Compare / HomeAdvisor Alternatives
HomeAdvisor is now Angi Leads, the same shared-lead model under a new name. If those leads are not paying off, here are four honest alternatives, with the real prices and the catch on each, so you can pick the one that fits your calendar.
The short answer
If HomeAdvisor leads are bleeding you, the fix depends on why you are unhappy. Hate the shared-lead race? Google Local Services Ads cost more per lead but the calls are yours and you only pay for valid ones. Hate paying for leads at all? A free Google profile plus reviews and an owned site build calls you keep. For most established contractors the lasting answer is an owned site; LSA is the better paid stopgap.
HomeAdvisor and Angi Leads run the same playbook: shared leads, a membership, a contract. The columns put the most common paid alternative and the owned alternative next to it, using real 2026 figures.
| HomeAdvisor / Angi Leads | Google LSA | Your own site | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What you pay | About $300/yr to join, then $15-85 per lead ($100+ in big-ticket trades), often a ~$400/mo minimum | Per valid lead; average about $53, near $30 in small markets, $90+ in competitive metros | Starter $500/mo plus $1,500 setup, or Growth $1,500/mo plus $500 setup, billed quarterly |
| Who gets the lead | The same lead is sold to 3 to 8 contractors at once; you race them to the phone | Leads come to you, but you sit in one ad unit beside your neighbors | Every call the site produces is yours alone, never shared |
| Bad-lead protection | Credits are case by case and widely reported as a fight to get | You can dispute and not pay for invalid leads (spam, wrong area) | No lead fees to dispute; you own the calls and the tracking |
| Contract | Commonly 12 months with auto-renewal; reported 30-35% penalty to leave early | No lock-in; pause or stop the budget whenever you want | A quarter at a time, cancel at the end of any quarter |
| Who owns it | Nothing. The profile, reviews and leads belong to the platform | Nothing kept; Google owns the placement and the badge | You own the site, domain, content and reviews from day one |
| When you stop paying | The leads stop the same day | The leads stop the same day | The site keeps ranking and keeps ringing |
| Best fit | A new or idle crew that needs jobs this week | A contractor who wants paid leads they keep and can dispute | An established crew that wants a pipeline it controls |
Start with the rebrand
If you are searching for HomeAdvisor alternatives, the first thing to know is that HomeAdvisor and Angi merged; the HomeAdvisor lead product is now Angi Leads. The brand on the invoice changed, the mechanics did not. You still pay for access, you still buy leads sold to several contractors at once, and you still race competitors to the phone for a homeowner who has not committed to anyone. Moving from HomeAdvisor to Angi is not really switching platforms, it is the same platform with a new logo.
It is worth knowing why so many contractors went looking for the exit. In 2023 the Federal Trade Commission ordered HomeAdvisor to pay up to $7.2 million over claims that it sold leads described as ready-to-hire homeowners when many were neither high quality nor exclusive. We are a website company, so we have a stake in where you land next, and we will still tell you plainly when a paid platform is the right move. The point here is the real alternatives and real numbers.
The four real options
Ranked roughly from most like HomeAdvisor to least. Each has a genuine downside, so read the catch, not just the upside.
The closest paid alternative that fixes the worst part of HomeAdvisor. You sit at the very top with a Google Guaranteed badge, the leads come to you, and you only pay for valid ones; you can dispute spam and wrong-area calls. Average cost per lead runs about $53, lower in quiet markets and $90 or more in competitive metros, so it is not cheap, but the leads are yours.
Another shared-lead marketplace, but with no annual membership; you pay only when you contact a homeowner or they reply to your quote. Leads run roughly $8 to $150 or more, moving weekly with demand. Each project is still shown to about four or five pros, so you compete again. It beats HomeAdvisor on cost flexibility, not on the shared-lead problem itself.
The most underrated alternative, and it costs nothing to claim. A complete profile with current photos, the right service categories, and a steady flow of honest reviews wins calls straight from the map and search. It will not fill an empty calendar overnight, and the FTC review rule effective October 21, 2024 carries penalties up to $53,088 per violation, so never buy reviews. Earn them.
The only option here where the money builds something you keep. A site tuned for your services and service area ranks, rings, and the calls belong to you alone. It takes weeks to a few months to gain traction rather than working the same day, which is the honest trade. After that the cost per booked job falls instead of climbing with demand.
Match the fix to the complaint
The right alternative depends on which part of HomeAdvisor pushed you out. If the complaint is that leads were shared and you kept losing the race, Google Local Services Ads is the cleanest upgrade: the calls come to you, you pay only for valid ones, and you can dispute the junk. It costs more per lead, around $53 on average, but you stop paying full price for a name three other crews already called. That is the trade, more per lead for leads that are yours to work.
If the complaint is paying for leads at all, the answer is to stop renting demand and start owning it. A free Google Business Profile with real reviews is the no-cost first step, and an owned website is the asset that compounds on top of it. The honest catch is patience: neither rings the phone the day you switch the way a paid lead does. Most contractors who are fed up run a paid channel as a short bridge while the free profile and owned site grow into the channel they control, then taper the paid spend.
Make the switch cleanly
Do not flip the switch overnight. Work these in order so income keeps flowing while you build something better than rented leads.
Because HomeAdvisor is Angi Leads now, check the term, the auto-renewal clause, the notice window, and the early-termination penalty before you do anything. Reported penalties run 30 to 35 percent of the remaining value with about 60 days notice, so the cheapest exit is often to stop the spend at renewal rather than break the term and pay to leave.
Claim and fully complete your Google Business Profile while you still have leads coming in. Add real photos, the correct service categories, your service area, and ask every finished customer for an honest review. It costs nothing, it is yours, and it starts producing map and search calls no platform can take when you stop paying.
If you cannot afford a gap, turn on Google Local Services Ads with a small budget rather than feeding the shared-lead machine. Set a tracked phone number so you know exactly what it produces, dispute every invalid lead, and treat it as a faucet you can shut off, not a contract. Keep it only while the owned channel is still climbing.
Put the money you were spending on shared leads into a site you own, with call tracking from day one. As the owned calls grow, cut paid spend in measured steps and watch total booked work, not one channel. The goal is a pipeline you control, where HomeAdvisor and its lookalikes become a switch you flip for a slow week.
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