HomeAdvisor leads review: what contractors sign up for now, and what it costs

HomeAdvisor leads are still sold, but under Angi: the pro site now reads "HomeAdvisor powered by Angi", and the product is Angi Leads. They can fill gaps in a schedule, but you pay for each lead whether or not you win the job, leads can go to several pros, and Angi publishes no price list, so judge them only by your own cost per booked job.

Where we stand: Gigabit sells contractors an alternative to rented leads, so we are not neutral. This review reads the pages HomeAdvisor, Angi, the FTC and Google publish, opened on 10 November 2026. It is not a survey of contractors, and we report no one's results. Check every line against your own invoices.

HomeAdvisor started as its own lead marketplace. Today the contractor side runs under Angi. The pro home page shows the logo "HomeAdvisor powered by Angi" and is copyrighted to HomeAdvisor, Inc. (HomeAdvisor Pro). The pro FAQ and the credit rules are branded Angi Leads and copyrighted to Angi, Inc. (Angi pro FAQ; credit guidelines). The sign-up page is titled "Angi for Pros", and its sign-in link goes to an Angi address (sign-up page).

So if a sales rep calls about HomeAdvisor, what you would sign up for is an Angi Leads account. The old name lives on in web addresses, logos and the consumer site. The rules, the billing and the credit policy are Angi's.

What you actually sign up for

You tell Angi your trade and service area, and it sends you requests that match. The pro page says "You control your budget and lead preferences" (HomeAdvisor Pro). The product page lists two main ways to buy (Angi Leads):

• Market Match. Angi "connects you with consumers looking for the best local business". You choose the work types and zip codes, and leads arrive against your budget.
• Exact Match. Angi promotes your profile online, and you pay only after a homeowner has viewed your profile and chosen to connect with you.

Angi's help center adds a second type of request, called an opportunity. A lead is "a connection between you and a homeowner after a homeowner has shown interest in working with your business", and "Lead fees apply when you receive a lead". Opportunities are requests that match your tasks or sit just outside your area; you pay when you accept one, or only after the homeowner shows interest back, depending on the case. For pros on a monthly budget, an accepted opportunity is charged "in addition to your monthly budget or subscription fee" (Angi help, Aug 2026).

Angi's getting-started article says "Some leads are in your monthly budget and some are an optional, extra fee", and mentions a "subscription plan" whose pros must call support to change tasks or zip codes (Angi help, Sep 2026). It does not set out that plan's terms. Ask for them in writing.

Angi does not publish prices. Its FAQ says you "pay a nominal fee for each lead you match to" and that "Different sized jobs have different Lead Fees" (Angi pro FAQ). We found no membership price on any Angi or HomeAdvisor page we opened.

The only official figure we found is old. The FTC said in January 2023 that service providers "generally paid an annual membership fee of $287.99", plus a fee for each lead (FTC, Jan 2023). That describes the years covered by the case, not today's price.

For a current range, the only source is third-party. The Valley Marketing Group, 23 June 2026 (a marketing firm that sells alternatives, citing other agencies) puts HomeAdvisor and Angi leads at $35–$90 for HVAC, $20–$85 for plumbing, $18–$70 for electrical and $40–$100+ for general contracting and remodeling, with a membership of roughly $300 a year (Valley Marketing Group). Treat that as an estimate. The prices in your own account, which you can see once you are signed up, beat it.

Angi does not sell HomeAdvisor leads as exclusive. Its FAQ says a request is used to "connect customers with multiple Angi Leads service professionals" (Angi pro FAQ), and none of the Angi pages we opened gives a number. The help article on opportunities mentions "the initial set of pros presented to the homeowner", which tells you there is a set (Angi help). The Valley Marketing Group estimates 3 to 8 contractors per standard lead, from other agencies' research (Valley Marketing Group).

The closest thing to a chosen lead is Exact Match, or an opportunity from a homeowner who already picked your business, because the homeowner has looked at you first. That is not the same as exclusive: nothing we read says other pros will not hear from the same homeowner. Plan on competing for most leads, which means answering in minutes and following up more than once.

There are no cash refunds in the published rules. Angi's Lead Credit Guidelines say "We may, in our sole discretion, issue you a credit"; you must ask within 30 days of the charge; the credit is applied to future charges; and it expires six months after it is issued (credit guidelines).

Full credits may cover a duplicate request, a wrong zip code or job type that is not in your profile, a competitor testing the system, or contact details that are all wrong. A wrong job type that is in your profile may get a partial credit. A homeowner who never calls back, already hired someone, changed their mind, is just shopping, or simply did not pick you does not qualify; Angi says those outcomes are priced into the lead.

