Comparisons

Thumbtack vs. Angi vs. Google Local Services Ads vs. Yelp: What Each Really Costs (2026)

Written by the PHIT Web team • Reviewed July 2026 • No affiliate links

The short answer: Thumbtack sells shared leads with no contract, Angi sells shared leads with a membership and often a 12-month agreement, Google Local Services Ads sells you the customer's direct call at a price Google sets, and Yelp sells clicks, not leads. Costs commonly run $5 to $150+ per lead depending on trade and city. Each model fits a different kind of business.

Quick disclosure: PHIT Web builds websites for service businesses, so we're not neutral about marketing in general — but we have no stake in any platform below. This guide doesn't pitch our services. It's here because "what does Thumbtack actually cost" turns out to be a surprisingly hard question to answer.

None of these platforms publishes a real rate card. Ask what a lead costs and the answer is always "it depends" — on your trade, your ZIP code, and the season. So the numbers below come from contractor benchmarks and industry reports, not official price lists. Treat them as commonly reported ranges, and expect your own numbers to drift from them.

What we can compare precisely is how each platform charges, whether the lead is yours alone, and what happens when a lead is junk. Those rules are published, and they're where most of the surprises live.

The Quick Comparison

Platform	How you pay	Commonly reported cost	Lead shared?	Contract?
Thumbtack	Per lead/contact	$5–$150+ per lead by trade	Yes, often 4–5 pros	No — pause anytime
Angi Leads	~$300/yr membership + per lead	$15–$120+ per lead by trade	Yes, roughly 3–8 pros	Often 12 months — read yours
Google LSA	Per lead (call/message); Google sets the price	~$53 average; $39–$71 by trade in one large benchmark	No — the customer picked you	No — month to month
Yelp Ads	Per click (ad budget)	$3–$15 per click; works out to ~$45–$120 per lead	No, but rivals' ads can appear on your page	Self-serve: cancel anytime
Bark	Prepaid credits	~$2–$66 per lead	Capped at 5 pros officially	No
Nextdoor	Free posts; paid ads optional	$32–$150/mo per ZIP for sponsorships	n/a — recommendations	No

Thumbtack: Cheap to Start, Fast Hands Win

Thumbtack charges when a customer contacts you (or when you reach out through its promotion system), with a weekly budget cap you control. Reported per-lead costs range from about $5–$25 for house cleaning up to $30–$150+ for roofing and remodeling, with big-city prices running higher.

The good: no membership fee, no contract, real budget control, and the lowest entry cost here. You can test it with a few hundred dollars.

The not-so-good: most leads go to several pros at once, so you're racing 3–4 competitors to the phone — one industry analysis found the first pro to respond wins the job most of the time. Lead prices swing without notice, and refunds are limited to clearly bad leads (wrong number, duplicate), not leads that just didn't pick you.

Tends to fit: newer or solo operators in lower-ticket trades who can reply within minutes and track whether the math works.

Angi Leads: Volume on Demand, Contracts to Watch

Angi absorbed HomeAdvisor a few years back. It usually pairs an annual membership around $300 with per-lead charges. Reported lead costs run $15–$40 for cleaning and handyman work, up to $50–$120+ for roofing and remodeling. Hot metros run higher.

The good: the biggest homeowner audience in the category, and volume you can turn up quickly. Established companies with someone dedicated to answering the phone can make it produce.

The not-so-good: leads are shared with several contractors, and disputes pay out in credits, not cash. Many agreements run 12 months with auto-renewal and a cancellation-notice window. Contractors regularly report early-exit penalties. Read the agreement before signing, and get the cancellation terms in writing. Worth knowing: in 2023 the FTC ordered HomeAdvisor to pay up to $7.2 million over how it marketed leads to pros — including describing leads as coming from homeowners "ready to hire" when many weren't.

Tends to fit: bigger operations that treat it as a volume channel, measure cost per booked job (not per lead), and negotiate terms.

Google Local Services Ads: The Screened, Unshared One

LSA is the "Google Guaranteed" box at the very top of local search results. You pay per lead — a call or message that comes straight to you. Google sets the price, not you. A February 2026 study of 888 contractors put the average at $53 per lead. Electricians paid about $39, HVAC $51, plumbing $57, and water-heater work $71.

The good: the customer chose you specifically, so there's no shared-lead race. Disputes for spam or wrong-area leads exist and actually pay (that same benchmark showed contractors recovering 6–7% of spend in credits). No contract. And the screening itself — background check, license verification, insurance proof — earns a trust badge customers recognize.

