Is Angi (formerly Angie's List) worth it? How it works and what it costs homeowners

The short version

What Angi is good at

Angi is what Angie's List became after it combined with IAC's HomeAdvisor in 2017; Angi Inc. still runs both brands (Angi 10-K, Feb 2025). It is good at getting quotes. Describe the job, pick a date, and matched pros contact you, free. Contractors pay for this: the 10-K describes "consumer connection revenue" for matches "whether or not the professional ultimately does the job", plus advertising and memberships. Contractors report $15 to $85 per lead and about $300 a year for membership (Housecall Pro, Aug 2026; these are contractor-reported, not Angi's published prices).

So the pros you are matched with are the ones paying for leads in your area that week. That is a list of who is buying, not a ranking of who finishes.

What the badge checks, and what it does not

The 10-K is specific. To be approved, the owner must pass a criminal background check and attest to holding the licenses the trade requires. Pros averaging below three stars are "generally not eligible" for approved status. Angi says it filters fraudulent reviews but "cannot guarantee review accuracy".

Three things are not in that list.

License status today. The attestation was made at sign-up. Licenses expire, get suspended and lapse. Among the Seattle firms we matched to a Washington L&I record, 990 are Active, 83 Expired, 51 Suspended and 15 Out of business (our license match, L&I data, snapshot 2026-10-17). Looked at by trade, 82.6% of ranked Seattle electrical firms have an Active match and 76.1% of heat-pump firms do; in San Francisco it is 91.7% of roofing firms. The unmatched ones are not necessarily unlicensed; our matching is by name and can miss. But the board lookup takes a minute and shows the status as of this week.

Permits. Angi holds no permit records and shows none on profiles. The city does: a permit is issued to a named contractor for a named address, and the inspector either signs it off or does not.

Finished jobs. No marketplace profile shows final inspections, and the final often comes months after the crew leaves. In Seattle, 15,441 heat-pump permits from 272 firms show 85.6% finished, with a usual 105 days from issue to final. Roofing in San Francisco: 9,537 permits, 87.3% finished, usual 36 days. A firm with 40 permits and 20 finals looks exactly like a firm with 40 and 40 on a review site.

The complaints, in proportion

The FTC filed a complaint in March 2022 alleging HomeAdvisor had made false or unsubstantiated claims to contractors about lead quality since at least 2014, and in January 2023 ordered it to pay up to $7.2 million and stop (FTC, Jan 2023). Contractors also filed a class action over lead quality in 2016 (Airquip v. HomeAdvisor, D. Colo.); HomeAdvisor denied wrongdoing, and we have not found an outcome.

None of that concerns the reviews you read as a homeowner; it concerns what contractors are sold. Consumer Reports noted in 2016 that under Angie's List's default search, advertisers ranked first (Consumer Reports, updated 2018); the FY2024 10-K describes a matching algorithm and sells Angi Ads separately, and does not say whether payment affects order. We do not claim it does.

If you are the contractor asking

Most pages that answer "is Angi worth it" are written for contractors deciding whether to buy leads. The facts from Angi's own filings: professionals pay fees per consumer match, plus advertising and memberships, and a lead fee is charged "regardless of whether the professional ultimately provides the requested service" (10-K). The company counted 168,000 transacting professionals in the fourth quarter of 2024, down from 196,000 a year earlier (earnings release, Feb 2025). Lead prices are not published by Angi; Housecall Pro, a vendor writing for contractors, reports $15 to $85 a lead and about $300 a year for a membership (Housecall Pro, Aug 2026). In January 2023 the FTC ordered HomeAdvisor to pay up to $7.2 million and stop misleading contractors about lead quality (FTC).

The arithmetic is yours: a lead's price divided by the share of leads you close is the cost of one job. Your own permit record on this site shows how many jobs you already win without leads, and what homeowners will see when they look you up.

When Angi is the right choice

When you need quotes this week and have no names, use it, then run the two checks below on whoever you shortlist. When it is the wrong tool: a long job where finishing matters (additions in San Francisco show 52.2% finished and a usual 621 days to final), or any job where you already have names and want to compare them on something other than who answered the phone first.

The two checks to add

1. The board. Washington: L&I Verify, which also shows bond lawsuits and citations (WA L&I). California: CSLB's license check, which shows bond and workers' comp (CSLB). Put in the number from the quote, not the name.
2. The permit file. Search the firm in your city on this site. You get permits in the window, how many finished, usual job value and days to final, with the license status beside it and a link to the board record.

See every Seattle heat-pump installer by their permit record →