The price of a lead doesn't tell you much about whether HomeStars, Angi, Bark or any other lead site is worth paying for. The number that matters is what each booked job costs you. Take everything you paid the platform in a month, divide it by the jobs you actually won from it, and compare that with the profit on those jobs, allowing for the time you spent quoting. A lot of contractors who say these sites don't work have never done that sum, and some who say they do haven't either.
This post goes through the sum using your own numbers. It's mainly for painters, renovators, landscapers, cleaners and other residential trades, with a short section for law firms at the end.
How the platforms charge
They don't all charge the same way, and the way they charge matters more than the price.
| Model | How you pay | What to watch |
|---|---|---|
| Pay when the homeowner engages | A fee once a customer chooses to contact you | Lead price varies by job and area; paid upgrades may be offered |
| Credits or per-lead fees | You buy credits or pay a fee to contact the customer | You pay to try, whether or not they reply |
| Subscription plus leads | A monthly fee, sometimes on a long contract, plus a charge per lead | Contract length, auto-renewal and cancellation notice |
| Google Local Services Ads | A charge per qualifying lead, with a dispute process for invalid ones | Calls going unanswered still cost money |
HomeStars, which is owned by Angi Inc., says pros sign up for free, show interest in the leads they want, and only pay a fee if the homeowner decides to get in touch. That's from HomeStars' about page. There's no public price list. You see the price of each lead in your account, and it changes depending on the job and the area.
If a sales rep calls offering a package or an "exclusive territory," ask them to put it in writing before you agree to anything. Check how long the contract runs, whether it renews by itself, and how much notice you have to give to cancel.
If you're also thinking about Google's own pay-per-lead ads, our Local Services Ads guide goes through them. One thing in their favour is that Google lets you dispute a charged lead within 30 days if it was spam or for a service you don't offer. Google's dispute rules are here.
Working out what a job costs you
You need five numbers from one month on the platform:
- What you spent: lead fees plus that month's share of any subscription.
- How many jobs you won from those leads. Count booked and paid work only, not people who seemed keen.
- The average value of those jobs.
- Your gross margin on that kind of work, after materials and labour.
- Roughly how many hours went into replying, quoting and site visits for those leads.
Divide what you spent by the jobs you won and you have the platform cost per job. Then take the profit on an average job, subtract the platform cost per job, and subtract the value of the time you spent quoting. What's left is what each job really made you.
Two examples
The numbers below are made up to show how the sum works. They aren't real platform prices.
Say you're an interior painter. You take forty leads in a month at $35 each, which is $1,400, plus a $250 subscription, so $1,650 in total. You win four jobs averaging $3,500, and at a 35% margin each one makes about $1,225. The platform cost per job is about $410. Quoting took around 25 hours, and if you value your time at $50 an hour that's $1,250, or about $310 per job. That leaves around $500 per job, so it's worth keeping, and probably worth improving.
Now say you run a handyman service doing small jobs. The same $1,650 gets you nine jobs averaging $450, and at a 40% margin each one makes $180. The platform cost per job is about $185, which is more than the profit before you've counted any of your time. However busy it keeps you, on these numbers you're losing money.
It's the same spend on the same platform, and the difference comes down to job size. These sites tend to work for trades where a single job is worth a few thousand dollars, such as painting, flooring, kitchens, roofing and landscaping. They're much harder to make pay when jobs are small and customers are comparing on price.
Why replying quickly matters so much
On most of these sites you aren't the only business the homeowner hears from. The first person to reply with a sensible answer usually gets the site visit, and everyone after that is chasing someone who has half made up their mind.
So it's worth looking at how you handle leads as well as what they cost. If leads sit until you're off the ladder at six o'clock, you're mostly paying for jobs someone else will win. A reply like "Thanks for reaching out, when can I call?" tends to lose to one that mentions their actual job, gives a rough price range and offers a couple of times to come and look. And a short follow-up message a couple of days after you quote picks up jobs that would otherwise go quiet.
