Hearth beats GreenSky on cost for most contractors who finance more than roughly $30,000 in projects per year, because Hearth charges a flat subscription ($1,499 to $4,999 annually) while GreenSky takes a dealer fee of about 2 to 10 percent out of every funded loan. Below that volume, GreenSky's pay-per-transaction model can cost less. The right answer comes down to your financed volume, your customers' credit profiles, and whether you qualify for GreenSky at all.
Key takeaways
- Hearth charges a flat annual subscription: $1,499 (Essentials), $1,799 (Pro), or $4,999 (Elite), plus a one-time $99 setup fee, with zero dealer fees per job.
- GreenSky charges contractors a dealer fee on every funded loan, roughly 2 to 10 percent depending on the pricing menu, averaging about 7 percent per its own merchant materials.
- At a 7 percent average fee, the break-even against Hearth Pro sits near $26,000 in annual financed volume; above that, Hearth is cheaper every year.
- Hearth submits homeowners to a network of 18 plus lenders with a soft credit pull and accepts FICO scores down to 550; GreenSky is a single program that requires contractors to have 2 plus years in business.
- Reputation gap is large: as of mid-2026 Hearth holds 4.5 stars on Trustpilot from 1,300 plus reviews, while GreenSky sits at 1.4 stars, and GreenSky carries a 2021 CFPB consent order.
Quick verdict: which one wins for you
The quick verdict depends on one number: how much project value you expect homeowners to finance this year.
- You finance $30,000 or more per year: Hearth wins. The flat subscription undercuts GreenSky's per-loan fees at almost any realistic fee tier, and the gap widens as you grow.
- You finance under $20,000 per year and rarely offer payments: GreenSky wins on pure cost, since a handful of small dealer fees will total less than a $1,499 to $1,799 subscription.
- Your customers skew toward fair credit (550 to 640 FICO): Hearth wins. Its 18 plus lender network reaches near-prime borrowers GreenSky's single program tends to decline.
- You lean hard on 0 percent promotional offers and your margins absorb the fees: GreenSky wins, because true same-as-cash promos are its core product.
- Your business is under 2 years old: Hearth wins by default. GreenSky's merchant requirements include 2 plus years in business, so newer companies do not qualify.
Hearth vs GreenSky at a glance
| Factor | Hearth | GreenSky |
|---|---|---|
| Cost model | Flat annual subscription, $0 dealer fees | Dealer fee per funded loan, about 2 to 10 percent |
| 2026 price | $1,499 to $4,999 per year plus $99 setup | No subscription; average fee about 7 percent of loan amount |
| Structure | Marketplace of 18 plus lending partners | Single financing program (bank partners behind it) |
| Loan amounts | $1,000 to $250,000 personal loans | $3,500 to $65,000 typical; some installment programs reach about $100,000 |
| Terms | 2 to 12 years | Varies by plan; deferred-interest promos of 6 to 24 months are common |
| Homeowner credit check | Soft pull to see offers, minimum FICO around 550 | Hard pull on application; approvals skew prime |
| Contractor requirements | No published minimum business age | 2 plus years in business and about $1M lifetime revenue |
| Funding speed | As fast as 24 hours after loan finalizes | About 1 to 2 business days after authorization |
| Trustpilot (mid-2026) | 4.5 of 5, 1,300 plus reviews | 1.4 of 5, about 80 reviews |
Cost structure: flat subscription vs dealer fees
Cost structure is the real fight in this comparison, and the two models could not be more different. Hearth's pricing page lists three annual plans as of 2026: Essentials at $1,499, Pro at $1,799, and Elite at $4,999, each with a one-time $99 setup fee. Once you have paid, you can attach financing to every estimate you send all year with no per-transaction cut.
GreenSky takes its money out of each funded loan instead. GreenSky's own merchant materials describe dealer fees that vary by the pricing menu you select, commonly 2 to 10 percent of the loan amount, and industry write-ups such as trades.org peg the average around 7 percent. Deferred-interest and 0 percent promotional plans sit at the expensive end because the fee is what pays for the homeowner's free interest. On a $25,000 bathroom remodel financed on a promo plan at 8 percent, you hand back $2,000 before you buy a single fixture.
That fee never shows up as a line item to the homeowner, which is why many contractors quietly pad bids to cover it. Doing that on every financed job effectively raises your prices against competitors who do not carry the fee. We break down how this padding works across all platforms in our guide to dealer fees in contractor financing.
Winner: Hearth for any contractor with steady financed volume; GreenSky only when financing is rare.
