Here's the twist most comparison articles bury: CraftJack and Angi are the same family. CraftJack was acquired by IAC in 2017 and folded into the HomeAdvisor group, which is now Angi. So you're not choosing between two rivals — you're choosing between two products from the same lead machine, with genuinely different pricing mechanics.
And the mechanics are the whole decision. CraftJack sells leads one at a time with no membership fee and no contract, and knocks 20% off any lead you call within 30 minutes. Angi wraps its leads in an annual membership, monthly spend targets, and — for its ads product — contracts that contractors regularly complain about when they try to leave.
If you just want the verdict: CraftJack for smaller crews and moderate-ticket trades that want to test cheaply and quit freely; Angi for businesses that need raw volume and have the follow-up systems to win shared leads. And if you're deciding whether to use either versus building your own lead flow, read our honest take on marketplaces versus your own leads — this post assumes you've decided to buy leads and want to buy them from the less painful vendor.
How CraftJack's pricing actually works
CraftJack is pay-per-lead, full stop. No annual membership, no monthly minimum you're locked into, no 12-month contract. You set your service types and coverage area, leads come in, and you pay for each one.
Published per-lead prices vary a lot by trade. From CraftJack's own trade pages and current third-party breakdowns:
- Roofing: roughly $13 to $72 per lead, per CraftJack's own published roofing-leads page.
- Handyman, flooring, painting: roughly $7 to $50 per lead.
- General contractor / larger remodel work: roughly $102 to $153 per lead — the big-ticket category is priced like it.
Two mechanics matter more than the sticker price:
1. The speed-to-call discount. Call the homeowner within 30 minutes of receiving the lead and CraftJack takes 20% off that lead's price, per CraftJack's own explanation of the program. CraftJack says contractors who earn the discount average 17% savings overall and that pros have saved over $1.2 million since the program launched in 2013. The discount is verified through their call tracking, so it only counts if you actually dial.
Don't treat this as a coupon. Treat it as the platform paying you to do the single thing that most improves close rate anyway. Speed-to-lead is the whole game on shared leads — the discount just makes the right behavior cheaper.
2. The sharing cap. CraftJack states it will never sell the same lead to more than four contractors, per its knowledge base. Four is still a race — but it's a smaller race than what many Angi contractors report.
How Angi's pricing actually works
Angi's contractor side has two layers, and the fees stack:
- Membership: roughly $300 per year to be listed and access Angi Leads.
- Per-lead fees: third-party 2025–2026 breakdowns like LeadTruffle's Angi cost guide put typical ranges at $15–$40 for handyman work, $25–$55 for landscaping, $35–$80 for electrical, $40–$85 for plumbing, $45–$100 for HVAC, and $50–$120+ for roofing.
- Spend commitments: contractors are typically asked to commit to a monthly lead budget, commonly in the $250–$600+ range, and Angi Ads contracts commonly run 12 months with meaningful early-cancellation penalties reported by contractors who've tried to exit.
The sharing situation is the bigger cost. Contractor-side reviews consistently report Angi leads going to somewhere between three and eight pros at once. Every additional competitor on a lead cuts your expected close rate — which means the effective cost per job can be far higher than the per-lead price suggests, even when Angi's sticker price looks similar to CraftJack's.
CraftJack vs Angi, side by side
| Factor | CraftJack | Angi |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Pay per lead only | Annual membership plus per-lead fees |
| Membership / annual fee | None | About $300 per year |
| Typical per-lead cost | About $7–$72 most trades; $102–$153 for general contracting | About $15–$120+ depending on trade |
| Lead sharing | Capped at 4 contractors (stated policy) | Commonly reported at 3–8 contractors |
| Fast-response discount | 20% off any lead called within 30 minutes | None |
| Contract | No long-term contract; pause or quit anytime | Spend targets; Angi Ads contracts often 12 months with exit penalties |
| Volume | Moderate — smaller marketplace | High — one of the biggest home-service marketplaces |
| Ownership | Owned by Angi | Angi |
The break-even math you should run before signing up with either
Per-lead price is a distraction. The number that decides everything is cost per booked job, and it's driven by your close rate on shared leads.
Say you're a plumber. Model both platforms honestly:
| Scenario | Lead price | Realistic close rate on shared leads | Cost per booked job |
|---|---|---|---|
| CraftJack, you call within 30 min | $50 lead, 20% discount = $40 | 25% (fast caller, 4-way share) | $160 |
| CraftJack, slow follow-up | $50 | 10% | $500 |
| Angi, fast follow-up | $60 | 15% (more pros on each lead) | $400 plus your share of the $300/yr membership |
| Angi, slow follow-up | $60 | 8% | $750+ |
Notice what actually moves the number: not the platform — your speed. A fast caller on CraftJack pays a third of what a slow caller pays on the same platform. If your phone handling is leaky, fix that before buying leads from anyone; otherwise you're just donating.
