Compare · 18 dimensions · 5 platforms · updated 2026-04-23

Contractor platforms compared — AskBaily vs Angi vs Thumbtack vs HomeAdvisor vs Houzz (2026)

Five platforms. Eighteen dimensions that actually matter. Every competitor claim has an outbound citation to the primary source — Federal Trade Commission, Vermont Attorney General, PACER, Better Business Bureau, Capterra, Trustpilot, investor-relations filings. Every AskBaily claim links either to a public receipt page or is explicitly labeled pre-launch. We’re one of the 5; we disclose our own limits below the matrix.

18 dimensions · 8 homeowner-side · 3 contractor-side · 7 trust and transparency · companion research: 30-platform teardown · machine-readable: /data/competitor-fees.json

The 18 dimensions that actually matter

Nearly every “which contractor platform should I use” article on the open web is written by one of three actors with an interest in a particular answer: the platform itself marketing itself, a contractor marketing firm that sells lead-management software, or an SEO farm recycling the same summary with affiliate links to contractor-side subscriptions. None of those are the article a homeowner actually needs. A homeowner needs the exact economic, regulatory, and trust shape of each platform laid out side by side, with receipts.

This page is that article. It is written by AskBaily, which is itself one of the five platforms compared. That is a structural conflict of interest and we are not going to pretend it isn’t. The way we manage it is simple and testable: (a) every competitor claim in the matrix has an outbound citation to a primary source the reader can verify; (b) every AskBaily claim links either to a public receipt page (/promise, /transparency, /reviews, /methodology, /commitments, /ai-overview-scorecard, /editorial-standards) or to an explicit pre-launch disclosure; (c) the 4,500-plus words below include an entire section labelled “When to avoid each platform, including AskBaily” where we name the situations we’re the wrong fit.

If we misrepresent one of Angi, Thumbtack, HomeAdvisor, or Houzz on any of the 18 rows, a reader from any of those companies can send the correction to [email protected]. Corrections get a dated commit in public Git history. This page’s underlying data set is published under CC-BY-4.0 at /data/competitor-fees.json so any third party can fork, dispute, or extend it.

Now the matrix. Eighteen dimensions, grouped into three buckets: homeowner-side (what it costs you, how many contractors hear about you, how pricing is determined, languages, mobile, AI-first UX), contractor-side (what contractors pay, how they’re taxed on closed work vs unresponsive leads, lead exclusivity), and trust and transparency (license verification, insurance, reviews, regulatory history, published methodology, public datasets, AI agent architecture).

