PerfectLeads vs. HomeAdvisor — Stop Paying for Leads That Never Answer the Phone
HomeAdvisor charges your account before you’ve even looked at the lead. The lead goes to 3–4 other contractors at the same time. And when you call? Half the time, nobody picks up. If your monthly HomeAdvisor statement looks like a list of phantom numbers and disputed charges — here’s the alternative contractors are switching to.
HomeAdvisor & Angi Are Now the Same Company
If you’ve been confused about the relationship between HomeAdvisor and Angi — you’re not alone. Here’s the quick version.
HomeAdvisor and Angi merged in 2021 under the parent company Angi Inc. (formerly ANGI Homeservices). The HomeAdvisor brand still appears in some markets, but the underlying lead platform, billing system, and contractor network are increasingly unified.
For contractors, the merger has meant: shifting between brand names without clear communication, billing changes that weren’t always explained, leads that may come from either platform, and customer service that bounces between the two.
The core problems contractors experienced with HomeAdvisor — auto-charge billing, shared leads, phantom leads, and disputed charges — remain under the merged entity. If you’re already frustrated with Angi, you’re dealing with the same underlying system.
Four Problems Contractors Report With HomeAdvisor — Over and Over
Browse any contractor forum and you’ll find the same complaints repeated by thousands of contractors across every trade. These aren’t edge cases — they’re the model working as designed.
Phantom Leads — Charged for Numbers That Never Answer
The #1 contractor complaint about HomeAdvisor. You get charged $75–150 for a lead, call immediately, and — nothing. No answer. No callback. No response to your text. You try again the next day. Nothing. The lead was either not a real homeowner, was “just browsing” on the website, or gave fake contact info to see pricing without committing. You’re charged regardless.
With PerfectLeads: Your funnels capture real contact info through multi-step qualification. If someone won’t answer basic questions about their project, they don’t become a lead — and you don’t pay for them.
Auto-Charge Billing — Paying Before You Decide
HomeAdvisor charges your account the instant a lead is generated — before you’ve seen it, evaluated it, or decided if it’s worth pursuing. There’s no approval step. Leads hit your account and your credit card gets charged. Want to dispute a bad lead? That’s a separate process that requires documentation, takes time, and doesn’t always result in a credit. Some contractors report spending hours each month fighting charges for leads that never answered.
With PerfectLeads: Flat monthly fee. No per-lead charges. No auto-billing surprises. No disputes needed.
Shared Leads — Same Homeowner, 4 Contractors
Every HomeAdvisor lead is sent to 3–4+ contractors simultaneously. The homeowner’s phone rings 4 times in the first 5 minutes. They’re overwhelmed, default to the cheapest quote, and half the time they don’t answer at all because they’re already talking to the first contractor who called. You paid $100 for the privilege of being second or third in line.
With PerfectLeads: Every lead is 100% exclusive. You’re the only contractor they’re talking to. No competition. No price wars.
Difficult to Pause, Cancel, or Control
Contractors consistently report that pausing or canceling HomeAdvisor is harder than it should be. Budget caps don’t always work as expected. “Paused” accounts sometimes still receive (and get charged for) leads. Cancellation requires calling a retention team. And the most common complaint: leads continue to be charged even after a contractor believes they’ve paused their account.
With PerfectLeads: Cancel anytime in your account settings. No retention call. No charges after cancellation. Your data exports with you.
PerfectLeads vs. HomeAdvisor — Full Feature Comparison
Side-by-side breakdown across every dimension that matters to contractors.