Then compare the cost per booked job against your margin. If your average plumbing job is $450 with 50% gross margin, a $160 acquisition cost works and a $500 one doesn't — unless the customer repeats. Run your own numbers through our ROI calculator before you commit a budget, and if you're in a repeat-heavy trade, check what a customer is really worth over time first — that's what makes marginal lead costs suddenly pencil.
Lead quality and disputes: where the two really differ day to day
Sticker price and sharing caps show up in the sales pitch. Lead quality and the dispute process show up in month two, and they'll shape how you feel about either platform far more than the rates do.
CraftJack's quality pitch is phone verification. CraftJack says it phone-verifies leads before selling them — a human or system confirms the homeowner actually wants quotes — and its call-tracking system is baked into how the speed-to-call discount is measured. In practice that filters out some, not all, of the tire-kickers. You'll still pay for homeowners who were "just curious," but disconnected numbers and gibberish requests are rarer than on open-form marketplaces. When a bad one slips through, the dispute path is straightforward: flag the lead through your dashboard, and credits for legitimately bogus leads (wrong number, wrong trade, outside your area) are routinely granted. No membership fee also means a disputed month never turns into a fight about a contract.
Angi's quality is a wider spread. With the biggest funnel in the industry, Angi delivers everything from ready-to-book homeowners to people who didn't realize submitting a form would trigger five phone calls. Contractor reviews collected by Hook Agency's 2025 roundup of Angi Leads feedback repeat the same three complaints: leads sold to too many pros, leads that never answer, and friction getting credits for junk. Angi does issue lead credits, but contractors consistently report having to argue for them — and with automatic billing against your monthly lead budget, a lazy month of not disputing quietly costs real money.
The practical takeaway: budget your admin time, not just your ad spend. On either platform, plan on 20 minutes a week reviewing every lead you were charged for and disputing the duds the same day. Contractors who skip this step overpay by 10–20% and then blame the platform. Contractors who do it turn both platforms' effective lead costs down a meaningful notch — and on CraftJack, stacking disciplined disputes with the 30-minute-call discount is how the sharpest operators get their real cost per lead well below the published ranges.
One more difference worth naming: cancellation friction. CraftJack accounts pause and close cleanly because there's nothing to unwind. Leaving Angi Ads mid-contract commonly means paying a percentage of the remaining term. If there's any chance you'll want out in 90 days — new business, seasonal trade, testing multiple channels — that asymmetry alone can decide the choice.
Who CraftJack fits
- Smaller crews and owner-operators who can't commit $500+/month and want to test with a few hundred dollars.
- Fast responders. If you (or your office) reliably call new leads inside 30 minutes, you get a structural 20% cost advantage that Angi simply doesn't offer.
- Moderate-ticket trades — handyman, painting, flooring, plumbing repair — where $7–$50 leads can pencil even at modest close rates. See how this fits the broader plan for a shop like yours on our plumbing marketing page.
- Anyone allergic to contracts. No membership and no term means a bad month costs you a bad month, not a cancellation penalty.
Who Angi fits
- Established businesses that need volume. Angi's marketplace is far bigger. If you have techs to keep busy and a dispatcher who pounces on every lead, more raw flow can beat better unit economics.
- Trades with high job values — roofing, HVAC replacement, remodels — where even a $100 lead closed at 15% still lands well under a sane acquisition cost. For HVAC shops in particular, marketplace leads should be one line item in a wider mix, not the mix.
- Businesses that have already measured their close rate on shared leads and know the math works. If you're guessing, you're not ready for a 12-month commitment.
Who should skip both
- Anyone whose calendar is already 80% full. Shared leads are a speed game you'll lose while you're on a roof.
- Trades where the buyer researches slowly (design-heavy remodels, custom work). Marketplace leads skew toward price-shoppers collecting quotes.
- Anyone who hasn't set up the free stuff. A complete Google Business Profile and steady reviews produce exclusive leads at zero per-lead cost. And if you're going to pay for leads, Google's Local Services Ads deserve a head-to-head test against both of these — you pay per lead there too, but the intent is typically stronger.
If you do sign up: three rules
- Call in under 30 minutes, every time. On CraftJack it's a 20% discount; on both platforms it's the difference between a 25% close rate and a 10% one.
- Dispute junk leads immediately. Both platforms have credit processes for bad numbers and out-of-area requests. Contractors who don't dispute quietly subsidize everyone who does.
- Track cost per booked job weekly, not monthly. The moment it exceeds your break-even, pause (CraftJack) or start your exit clock (Angi). A lead source is an employee — it gets fired when it stops performing.
Buying leads should be a bridge, not a business model. If you want an honest read on whether CraftJack, Angi, or a different channel is the right gap-filler for your specific trade and market — and what to build so you eventually need none of them — a Founders Resource Growth Checkup will map it out, or our ads management can run the paid side while you run the crews.