Your details sold to several contractors at once; visibility goes to whoever pays per lead.
What it's really for A home-services lead-gen marketplace; your details are sold to the contractors who paid to receive them.
What our grade covers The grade on this page is about its contractor matches, ratings, and badges, not everything the site does.
High Scoring Confidence Checked against primary sources. We are confident in the facts and the grade here.
Revenue comes entirely from the contractors being listed and matched: pros pay for each lead, so visibility on the platform is a direct function of paying for leads rather than independent merit, and the FTC charged that HomeAdvisor even sold pros leads that did not match their services or that came from consumers not ready to hire.
Source →- Operating since
- 1998 (28 years) · source
- What it costs you
- Free to read The reviews are free to read.
- How they make money
- It is a lead-generation marketplace: home-services contractors pay HomeAdvisor a membership fee plus a per-lead fee for every homeowner inquiry it forwards to them, whether or not the pro wins the job.
- What they do
- It produces matches between homeowners and local service pros, displaying pro profiles with star ratings, customer reviews, and badges like "Elite Service Pro" alongside the contractors who have paid to receive leads in that area.
- What to watch for
- The pros you see are paying advertisers, not editorially vetted "best" picks, and your contact details are typically sold to several competing contractors at once, so being matched here is no guarantee of quality and you should expect multiple sales calls.
- Composite score
- 1.30 / 5.00 → grade D
How the grade was reached
Does the site take money from the very entities it ranks? Pay-for-placement, vendor-funded data, and affiliate commissions all pull this down. The less the ranking can be bought, the higher the score.
What is the ranking actually built on? Hands-on testing scores highest, then verified first-hand reviews, then opinion or popularity surveys and self-reported figures, then pay-to-rank, which scores lowest.
Is the methodology published, specific, and reproducible? Can a reader see how a given rank was reached, or is it a black box?
Are commercial relationships, sponsorships, and affiliate arrangements disclosed clearly and near the rankings themselves, rather than buried?
How hard is it to game? Controls against fake reviews, solicited reviews, and vendor gaming raise this; an open box anyone can stuff lowers it.
Evidence
- HomeAdvisor began as ServiceMagic, launched in December 1998 by Rodney Rice and Michael Beaudoin; IAC acquired it in 2004, it rebranded to HomeAdvisor in October 2012, merged with Angie's List in 2017 (ANGI Homeservices), and the parent rebranded to Angi Inc. in 2021, with IAC remaining majority shareholder. Source: Wikipedia: HomeAdvisor →
- HomeAdvisor states pros are charged per lead, not per job won: 'You will be charged for each lead you receive, whether or not you ultimately win the job.' Its 'Elite Service Pro' badge requires a 4.5+ rating and at least five five-star reviews, but the underlying business is matching pros who pay for leads. Source: HomeAdvisor – How It Works (Pro) →
- The FTC charged HomeAdvisor (March 2022) with making false, misleading, or unsubstantiated claims about lead quality and source, including selling leads that did not match a pro's services or geography and leads from consumers who said they were not ready to hire; a final order (April 2023) required up to $7.2 million in payments. Source: FTC press release: FTC Charges HomeAdvisor with Cheating Businesses →