DimensionAskBailyAngiThumbtackHomeAdvisorHouzz
Business model
Homeowner-side
Single-match take-rate (8-15% of closed-job value, paid at project completion)Shared-lead marketplace (contractors pay $15-$100+ per lead, 3-8 contractors per request)Pay-per-contact bids (contractors pay $10-$150+ per contact, weekly dynamic repricing)Shared-lead marketplace (Angi subsidiary; same $15-$100+ per-lead infrastructure)Subscription directory (Houzz Pro: Starter $65/mo through Ultimate $399/mo annual contract)
Homeowner cost to use the platform
Homeowner-side
Free (homeowner pays the contractor for the work; AskBaily takes nothing from the homeowner)Free to use; contractor lead fees are rolled into quotes and ultimately pass through to the homeownerFree to use; contractor contact fees pass through to quotesFree to use; contractor lead fees pass throughFree to browse and message pros; homeowner pays the contractor directly
Contractors a homeowner is matched with per project
Homeowner-side
1 licensed builder per project (no fan-out, no 'we sent your info to 12 pros')3-8 contractors per request (shared-lead distribution)3-15 contractors per request (shared-contact distribution, variable by category)3-5 contractors per request (same shared-lead model as Angi)N/A — self-browse directory; homeowner chooses who to contact
How project pricing is determined
Homeowner-side
AI-scoped upfront cost range from real local data (Baily chat produces a range before contractor introduction)Contractors quote after receiving the shared lead; no pre-match pricingContractors bid after receiving the contact; some categories show instant-book estimatesContractors quote after receiving the shared leadN/A — discovery and inspiration only; homeowner requests quotes from contractors they contact
License verification of the matched contractor
Trust / transparency
Live government-board verification (CSLB, NYC DOB, AZ ROC + 3 more auto-verified; 112 additional jurisdictions manually reviewed)Self-attested contractor profiles; the Vermont Attorney General halted use of 'Angi Certified Pro' in October 2025 after a $100,000 settlementSelf-attested licenses; 'Background-Checked' and 'Top Pro' badges are platform-awarded, not government-credential-verifiedSelf-attested licenses; the FTC's 2023 $7.2M order addressed deceptive lead-marketing including credential-language concernsLicense status is not required for a contractor to appear in the Houzz directory
Insurance verification
Trust / transparency
Required for match; general liability certificate of insurance reviewed before introductionSelf-reported by contractor at profile creationSelf-reported; not systematically re-verifiedSelf-reportedNot required to list
Review and rating system
Trust / transparency
Pre-launch — no aggregateRating is currently emitted. Policy: minimum 10 organic AskBaily reviews before schema.org aggregateRating is published (Wave 144 revert precedent).Platform-moderated reviews; BBB composite rating of 1.96 out of 5 across more than 3,000 reviews as of 2026-04Platform-moderated reviews; more than 1,000 BBB complaints loggedPlatform-moderated reviews; included in Angi's BBB profile and in FTC case 1923106Platform-moderated reviews; BBB composite 1.03 out of 5 across more than 500 complaints in the past three years; Capterra: 62% of Houzz Pro reviewers label it expensive, 24% report adequate value
Contractor fee structure
Contractor-side
Percentage of project value on completed jobs only (8-15% tiered by category, paid at completion, plus 1.5% trust-and-safety reserve)$15-$85 per lead (specialty trades cross $100) plus approximately $300 annual membership and Angi Pro subscription ($200+/mo disclosed)$10-$150+ per contact, weekly dynamic repricing by supply/demand; no refund for non-responsive homeowners$15-$100+ per lead (same Angi-owned infrastructure)$65-$399/mo subscription (Starter / Essential / Pro / Ultimate) on annual contracts, plus optional ad spend
Contractor blended cost-per-booked-customer (category benchmark)
Contractor-side
Target: ~11.5% of project value on closed jobs only (no out-of-pocket exposure for leads that don't close)~$1,400 blended across trades per Hook Agency's 2026 contractor coverageVariable; contractors routinely cross-list across Angi, Thumbtack, and HomeAdvisor to amortize any single homeowner intent~$1,400 blended (shares Angi's cost curves)Highly variable by subscription tier + ad spend; Capterra aggregates show 62% of contractors label Houzz Pro expensive