| Feature | PerfectLeads | HomeAdvisor / Angi |
|---|---|---|
| Lead Exclusivity | ✓ 100% exclusive — only you | ✗ Shared with 3–4+ contractors |
| Lead Quality | ✓ Pre-qualified through multi-step funnel | ✗ Unfiltered — phantom leads common |
| Billing Model | Flat $97–997/mo — no surprises | Auto-charge per lead ($50–150+ each) |
| Lead Disputes Required? | ✓ No per-lead charges = nothing to dispute | ✗ Manual dispute process for bad leads |
| Contact Rate | ✓ 85–95% (instant text-back, real leads) | 50–60% (many leads never answer) |
| Instant Follow-Up | ✓ SMS in < 30 seconds, 24/7 | ✗ Manual call from app notification |
| After-Hours Capture | ✓ Automated response & booking 24/7 | ✗ Leads queue until you check |
| Missed Call Text-Back | ✓ Instant automated text | ✗ Not available |
| Follow-Up Automation | ✓ 7–30 day SMS & email sequences | ✗ No follow-up tools |
| CRM & Pipeline | ✓ Full CRM with deal tracking | ✗ Basic lead list |
| Online Booking | ✓ Self-service scheduling | Basic booking |
| Google Review Automation | ✓ Post-job requests with smart routing | Platform reviews only (no Google SEO) |
| Maintenance Plan Upsells | ✓ Automated post-service sequences | ✗ Not available |
| Seasonal Campaigns | ✓ Storm, emergency & seasonal funnels | ✗ No campaign tools |
| Data Ownership | ✓ Export everything anytime | ✗ HomeAdvisor owns the data |
| Pause / Cancel | ✓ Instant — account settings, no call | Retention call required, reports of continued billing |
| Brand Confusion | ✓ One platform, one name, one system | HomeAdvisor / Angi merger — unclear branding |
Your Effective Cost Per Lead Is Double What HomeAdvisor Says
HomeAdvisor shows you “cost per lead.” But that includes every lead — even the ones that never answer, aren’t real homeowners, or are outside your service area. The number that matters is cost per contactable, qualified lead. Let’s do that math.
HomeAdvisor — Typical Month
PerfectLeads — Same Budget
Same $2,500 budget. 2 jobs vs. 11 jobs. $1,250 vs. $227 cost per job. The difference isn’t just lead exclusivity — it’s lead quality. Pre-qualified funnel leads have real phone numbers, real project needs, and real intent. HomeAdvisor’s auto-charge model bills you for every form fill, regardless of whether the homeowner is real, serious, or reachable. Use our ROI calculator with your actual HomeAdvisor spend.
The “Dispute Tax” — How HomeAdvisor Costs You Hours, Not Just Dollars
Money isn’t the only thing HomeAdvisor’s model takes from you. There’s a hidden time cost that most contractors don’t calculate.
2+ Hours Per Month Disputing Leads
Phantom leads require documentation. You need to prove the number was fake, the homeowner wasn’t real, or the lead was outside your service area. Each dispute takes 10–15 minutes. At 8–12 disputed leads per month, you’re spending 2+ hours — time that should go to running your business, not fighting your lead provider.
45+ Minutes Per Day Chasing No-Answers
HomeAdvisor sends you 30 leads. You call all 30. 12 never answer — not on the first call, not on the second, not on the third. That’s 3 call attempts × 12 leads × 2 minutes per attempt = 72 minutes of dead calling per month. For leads that were never going to convert. Your best closer can’t close a lead who doesn’t exist.
The Morale Cost Nobody Measures
There’s a real psychological cost to calling leads that don’t answer, writing quotes that lose to lowballers, and fighting to dispute charges every month. It grinds down your team. It makes lead follow-up feel pointless. And when your team stops following up aggressively because “half these leads are garbage anyway” — that pessimism costs you real deals from the leads that are legitimate.
The total “dispute tax” per year: 24+ hours disputing leads + 14+ hours chasing phantom numbers + the margin cost of demoralized follow-up. That’s an entire work week per year spent servicing HomeAdvisor’s flawed lead model instead of growing your business. With PerfectLeads, there are zero per-lead charges, zero disputes needed, and 90%+ contact rates on leads that opted into your funnel.
After 12 Months — What Have You Built?
After 12 Months on HomeAdvisor
- ✗ No contact database you can remarket to
- ✗ No retargeting audiences
- ✗ No funnels or landing pages
- ✗ No automation or follow-up sequences
- ✗ HomeAdvisor reviews — not Google reviews
- ✗ Brand confusion from HA/Angi merger
- ✗ 24+ hours lost to lead disputes
- ✗ Cancel and everything disappears
After 12 Months on PerfectLeads
- ✓ 400+ lead database (yours forever, exportable)
- ✓ Facebook & Google retargeting audiences
- ✓ High-converting funnels & landing pages
- ✓ Proven follow-up & nurture automation
- ✓ Google review growth (50–100+ new reviews)
- ✓ One clear brand — yours
- ✓ Zero hours spent on lead disputes
- ✓ Cancel and keep everything you built
What Contractors Ask Before Switching From HomeAdvisor
“I’ve been on HomeAdvisor for years — is it worth switching now?”
The longer you’ve been on HomeAdvisor, the more you’ve spent building zero assets. Every year on HomeAdvisor is another $20K–$30K spent with nothing to show if you cancel. Start PerfectLeads alongside HomeAdvisor for 60–90 days. Once your own pipeline is producing, reduce or cancel HomeAdvisor. You’ll keep generating leads regardless — because you built the system, not rented someone else’s.
