Is Thumbtack or Angi Worth It? Do the Math per Booked Job

Here is how to check it tonight. Take what you paid per lead last month and the share of those leads you booked, and divide the first by the second. That is your cost per booked job: what the platform really charged you for one job on the calendar.

Every fact here about Thumbtack and Angi comes from their own help pages, listed at the end with the date we read them. None of it is a result from one of our clients.

How Thumbtack charges you, in its own words

On Thumbtack, a lead is a customer who "found you in their search results and chose to contact you directly." You don't approve it first: "When you receive a new lead, you pay for it automatically based on your lead prices."

You set those prices yourself, service by service, and "the price you set for a lead is the exact amount you'll pay." There is no one published price. Thumbtack's stated goal is "to make the cost match how valuable the job is," so prices move with "the type and size of the job, how many pros are available, and your market." A weekly budget caps the total: once you reach it, leads stop until the next week. If your prices sit at or near Thumbtack's minimum, they can rise when the minimum does, and Thumbtack says it will tell you when that happens.

How many pros can the same customer contact? In Thumbtack's words, "we limit the number of pros a customer can contact to five in the first four hours of their search," and after that "they can contact additional pros." It adds that customers usually reach out to fewer, and "You can see the number of pros a customer contacts right on the lead." Check that count before you decide how hard to chase.

Opportunities are a separate kind of lead: customers who "have started conversations with other pros but haven't hired anyone yet." The price shows upfront, and "you're only charged if you decide to reach out and the customer responds to your message." An Opportunity closes after 48 hours, or once five pros have shown interest.

Some refunds happen automatically. For the rest, you can ask "within 45 days of the charge," and Thumbtack decides case by case. One case it rules out plainly: when the customer hired a different pro, "we don't provide refunds in these situations."

How Angi charges you, in its own words

Angi works differently: it matches each request with pros. In its words, "Each time a homeowner submits a project request, we will match them with no more than five pros."

Angi charges for a lead "as soon as both you and the homeowner show interest in connecting with each other," and adds: "You are charged for leads whether or not you open or respond to them." You don't set the fee either. "Lead fees change based on task, homeowner location, and demand for the work." And Angi says it directly: "Opportunities and leads are not guaranteed jobs." In some cases, you can ask for a lead credit.

What the FTC said about HomeAdvisor

HomeAdvisor is, in the FTC's words, "affiliated with Angi, formerly known as 'Angie's List.'" In January 2023 the FTC proposed an order requiring HomeAdvisor to pay up to $7.2 million over how it marketed leads to service providers. In announcing the order, the FTC said its complaint alleged that HomeAdvisor "often tells service providers that its leads result in jobs at rates much higher than it can substantiate." The order was made final in April 2023.

That order is about how leads were sold, not about any lead you bought. It is still worth remembering when anyone quotes you a booking rate: the rate to trust is the one in your own records.

Thumbtack vs Angi, side by side

Both charge per lead, and on both, one customer can reach more than one pro. The differences are in who starts the contact and who sets the price.

	Thumbtack	Angi
Who starts it	The customer contacts you from their search results	Angi matches the request with pros
How many pros	Up to five in the first four hours, more after	"No more than five"
When you pay	Automatically, when the lead arrives	When you and the homeowner both show interest, opened or not
Who sets the price	You, an exact price per service	Angi, by task, location and demand
Money back	Some refunds automatic; others requested within 45 days, case by case	A lead credit, in some cases

One requesta homeowner needs a job doneSeveral prosthe same customer can reach more than oneEach paysevery pro who connects is chargedOne booksat most one pro gets the jobThe restpaid for a lead with no job

The napkin math: cost per booked job

Cost per lead is what you pay for each lead: on Thumbtack, the lead price you set; on Angi, the fee on each lead you were charged for. Close rate is the share of those leads you actually book. Cost per booked job is the first divided by the second.

Say a lead costs you $40 and you book 1 in 4. $40 divided by 0.25 is $160 for every booked job. Book 1 in 2 and the same leads cost $80 a job. Same price per lead, half the cost per job.

Three rules for counting. Count every lead you were charged for, including the ones that never answered: Thumbtack charges when the lead arrives, and Angi charges "whether or not you open or respond." Then subtract only the refunds or credits that actually came back. And judge whole months, not a few days, because a handful of leads swings the math. If you don't know your close rate yet, start by counting every call and where it came from.

Hold it against what the job leaves you

Now hold that $160 against the job. Say your average job is $450, and after materials and labor it leaves you $180. The leads took $160 of it, so you kept $20. At 1 in 2, the same job leaves you $100. Nothing about the platform changed. Only your close rate did.

$40per lead, your price in this example1 in 4leads booked$160per booked job ($40 divided by 0.25)$20 leftof a job that leaves $180

The same math on calls that come to you alone

A Google Ads lead

A Google Ads call is not automatically cheaper. LocaliQ's 2025 benchmarks put a typical home services lead at $90.92 in ad spend, the median across 3,211 US campaigns. Say you book 1 in 3: that is $272.76 per booked job, before any management fee. The price of a lead also swings a lot by trade: here is what a lead costs in your trade. Put your own close rate on both, and let the numbers pick.

Your website and Google listing

A website and a Google listing, the map listing with your reviews and the Call button, work on a different kind of bill. There is no price per lead: you pay for the month, and each call costs nothing extra. So cost per booked job is the month's cost divided by the jobs it booked, and every extra job makes each one cheaper. It takes longer to start than buying a lead, and we won't promise a number of calls. But the listing and its reviews stay with your business, not with a lead marketplace.

When keeping Thumbtack or Angi makes sense

If your cost per booked job sits well under what a job leaves you, keep it. Filling the gaps between bigger jobs is a real use for these platforms, and one that books work at a good cost per job is earning its keep.

Both platforms name the same first lever: speed. Thumbtack lists "How quickly you respond to new leads" among the things that decide how many leads you get, and Angi says "The faster you respond, the better your chance of winning the job." The second lever is where you spend. Thumbtack lets you set higher prices on the services you want most, to be "more competitive for those jobs," so your money goes to the work that pays best. Then run the numbers again next month.

What to do next

Write down last month's numbers: what you paid, how many leads you were charged for, and how many you booked. If a booked job cost you less than it left you, you have your answer.

If it didn't, there are two ways to go. If your crews have room and you have a budget for ads, we run Google Ads judged by the same number, cost per booked job. If you're not there yet, start with Foundation: your website and Google listing, so people searching for what you do can find you.

Thinking of moving that money into your own Google Ads? The calculator below works out a month at any ad budget, and how many booked jobs, at your average job size, it takes to pay for it.