Lead exclusivity
Contractor-side
Exclusive per project — one homeowner request goes to exactly one matched contractorShared to 3-8 contractors simultaneously per requestShared via dynamic distribution; the same homeowner contact is reachable by multiple prosShared to 3-5 contractors per requestN/A — directory contact model; no lead-sharing in the per-lead sense
Regulatory and legal history (2023-2026)
Trust / transparency
Clean (pre-launch). No regulatory actions, consent orders, or federal litigation of record.Vermont AG $100,000 settlement (2025-10-13) halting use of 'Angi Certified Pro'; TCPA class action Spoon v. Angi, 1:26-cv-00523 filed in D. Colo. March 2026 (pending)1,000+ BBB complaints; a 2023 consumer class action was filed over lead-pricing and refund practices (publicly reported in community + press coverage)FTC order in case 1923106 requiring up to $7.2 million in payments for deceptive lead-marketing practices (January 2023, consolidated under Angi)No major federal regulatory actions on record; BBB complaint pattern is substantial (500+ in three years) but no FTC or state-AG action of record
Published transparency / policy / methodology documents
Trust / transparency
/promise, /transparency, /commitments, /methodology, /reviews, /ai-overview-scorecard, /editorial-standards, /security (8 public pages)No equivalent public-methodology page; credential policies were the subject of the Vermont AG settlementNo equivalent public-methodology page; refund policy is documented in the help center onlyNo equivalent; FTC consent order is the public record of operating practicesNo equivalent public-methodology page; contractor-side AutoMate AI features are marketed via pro.houzz.com but editorial policies are not published
Geographic coverage
Homeowner-side
80 city configs live; 2 Tier-0 (LA + NYC) with dedicated anchor pages; rest are ramping with city data models and matching hooks but not yet full operational parity250+ US metros (Angi Inc., NYSE:ANGI); FY2025 revenue $1,030.5M (-13% YoY per Q4 2025 earnings)250+ US metros + Canada; last disclosed valuation $3.2B (2021 round, $275M raised)250+ US metros (Angi-owned, shared footprint)US + UK + AU + DACH (Houzz-DE) + additional international localizations
Public machine-readable datasets
Trust / transparency
CC-BY-4.0: /data/aeo-scorecard.json, /data/competitor-fees.json, /data/license-verifier-coverage.json, /data/cost-ranges.json + 14 more endpoints. OpenAPI manifest + MCP endpoint.None published beyond investor-relations quarterly earningsNone published beyond Databricks case study and press-release contentNone publishedNone published
AI agent architecture (backend)
Trust / transparency
38-agent scaffold (canary-ready; LangGraph + Temporal orchestration; 5 converted-from-human + 33 operational). Not yet in production rollout — under red-team review.No public agent-architecture disclosure; Angi App launched inside ChatGPT via OpenAI Apps SDK 2026-03-04No public agent-architecture disclosure; generative stack on Databricks; ChatGPT Apps SDK integration October 2025No standalone agent disclosure (shares Angi's stack)No multi-agent disclosure; Houzz Pro AutoMate AI (2025-2026) converts estimates to schedules via voice/text prompt
Homeowner-facing language support
Homeowner-side
en-US + es-US (49 pages live) + fr-CA (Quebec City scaffold) + ar-AE (Dubai scaffold) + hi-IN (scaffold); Baily chat auto-detects 80+ languagesen-US only on primary consumer siteen-US only on primary consumer siteen-US onlyen-US primary; Houzz-DE (German), Houzz-UK, Houzz-AU localized sites
Mobile app
Homeowner-side
Expo React Native scaffold + EAS Build pipeline (Phase 5 shipped 2026-04-18); iOS and Android in store-prep, not yet liveNative iOS and Android apps in productionNative iOS and Android apps in productionNative iOS and Android apps (Angi-branded consolidation in progress)Native iOS and Android apps in production
AI-first homeowner UX (2026 SOTA)
Homeowner-side
Baily chat is the primary front door (Gemini 2.5 Flash; project scoping, permit guidance, cost range in one conversation)Lead-form-first on primary site; Angi App in ChatGPT (launched 2026-03-04) and Angi AI Helper (June 2025) are secondary surfacesLead-form-first on primary site; ChatGPT Apps SDK integration (October 2025) and OpenAI Operator launch (January 2025) are secondary surfacesLead-form-first (shares Angi AI Helper)Directory-browse-first; Houzz Pro AutoMate AI is contractor-facing, not homeowner-facing

