why neither publishes a price, what shared leads do to your close rate, and a verdict by company size and trade.
Thumbtack vs Angi at a Glance
| Factor | Thumbtack | Angi Leads |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Pay per lead. You set the lead price by job type. | Annual membership plus a fee per consumer match. |
| Membership fee | None. Thumbtack states "no annual fees and no membership fees." | Yes. Angi's 10-K lists membership subscription revenue from pros; the 2023 FTC case cited a $287.99 annual fee under the HomeAdvisor brand. |
| Do you pay if you never do the job? | Yes, once the customer contacts you. | Yes. Angi's 10-K: fees apply "regardless of whether the Pro ultimately provides the requested service." |
| Who controls the price | You, within Thumbtack's ranges. | Angi. Its 10-K says lead revenue varies by service requested, product, and location. |
| Is the lead yours alone? | No. The homeowner can contact several pros. | No. Matches go to more than one pro. |
| Refunds and credits | Credit requests through Thumbtack support, case by case. | Credits, not refunds: the FTC complaint says a pro's "primary recourse is to request a credit." |
| Regulatory history | None found at the federal level. | FTC order, 2023: up to $7.2 million in refunds for deceptive lead claims. |
| Brand family | Independent, privately held. | Angi Inc. owns Angi, Angie's List, HomeAdvisor, and Handy. |
| What you own when you stop paying | Nothing. Your profile and reviews stay on Thumbtack. | Nothing. Your profile and reviews stay on Angi. |
How Each Platform Bills You
Thumbtack: pay per lead, you set the price
Thumbtack's pro page states: "No subscription cost. There's no charge to join, no annual fees and no membership fees." You pick the job types and areas you want, then set a lead price for each. When a homeowner reaches out to you, Thumbtack charges you that price. Thumbtack's help center adds that lead prices vary with the type and size of the job, how many pros are available, and your market.
Your lead price floats with how many other pros are chasing the same work in your area. A busy market with ten tree companies bidding on trimming jobs will cost you more per lead than a quiet one. You can lower your price and get fewer leads, or raise it and get more. That control is the best thing Thumbtack offers a contractor.
Angi Leads: membership plus per-match fees
Angi Inc.'s annual report describes the revenue it collects from pros as "fees paid by Pros for consumer matches (regardless of whether the Pro ultimately provides the requested service)," plus "revenue from Pros under contract for advertising" and "membership subscription revenue." Translation: you pay to be on the platform, and then you pay again every time Angi matches you with a homeowner. Whether you win the job, lose it, or never reach the person, the match fee stands.
Angi does not post a lead rate card on its pro pages. Its 10-K says lead revenue "varies based upon several factors, including the service requested, product experience offered, and geographic location of service." Your rep sets expectations on the phone. Get every number in writing before you agree to anything.
Neither platform will tell you the price up front
Ask either company what a plumbing lead costs in your ZIP code and you will not get a number until you are inside the system. Thumbtack shows lead prices only after you build a profile and pick job types, and it advertises volume instead: "Over 30,000+ leads on Thumbtack per day." Angi quotes on the phone. The FTC complaint against HomeAdvisor spells out how that side worked: three lead types (Market Match, Exact Match, and Instant Booking), with Exact Match and Instant Booking leads priced "fifty percent more than Market Match Leads of the same project type and location"; no way to "preview leads prior to receiving them"; and when a lead is bad, "primary recourse is to request a credit," because HomeAdvisor "does not generally provide refunds for leads." The complaint also states that "HomeAdvisor represents to service providers that its leads convert into jobs at rates well above what HomeAdvisor can substantiate."
So the number you need, cost per booked job, has to come from your own account. Get the lead price list for your job types in writing before you fund either platform, then run it through the formula further down.
HomeAdvisor, Angie's List, and Angi are one company
Contractors still ask whether they should be on HomeAdvisor or Angi. Same company. IAC combined HomeAdvisor and Angie's List in 2017, and the combined business renamed itself Angi Inc. in 2021. HomeAdvisor still runs as a brand, so a homeowner request can come through either front door and land in the same lead system you pay for.
Why Your Cost Per Job Runs Higher Than Your Cost Per Lead
Both platforms sell the same homeowner to more than one contractor, and neither hides it, because that is how the model makes money. The problem is what it does to your close rate.
Say a match goes to four pros and each of you has an equal shot. The best any one of you can average is one job in four, and that is before the homeowner who was price shopping and the one who never picks up. Every lost lead still cost you the lead fee.
Compare that to a lead that only you receive. When a homeowner finds your company on Google, calls your number, and talks to your office, nobody else is in that conversation. AMN Plumbing, a Watson & Co. client in Ormond Beach, closed 83% of 94 exclusive leads in about 60 days. You will not see a close rate like that on a platform that sells the same homeowner more than once.
