For background on pricing, billing and disputes, start with my guide to Angi leads. This page is the decision.
Disclosure up front: I sell SEO, which competes with Angi for your budget. So I will stick to Angi's own published rules and the FTC's public record, and I will tell you when Angi is the better call.
| Your situation | Angi likely worth it? | Why |
|---|---|---|
| New business, few reviews, empty calendar | Often yes, short term | Buys jobs while you build reviews and rankings |
| High average ticket, fast phone response | Often yes | Low close rate still clears the lead fee |
| Small-ticket repairs, you answer calls after jobs | Often no | Shared leads go to whoever calls first |
| Calendar full from referrals and Google | No | You are paying for jobs you would get anyway, or cannot staff |
| You don't track close rate by source | Unknown | You can't tell profit from loss yet |
Example, clearly hypothetical: a $50 lead fee and $500 gross profit per job means you need a 10% close rate to break even. At 20%, Angi is profitable. At 5%, it is losing money on every lead, no matter how busy it makes you feel.
Angi's Lead Credit Guidelines are explicit: no credit when the homeowner does not return calls, hires someone else, changes their mind or was only shopping. Those are the most common outcomes on any shared lead.
Credits must be requested within 30 days of the charge, are applied to future charges rather than refunded, and expire six months after issue. If you quit, unused credits are worth little.
Angi's FAQ says it makes no guarantee about how many leads or jobs you will get.
In 2023 the FTC ordered HomeAdvisor to pay up to $7.2 million over deceptive claims about lead quality, lead sources and how often leads turn into jobs. That does not mean every lead is bad today. It means you should trust your own tracking over any close-rate claim in a sales call.
I have seen the argument for Angi made well by pros on forums, and it is fair:
The pros who make Angi work tend to share habits: they call back within minutes, they trim job types and zips hard, they file credits weekly, and they know their close rate by source.
If you are comparing platforms before deciding, read Thumbtack vs Angi and whether Thumbtack pays for pros. For the owned side, see Angi and HomeAdvisor alternatives.
Every dollar on Angi buys a lead that stops when you stop paying. Every dollar on your Google Business Profile, reviews and rankings buys something that keeps working. Most healthy businesses I talk to use both at first and shift the mix over time. For the costs of each, see what Angi leads really cost against what SEO costs per month.
Worked example with stated assumptions. These are not Angi's prices or a client result.
| Line | Angi (example) |
|---|---|
| Cost per job won | $2,000 / 4.8 = about $417 |
| Profit after leads | 4.8 x $700 - $2,000 = $1,360 |
| Break-even close rate | $50 / $700 = 7.1% |
| 12-month spend | $24,000, and nothing left when you stop |
The same $24,000 over a year at my Pro plan ($1,500/month) is $18,000. SEO has no guaranteed outcome and is slow at first, but what it builds stays. Trade-specific breakdowns: roofing lead generation, HVAC lead generation, plumbing leads.
It can be when you are new and need jobs fast, answer leads quickly and your close rate stays above lead fee divided by gross profit. Track it for 30+ leads before deciding.
HomeAdvisor's pro lead product is now Angi Leads, so the same test applies.
Mostly shared leads, homeowners who never answer (not creditable under Angi's rules), and past sales promises. The FTC fined HomeAdvisor in 2023 over deceptive lead claims.
Qualifying bad leads earn store credit, requested within 30 days, expiring six months after issue. It is not a cash refund.
Send me your numbers and I will tell you honestly whether to keep Angi, trim it, or start building your own rankings. Book a free 30-minute call or get the free 24-hour audit.
I specialize in home services SEO: taking websites that sit invisible on page three and turning them into the business Google and ChatGPT recommend first. I started on the developer side, writing software and doing SEO on the side, until I saw how much home-service owners were overpaying for work that quietly hurt them. So I built a method that fixes the broken technical work and the outdated thinking behind it.
From garage door companies to plumbers, roofers, locksmiths and cleaning services, the playbook is the same: rank where your customers actually search, earn real reviews, and back it with a fast site that books the job. No PBNs, no bought reviews, no directory spam. Only work that survives Google’s next five updates. See exactly how it’s priced on the pricing page.
Free 30-minute strategy call
Send me your site and I’ll send back a free audit: what’s broken, what it’s costing you in calls, and the first three fixes.
No spam and no sales pitch. Just a clear look at what’s leaking leads.
