What Is Angie’s List? (+ How Much It Costs & Best Alternatives)
Elizabeth Kraus has more than a decade of first-hand experience building and growing a boutique digital marketing agency and double that in small and mid-size business marketing management. She provides expert answers to marketing questions related to branding, content marketing, web development, email, social media, and SEO.
Audrey is a Staff Writer for Fit Small Business with over 4 years of writing and marketing experience in the startup industry. She writes content for marketing topics that helps small businesses reach their goals.
Angi (aka Angie’s List) is an online directory connecting consumers with local home service providers, from contractors to home cleaners. With nearly 7 million monthly visitors, Angi can effectively increase your service business’ online visibility, generate leads, and land more clients. Learn more about whether this platform is right for your business, including how much it costs and which alternatives might be a better fit for your needs.
Get the positive reviews you need to build your business using Angi, Google My Business, Yelp, or another online directory with Podium. Try it free for 14 days—no strings attached.
How Angi Works for Consumers & Businesses
On the consumer side of how Angi (formerly Angie’s List) works. Individuals can register for free and use the platform to find local business services. However, they can also upgrade by paying for a premium plan to access features like complaint resolution and exclusive member-only deals.
On the other hand, any business can join Angi and set up a listing on the platform for free. However, to fully leverage the platform for lead generation and sales, you should expect pay to advertise on the platform. Angi does this by essentially working as a sales representative, boosting your visibility and sending you leads. Pricing varies for each business; however, most come at an average of $300 monthly, and all plans bind you to a one-year contract.
The businesses that benefit most from using Angi are typically home improvement or repair services (e.g., lawn care, general contractors, handy services, plumbing, electrical, pet grooming, roofers, pest control, and housekeeping, to name a few). There are more than 700 categories listed, but some are super-specific, like local services for bat control, GE dryer repair, or overhead garage door repair.
| PROS | CONS |
|---|---|
| Access to highly qualified, ready-to-buy leads | Cost to advertise via Angi Pro isn’t transparent since it’s on a custom pricing basis |
| Angi-listed businesses are perceived as qualified and trustworthy | Advertising requires you to sign a one-year minimum contract with a 35% early termination fee |
| Pricing is transparent for customers, so they are rarely turned off by quotes and estimates | All leads coming in through the free plan are shared with HomeAdvisor.com |
| Ability to reach a hyper-local target audience | Quality and quantity of leads generated on Angi varies—no guarantee you’ll get leads |
| Practical alternative to paying for Google local services ads or investing heavily in SEO to rank higher in search results | Getting leads is challenging without an Angi Pro account |
How Much Angi Costs for Leads
For businesses and contractors, how much Angi will cost can vary from free to hundreds of dollars per month. While it’s technically free to create a company profile, those serious about generating leads typically advertise at a cost starting at $300 per month. Granted, pricing is custom-based and may change depending on industry, location, and demand for the type of services you provide.
For example, suppose you pay $300 per month to advertise on Angi. In return, Angi sends you about 20 leads per month. Of these leads, you close 20%, or four Angi leads per month. If your profit margin for each job is $400, then you’ve earned an additional $1,600 per month (or $1,300 after subtracting your advertising cost) from Angi, at a cost per lead of $75.
However, in the home services industry, profit margins vary. For example, while a residential home cleaning service may cost $80 per visit, many will get recurring business on a weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly basis—and many for years to come. In contrast, a contractor hired to build an addition or remodel a bathroom will make thousands of dollars, even tens of thousands, with one job.
The difficult part of starting with Angi is that you won’t know how many leads it will generate, nor the lead quality. This is a frustrating aspect of the platform, but many businesses struggling to generate leads and land new clients often find advertising on Angi to be a worthwhile investment. If you’re OK with a little uncertainty and can experiment to optimize its features for your business, Angi could bring many new clients to your door and increase brand awareness for your company locally.
Best Alternatives to Angie’s List
Of course, Angi isn’t the only platform available that connects consumers to local businesses. There are Angi alternatives offering similar (and sometimes identical) opportunities for businesses to connect with local consumers seeking their services. From HomeAdvisor and Thumbtack to Yelp and Google My Business, it’s worth getting to know which sites can benefit your business the most.
Here are the top alternatives to Angi for business lead generation and conversion:
- HomeAdvisor*: Works identically to Angi in matching customers seeking home repair services with professionals. However, unlike Angi, customers can sign up for free.
- Handy*: Similar platform to Angi, but with more focus on home cleaning services.
- Google Local Services Ads: In addition to text-based search ads, local service-based businesses can also set up Local Services Ads on Google. These appear at the top of search results pages in high buying intent searches with the added benefit of showing reviews stars and “Google Screened” and “Google Verified” trust badges.
- Thumbtack: Platform connecting customers with residential service contractors; also includes services for events (like weddings) and tech, including app and website development.
- Porch: Offers home repair services like Angi; specializes in moving and insurance services.
- Houzz: Platform connecting customers with home design professionals, including architects and interior designers; also has a furniture marketplace.
- Yelp: An online business directory and user review platform for small businesses in any industry; it also allows for pay-per-click (PPC) ads for businesses. Learn more in our Yelp for business guide.
- Google Business: Google’s free business profile directory allows businesses to be discovered on Google’s search results. Find out how easy it is to set up a Google Business Profile to improve your site’s rankings today.
- Bing Places: Bing’s answer to Google Business; Bing Places for Business is also a free online business directory where businesses can pay to improve search rankings.
- Facebook: Facebook allows users to create a Facebook business page to gain and engage with followers, advertise, boost posts, generate reviews, and more.
*HomeAdvisor and Handy are part of Angi’s parent company, Angi Inc (formerly ANGI Homeservices).
While you don’t necessarily need to create a profile on every relevant business directory, it is advisable to list on multiple platforms. This gives your business more visibility online, enabling you to be more easily discovered by consumers, no matter which platform they use. For more insights, learn what local SEO citations are and how to build them.
Adding listings is just the first step—they must be monitored and updated over time. Use BrightLocal to monitor and manage your company’s listings across thousands of directories online.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Does it cost to use Angi (formerly Angie’s List)?
Angi employs a freemium business model (one with both a limited free and an upgraded premium version) where both consumers and businesses pay. While both consumers and contractors can use the platform for free, Angi makes money from advertising placed by member contractors, and from annual paid memberships that give consumers perks like member-only discounts.
Which is better for local businesses, Angi or Yelp?
Yelp and Angi are both online business directories that help people discover local businesses. However, each serves a slightly different audience and use case. Yelp is largely for finding local businesses like restaurants, bars, event venues, and salons, whereas Angi is specifically geared toward home services such as electricians, landscapers, or pool installation. Learn more about Yelp for business.
Bottom Line
Angi (formerly Angie’s List) can be an effective marketing tool for home service providers—particularly those with new businesses looking for effective local advertising ideas, those seeking to enter new markets, or those struggling to get online visibility in Google search. Angi does the heavy lifting for your business, working as a de facto sales representative to attract qualified leads and send them your way so you can turn them into customers and grow your business.
Whether you’re marketing your business on Angi, Google, Yelp, or another directory, positive reviews are a must for establishing trust with prospects and giving them a reason to choose your business over your competitors. Fast-track reviews of your business using Podium—try it free for 14 days.