Run the math on your own numbers with the Angi cost calculator. It takes your lead price, your close rate, and your average ticket and shows your real cost per booked job.
What the FTC Found About HomeAdvisor's Leads
In January 2023 the Federal Trade Commission ordered HomeAdvisor to pay up to $7.2 million and to stop what the agency called deceptive marketing of its leads. The FTC's findings read like a contractor forum thread:
- "Although HomeAdvisor has represented that service providers only will receive leads matching the types of services they provide and their preferred geographic area, many of them do not."
- The company "often tells service providers that its leads result in jobs at rates much higher than it can substantiate."
- Service providers paid "an annual membership fee of $287.99, in addition to a separate fee for each lead they receive."
- Sales agents pitched a one-month mHelpDesk subscription as free when it cost $59.99.
By November 2023 the FTC had mailed 110,372 refund checks to service providers. The order bars HomeAdvisor from claiming its leads come from people ready to hire or that they submitted a request directly to HomeAdvisor. Angi's current pro terms sit under that order.
Thumbtack has no comparable federal action on record. That is a point in its favor, and it is the reason we rank it ahead of Angi for a contractor who insists on using a platform.
Cost Per Lead vs Cost Per Booked Job
Lead platforms quote you a cost per lead. Your P&L only cares about cost per booked job. The formula:
Cost per booked job = lead price divided by close rate.
A $40 lead you close 1 time in 5 costs you $200 per job. A $60 lead you close 1 time in 2 costs you $120 per job. The lead with the lower sticker price cost you more.
Two real numbers from our own accounts, each labeled by trade because they do not transfer across trades:
- Tree service. TreesRX in Port Orange, Florida, runs a blended cost per lead of about $47 across Google channels, with 469 leads in August 2026. Every one of those leads called TreesRX and nobody else.
- Plumbing. AMN Plumbing closed 83% of its exclusive leads and booked $130,000 or more in the first 30 days of paid lead generation.
Plug your platform lead price and your real close rate into the same formula. If your cost per booked job on Thumbtack or Angi lands under what you pay on your own Google channels, keep the platform. In our experience it does not, and the gap widens as your reviews grow.
Want your numbers, not an example? The calculator takes 60 seconds and shows your cost per booked job on the spot; the full side-by-side report unlocks with your contact details.
Run the Angi CalculatorWhich One Fits Your Situation
New company, under a year in, few reviews
Thumbtack, with a hard weekly cap. No membership fee means you can test it for the price of a few leads. Set your lead price low, answer within five minutes, and treat every job as a review you can move to Google. Skip Angi. The membership fee buys you nothing you cannot get from Thumbtack for free.
Established company, $1 million or more in revenue, solid reviews
Neither, as a primary channel. Your reviews and your Google Business Profile already do what these platforms charge for. Put the same money into Local Services Ads and Google Ads, where the homeowner calls you and only you. Keep a platform profile live only if it costs you nothing to leave it there.
Slow season, crews idle, you need work this week
Thumbtack, short term. Turn it on, buy the leads you can staff, turn it off when the schedule fills. Do not sign anything with a term.
By trade
Small-ticket, quick-quote work (repairs, trimming, handyman jobs): Thumbtack, because you can set a low lead price that fits the ticket. High-ticket work (roof replacements, repipes, remodels): the membership math on Angi only pencils out if one closed job covers the year's fees plus every lost lead. Confirm that close rate with your own numbers before you sign, not the rep's.
What We Tell Clients to Do Instead
Rent leads while you build the source, then stop renting. The order that works:
- Claim the free channel first. A complete Google Business Profile with steady reviews brings calls that cost you nothing per lead.
- Add pay-per-lead from Google, not from a middleman. Local Services Ads charge per lead like Thumbtack does, and the lead is yours alone.
- Answer fast. Whatever channel the lead comes from, the first five minutes decide the job.
- Track cost per booked job by source. The only number that settles this debate is the one from your own books. Our guide to contractor leads that book jobs shows how to set that up.
If your Angi or Thumbtack leads have been getting worse, you are not imagining it. We wrote up why the shared-lead model keeps degrading and how to transition off it without a dead month.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is better, Angi or Thumbtack, for a contractor?
How expensive is Thumbtack for pros?
What are the pros and cons of using Thumbtack?
Does anyone use Angie's List anymore?
Is HomeAdvisor the same as Angi?
What is better than Thumbtack for getting contractor leads?
Sources checked September 19, 2026: Thumbtack for pros (no membership fee, you set lead prices) and the Thumbtack help center on paying for leads; Angi Inc. Form 10-K for fiscal 2025 (brand history, fees charged regardless of whether the pro does the job); FTC press release, January 2023 and the November 2023 refund announcement, plus the public redacted FTC complaint for the lead types, credit policy, and win-rate findings quoted above. Client figures are from Watson & Co. accounts and apply only to the trade named.
