By Luis Johnson, founder of Lunere Digital. Published
If you want a HomeAdvisor alternative, start with the fact that HomeAdvisor and Angi Leads are one operation. The contractor side was rebranded, the pro login still sits on pro.homeadvisor.com, and the Federal Trade Commission finalised an order against HomeAdvisor, Inc. in April 2023 over how it marketed its leads to home improvement businesses.
What I run isn't a better lead. It's a different unit of purchase. You buy a booked qualified inspection, which means a homeowner who said on a form that he owns the house, named the symptom he is seeing, gave a timeframe, said who decides on repairs, and then picked a time your estimator can keep.
The short version
- HomeAdvisor now trades as Angi Leads, so a review of one is usually describing the other.
- The FTC approved a final consent order in April 2023 requiring up to $7.2 million for redress and barring false claims about the leads.
- That order bars claiming leads concern people ready to hire, or who submitted a request directly to HomeAdvisor, where that's not true.
- Its own pro pages say the request goes out to three to four members by email, text or phone, immediately.
- A per-lead price for foundation or structural work isn't published anywhere on those public pro pages.
What the FTC order actually said
This part matters because it's the only piece of the story that's not marketing from one side or the other. Per the Federal Trade Commission, April 2023, the Commission finalised a consent order settling allegations that HomeAdvisor used deceptive and misleading tactics in selling home improvement project leads to service providers, including small businesses. The March 2022 complaint alleged false, misleading or unsubstantiated claims about the quality and the source of those leads, and alleged the company told providers its leads turn into jobs at rates it couldn't substantiate.
The final order requires up to $7.2 million for redress and prohibits false or misleading claims about the leads, including that they concern people ready to hire a service provider or who submitted a request for home services directly to HomeAdvisor. Go and read the press release yourself instead of taking my summary, because I compete with them and you should never take a competitor's word on a regulator.
HomeAdvisor, trading as Angi Leads, in their own words
Read off their own page. Terms change, so confirm anything you are about to rely on.
- Who you're buying from
- The pro site is branded Angi Leads throughout and still sits on the homeadvisor.com domain. The homeowner site is live as HomeAdvisor.
- Sharing
- The About Us page says requests and the consumer's contact information are sent immediately to three to four members by email, text message or phone.
- Charging
- The FAQ says you name your trade and your geography and pay a fee for each lead you match to, with different lead fees for different sized jobs. Price is given out by phone, not posted.
- Volume
- The FAQ says, in two separate answers, that it makes no guarantee about how many leads or how much work you'll get.
- Pausing
- The FAQ says you can turn the service on or off at any time in your profile, including setting a future date to resume.
- Regulatory history
- FTC final consent order, April 2023, up to $7.2 million for redress, over how the leads were marketed.
Buying the visit instead of the phone number
I price per booked inspection because it's the first point in the chain where both of us can look at the same object. A lead fee is charged on an event only the vendor can observe. A booking is a row on your calendar with a time on it, and either your estimator stood in that house or he didn't.
Qualification happens on the form, before a calendar is ever shown, so a homeowner who rents, or who is a year away from spending anything, never reaches a time slot. The caller afterwards only books. He never qualifies, never quotes and never diagnoses, because the moment you let a setter diagnose a settlement problem you've handed your estimator something to walk back.
| HomeAdvisor / Angi Leads | Per booked inspection | |
|---|---|---|
| Unit you pay for | A matched service request | A kept appointment slot |
| Exclusivity | Three to four members get it, per its own pro site | One shop, never resold |
| Price visibility | Quoted by phone, not published | Quoted on a call, not posted publicly either |
| Volume promise | Its FAQ says there's none | A written floor exists, and it's never quoted without its conditions |
| Who the homeowner remembers | The marketplace | Your company, because the ads carry your name |
| Where the data lands | With them | In your own ad account |
Where HomeAdvisor still beats what I do
When HomeAdvisor, trading as Angi Leads is the better buy
- It's already running. If the account is live and producing, switching it off to test something unproven is a worse bet than running both for sixty days.
- It reaches homeowners who never search for a contractor and only ever use a marketplace. That's a real slice of the market your own ads won't pick up.
- It covers categories you dabble in. If you also do flatwork or yard drainage on the side, one account feeds several trades at once.
- There's nothing to build. No form, no calendar, no follow-up sequence, no card funding ads. For a shop with no office staff at all, that counts for something.
- You can pause it from inside your profile without a phone call, which its FAQ states plainly, and not every vendor in this market lets you do that.
Is HomeAdvisor the same company as Angi now?
The contractor product trades as Angi Leads and the pro pages still live on the homeadvisor.com domain. The FTC describes HomeAdvisor, Inc. as affiliated with Angi, formerly Angie's List.
Did the FTC order change what I get as a contractor?
The order governs what the company may claim about its leads. It doesn't change how many shops receive the same request, which its own site still describes as three to four.
What counts as a booked qualified inspection on my side?
A homeowner who owns the home, named a symptom, gave a timeframe, said who decides on repairs and sits inside your service area by ZIP, who then picked a slot. Anything short of that's not billable.
If you want that comparison on paper for your own county, book the call.
Book My Strategy CallSources
- FTC final consent order against HomeAdvisor, April 2023, up to $7.2 million for redress, over deceptive marketing of its leads. Federal Trade Commission.
- Requests and contact details are sent immediately to three to four members. Angi Leads Pro, About Us.
- Pros pay a fee per matched lead, fees vary by job size, and no volume is guaranteed. Angi Leads Pro, Service Professional FAQ.
Read next
- Foundation Repair Lead Generation Companies, RankedEleven places a US foundation repair contractor can buy work from today, ranked by what one signed job costs. Last, with sources.
- How These Comparisons Are ResearchedWhere the numbers on the comparison pages come from, how vendors are picked and ranked, how often it's rechecked, and the conflict of interest in all of it.
- Lunere vs Angi for Foundation Repair ContractorsLunere vs Angi for foundation repair: a marketplace that bills on contact details against a pipeline that bills on a booked qualified inspection you attend.
- Shared vs Exclusive Leads for Foundation RepairShared vs exclusive leads for foundation repair, by how many shops call the same homeowner, what each really costs you per signed job, and which one to buy.