Compare · Local & home services
Who reviews local & home services, and can you trust them?
Contractors, plumbers, and the local pros you hire once. Here is every review site we track in this category, graded head to head.
| Grade | Review site | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | C+ | Grades: its verified surveys of a contractor's own customers Real verified-customer surveys with an all-reviews-published policy, but only paying contractors get profiled and surveyed, so it is a reputation tool for members, not an independent cross-vendor ranking. |
| 2 | C+ | Grades: its contractor scores and matches from permit data Grades contractors mostly on hard public records (licenses, permits, BBB), but the same contractors pay BuildZoom a success fee and their on-platform activity feeds the score that drives placement, so the ranking is not arm's-length. |
| 3 | C+ | Grades: its contractor ratings and rankings A lead-gen marketplace in a review site's clothes: the pros up top paid to be there. |
| 4 | C | Grades: its crowd-sourced star ratings of local businesses The star you see is not the average you think, and ad spend buys the placement above it. |
| 5 | C | Grades: its reviews of local design and remodeling pros A photo-inspiration giant and contractor directory whose review listings double as an ad product, and by its own disclosure the price a pro pays is a ranking factor for sponsored placement. |
| 6 | C | Grades: its neighbor 'recommendations' and 'Faves' Reviewers are address-verified neighbors, which is a real anti-fake-review edge, but there's no published ranking method and businesses are openly coached to solicit their own recommendations. |
| 7 | C- | Grades: its 'best [pro] in [city]' lists A tidy 'best local pro' badge that its own contract says you can pay to wear. |
| 8 | C- | Grades: its star-rated local-pro listings and matches The pros you see are the ones outspending rivals on leads, not out-qualifying them. |
| 9 | C- | Grades: its consumer-review rankings of solar installers Useful consumer-review hub for solar, but it earns its money selling leads to the same installers it lists, and critics call it a lead-gen site first. |
| 10 | C- | Grades: its phone, internet, and TV provider rankings Carrier reviews from a site owned by a company that, by its own portfolio, is paid to market and generate leads for many of the carriers it ranks. |
| 11 | C- | Grades: its contractor matches and ratings A home-services lead marketplace where contractors pay for leads and, by Porch's own description, buy premium "first priority" placement -- treat its pro rankings as advertising, not an independent verdict. |
| 12 | C- | Grades: its star-average of user reviews on Business Profiles Free and everywhere, impossible to buy rank in, and swimming in fake reviews with an opaque order. |
| 13 | D+ | Grades: its A+ to F business letter grades and accreditation seal A trusted-looking letter grade that a 2010 ABC News 20/20 investigation showed a $425 payment could obtain, even for fabricated companies. |
| 14 | D | Grades: its matches between requests and local pros A pay-per-lead marketplace, not an impartial reviewer: by its own marketing, the paid Elite Pro tier buys top placement in the listings buyers see. |
| 15 | D | Grades: its contractor matches, ratings, and badges Your details sold to several contractors at once; visibility goes to whoever pays per lead. |
| 16 | D | Grades: its caregiver profiles, ratings, and reviews A paid caregiver marketplace, not an independent reviewer: profiles carry family ratings but caregivers can pay to boost visibility, and the FTC took action in 2024 over its deceptive job and background-check claims. |
Columns are the five rubric dimensions, scored 0-5, with each column's weight shown in its header; independence and evidence carry the most, 30% each. See the full methodology. Each row also shows a scoring-confidence chip (how sure we are of that grade) and a type tag; hover any chip for what it means.