Claim the free profile on all four: Yelp, Houzz, BBB, and Angi. Pay on almost none of them. The free listings cost you about two hours total and feed Google real citation signals. The paid tiers only clear the math in specific cases: Houzz Pro for remodelers who sell visually, BBB accreditation if your customers skew older, and Angi or Yelp paid leads only after you have tested cost per booked job against Google channels.
Key takeaways
- Free profiles on Yelp, BBB, and Angi are worth claiming for search visibility and citations, even if you never spend a dollar on any of them.
- Yelp Ads run roughly $30 to $150 per lead for home services in 2026, and Yelp's own recommendation software filters about 25 percent of reviews out of your score.
- Houzz Pro plans run from about $55 to $249 per month per Capterra's 2026 listings, and the platform only fits visual trades like remodeling and design-build.
- Angi shared leads cost roughly $15 to $120 each, go to multiple contractors at once, and close at around 10 percent platform-wide, so a booked job can cost $500 or more.
- BBB accreditation is priced by employee count: about $965 per year for a 10-employee shop as of 2025, per Fit Small Business.
How the four platforms compare in 2026
The four big contractor directories run on different business models, and the model tells you most of what you need to know before any sales rep calls. Yelp and Houzz sell advertising and software. Angi sells your contact info as leads. BBB sells a trust badge. Here is the side-by-side view.
| Platform | Business model | Free profile worth it? | Paid cost (2026) | Pay verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Yelp | Advertising (CPC) | Yes, always | $5 to $25 per click, $30 to $150 per lead | Rarely; test against Google LSA first |
| Houzz | Software + marketplace ads | Yes, for visual trades | About $55 to $249/mo (Houzz Pro plans) | Yes for remodelers, no for service trades |
| BBB | Accreditation fee | Yes, always | Roughly $500 to $1,000+/yr by employee count | Only if your customers skew older |
| Angi | Pay per lead | Yes, always | $15 to $120+ per shared lead | Skip shared leads; test exclusive with a capped budget |
Yelp: claim the free profile, be skeptical of the ads
Yelp still earns a claimed profile because the listing surfaces in Google results, Apple Maps, and the Yelp app, and an unclaimed page is visibility a competitor picks up for free. Load photos, services, hours, and a real business description. Budget 30 minutes.
Yelp Ads are a harder sell. Cost breakdowns published for home service contractors in 2026, including Contractor Bear's analysis, put cost per click at $5 to $25 and cost per lead between $30 and $150, with workable monthly budgets starting around $500. Plumbing, HVAC, and roofing sit at the expensive end because more businesses bid on the same searches. Some contractors also report signing 12-month ad agreements, so read the term before you commit.
One more Yelp quirk affects everyone, paying or not: the review filter. Yelp states that its recommendation software filters roughly 25 percent of submitted reviews into the "not recommended" section, where they no longer count toward your star rating. Reviews from customers with blank Yelp profiles are the most likely to vanish, which is exactly the kind of customer contractors have.
Verdict: claim and optimize, free tier only. Consider ads only if your average ticket clears $10,000 and you have already maxed out Google Local Services Ads.
Houzz: the remodeler's platform, priced like software
Houzz is the one directory where the audience genuinely differs. Houzz's own press materials describe a platform of 70 million plus homeowners and home design enthusiasts, with independent trackers putting monthly uniques around 40 million. Those users are researching kitchens, baths, and additions with photos, not searching "plumber near me at 2 a.m."
The free profile matters only if you produce visual work. A Houzz profile with 30 or more project photos gets saved into homeowner ideabooks and generates inquiries; a profile with five photos gets scrolled past. If you run a service trade with no portfolio, skip the effort beyond claiming the listing for the citation.
Paying is a software decision as much as a marketing one. Per Capterra's 2026 pricing listings, Houzz Pro runs from a starter tier around $55 per month on annual billing to $149 per month for Essential (or $99 on annual billing) and $249 per month for Pro, with marketplace advertising quoted separately. The paid tiers bundle proposals, invoicing, and a light CRM, so compare the package against the tools in our remodeler software stack guide before double-paying for features you already own.
Verdict: remodelers, design-build firms, and custom builders should claim it, load 30+ photos, and seriously evaluate Houzz Pro. Emergency and repair trades should claim the listing and move on.
BBB: a cheap trust signal for the right audience
The Better Business Bureau still gets checked before hiring, disproportionately by older homeowners, and the letter grade can appear right in Google search results. The free listing is non-negotiable: claim it, keep your info current, and answer any complaint fast, because even one unanswered complaint drags the grade down.
Accreditation is the paid layer, and BBB prices it by company size. Fit Small Business reports the fee for a 10-employee business at about $965 per year as of early 2025, with smaller shops paying less; most small contractors land somewhere between $500 and $1,000 per year. The badge does not generate leads. What it does is remove doubt at decision time for a trust-focused demographic.
Verdict: claim the free listing always. Pay for accreditation only if your customer base skews 55 and up or you sell big-ticket in-home work where trust objections kill deals. If your market is younger, put the same money into Google Business Profile improvements instead.
Angi: free visibility, expensive leads
Angi (the merger of Angie's List and HomeAdvisor) deserves the same free-profile treatment as Yelp: claim it, add photos and services, and take the search visibility. The paid lead program is where the math gets ugly.
