CleanSignal vs Thumbtack
Marketplaces manufacture the race and sell tickets to it. Public conversations just exist. We find them and put them in front of you, for one flat fee.
Who this page is for
If you are paying Thumbtack per lead and watching the cost per job creep up, this page is for you. It is not a takedown. Thumbtack gives you volume and a low barrier to entry, and for some businesses that trade-off works. But the model has costs that only show up when you start losing more than you win, and we think you should see the difference laid out plainly.
The difference comes down to three things
1. How the money works
Thumbtack earns more every time you pay for a lead, win or lose. Their incentive is to keep the leads coming, whatever the outcome. Our flat fee turns that around: our incentive is to put as many good leads in front of you as possible, because more good leads means more chances to win, and the more jobs you win, the more likely you are to stay with us next month. Everything that matches your trade and area goes into your digest.
2. What chasing a job costs you
On Thumbtack, every lead you chase has already hit your card, win or lose. Enough dead ends in a month and you are paying a real bill for jobs someone else won. CleanSignal is one flat fee for everything we find for you. You no longer pay extra just for a chance to win.
One flat monthly price, no per-lead fees, whether you reply to five conversations or fifty.
3. Who the customer is when you reach them
A Thumbtack lead is a customer whose request has just been matched to several pros at once. A post in a local Facebook group or on Reddit is a person collecting recommendations over a day or two. Several people can reply, a few get asked to quote, and the one who fits gets the call. You are joining a conversation, not a bidding war.
Will other businesses see the same post?
Sometimes, yes. If three plumbers in your city use CleanSignal, they may see some of the same posts, depending on what each has asked us to look for: their trade, their area, their queries. We will not pretend otherwise, and you should be suspicious of any lead product that does. But there is a difference: nobody paid for that post, so when someone else gets the job, nobody has lost money on it. And keep the scale in mind. These posts sit across dozens of groups almost nobody can watch by hand, so most local businesses never find out the conversation happened. The advantage is not beating other subscribers to a post. It is no longer being one of the businesses who never saw it.
What CleanSignal is not
- •It is not instant. We scan and send your digest on your schedule, daily or twice daily. That makes us a good fit for general requests and longer projects, not emergency call-outs.
- •It is not exclusive. See above.
- •It is not a replacement for word of mouth, your own reputation, or repeat customers. It is one more channel: the public conversations you cannot monitor yourself.
- •It does not contact anyone for you. We show you the post and the link. The reply is yours to write.
The honest version, both columns included.
| Thumbtack | CleanSignal | |
|---|---|---|
| How they make money | Per lead delivered | Flat monthly fee |
| What you pay | Per lead, price varies by job and market | $79 or $129 per month |
| What chasing a job costs | The lead fee, win or lose | Nothing extra, however many posts you reply to |
| Where leads come from | Customers filling in requests on Thumbtack | Public posts on Reddit, Facebook groups and the open web, in the person's own words |
| Do others see the same lead | Yes, matched to multiple pros | Possibly. Subscribers with overlapping areas and queries may see the same post, at no extra cost to anyone |
| The customer's state of mind | Just matched with several pros at once | Collecting recommendations at their own pace |
| Commitment | Pay per lead | Monthly, cancel any time. $7 trial credited toward your first month |
See it with your own trade and city
The fastest way to judge this is to look at the kind of posts we surface for your trade in your area.
View the demo$7 trial, credited toward your first month if you continue. No contract.