September 21, 2026. Ask a contractor what a lead costs and you get a number. Ask what triggers the charge and the conversation gets interesting, because on the largest home services marketplaces two leads at the same price can have completely different economics. One is billed when a stranger clicks. The other is billed only if that stranger writes back. Marketplaces publish this distinction plainly, and almost nobody prices against it.
Thumbtack bills on two different events
Thumbtack's own help documentation splits its leads in two. On direct leads, when a customer reaches out from search results and their job matches the pro's stated job preferences, the pro auto pays for the lead. The charge follows the contact.
Opportunities, which Thumbtack also calls open leads, run the other way. The pro reaches out to the customer first, the price is shown upfront, and in Thumbtack's words the pro only pays the price shown if the customer responds. The charge follows the reply.
That is one platform, one account, two meters. A pro comparing a 40 dollar direct lead with a 40 dollar opportunity is not comparing like with like, because only one of them guarantees a human on the other end before the money leaves.
The price is set by the job, not by the lead
Thumbtack states the pricing logic openly: the goal is to make the cost match how valuable the job is, and prices vary because a job's value changes with the type and size of the job, how many pros are available, and the market. So the lead fee tracks the estimated ticket, not the probability of winning it.
The pro does control the number. Thumbtack has pros set their own lead prices on a slider, described as the exact amount you will pay for each lead, which is how a pro chooses how competitive to be. That is an unusual amount of control over the price and none at all over the two things that decide whether the price was worth paying: whether the customer answers, and how many other pros got the same job.
Nobody publishes a price list
There is no national rate card for a home services lead. Thumbtack explains the factors rather than the figures. Angi's pro facing pages would not load for us at all today, returning a Cloudflare block, which is worth noting as a fact about transparency in this market rather than a complaint. The widely circulated ranges for both platforms come from agency blogs and pro forums, not from the platforms, so we are not repeating them here as if they were published prices.
What that means in practice is that the only reliable cost per lead in this category is the one in your own billing export, and the only reliable cost per job is that figure divided by the jobs you actually booked.
What it means for operators
Three numbers are worth pulling this week, and none of them need a vendor's help.
- Cost per contact versus cost per reply. Split last quarter's marketplace spend by lead type and compute both. If the auto pay bucket has a materially worse reply rate, you are paying full price for silence.
- Median minutes to first response. On shared leads, the winner is usually the first human to answer, so this is the variable that converts a paid lead into a conversation.
- Cost per booked job, not per lead. Fee divided by jobs won is the only figure that compares a marketplace against your own phone, your website forms and your repeat customers on the same scale.
The reason speed to reply keeps showing up is that it is the one input a contractor can change without the marketplace's permission. A lead that is billed on contact is already sunk cost by the time the van is on a roof, and the only lever left is answering before the other four pros do. That is the entire case for an AI answering service for home services: not that it replaces the sales conversation, but that it lowers the denominator on every lead you have already paid for. Price the meter, then fix the response time, and the marketplace fee stops being a fixed cost of doing business and becomes a number you can move.
Frequently Asked Questions
Neither of the big marketplaces publishes a rate card. Thumbtack explains that lead prices track how valuable the job is and vary with job type and size, pro availability and market, and it lets pros set their own lead price. The only dependable figure is the cost per lead in your own billing export.
The billing trigger. On a direct lead, a customer contacts you from search results and you auto pay for the lead. On an opportunity, or open lead, you contact the customer first, the price is shown upfront, and you only pay it if the customer responds to you.
Because on shared leads the fee is already spent and the only remaining variable you control is being the first pro to answer. Improving speed to reply lowers your cost per booked job without changing what you pay per lead.
Cost per booked job, which is total lead spend divided by jobs actually won, plus a split of cost per contact against cost per reply by lead type. Those two figures let you compare a marketplace against your own website, phone and repeat business on the same basis.