DO NOT USE this service if you don't have money to burn.
As a professional using Thumbtack to market my business, I’m extremely dissatisfied with its lead-generation and billing practices. It has recently come to my attention that customers may not be shown contractors’ base pricing before selecting professionals to contact. This can result in customers contacting multiple contractors, only to discover afterward that the available services exceed their budget. The customer may hire no one, yet each selected contractor can still be charged for the lead. In that situation, the customer’s request goes unfulfilled, the contractors receive no work, and Thumbtack still collects its fees. In my opinion, this creates a serious conflict of interest. Thumbtack benefits financially from generating contacts, regardless of whether the customer was given enough pricing information to make a realistic selection or whether any contractor ultimately gets hired. I believe Thumbtack should display meaningful base-pricing information before customers select contractors and should not charge professionals for leads that were never financially viable. Contractors deserve transparent fees and genuinely qualified leads—not charges generated from customers who were unaware of the likely cost. Based on my experience as a paying professional, I consider these practices unfair and lacking in transparency. I would caution other small-business owners to understand exactly when Thumbtack charges for leads and how little control they may have over whether those leads represent realistic opportunities.