The break-even math, worked out
The break-even math is simple division: Hearth Pro costs $1,799 per year, so divide that by GreenSky's fee rate to find the financed volume where the two cost the same. At a 7 percent average fee, that is about $25,700. At a gentler 4 percent tier it is about $45,000, and at 10 percent it is only $18,000.
| Annual financed volume | GreenSky at 4% | GreenSky at 7% | GreenSky at 10% | Hearth Pro |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $25,000 | $1,000 | $1,750 | $2,500 | $1,799 |
| $50,000 | $2,000 | $3,500 | $5,000 | $1,799 |
| $150,000 | $6,000 | $10,500 | $15,000 | $1,799 |
| $300,000 | $12,000 | $21,000 | $30,000 | $1,799 |
| $750,000 | $30,000 | $52,500 | $75,000 | $1,799 |
Read the table honestly in both directions. A handyman operation that finances two $8,000 jobs a year would pay GreenSky about $1,120 at 7 percent, less than any Hearth plan. A remodeler financing $300,000 a year on promotional plans is donating $20,000 plus to GreenSky annually that Hearth would have left in the business. If you crossed even $50,000 in financed work last year, the math is no longer close. Our full Hearth cost breakdown runs the same exercise against every Hearth tier.
Winner: Hearth above roughly $26,000 in financed volume at typical fee tiers; GreenSky below it.
Approval odds and homeowner credit requirements
Approval odds decide how many of your bids financing actually rescues, and the platforms take opposite approaches. Hearth routes each homeowner application to a marketplace of 18 plus lending partners, per Hearth's own site, and some of those partners underwrite near-prime borrowers with FICO scores down to about 550. The pre-qualification uses a soft pull, so a homeowner can see estimated monthly payments without any mark on their credit. That single fact defuses the "I do not want a credit hit" objection at the kitchen table; we cover the mechanics in how Hearth's 18-lender network works.
GreenSky is one program with one underwriting box. It does not publish a hard FICO floor, but approvals skew toward prime borrowers, and the application involves a hard credit pull. When a homeowner in the 550 to 640 band gets declined, there is no second lender in line; the conversation simply ends. For context on what those score bands mean for your close rate, see our piece on FICO scores and contractor financing.
Winner: Hearth, clearly, for any contractor whose customer base is not uniformly prime credit.
Loan sizes, terms, and payment framing
Loan size ceilings matter more as your average ticket grows. Hearth's lender network offers personal loans from $1,000 up to $250,000 with terms from 2 to 12 years, per its customer financing page. GreenSky's core home improvement product is typically a $3,500 to $65,000 line, with certain installment programs reaching about $100,000. For a standard HVAC replacement either ceiling is fine, but a $120,000 whole-home remodel only fits on one of these platforms.
Long terms are also a sales tool. Stretching a $48,000 kitchen across 12 years turns the pitch from "can you write a check" into a monthly number near a car payment, which is how remodelers use financing to lift ticket size in the first place. GreenSky's promo plans compress payments into shorter windows, which suits smaller tickets, and its deferred-interest structure can bite homeowners who do not pay off in time, a pattern we explain in how 0 percent APR contractor financing actually works.
Winner: Hearth on ceiling and term flexibility; GreenSky only if short promo windows fit your ticket size.
Promotional 0 percent offers
Promotional financing is the one battlefield where GreenSky still holds ground. True same-as-cash and deferred-interest plans (0 percent for 6 to 24 months) are GreenSky's signature product, built over years of manufacturer and dealer relationships in HVAC and roofing. Homeowners recognize the pitch, and for brand-affiliated HVAC dealers the promo programs are often baked into co-op marketing.
The catch is that those promos carry the highest dealer fees on the menu, because you are the one funding the homeowner's free interest. Hearth's marketplace surfaces low-APR offers (rates from about 7.99 percent APR, ranging up to 35.99 percent for weaker credit) rather than true 0 percent promos on most deals, so contractors who have built their whole pitch around "no interest for 18 months" will feel the difference.
Winner: GreenSky, if promotional plans are central to your sales process and your margins absorb the fees.
Software, sales tools, and eligibility
Software is where the two products stop being comparable at all. Hearth bundles quoting, digital contracts, invoicing, and payment collection into the subscription, so the fee buys a light sales stack, not just financing links. Which tier makes sense depends on team size; our Hearth plan comparison sorts that out. GreenSky is a financing rail, full stop, and assumes you already have a CRM and proposal tool.
Eligibility cuts the other way before you ever compare features. GreenSky's merchant program requires roughly 2 plus years in business and about $1 million in lifetime revenue, per trades.org's provider roundup. Hearth publishes no business-age minimum, which makes it one of the few realistic options for young companies; we wrote a full guide on offering financing as a new contractor.
Winner: Hearth on both bundled tools and accessibility for newer businesses.
Track record and what users actually say
Track record deserves weight when a platform sits between you and your customer's money. In July 2021 the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau issued a consent order against GreenSky after finding merchants had submitted loans consumers never authorized, citing at least 6,000 such complaints; GreenSky was required to refund or cancel up to $9 million in loans and pay a $2.5 million civil penalty, per the CFPB's published order. Goldman Sachs, which bought GreenSky for $1.73 billion, sold it in early 2024 to a consortium led by Sixth Street (with KKR, Bayview, and CardWorks) for roughly $500 million, per Goldman's own press release. The platform keeps operating, but that is a turbulent five years.
