Thumbtack vs Angi for contractors: how each one charges, who else gets the lead, and how to pick (2026)

“Thumbtack or Angi?” is one of the most common questions small trade owners ask once referrals slow down. Both sell you a homeowner who wants work done. They differ in how you pay, how many competitors get the same homeowner, what you can get credited back, and how hard it is to stop.

This guide sticks to what each company says on its own pro help pages and terms (linked below). Neither publishes a price list, so we don’t quote “average lead costs” here. At the end there’s a worksheet you can fill in with your own numbers, which is the only figure that matters.

The short version

How Thumbtack charges

Thumbtack is pay per lead. You set a lead price for each service and a weekly budget, and that budget controls how many leads you get. Its help center has separate guides for setting lead prices and editing your budget.

Billing changes as you spend more. Per Thumbtack’s How my card is charged for leads page:

• Until you’ve spent $1,000 total on Thumbtack, each lead is charged to your card separately as it arrives. If a charge fails, you can’t connect with customers until it’s fixed.
• After $1,000 total, leads are billed in bulk on the day you choose, or when you hit $50 in charges, whichever comes first.
• Or you can preload a balance and turn on auto-refill.
• Only credit or debit cards are accepted. Prepaid cards aren’t.

Refunds. In 2026 Thumbtack renamed its automatic refund the Fair Shot Refund. As quoted from Thumbtack’s policy by Tack Tools Pro (Thumbtack’s own help pages don’t load without a browser, so check the Refunds section while logged in), you only get it automatically when all four are true:

1. Your first contact went through Thumbtack (a Thumbtack number or Thumbtack messages).
2. The customer didn’t reply to you or any other pro within 72 hours of the request.
3. You accepted and replied within four business hours (8 AM to 8 PM your local time).
4. You didn’t share your personal phone number or email before the customer’s first reply.

Notice what that rewards: replying fast, and replying inside Thumbtack first. A text from your personal cell can cost you the refund.

How Angi charges

Angi’s pro FAQ lays out two kinds of work:

• Leads arrive automatically when they match your services and area, and count against your monthly budget.
• Opportunities are projects you can review (with the lead fee shown) before you show interest. They become a charged lead only when both you and the homeowner show interest, and they’re charged on top of your monthly budget.

Three lines in that FAQ are worth reading twice:

• “Lead fees change based on task, homeowner location, and demand for the work.”
• “If you have a subscription, your monthly budget is set annually per your contract.”
• “You are charged for leads whether or not you open or respond to them.”

Angi’s pro terms also say plainly that “Leads are not guaranteed jobs” and that a lead is “frequently” sent to several other approved pros.

Credits. Angi Leads’ lead credit guidelines list what may be credited: a duplicate request, a wrong ZIP code or job type that isn’t in your profile, a competitor testing the system, or contact details that are all wrong or disconnected. You must ask within 30 days, credits are store credit toward future charges, and they expire after six months. Not eligible: the customer won’t call back, already hired someone, changed their mind, was “just shopping,” or you didn’t win the job.

Track record. In 2023 the FTC finalized an order requiring HomeAdvisor (now part of Angi) to pay up to $7.2 million over allegedly deceptive claims about the quality and source of the leads it sold to service pros (FTC press release). That doesn’t tell you how leads are today, but it’s a reason to read any subscription contract before you sign.

What contractors say

Owner threads on Reddit lean toward Thumbtack, mainly for control. One small electrical contractor in r/Contractor said they spent $500 a month on Angi “and not get one decent lead,” and that Thumbtack’s per-lead and weekly limits “made a huge difference” in their marketing costs. Others in a May 2026 thread call both weak for long-term growth and say Google Local Services Ads, a strong Google Business Profile and referrals did more for them. A common warning in r/handyman: if you try Angi, start pay-per-lead and don’t sign an annual contract until you’ve tracked results.

These are anecdotes, not data. Your trade, your market and how fast you reply change the answer.

Which one fits your shop

Lean Thumbtack if you’re an owner-operator or small crew, you want to set your own price per lead and turn spend up or down weekly, and you can reply inside the app within minutes during the day.

Lean Angi if your trade gets high request volume in your area, you can respond to every lead fast (you’re charged either way), and you’d rather test with pay-per-lead and a monthly budget before considering any annual subscription.

Consider neither (yet) if your Google Business Profile is thin. Many owners find reviews and Google Local Services Ads give better leads, though LSA has its own catch: since October 1, 2026 it can bill some calls you never answered. See our LSA missed-call guide.

The worksheet: cost per booked job

Cost per lead tells you almost nothing. Track one month per platform and fill this in:

1. Total spent on the platform this month (after refunds and credits).
2. Leads received.
3. Leads you actually reached (talked to or messaged back and forth).
4. Jobs booked.
5. Revenue (or gross profit) from those jobs.

Then: cost per booked job = total spent ÷ jobs booked. Compare that with your average gross profit per job.

Example only, made-up numbers: if you spent $600, got 20 leads and booked 3 jobs, your cost per booked job is $200. If those jobs average $350 gross profit, the platform paid for itself, barely. If you booked 1, it cost you $600 to win one job. Run the same math for Google LSA and your own website, and keep the channel that wins.

Where AI tools help with both

On both platforms the homeowner is talking to several pros, and Thumbtack’s refund depends on a reply within four business hours. That’s exactly the job AI lead-response tools do:

• LeadTruffle says it replies to and qualifies leads from Google LSA, Thumbtack, Yelp, Angi and Meta, and books into Jobber, Housecall Pro and ServiceTitan.
• Broccoli AI responds to LSA, Yelp, Angi and Thumbtack leads for larger multi-location shops.
• Hatch focuses on text and email follow-up and reactivating old leads. See LeadTruffle vs Hatch.
• For the phone side, an AI receptionist catches the callback when a homeowner rings while you’re on a job.

If you want help setting up fast lead response and missed-call text back across your channels, that is part of what AI Peak Biz, our company, does.

For response-time targets on each platform, read How fast should you respond to Thumbtack, Yelp and Google LSA leads?

Bottom line

Thumbtack gives you more control: you set the price per lead and a weekly cap, there are no join or membership fees, and there’s an automatic refund if the homeowner ghosts everyone and you replied fast through Thumbtack. Angi charges for every matched lead whether you respond or not, credits only specific bad leads as store credit, and can lock your budget for a year on a subscription. Whichever you test, cap the budget, reply in minutes, and judge it by cost per booked job.