HomeAdvisor isn't a separate thing to evaluate anymore — it's Angi's lead-selling arm, running the same shared-lead, billed-on-send playbook. The difference is HomeAdvisor is the one the federal government actually fined for it. Here's the receipt.
For most contractors, no. HomeAdvisor (now part of Angi) sells shared leads, bills you whether the homeowner ever answers, and — this is the part no marketing blog leads with — paid the FTC up to $7.2 million to settle charges it sold contractors leads it misrepresented as high-quality. When the regulator has already written the verdict, you don't need ours. Catch your own leads instead.
HomeAdvisor and Angie's List merged into Angi. HomeAdvisor is the lead-generation side: homeowners request a service, and their contact info is sold — shared — to several contractors at once, billed on send. If you've read our Angi review, you already know the model. What makes HomeAdvisor worth its own page is the one fact that outranks every pricing table: the FTC.
The complaints line up with exactly what the FTC described:
“HomeAdvisor agreed to pay up to $7.2 million to settle FTC charges it cheated service providers with leads it misrepresented as high-quality, ready-to-hire, and matching the pro's services and area.”
FTC press release, 2023 ↗“Shared leads, billing whether or not you respond, and charges that keep coming after you try to stop — the same complaints that followed it into Angi.”
Contractor reviews ↗Sources: FTC (ftc.gov); BBB / contractor reviews. HomeAdvisor now operates under Angi.
You don't have to rent leads from a company the FTC fined. Catch the ones you already earn:
Missed-call text-back, fast-response booking, review requests, and a converting site — so you stop paying a fined lead broker for shared contacts and start keeping the leads you already generate.
Some of these are affiliate links — buy through them and we might make a few bucks, at no cost to you. It never changes the verdict.