HomeAdvisor: Thumbtack vs. HomeAdvisor: Which One Should Contractors Choose in 2023?

Photo: bobvila.com Online service marketplaces have been a boon for homeowners and renters looking for contractors and service providers to handle home projects-everything from the best handyman services for customers searching for " handyman near me " to highly trained electricians, house cleaners, and more. There's much debate about which marketplace does the best job of connecting customers to the service providers who can best help get the jobs done. But how well do these marketplaces serve the professionals that they promote? These sites often advertise that they can provide pros with multiple leads at low costs, but it's a little tricky to parse out what that really means for a provider. What does "low" mean? How do the marketplaces define a lead? What guarantees are in place? Do the marketplaces really serve the pros and increase their business? Two of the most significant marketplaces in the industry are Thumbtack and HomeAdvisor, both of which provide a huge radius of potential customers and offer a wealth of services that, in theory, should make a professional service provider's business boom. But which one is a better choice for professionals? The function of online service marketplaces is to engage qualified professionals to post their services through the platform. Professionals create a profile that defines their area of service and enters a contract with the platform that includes parameters for costs, policies, and responsibilities. Many platforms do not charge contractors for listing-after all, the more pros they can claim, the more customers will be drawn to the platform-but they do include a "per lead" charge when customers inquire about a professional's services. A "lead" is when the platform actually connects a customer to a contractor so that the customer can explain the job and the contractor can issue a quote or discuss options, and the goal of the professionals is to convert those leads into contracts to work. Unfortunately, that conversion is uncertain, as it's difficult to quantify how serious the lead is about hiring: are they just exploring costs or really ready to have the job done? This is why the cost of lead generation and the rate of conversion is a critical factor for professionals who become providers on a service marketplace. There are other factors that affect a professional's experience on an individual platform, including ease of use, amenities such as apps, category listings, review moderation, and other aspects that affect both their experience and their reputation on the site and beyond. In the discussion of Thumbtack vs. HomeAdvisor, the decision will come down to the service professional's goals and comfort level with the services each provides. How We Compared Thumbtack vs. HomeAdvisor Photo: istockphoto.com Listing categories: Each service marketplace has a different structure for listing the different categories of services offered. The degree of specificity and how a service is categorized, along with the ease of searching the categories, defines how many customers will see a given professional's listing, so this is an important consideration. Customer reach: The goal of a service marketplace is to connect professionals to potential customers, so the number of potential customers will directly affect the value of the marketplace for the pros. Lead quality: While the number of leads is important, the quality of those leads-the chances that a customer will actually hire the pro-is even more important when gauging the likelihood that a service will actually generate business. We looked at how each service handles lead connections. Account setup: Pros need to create an account and profile to post their business on a marketplace. We considered how onerous the account-creation process was for each service. Pricing and fees: This is a serious consideration for any service provider choosing to advertise through a service marketplace. Because there is no guarantee that the relationship will actually result in business, the amount of cash that a professional has to offer up prior to actually being hired for a job matters-a lot. We looked at each company's pricing and fee structures. App user experience: Customers like apps; they like having all their information close at hand in one place. This can be extremely convenient for providers as well, especially since they're often out on a jobsite and not sitting at a desk, so a well-designed app is important for both the customer and the professional. Since the app is also one method customers can use to make payments, it's essential that the app be user-friendly. Review system: Customers read reviews when hiring a contractor or service provider, so they're extremely important to a provider's reputation and future success. Marketplaces have to consider if and how they restrict and moderate comments from previous customers, and we looked at each company's policy. Thumbtack vs. HomeAdvisor : Listing Categories Both HomeAdvisor and Thumbtack provide an extensive list of home service categories. HomeAdvisor allows customers to choose from very general service categories such as Indoor, Outdoor, and Renovation; lists popular categories on the landing page; and offers a "Browse All Categories" button. The categories are further broken down into smaller subsections so that potential customers can click through more and more specific categories. This allows them to find exactly the service they're looking for-while potentially resting their eyes on other services they may need along the way. This funnel is great for professionals, because it means that by the time a lead is reaching out to a contractor they've already made a series of decisions to guide them to the correct type of pro. And it also functions as advertisement for other services the leads may not have even realized they needed to shop for, but now that seed is planted in their heads as they navigate the platform. Many categories appear under more than one heading: for example, Energy Efficient Home Heating is listed under both the Home Winterization heading and also under the Heating & Furnaces heading, ensuring that whatever direction a potential client takes, they'll land in the right place. HomeAdvisor's categories include all manner of home services: gardens, exterior maintenance and remodeling, doors, flooring installation, kitchen and bathroom renovations, designers, foundation repairs, HVAC, roofing, and architects and builders. If it's a home service involved in building, remodeling, improving, repair, or design, there's a category for it on HomeAdvisor. But the platform really expands the definition of home service, as it also includes categories for home moving and storage, household chores, pools and spas, home theater, and home security. The overlapping headings and category listings make this a great option for any and all home service providers. Thumbtack also has an impressive listing of home service categories, listed by project under headings such as Essential Home Services, Outdoor Upkeep, and Healthy at Home. It has also subdivided the categories under subject-specific headings such as Handyman Services, House Cleaning, Interior Design, and General Contracting. However, Thumbtack's platform is not limited to home services. Service categories include Bartending, Wedding Planning, Officiants, and Photography, and Makeup and Hair Styling. A heading titled Learn Something New leads to categories such as music and language lessons, cooking classes, dance lessons, and exercise classes. Life coaches, pet sitters, errand runners, resume writers, and private investigators are all fair game on the Thumbtack platform as well as other categories that it might not even occur to potential clients to seek. Thumbtack is a great option for home services professionals because of the careful organization and wide breadth of home categories. However, the extensive list of other categories may make the platform the preferred option for potential leads who want to keep all of their service connections in one place. Verdict: Both Thumbtack and HomeAdvisor aim to connect customers with home improvement professionals, such as plumbers, landscapers, handymen, and electricians. But Thumbtack also includes additional categories to cater to a wider range of professionals and customers. Winner: Thumbtack Thumbtack vs. HomeAdvisor : Customer Reach Both Thumbtack and HomeAdvisor have customers and providers in all 50 states, covering most major metro areas and many more rural areas as well. This means there's a good likelihood the platforms have enough standing in most areas to engage customers who will be searching for professionals. In terms of customer use and awareness of the two sites, the number of searches for HomeAdvisor slightly outweighs the number of searches for Thumbtack in most states, with the notable exceptions of Utah, Idaho, and California, where Thumbtack reigns supreme, suggesting that Thumbtack's presence in those areas is somewhat higher than HomeAdvisor's. While the numbers lean toward HomeAdvisor as the more frequently searched option for customers, the competition is by no means a washout-the overall numbers are fairly balanced. Both of these services are likely to draw customers to a professional's profile nationwide. Traffic and engagement on the Thumbtack website for the month of June 2023 included 7.7 million hits. During the same period, traffic on the HomeAdvisor landing page included 6.2 million hits, suggesting Thumbtack is the more popular of the two. However, HomeAdvisor's partnership with Angi means that HomeAdvisor's contractor listings also appear on Angi's platform. In June 2023, there were 3.9 million hits on Angi's landing page, bringing the total number of potential customers on HomeAdvisor's site to 10.1 million customers. Essentially, creating a profile and listing on HomeAdvisor is equivalent to listing on two sites for the price of one,