If the real problem is that you can't get to the phone, sort that out first. Our post on missed calls and AI receptionists covers the options.
Keep a simple sheet
A month on a lead site always feels busier than it was, so write each lead down as it comes in. One row per lead is plenty:
| Column | Example |
|---|---|
| Date | 2026-10-03 |
| Platform | HomeStars |
| Job type | Interior, three bedrooms |
| Fee paid | $34 |
| Replied after | 12 minutes |
| Quoted? | Yes, site visit |
| Won? | Yes |
| Job value | $2,900 |
| Notes | Was comparing three painters |
After two or three months you'll know how many leads you actually close, which kinds of job are worth taking and which areas never turn into work. Most platforms let you narrow down the job types and service area you receive, and the sheet tells you where to narrow.
Before you start, decide how much you're prepared to spend on the trial and what result would make you carry on. That way one good or bad week doesn't make the decision for you.
What you don't get to keep
When you stop paying a lead site, the leads stop straight away. Reviews you collect on a platform profile also stay on that platform, whereas reviews on your Google Business Profile show up every time someone searches for you.
So even while a platform is paying its way, ask your happy customers for a Google review too. Over a year or two that's what lets you depend on the lead sites less. I'd put some of the profit from platform jobs into things you own, like your Google profile, your reviews and a website that gets the phone ringing. Our SEO versus Google Ads post has more on splitting a budget between paid leads and your own marketing.
Law firms
Legal directories and lead services are a different situation. The Law Society of Ontario's rules restrict referral fees and set out what lawyers can say in their marketing, so it matters whether a service charges you a flat advertising fee or a fee for each referral or client you take on. Read the Rules of Professional Conduct, or call the Law Society's practice management helpline, before you sign up. For most small firms the better long-term investment is getting the website to rank for the problems clients search for, which we cover in our law firm SEO post.
Want a second opinion on your numbers?
Send us a month of platform invoices and a list of the jobs you won, and we'll work out the cost per job with you and tell you whether we'd keep paying. Get in touch.
Frequently asked
Are HomeStars leads worth it for a painter or contractor?
They can be, if your jobs are big enough and you reply quickly. Add up a month of lead fees and any subscription, divide it by the number of jobs you actually won from those leads, and compare that with the profit on an average job. Count the hours you spent quoting as well. If each job costs you a small slice of its profit, it's working. If it's eating most of the profit, it isn't.
How does HomeStars charge contractors?
HomeStars says pros sign up for free, add their skills and service area, show interest in leads they like, and only pay a fee if the homeowner decides to get in touch with them. HomeStars is part of Angi Inc. Lead prices change by job type and area and there's no public price list, so check the price in your pro account before accepting a lead, and get any paid upgrade terms in writing.
Why are shared leads so hard to close?
The homeowner is usually hearing from several businesses at once, and whoever replies first with a sensible answer often gets the site visit. A lead you answer two hours later is worth a lot less than the same lead answered in ten minutes. If nobody can reply quickly during the working day, a shared-lead platform is going to look expensive whatever it charges.
How long should I test a lead platform before deciding?
Long enough to cover your normal sales cycle, which for most residential trades means 60 to 90 days, with a spending limit set before you start. Keep a simple sheet with the date, job type, how fast you replied, whether you quoted and whether you won. Judge it on jobs booked and profit, not the number of leads.
Can lawyers use lead-generation or referral websites in Ontario?
Yes, but carefully. The Law Society of Ontario's rules restrict referral fees and set requirements for how lawyers market themselves, and the way a legal lead service charges you matters. Read the Rules of Professional Conduct, or call the Law Society's practice management helpline, before signing up for anything that charges per referral or per retained client.
Sources
- About HomeStars, HomeStars
- Dispute charged leads, Google Ads Help
- Rules of Professional Conduct, Law Society of Ontario
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