The not-so-good: you can't control what a lead costs, and approval takes two to five weeks. Your ranking depends heavily on reviews and how fast you answer calls. And a lapsed license or insurance document can suspend your profile overnight.

Tends to fit: licensed, insured businesses in urgent trades — plumbing, HVAC, electrical, locksmith — with a decent review base.

Yelp Ads: Paying for Clicks, Not Calls

Yelp is the odd one out: you're buying ad clicks, not leads. Clicks in home services commonly run $3–$15. Typical budgets land between $150 and $1,000 a month. Do the division and an actual lead often works out to $45–$120.

The good: the free business page costs nothing and is worth claiming regardless. In review-heavy metros, a strong Yelp profile still closes customers who cross-check everything.

The not-so-good: since you pay per click, there's no bad-lead refund to argue about — a click is a click. Competitors' ads can show on your own profile unless you pay to remove them. And two complaints follow Yelp everywhere: the review filter (owners report legitimate reviews getting suppressed) and persistent sales calls.

Tends to fit: higher-ticket trades in big review-culture cities, with an already-strong rating.

The Two Smaller Ones: Bark and Nextdoor

Bark sells prepaid credits; leads run roughly $2 to $66 worth of credits. It's cheap to try, but refunds only cover invalid contact details, and low-conversion complaints are common. If you test it, start small.

Nextdoor is barely a lead platform at all — it's neighbors recommending businesses. A free page plus a couple of free posts a month costs nothing; paid neighborhood sponsorships run about $32–$150 monthly per ZIP. Volume is low, but the leads arrive pre-trusted because a neighbor vouched. Good as a supplement, not a main engine.

How to Compare Them for Your Business

Track cost per booked job, not cost per lead. A $25 shared lead you win once in five tries costs $125 per job. A $60 exclusive lead you close half the time costs $120. Same money — wildly different experience. Whatever platform you try, log every lead and every close for 60 days before judging it.

Answer speed is the whole game on shared platforms. If nobody in your shop can respond within minutes during work hours, shared-lead platforms will quietly eat your budget. Exclusive models (LSA) and slow-burn channels (Nextdoor, your own reviews) punish slow responders far less.

Read the exit before the entrance. Thumbtack, LSA, Yelp self-serve, and Bark let you stop anytime. Angi agreements often don't. The time to understand a 12-month term with a 60-day notice window is before you sign it.

None of these builds you an asset. Every platform above is rent: the calls stop when the spending stops. That's not a reason to avoid them — rent gets you a storefront on day one. It's a reason to know which bucket your money is going into.

Common Questions

What does Thumbtack charge per lead?

There's no published rate card. Commonly reported ranges in 2026 run from about $5–$25 for cleaning, $15–$75 for plumbing and electrical, up to $150+ for roofing and remodeling leads, with big metros higher. Your real number depends on trade, ZIP, and season.

Are Angi and Thumbtack leads exclusive?

No. Both platforms send most leads to multiple pros — commonly 3–8 on Angi and 4–5 on Thumbtack. Google Local Services Ads is the main per-lead platform where the customer contacts only you.

Can I get a refund for a bad lead?

Sometimes, in credits. All three per-lead platforms have dispute processes for clearly invalid leads — wrong numbers, spam, jobs outside your service area. None refunds a valid lead that simply hired someone else. LSA's dispute process is the most consistently rated as functional; one 2026 benchmark showed 6–7% of spend recovered.

What is Google Guaranteed and how do I get it?

It's the green-check badge on Local Services Ads. To qualify, the owner passes a background check. Google also verifies your license with your state and asks for proof of liability insurance. Approval typically takes two to five weeks. Customers who book a Google Guaranteed business get a money-back guarantee from Google, up to $2,000 lifetime per customer in the US.

Which platform is best?

Wrong question, honestly. They're different tools: Thumbtack is a low-commitment test, Angi is volume with strings attached, LSA is quality with a waiting room, Yelp is reputation advertising, and Nextdoor is word of mouth with a login. The pattern in contractor reports is consistent: the businesses that do well pick one, answer fast, track close rates, and quit anything that can't beat their other channels after 60 days.

Sources

Per-lead figures are third-party benchmarks and contractor reports, not official rate cards — none of these platforms publishes one. Figures checked July 2026. Contract terms vary by agreement; verify cancellation clauses in writing before signing anything.

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