Our Angi leads review lays out the full table. The practical point: a dead lead is a normal cost of this channel, and the credits you can claim are store credit you have to spend within six months. Claim them every week, but do not count on them to fix a poor win rate.

The FTC filed its complaint in March 2022, covering conduct since at least mid-2014. It alleged that HomeAdvisor made "false, misleading, or unsubstantiated claims about the quality and source of the leads" it sold, told providers they would get leads matching their services and areas when many did not, and claimed lead-to-job rates it could not back up. It also alleged that sales agents described the first month of mHelpDesk, an optional scheduling and payments tool, as free, when providers were charged $59.99 (FTC, Jan 2023).

The FTC announced a proposed order on 23 January 2023 and approved the final order on 21 April 2023, by a 3-0 vote. The order requires HomeAdvisor to pay up to $7.2 million and bars it from false or misleading claims about its leads, including that they come from people ready to hire or who asked HomeAdvisor directly (FTC, Apr 2023). The proposed order also barred calling a product free when it is not, and unsubstantiated claims about how often leads turn into jobs (FTC, Jan 2023).

On 28 November 2023 the FTC sent 110,372 checks, more than $3 million in all, to providers who paid for memberships, and 91,273 claim forms to businesses that paid for mHelpDesk. The mHelpDesk claim deadline was 26 February 2024, so that window has closed (FTC, Nov 2023).

What it means for you now: these were allegations settled by consent, and the conduct predates 2023, so the order says nothing about how today's leads perform. It does set a rule worth using. Any number a rep gives you about how often leads become jobs should be one they can back up. Ask for it in writing, then check it against your own first three months.

Lead price is the wrong number to judge by. What matters is what each booked job costs once you add the membership, subtract credits and divide by the jobs you won. Here is one month for a remodeling contractor. Every input is an example; replace each with your own.

In this example, HomeAdvisor leads keep the crew busy but leave about $132 of gross profit per job after lead costs. That is thin for a job that needs estimates, materials and a crew day. The same month with one more lead in ten booked, through faster callbacks and follow-up, brings the cost per job down to about $209. The win rate moves the result far more than the lead price does. Run your own numbers in the shared-lead cost calculator.

They can make sense if you have open slots in the next few weeks, your average job is large enough to absorb several lost leads per win, someone answers within minutes, and you track every lead to a booked job or a loss.

They rarely make sense if they are most of your work, your jobs are small next to the lead fee, nobody can call back fast, or the membership and budget are spent while your own Google profile sits half done. Money spent on rented leads stops working the day you stop paying. Money spent on reviews and your own profile keeps working.

Your own Google Business Profile. Creating a profile and listing your business on Google "is free" (Google). It costs time, not lead fees: the right categories, every service and town you cover, real photos, and a steady flow of reviews from finished jobs. For most contractors it is the first thing to fix, and our home service marketing guide sets out the order.

Google Local Services Ads. Google says "You only pay when you get a lead", and your bid is the most you would pay for one (Google). A lead is a call, message or booking request from a customer who found your ad, and some contacts are not charged, such as calls outside your hours or a repeat call from the same number within 15 days (Google). Leads later judged low quality may be credited automatically, though Google no longer credits "job type not serviced" or "geo not serviced" leads (Google). Our Local Services Ads guide covers ranking and budgets.

Thumbtack. Thumbtack is the other large pay-per-lead marketplace. Its pro pages would not load for us when we checked on 10 November, so we make no claim about its prices or credit rules. If you are comparing, ask Thumbtack who sets the lead price, how the weekly budget works and when a lead is refunded, and compare the answers line by line with Angi's.

For what each channel costs side by side, see how much home service marketing costs.

1. Get the terms in writing first. Membership or subscription fee, how long the agreement runs, how to cancel, and what happens to unused credits.
2. Start narrow. The job types and zip codes where your win rate is highest. Add more only when those pay.
3. Answer in minutes. Have a person or an automatic text ready for every new lead.
4. Follow up three times. Over a few days, by call and text.
5. Claim credits weekly. The 30-day clock runs from the charge.
6. Track every lead to an outcome. Booked, lost, or never reached, by job type.
7. Review monthly. If cost per booked job takes most of the profit on that job type, cut it.

Pull six months of HomeAdvisor or Angi invoices. Count leads, booked jobs and revenue by job type, add the membership, subtract credits used, and put the result through the calculator. If you would rather build calls you do not pay for one by one, see our home services plans: they run month to month, and we never sell leads or send one homeowner to several contractors.