Angi vs Thumbtack vs Google LSA: Cost per Booked Job (2026)

Thumbtack vs Angi vs Google LSA comes down to who else gets your lead. Angi matches each request with up to five pros, and a Thumbtack customer can contact up to five pros in the first four hours. Google doesn't pass an LSA call to other pros, though a searcher can call more than one listing. The winner is the platform with the lowest cost per booked job, not the cheapest lead.

Angi vs Thumbtack vs Google LSA: Quick Comparison

All three charge per lead, but they differ on who else gets the lead, how refunds work and who keeps the customer. Angi and Thumbtack share each request across several pros. Google doesn't share an LSA call, but a searcher can call more than one listing. None of the three publishes an average lead price for your trade.

How Does Each Platform Charge Contractors in 2026?

Thumbtack charges an exact lead price you set, with no membership fee. Angi charges a lead fee that varies by task, location and demand, either per lead against a monthly budget or through an annual subscription. Google LSA charges per valid lead through an auction and, from August 2026, is moving into Google Ads as pay-per-lead Performance Max campaigns.

How Much Does Thumbtack Cost per Lead?

Thumbtack doesn't publish an average lead price. You pick an exact price for each service, and that's what every matching lead costs. Thumbtack shows an estimate of the lead volume each price should buy, and a weekly budget caps the total.

There's no sign-up fee either. Thumbtack's pro page promises "no charge to join, no annual fees and no membership fees." Its pricing page says lead costs track "the type and size of the job, how many pros are available, and your market."

Two paths cost less upfront. Opportunities show the price first and charge only if the customer responds. Preset jobs carry no lead fee, because Thumbtack keeps a percentage of the job price instead.

How Much Do Angi Leads Cost?

Angi doesn't publish lead prices. Its leads FAQ says fees "change based on task, homeowner location, and demand for the work," and you pay them per lead against a monthly budget or through an annual subscription.

Pay-per-lead pros are billed weekly. Subscribers are billed monthly under an annual contract. You're charged once you and the homeowner both show interest, "whether or not you open or respond to them." Opportunities you accept are billed on top of the budget.

Membership fees aren't published either. Angi's 2025 annual report says match fees are owed "regardless of whether the Pro ultimately provides the requested service." It also says Angi retired its advertising product in late 2025 and moved those pros to match-based subscriptions, so the old Angi Ads vs Angi Leads choice is mostly gone.

HomeAdvisor vs Angi isn't a real choice for pros. It's one company. Angi's 10-K lists HomeAdvisor among the brands it still runs, and a basic membership includes a profile on both HomeAdvisor.com and Angi.com.

How Much Do Google LSA Leads Cost?

Google doesn't publish a price list. An auction sets the price of each valid lead, meaning a call you answer, a voicemail, a message, a booking, or a missed call you return. Prices vary by location, job type and lead type, and Google says message leads are "typically priced lower" than calls.

You set a budget and a bidding strategy. There's no membership fee, and billing runs through Google Ads.

Google is also moving LSA into Google Ads as pay-per-lead Performance Max campaigns. Select US home-service accounts began migrating in August 2026, broader groups follow in late 2026, and the rest in 2027. You still pay only for valid leads, but manual max-per-lead bidding goes away, weekly budgets become daily averages, and the Google Verified badge carries over.

To run LSA you need an eligible category, a verified Google Business Profile and Google's screening checks. Google began replacing the old badges with one Google Verified badge in late 2025, and the money-back guarantee ended. Our Google Local Services Ads guide covers setup, eligibility and how the auction ranks you.

Shared vs Exclusive Leads: Why Does It Change Your Close Rate?

A shared lead puts you in a race. If a homeowner talks to four pros and hires one, the average pro wins one job in four at best, and every pro still pays. A call only you receive shortens that race, though the caller may still phone a competitor. That gap matters more than the sticker price.

Angi matches each request "with no more than five pros." On Thumbtack the customer chooses. They can contact no more than five pros per project in the first four hours, then more. With LSA, each call goes only to the business called, but a searcher can call several listings in the same ad unit, and each business reached pays for its own lead. Message leads such as Request a Quote are priced partly on "whether the customer has contacted other Local Services advertisers."

The cap is a ceiling, not an average. Angi's 2025 annual report counts 15.5 million service requests and 20.2 million leads, about 1.3 leads per request. That's our math, with caveats: Angi notes one request can produce several leads, and its request count includes pre-priced bookings and interest expressed on a single pro's profile. Either way, far fewer pros than the cap pay for the average request.

Pros still feel the share on small jobs. In July 2026 a pro on Thumbtack's community forum posted that an $83.25 furniture-assembly lead went to three pros: "All things being equal, I had a 1/3 chance of winning this job."

By that math, one job worth under $200 cost $249.75 in lead fees.

Thumbtack's side matters too. On July 30 a moderator replied that the pro's furniture-assembly prices were "set pretty high, with a lot of room to experiment with lowering those prices," and another said the feedback would go to the Product Marketing team. On Thumbtack, the pro sets that lead price. The poster later wrote that what they learned about setting lead prices "almost definitely inflated these numbers," while standing by the broader point.

What Does a Booked Job Cost on Each Platform?

Cost per booked job is the lead price divided by the share of leads that turn into paying jobs. A $40 lead you win one time in six costs $240 per job. A $66 lead you win half the time costs $132. Run your own numbers by platform, because the lead price alone hides the result.