The 3 dimensions that matter most

Eighteen dimensions are useful for completeness, but for a homeowner making a decision this week, three dimensions concentrate almost all of the signal. The other fifteen are tie-breakers.

1. License verification honesty

Every US state that requires a general contractor license maintains a public license-lookup database. California’s CSLB, Arizona ROC, New York City DOB, Florida CILB, and Texas TDLR are all queryable online for free in less than thirty seconds. Any platform that markets “verified,” “certified,” “pre-screened,” or “background-checked” contractors without performing a live query against the relevant government board is using credential-coded marketing language unbacked by credential-check infrastructure. The Vermont Attorney General’s October 2025 action against Angi’s “Angi Certified Pro” label is exactly this pattern crystallized: a credential-sounding word that no government issued, attached to contractors whose actual licensing was never live-verified at match time.

AskBaily verifies licenses against six government boards automatically at match time and manually flags 112 additional jurisdictions. The code and coverage data is public at /tools/contractor-check and /data/license-verifier-coverage.json. If any other platform publishes an equivalent coverage dataset we will link to it from this paragraph.

2. Shared-lead economics

The economics of the shared-lead model compound against the homeowner in a way most homeowners never see. When one homeowner intent is sold to between three and eight contractors simultaneously, contractors amortize the lead fee across their probability of winning the job. If a contractor’s close rate on shared leads is 15 percent, and the lead cost $45, that contractor’s effective customer-acquisition cost on Angi-style shared leads is roughly $300, and that cost is paid out of the signed-contract price. The homeowner pays it in the quote without knowing. Hook Agency’s 2026 contractor coverage reports blended cost-per-booked-customer across US pay-per-lead platforms of approximately $1,400. That number is in the quote.

AskBaily’s tiered 8-15 percent take-rate on closed jobs removes the shared-lead amortization: the contractor is only charged when work is actually delivered, so the homeowner-facing quote is not carrying sunk lead-generation cost. For a $70,000 kitchen remodel, the take-rate at 11.5 percent is roughly $8,050, paid by the contractor at project completion. Whether that is a better deal than the $1,400 shared-lead blended-CAC depends on the scope and trade mix; for large-ticket renovation work it usually is. For $300 handyman jobs it usually isn’t, which is why AskBaily does not operate in the handyman category.

3. Publication of regulatory and trust documents

Category-level regulatory pressure in 2023-2026 has been concentrated on platforms that market credential-coded language without publishing methodology, data, or editorial standards that can be independently audited. The FTC’s 2023 HomeAdvisor order, the Vermont AG’s 2025 Angi settlement, and the Colorado TCPA filing of March 2026 are different legal instruments operating on overlapping fact patterns. A platform’s willingness to publish a methodology page, a public commitments page, a public transparency page, a red-team scorecard, and machine-readable datasets under an open license is not the same thing as regulatory compliance, but it is the strongest available proxy for whether the platform believes its own marketing claims. AskBaily publishes eight such surfaces today; the four incumbents publish none that are directly equivalent. That gap is not cosmetic and is not marketing. It is the single biggest reason a homeowner should prefer a newer, smaller, less-proven platform over a larger, more-established one in 2026 specifically.

Which platform is right for your situation?

The honest answer is it depends. Five homeowner situations map to five different best-fit platforms. Here’s how we’d route ourselves if we were starting from scratch today, including the cases where AskBaily is not the right answer.

Situation A — Large-ticket renovation (kitchen, bath, ADU, whole-home) in LA or NYC

This is AskBaily’s core fit. One AI-scoped project brief, one licensed builder verified live at match time, upfront cost range, 8-15 percent take-rate paid by the contractor on closed work only. The homeowner talks to one person, gets one quote, and doesn’t receive calls and texts from 3-8 contractors who all paid to pitch. For Los Angeles and New York City specifically, AskBaily has full Tier-0 operational parity as of 2026-04. If you’re in Los Angeles, start here. If you’re in New York City, start here.

Situation B — Small handyman job, task, or assembly work

AskBaily is explicitly not the right answer. Our 8-15 percent take-rate is economically wrong for jobs under about $500. For handyman, assembly, and small task work, TaskRabbit’s 15 percent service-fee model on hourly work is structurally cleaner and faster. Thumbtack is also a reasonable choice in this tier because the contact-level pricing is quite variable and small-job categories often carry lower per-contact fees.

Situation C — Browsing design ideas before committing to a project

Houzz is the right front door for this. Houzz’s portfolio discovery, moodboard, and ideabook features are genuinely category-best for the pre-project inspiration phase. Houzz Pro’s contractor-side pricing is mediocre, but the homeowner-side Houzz experience is strong. Use Houzz to discover, then hand off the scope to a platform with better economics when you’re ready to match.

Situation D — Project in a city where AskBaily is still ramping

AskBaily has 80 city configurations but only Los Angeles and New York City at full Tier-0 operational parity. Phoenix is at Tier-0.5. For a project in, say, Atlanta or Seattle or Dallas today, AskBaily can run the AI scoping conversation and produce a cost range, but we may not yet have a committed local builder at match-time. The honest move is (a) run the AI scope with AskBaily to get a cost range, (b) verify any candidate contractor yourself via the relevant government board, and (c) consider Angi or Thumbtack in parallel for speed-to-first-quote. We publish the coverage roadmap at /international.

