Every contractor has a version of the same story. A few hundred dollars a month goes to a lead platform, some of the leads turn into work, most do not, and nobody can say with confidence whether the arrangement is profitable. The platform sends a monthly summary full of impressions and responses. The bank account tells a blurrier story. Cancelling feels risky because the pipeline would thin out, so it continues for another quarter.

One of the two platforms publishes numbers, and they say something about how that experience is going. Angi reported in its first-quarter 2026 shareholder letter that average monthly churn among its service professionals reached 5.0 percent, up from 4.5 percent a year earlier, while average monthly active pros fell 22 percent to 105,000. Contractors are leaving faster than they were, and there are meaningfully fewer of them on the platform than a year ago. Thumbtack is privately held and publishes no equivalent figures, which is worth stating plainly rather than pretending the comparison is symmetrical.

How each platform charges you

Thumbtack charges per lead, and it is worth being precise about when. Thumbtack states that creating an account is free, that it shows your business to customers for free, and that a pro pays only once an interested customer has seen what they offer and wants to talk. What a lead costs depends on job size and location, and Thumbtack shows the price for your area when you sign up.

Angi has moved through several models and now runs largely on lead purchases and membership arrangements, often with an annual agreement attached. Leads are commonly sold to more than one contractor, which means the first to call has a material advantage.

The shared characteristic matters more than the differences: on both platforms you are renting access to demand, and a customer can end up talking to several professionals about the same job. The contractor's job is to be fastest and most credible, not merely to be listed.

Both also control the relationship. The customer's contact details, the review history, and the ranking within the platform belong to the platform, which is the structural reason these arrangements rarely get cheaper over time. That is the difference between rented visibility and the kind you own, which Optuno builds for contractors through their own site and Google presence.

What the leads are like

Shared leads behave differently from exclusive ones. If four contractors receive the same enquiry, the close rate is a function of response speed as much as quality, and a business that calls back in an hour is competing against one that called in three minutes.

Price sensitivity runs high. Customers using a marketplace are usually comparing, which selects for the shoppers rather than the referred. Contractors who win on relationship and reputation often find that advantage neutralized in a format built for comparison.

Lead quality varies more than the platforms suggest. Wrong-number leads, out-of-area requests, tire-kickers, and jobs far below the contractor's minimum all appear. Both platforms have procedures for contesting certain invalid leads, but eligibility depends on the platform and, on Angi, on the type of account, which is covered further down.

Volume is unpredictable. A quiet month on a marketplace is a quiet month for the business too, because the demand is not yours to influence. That is the case for treating marketplaces as supplementary rather than foundational, and for building something that does not switch off.

Working out whether it pays

Track cost per booked job, not cost per lead. Add up everything paid to the platform in a quarter and divide by the number of jobs that closed. The number is usually larger than expected and is the only figure that matters.

Compare that against the job's gross profit. A channel producing booked work at 250 dollars of platform spend is excellent for a 6,000 dollar remodel and ruinous for a 180 dollar service call.

Count the time as well as the money. Responding fast enough to win shared leads means somebody answering within minutes during the working day. That labor is real and is rarely in the calculation.

Then test the counterfactual. Pause the spend for a month and watch total enquiries rather than platform leads, which most contractors never do because it feels too risky. It is a rough test rather than proof, since seasonality and your other channels move at the same time, but a month in which the total barely changes is a signal worth taking seriously. Before running that test it is worth knowing what your own visibility looks like, and Optuno's free local SEO report gives a snapshot of rankings, listings, and reviews.

Making a platform pay while you use it

Speed is one of the biggest levers. On shared leads the first credible response usually wins, so a business that can answer within minutes during working hours will see a materially different close rate from one that returns calls in the evening.

Dispute the leads that are truly invalid, but read your own plan's rules first, because they are narrower than most contractors assume. Angi credits invalid contact details, a project outside your listed ZIP codes, a service mismatch, a duplicate charge within 45 days, and leads charged while your flow was paused. It does not credit the situations contractors resent most: a homeowner who never answers, who hired somebody else first, who is gathering quotes, or who decides not to proceed. Angi's annual subscribers can report leads but are not offered credits at all. Thumbtack runs its own policy, and its administrators have said a non-responsive customer is not refundable there either.

Set the targeting tightly enough to exclude work you do not want. Paying for leads on jobs you would decline anyway is the most common avoidable cost, and both platforms allow narrowing by job type and distance.

Then move the relationship off the platform as soon as it legitimately can be. A customer won through a marketplace who ends up on your own review profile, your own mailing list, and your own reminder schedule stops being a rented lead and becomes a repeat customer, which is the only way marketplace spend compounds.

The alternative these platforms are competing with

The same enquiry that a marketplace sells to four contractors also exists in search, where the customer types the trade and the town into Google. Ranking there costs effort rather than per-lead fees, and the enquiry arrives unshared.

That visibility can compound. A service page that ranks may keep producing enquiries next year with no per-lead charge, where a lead platform stops producing the week the payment stops. Rankings are not permanent, but they are not metered either. The mechanics are covered in local SEO ranking factors and the wider approach in proven lead generation strategies.

Reviews sit in the same category. Reviews earned on a marketplace stay on the marketplace. Reviews left on a Google Business Profile stay attached to the business's own public profile rather than to a marketplace account, and show up whenever anybody searches for it, which is why the choice of where to build a review presence matters for contractors weighing where to invest attention.

None of this makes marketplaces a mistake. For a new contractor with no reputation and no rankings, buying leads is a reasonable way to fill a calendar while something more durable is built. The mistake is being there for five years and still renting every enquiry. If shifting that balance is the goal, Optuno's plans cover the site, the profile, and the local SEO together, with no long-term contracts, no setup fees, and a dedicated contact.

Frequently asked questions

Is Thumbtack or Angi better for contractors?
Neither is clearly better, and the answer depends on trade, market, and how fast you respond. Thumbtack's per-lead model gives more direct control of spend, while Angi more often involves membership arrangements. Both sell the same enquiry to several contractors.

Are the leads exclusive?
Often not. A customer can end up in contact with several professionals about the same job, which is why response speed drives close rates as much as quality does. Contractors who cannot answer within minutes during the day will struggle to make either platform pay.

How much do contractors pay per lead?
It varies widely by trade and job size, which is why cost per booked job is the number to track rather than cost per lead. Total quarterly spend divided by jobs closed gives the figure that matters.

Can I get refunds for bad leads?
Sometimes, and the rules are narrower than most contractors expect. Angi credits things like invalid contact details, wrong location, service mismatch and duplicate charges, but not a homeowner who fails to answer, hires somebody else, or decides against the work, and its annual subscribers are not eligible at all. Check your own plan's current terms rather than assuming a disappointing lead qualifies.

Should I use a lead platform and SEO at the same time?
That is usually the sensible sequence. Marketplace leads fill the calendar now while search visibility is built, then the spend can be reduced as the owned channels produce enquiries that arrive unshared and do not stop when payment stops.

How do I know if the platform is worth keeping?
Pause it for a month and watch total enquiries rather than platform leads. It is a rough test rather than proof, because seasonality and other channels shift at the same time, but a month in which the total barely moves is worth taking seriously.