Here's a sourced anchor for LSA. In SearchLight Digital's February 2026 sample (888 contractors, $6.72 million in spend, 126,650 leads), the average LSA lead cost $53. The average cost per paying customer was $233, against a $1,826 average ticket. That $233 covers the full chain, from the lead through everyone who didn't book or didn't pay. Angi and Thumbtack publish no comparable figures.

Most trade figures come from 99 Calls' April to June 2026 data; HVAC and the $53 all-trades average are SearchLight's February 2026 figures. In the 99 Calls data, roofing rose 45.2% year over year and plumbing fell 5.6%. 99 Calls manages LSA campaigns, as Verlua does; SearchLight sells revenue-tracking software to home-service companies. Use their numbers to plan, then judge LSA on your own inbox.

No platform publishes close rates, so the illustrative table below works backward. It shows how often a lead must become a paying customer to match the $233 LSA benchmark. It's division, not platform data. Our cost per lead benchmarks guide walks through the formula and the channel math.

The calculator opens with SearchLight's LSA averages: a $53 lead, a 43.9% rate of leads that book an appointment, and a $1,826 ticket, so it shows about $120. This post counts paid jobs, and on that basis SearchLight's numbers imply about 23% and $233. Enter your own paid-job rate for each platform.

Ticket size changes the answer.

Say a Fresno handyman sets a $40 lead price on Thumbtack and wins one lead in five. That's $200 per job, under the LSA benchmark, but 80% of a $250 repair.

Say a Fresno roofer pays $107 per LSA lead (99 Calls' roofing figure) and books one in four. That's $428 per job, small next to a full roof. Our SEO vs PPC comparison runs the same math for clicks.

Is Thumbtack Worth It? Is Angi Worth It?

Both can be worth it when the ticket is big enough to absorb several lost leads and you respond within minutes. Thumbtack fits newer businesses and mid-size jobs where you can set a lead price well under the ticket, with no membership fee. Angi fits contractors with a real sales process and bigger tickets. Neither works if leads sit unanswered.

When Thumbtack Makes Sense

• •You're new and short on reviews. Thumbtack lets you import up to 100 reviews from your Google Business Profile, and Opportunities charge only when the customer replies.
• •Your service isn't an LSA category where you work. A marketplace may be your only pay-per-lead option. Check Google's Local Services portal first.
• •You can reply inside the app within four business hours. That's a condition of Thumbtack's Fair Shot Refunds, along with keeping first contact on Thumbtack.
• •You want to price by service. Exact lead prices let you pay more for the jobs you want and less for the ones you don't.

Where it struggles is small tickets. A lead can cost close to the job itself, like the $83.25 furniture-assembly lead, though on Thumbtack the pro sets that price and can lower it. Ratings matter on both marketplaces too. Thumbtack lists your star rating and reviews among the factors behind how many leads you get, and the habits in our Google reviews guide pay off on every platform.

When Angi Makes Sense

• •Bigger tickets. Remodels, roof replacements and system swaps, where one win covers many lost leads.
• •You call fast. Angi says "the faster you respond, the better your chance," and its credit rules expect a call attempt within 24 hours.
• •You want both brands. One membership puts your profile on Angi.com and HomeAdvisor.com.
• •You want volume on demand. Opportunities let you add leads beyond your monthly budget and skip the ones that don't fit, without being charged for them.

Where it struggles: annual subscriptions get no lead credits. Pay-per-lead credits never cover a homeowner who hired another pro or is "gathering multiple quotes." Read the agreement before you sign, and track every lead to a booked or lost job from week one.

When Do Google Local Services Ads Make More Sense?

LSA makes more sense when your trade is an eligible category, your Google Business Profile is verified, someone answers calls during listed hours, and your average ticket clears the lead price several times over. You pay only for valid leads, Google doesn't pass your calls to competitors, and the reviews behind the ad live on your own profile.

Responsiveness feeds the auction. Google ranks listings partly on how likely they are to produce a lead, including how quickly you respond, so a shop with a dispatcher has an edge over an owner on a roof. If your truck or website still says "Google Guaranteed," our explainer on the switch to Google Verified covers what changed.

Where it struggles: you set a budget and at most a maximum bid, never an exact price, and the auction moves. 99 Calls measured roofing leads up 45.2% year over year. Only listed categories qualify, missed calls can hurt your ranking, and new businesses with few reviews start behind. The Performance Max move also ends manual max-per-lead bidding.

Say a two-truck HVAC company in Sacramento has steady Google reviews but loses most shared leads to faster competitors. LSA fits that shop. The reviews carry over, and Google doesn't send the call to four other shops, though the caller may still phone around. Verlua's Local Services Ads management covers setup, screening paperwork, budgets and lead feedback. You pay ad spend to Google directly; our fee is scoped after a discovery call, with no minimum contract.

The Owned-Lead Alternative: Your Website, Google Profile and SEO

Every lead from Angi, Thumbtack or LSA is rented. It stops when you stop paying. Calls from your website, Google Business Profile and referrals carry no per-lead fee, and no platform passes the request to anyone else. Build those while paid leads keep the calendar full, then shift budget as organic calls grow.

Contractors notice the difference in lead quality. An electrician on Mike Holt's forum wrote back in 2020 that "leads from my website, google and customer referral almost always land job," while marketplace calls tended to be price checks. That's one person's experience from 2020, so treat it as a prompt to check your own numbers, not a benchmark.

Building them takes service and city pages, a Google Business Profile with steady reviews, and call tracking that shows which leads book. Our SEO for contractors page lays out the work, and roofers can start with getting roofing leads without buying shared ones. Verlua's SEO runs $1,500/mo ongoing after $2,500/mo launch months, month to month.

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