Shared leads cost roughly $15 to $120 or more each depending on trade, per LeadTruffle's 2026 pricing guide: roofing at $50 to $120+, HVAC at $45 to $100, handyman work at $15 to $40. Each lead goes to several contractors at once, and platform-wide close rates run around 10 percent. At $50 per lead and a 10 percent close, you pay about $500 per booked job before you count the hours spent dialing. Lead quality complaints are persistent enough that the FTC ordered HomeAdvisor, Angi's lead arm, to pay up to $7.2 million in 2023 over misleading claims about lead quality and pricing.
Exclusive leads change the equation somewhat: they cost more per lead but close at several times the shared rate because you are not racing seven competitors to the phone. If you test them, set a hard monthly cap and answer within a minute; our speed-to-lead breakdown shows why the first responder usually wins.
Verdict: claim the free profile, skip shared leads, and only test exclusive leads with a capped budget after cheaper channels are saturated. The full paid-channel comparison lives in our lead generation tools guide.
The three questions that decide any directory
Every directory decision, including ones this post does not cover, comes down to the same three questions:
- Does my customer demographic actually use it? Yelp skews urban, Houzz skews remodel-shoppers, BBB skews older and trust-driven, Angi skews price-shoppers gathering multiple quotes.
- Is the free profile worth 30 minutes? Almost always yes. A claimed profile is search visibility plus a citation, even if you ignore every upsell email forever.
- If I pay, what is my cost per booked job versus my other channels? Not cost per lead. Cost per booked job. Run the close-rate math before any contract, and never buy because a sales rep called during your busy season.
The free-profile baseline every contractor needs
Before debating paid tiers on any directory, every contracting business should hold four free profiles: Google Business Profile, Yelp, BBB, and a Facebook business page. Google Business Profile does more for local lead flow than the other three combined, so if you have not set it up properly, start with our step-by-step GBP walkthrough and then work on getting your first 50 Google reviews. Add Houzz if you do visual work, the free Angi profile for coverage, and Bing Places, Apple Business Connect, and Nextdoor as a later cleanup project.
The citation trap: sloppy listings hurt your rankings
Every directory listing doubles as a citation, a name-address-phone record Google cross-references to verify your business. Consistent citations quietly help your local rankings. Inconsistent ones quietly hurt: claim 30 directories and leave an old phone number on eight of them, and you have paid to make your business look less trustworthy to Google. Settle on one exact NAP format before you claim anything, then use it everywhere. Our NAP consistency guide covers the audit, and if a directory surfaces an ugly review along the way, respond with a template rather than ignoring it.
A four-week rollout plan
- Week 1: lock your master NAP format, then claim Google Business Profile, Yelp, BBB, and Facebook with identical details.
- Week 2: add Houzz (visual trades load 30+ project photos), the free Angi profile, and Bing Places.
- Week 3: decide on paid tiers using the cost-per-booked-job math above. If anything survives the math, start with a small capped test.
- Week 4: run a citation scan with BrightLocal or Whitespark and fix every mismatched listing you find.
Two hours of free profile work beats $2,000 a month in shared leads in almost every market. Start free, measure everything, and let the math approve any paid tier.
How we put this together
We compared the free and paid tiers of Yelp, Houzz, BBB, and Angi on cost, audience, and lead model. Pricing comes from Capterra's Houzz Pro listings, Fit Small Business's BBB fee reporting, LeadTruffle's 2026 Angi pricing guide, published Yelp Ads cost breakdowns, Yelp's own review-filter documentation, Houzz press materials, and the FTC's HomeAdvisor order. Figures were last verified in July 2026; where sources gave ranges, we kept the range rather than inventing a single number.
Frequently asked questions
Is a free Yelp profile enough, or do contractors need Yelp Ads?
A free, fully built Yelp profile is enough for most contractors, since the listing already appears in Google results and Apple Maps without ad spend. Yelp Ads at $30 to $150 per lead only make sense for high-ticket trades in dense metros, and only after Google Local Services Ads are maxed out.
Is Houzz worth it for service trades like HVAC repair or plumbing?
No, beyond claiming the free listing for the citation, Houzz is not built for emergency or repair work. Houzz users are researching planned visual projects like kitchens and baths, so the platform pays off for remodelers and design-build firms, not same-day service calls.
Does BBB accreditation actually get contractors more jobs?
BBB accreditation does not generate leads; it removes trust objections for a specific, older demographic at decision time. At roughly $500 to $1,000 per year for a small shop, it earns its fee only when your customer base checks BBB grades before hiring, which younger homeowners rarely do.
Why are Angi shared leads so expensive per booked job?
Angi shared leads cost $15 to $120 each and are sold to several contractors simultaneously, so platform-wide close rates hover around 10 percent per LeadTruffle's 2026 data. Paying for roughly ten leads to win one job pushes the real cost per booked job to $500 or more in many trades.
Which directory should a brand-new contractor claim first?
Google Business Profile comes first, because it drives more local calls than Yelp, Houzz, BBB, and Angi combined. Claim it, verify it, and load photos and services, then add the other four free profiles with an identical name, address, and phone format in the same week.
Do unclaimed directory listings hurt a contracting business?
Yes, unclaimed listings hurt in two ways: they often display outdated contact details that create inconsistent citations, and they leave visibility on the table for competitors with claimed profiles. Claiming takes about 30 minutes per platform and puts you in control of the information Google cross-references.