“HomeAdvisor leads are bad, but at least they come in consistently.”
Consistency matters — but consistent bad leads still lose money. PerfectLeads delivers consistent lead flow too, typically within 30–60 days of launching ads. The difference: consistent exclusive leads that actually answer the phone, are pre-qualified, and convert at 2–3× the rate. Consistency + quality beats consistency alone.
“I don’t want to deal with Facebook or Google Ads.”
You don’t have to. The Ads Managed plan ($997/mo) handles everything — ad creation, targeting, optimization, and budget management. You never log into an ad platform. On Done For You ($297/mo), we build the system and you handle ads (or hire a local ads person). Either way, less effort than spending 2 hours/month fighting HomeAdvisor disputes.
“What if PerfectLeads leads aren’t better?”
Cancel anytime. No contract, no cancellation fee, no retention team to call. If PerfectLeads doesn’t outperform HomeAdvisor within 90 days, cancel in your settings and go back. You’ll keep every lead, funnel, and automation you built — which is more than HomeAdvisor gives you after spending $30K.
What HomeAdvisor Does Well — And When It Might Still Make Sense
Our honest recommendation: HomeAdvisor works as a bridge — use it when you’re getting started or need immediate volume. But the longer you stay, the more you spend building someone else’s platform instead of your own. When you’re ready to own your pipeline, stop your leads from being shared, and eliminate the phantom lead / dispute cycle, PerfectLeads is the move.
Contractors Who Switched From HomeAdvisor to PerfectLeads
“In my last month on HomeAdvisor I was charged for 28 leads. 11 never answered. I got credits back for 3 after spending an hour on the phone. The remaining 8 phantom leads cost me $640 for literally nothing. First month on PerfectLeads: 35 leads, 32 answered, 8 jobs closed. Night and day.”Marcus J. — General Contractor, Phoenix, AZ
“I spent $32K on HomeAdvisor over two years. When I cancelled, I had nothing — no email list, no phone database, no funnels, no reviews on Google. Just a hole in my bank account. Six months on PerfectLeads and I have 200+ contacts in my CRM, 65 new Google reviews, and a lead system that runs while I sleep.”Tony S. — Kitchen & Bath Remodeler, Austin, TX
“The HomeAdvisor-to-Angi transition was a mess. My billing changed, my lead flow changed, nobody could tell me what was happening. I took it as a sign to build my own thing. PerfectLeads has been more predictable in 3 months than HomeAdvisor was in 3 years. And I’m not fighting to get refunds every month.”Sandra K. — Painting Contractor, Tampa, FL
Frequently Asked Questions
Is HomeAdvisor the same as Angi?
Yes — they merged in 2021 under Angi Inc. The HomeAdvisor brand still appears in some markets, but the lead platform and billing are increasingly unified. For a deeper comparison, see our PerfectLeads vs. Angi page.
How much do HomeAdvisor leads cost in 2026?
$15–300+ per lead depending on trade, market, and job type. Most contractors report $50–150 average. These are auto-charged shared leads sent to 3–4+ contractors. The real cost is higher when you factor in phantom leads that never answer — see the effective cost breakdown above.
Why do contractors complain about HomeAdvisor leads?
The four most common complaints: phantom leads that never answer, auto-charge billing with difficult dispute processes, shared leads creating price competition, and confusion from the Angi merger. These are structural issues with the marketplace model, not fixable by spending more.
Can I get refunds for bad HomeAdvisor leads?
HomeAdvisor has a credit system, but contractors report it’s time-consuming and inconsistent. You need to document the issue and submit within a limited window. Many contractors spend 2+ hours/month on disputes. With PerfectLeads, there are no per-lead charges — nothing to dispute, ever.
What’s the best HomeAdvisor alternative?
PerfectLeads is a popular choice for contractors leaving HomeAdvisor. Instead of buying shared leads, you build your own lead generation system with exclusive funnels, instant follow-up, CRM, and review automation. Other alternatives include Thumbtack (different marketplace model) and building your own DIY Google Ads, though that requires significant marketing expertise.
More Comparisons
See how PerfectLeads stacks up against other platforms contractors use.
PerfectLeads vs. Angi
Shared leads, rising costs, and the same parent company as HomeAdvisor.
Read comparison →PerfectLeads vs. Thumbtack
Bidding on leads, messaging restrictions, and margin compression.
Read comparison →ROI Calculator
Enter your HomeAdvisor spend and see what you’d get with PerfectLeads.
Calculate your ROI →Ready to Stop Fighting for Credits and Start Owning Your Leads?
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