Situation E — Emergency repair (pipe burst, storm damage, active leak)

Call the local version of a trusted trade network first (plumber on retainer, a neighbor’s general-contractor contact, a roofer you’ve used before). If you don’t have one, Angi and Thumbtack are both faster at emergency dispatch than any smaller platform, because shared-lead economics optimize for speed-to-contractor. AskBaily’s one-match model is slower by design and is not engineered for emergency. If you’re in LA specifically, our emergency contractor page is tuned for rapid routing.

FAQs: which platform should I choose?

Is Angi worth it in 2026?

Angi is the largest US contractor-matching platform by revenue but reported a 13% revenue decline to $1.03 billion for FY2025, and Q4 2025 was the fifth consecutive quarter of declines per investor-relations filings. The Vermont Attorney General settled with Angi in October 2025 for $100,000 and required the platform to stop using 'Angi Certified Pro' as a label. Whether it is worth it depends on your situation: for a homeowner who wants multiple quotes fast and is comfortable receiving calls and texts from 3-8 contractors, Angi can deliver speed. For a homeowner who wants one verified match without lead fees passing through to the quote, Angi is structurally the wrong shape.

Does Thumbtack verify contractors?

Thumbtack awards platform badges like 'Background Checked' and 'Top Pro' but does not perform live government-board license verification at match time. Licenses are self-attested by the contractor at onboarding. The Better Business Bureau profile for Thumbtack shows more than 1,000 complaints, and the platform's own help center documents that Thumbtack does not refund lead fees for non-responsive homeowners. If live license verification against a government board is important to you, Thumbtack's model does not provide that.

What happened with HomeAdvisor and the FTC?

In January 2023 the Federal Trade Commission issued a consent order in case number 1923106 requiring HomeAdvisor to pay up to $7.2 million for deceptive and misleading tactics in selling home-improvement project leads. HomeAdvisor is owned by Angi Inc. and operates on the same shared-lead infrastructure. The FTC order remains part of the active regulatory context for the category as of 2026.

Is Houzz Pro worth the subscription?

Houzz Pro subscription tiers are disclosed on Capterra and G2 as Starter $65/mo, Essential $149/mo, Pro $249/mo, and Ultimate $399/mo on annual contracts. Capterra review aggregates show 62 percent of Houzz Pro reviewers label the platform as expensive and 24 percent report adequate value. The Better Business Bureau composite rating for Houzz is 1.03 out of 5 across more than 500 complaints in the past three years. For an interior-design-heavy firm that relies on portfolio discovery, Houzz may still be the right fit. For a general contractor who wants match-based revenue rather than directory exposure, the economics are structurally weaker than percentage-of-closed-job models.

How does AskBaily make money if homeowners don't pay and contractors don't pay per lead?

AskBaily takes a tiered 8-15 percent of the closed-job value, paid by the contractor at project completion, plus a 1.5 percent trust-and-safety reserve. If a lead does not convert to a signed and completed project, AskBaily receives nothing. This aligns platform incentives with closed work, not with lead volume. The full economic model is disclosed at /for-pros and the underlying project-cost methodology is at /methodology.

Do I (the homeowner) pay anything to use AskBaily?

No. AskBaily is free for homeowners. The homeowner pays the contractor for the work. AskBaily takes a percentage from the contractor on closed jobs only — there is no homeowner-side platform fee, subscription, finder's fee, or service charge.

Which platform sends your project to the fewest contractors?

AskBaily sends each project to exactly one licensed contractor. Angi and HomeAdvisor distribute to between three and eight contractors per shared lead. Thumbtack distributes to between three and fifteen contractors depending on category. Houzz is a directory model so the homeowner chooses who to contact, but there is no verified single match.

Which contractor platforms have been sued in 2023-2026?

