The short answer
Angi and Thumbtack are lead marketplaces: a homeowner posts a job or picks a pro on the platform, and the platform passes the lead to you under its own terms. Owning your leads is the other route, where the customer finds your Google listing or website and calls you directly. Many contractors use both, so the useful question is what each one costs you and what you keep.
What a marketplace actually sells you
A marketplace sells access to homeowners who are already on its site. You rent that audience. The listing, the reviews collected there, and the customer's first contact typically live inside the platform's account system, and the platform's rules decide how leads are priced, shared, and delivered.
That is not a criticism. Renting an audience is fast, and it needs no website, no map position, and no search work. The tradeoff is that you are a vendor inside someone else's storefront, and a vendor works within the storefront's terms.
What Thumbtack says about its own pricing
Thumbtack's pro page is specific about structure. It says "No subscription cost." and "There's no charge to join, no annual fees and no membership fees." On pricing it says "You control your pricing and budget for leads, which determines how many leads you get." On who sends the lead, it says "You'll receive leads from customers that choose you, with high intent to hire."
Read together, that describes a platform where you set a budget for leads rather than paying a flat fee. Thumbtack's page does not state a per-lead price, so the number you would pay depends on your trade, your market, and the budget you set inside your account. Get that figure from your own dashboard before you judge the channel.
For Angi, the pro sign-up page invites contractors to "get started to start receiving leads." The page does not state what a lead costs, so ask for current pricing and lead-sharing terms in writing.
Questions that compare the two routes fairly
Whichever platform you test, four questions turn a sales pitch into a comparison:
- How many other contractors receive the same lead, and are you charged when a lead does not answer?
- What does one booked job cost after you divide total platform spend by jobs won?
- If you stopped paying tomorrow, what would remain: reviews, a customer list, a ranking?
- Who holds the customer's contact details after the job?
The third question is the heart of it. Marketplace spend buys leads this month. Work on your own profile and pages is the kind that stays after you stop paying, which is why the two are not substitutes so much as different jobs.
What owning the channel looks like
Owned leads come from searches where the homeowner already wants a company like yours. Google describes how those local results are chosen: "Local results are mainly based on relevance, distance, and popularity." A complete Google profile, steady reviews, and service pages feed that. Our guide to winning the Google map pack walks through the mechanics.
Google also runs its own pay-for-leads product. Its page for that program says "You only pay when potential customers get in touch through your ads on Local Services Ads." The comparison of that model with search work and ordinary ads is in this three-way guide.
A practical way to split your budget
Treat marketplaces as a test, with a written stop rule. Set a monthly cap, track booked jobs by source, and compare cost per booked job against calls from your own profile and website. With call tracking in place, each phone lead has a source, so the comparison uses your numbers instead of anyone's brochure. If you want a starting picture of your owned channels, the free 100-point audit scores your site and listing.
Questions about marketplace leads and owned leads
Do I have to choose between a marketplace and my own marketing?
- No. Many contractors run a marketplace as one source while building their profile and website as another. The point is to measure each by cost per booked job and to avoid depending on a single channel that can change its terms.
Does Thumbtack charge a monthly fee?
- Its own pro page says "No subscription cost." and lists no annual or membership fees. It also says you control your pricing and budget for leads. Confirm the exact lead charges inside your own account, since the page does not state a per-lead price.
How do I know what Angi leads cost?
- Ask for the current pricing and lead-sharing terms in writing before you commit. Its sign-up page does not list a lead price. Then compare it against your own booked-job cost from call tracking so the decision rests on your market, not an average.