Review sentiment splits the same way. As of mid-2026, GreenSky holds 1.4 of 5 stars on Trustpilot across roughly 80 reviews, with recurring complaints about deferred-interest surprises, unreachable support, and billing disputes. Hearth holds 4.5 of 5 from more than 1,300 Trustpilot reviews. Hearth is not spotless: BBB and contractor-forum threads flag auto-renewal billing that surprises people at month 12, slow refunds, and pre-qualified leads that never fund. We collected field reports in our roundup of Hearth reviews from working contractors. The honest read: Hearth's complaints are about the subscription; GreenSky's are about the loans themselves, which is the part your customer experiences.
Winner: Hearth by a wide margin on reputation and regulatory history.
Pricing at every tier
| Plan or fee tier | What you pay | Best suited to |
|---|---|---|
| Hearth Essentials | $1,499 per year plus $99 setup | Solo operators adding financing to estimates |
| Hearth Pro | $1,799 per year plus $99 setup | Most small crews; adds quoting and contract tools |
| Hearth Elite | $4,999 per year plus $99 setup | Multi-user teams pushing financing on every bid |
| GreenSky standard plans | Roughly 2 to 6 percent per funded loan | Low-volume shops, prime-credit customer bases |
| GreenSky promotional plans | Roughly 6 to 10 percent plus per funded loan | Dealers whose pitch requires true 0 percent offers |
Choose Hearth if, choose GreenSky if
Choose Hearth if you finance more than about $30,000 per year, want a predictable flat cost, serve homeowners across the full 550 to 800 credit range, prefer soft pulls that keep hesitant customers in the conversation, need loan ceilings above $65,000, want quoting and invoicing bundled in, or run a business too young for GreenSky's merchant requirements.
Choose GreenSky if your financed volume is genuinely tiny and unpredictable, your customers are reliably prime credit, your manufacturer or distributor relationships already route through GreenSky, or true 0 percent promotional plans close your deals and your margins carry the fee.
Plenty of high-volume shops run both: Hearth as the default on every estimate, GreenSky held back for the specific promo pitch. The two are not exclusive, and a second option lifts your overall funding rate. If neither fits, we compared the wider field in Hearth vs Wisetack vs GreenSky vs Improvifi and in our list of GreenSky alternatives.
Final verdict
Hearth is the better platform for most contractors in 2026. The flat subscription beats dealer fees at any meaningful volume, the 18 plus lender network approves homeowners GreenSky turns away, and the reputational gap (4.5 stars vs 1.4 on Trustpilot, plus a CFPB consent order on GreenSky's record) is hard to argue around. GreenSky keeps a legitimate lane for low-volume shops and promo-driven HVAC dealers, but that lane narrows every year as fee-free alternatives mature. Pull last year's numbers: if financed jobs totaled more than $30,000, the decision has already made itself.
Want to see the numbers on your own volume? Get started with Hearth here and compare a quote against what you paid in dealer fees last year.
How we put this together
We compared published pricing and program terms from Hearth's pricing and customer financing pages and GreenSky's merchant fee pages, checked regulatory history against the CFPB's 2021 consent order and Goldman Sachs' sale announcement, and pulled review sentiment from Trustpilot and BBB listings. All figures were verified in July 2026; dealer fee percentages vary by contract, so treat them as ranges, not quotes.
Frequently asked questions
Is Hearth cheaper than GreenSky?
Hearth is cheaper than GreenSky once you finance more than roughly $26,000 per year at GreenSky's average 7 percent fee, since Hearth Pro costs a flat $1,799 annually. Below about $18,000 to $26,000 in financed volume, GreenSky's per-loan fees usually total less than a subscription.
Does GreenSky charge contractors a fee?
Yes, GreenSky charges contractors a dealer fee on every funded loan, typically 2 to 10 percent of the loan amount depending on the pricing plan, and its merchant materials indicate the average lands near 7 percent. Promotional 0 percent plans carry the highest fees.
What credit score does a homeowner need for Hearth vs GreenSky?
Hearth's lender network accepts FICO scores down to about 550 through near-prime partners, while GreenSky publishes no floor but approves mostly prime borrowers. Hearth also uses a soft pull for pre-qualification, so checking offers does not affect the homeowner's score.
Can a new contractor sign up for GreenSky?
Usually not: GreenSky's merchant requirements include roughly 2 plus years in business and about $1 million in lifetime revenue. Hearth lists no business-age minimum, which makes it the more realistic option for companies in their first two years.
How big a loan can my customer get on each platform?
Hearth's partners fund personal loans from $1,000 up to $250,000 on terms of 2 to 12 years, while GreenSky's core product runs $3,500 to $65,000, with some installment programs reaching about $100,000. For large whole-home projects, Hearth has the higher ceiling.
Who owns GreenSky now?
GreenSky is owned by an investor consortium led by Sixth Street, alongside KKR, Bayview Asset Management, and CardWorks, which bought it from Goldman Sachs in a deal announced in October 2023 and closed in early 2024 for roughly $500 million.
Can I use Hearth and GreenSky at the same time?
Yes, nothing stops you from running both platforms, and many higher-volume contractors do: Hearth as the fee-free default on every estimate and GreenSky reserved for customers who specifically want a 0 percent promotional plan. A second option raises your overall funding rate.