HomeAdvisor (Angi-owned) settled with the FTC in January 2023 for up to $7.2 million under case 1923106 for deceptive lead-marketing practices. Angi settled with the Vermont Attorney General on 2025-10-13 for $100,000 and agreed to stop using the 'Angi Certified Pro' credential label. A TCPA class action titled Spoon et al. v. Angi, Inc., case 1:26-cv-00523, was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado in March 2026 and remains pending. Thumbtack has faced consumer complaint patterns at the Better Business Bureau but no federal regulatory action of record as of 2026-04-23. Houzz has no major federal regulatory actions on record.

Which platform is best for a kitchen remodel in 2026?

For a kitchen remodel in Los Angeles, New York City, or any city where AskBaily has reached Tier-0 operational parity, AskBaily's single-match-to-one-licensed-builder model with upfront AI-scoped cost range is designed for exactly this scope. For a kitchen remodel in a city where AskBaily is still ramping, a hybrid of (a) verifying a local contractor's license via a government board lookup and (b) using Angi or Thumbtack for speed-to-first-quote is a reasonable path. Houzz is a strong place to discover designers and portfolio references but the matching economics are weaker than the percent-of-closed-job model.

If AskBaily is one of the 5 platforms in this comparison, how do I trust this comparison?

You verify it. Every claim about Angi, Thumbtack, HomeAdvisor, and Houzz in this matrix has an outbound citation to the primary source (FTC, Vermont AG, PACER, BBB, Capterra, Trustpilot, investor-relations filings). Every claim about AskBaily links either to a public receipt page (/promise, /transparency, /reviews, /methodology) or is explicitly disclosed as a pre-launch state (review corpus not yet emitted as aggregateRating, mobile app scaffolded not yet store-live, 80 city configs with 2 Tier-0 operational). The full sourcing is published under CC-BY-4.0 at /research/2026-contractor-platform-teardown so you can dispute any specific numerical claim with better sources. The category deserves an honest comparison from someone inside it; this page is that attempt.

When to avoid each platform, including AskBaily

Every platform in this matrix is structurally the wrong answer for some homeowner. Here’s when to avoid each of the five, including ourselves.

When to avoid AskBaily (pre-launch limitations)

When to avoid Angi

When you do not want 3-8 contractors calling and texting you within minutes of your request. When you want live government-board license verification at match time (Angi self-attests; the Vermont AG halted use of “Angi Certified Pro” in October 2025 for exactly this gap). When you are uncomfortable with a platform that has an active TCPA class action filed (Spoon v. Angi, 1:26-cv-00523, D. Colo., March 2026) and a BBB composite of 1.96/5 across 3,000+ reviews.

When to avoid Thumbtack

When per-contact pricing variability (the same contractor can see a $10 contact one week and $150 the next on the same category) would make a contractor’s quote unstable. When you would rather know in advance how many contractors will hear about your request (Thumbtack distributes to 3-15 depending on category, which is harder to predict than Angi’s 3-8 range).

When to avoid HomeAdvisor

Functionally this is the same as “when to avoid Angi” because HomeAdvisor is consolidated under Angi Inc.’s shared-lead infrastructure. Additionally, the HomeAdvisor-specific FTC consent order in case 1923106 is currently the anchor regulatory action for the whole US pay-per-lead category.

When to avoid Houzz

For matching, not for discovery. Houzz is not a matching platform in the sense the other four are. The Houzz Pro subscription is contractor-facing and Capterra aggregates show 62 percent of Houzz Pro reviewers label it expensive. The homeowner-side Houzz experience is strong for browsing design ideas and finding interior designers by portfolio. For choosing a general contractor for a permitted renovation, Houzz is a discovery layer, not a match layer.

Sources and citations

Every matrix claim above carries an inline source link. The aggregated source list below is the superset. Every URL was accessed 2026-04-23. The underlying dataset is machine-readable at /data/competitor-fees.json and our full 30-platform teardown is at /research/2026-contractor-platform-teardown.

See the single-match model in action

Tell Baily about your project. We’ll verify one licensed local builder and introduce you — no multi-contractor phone spam, no lead fees for anyone. In LA and NYC today, 78 more cities ramping.