For Australian trade businesses

hipages leads vs your own website

Shared leads fill gaps, especially early on. Your own engine, a website and Google presence you own, wins work that's yours alone. Here's the honest comparison, on hipages' own numbers.

Where hipages genuinely works

Fair's fair: it does what it says. It solves a real problem, which is quoting activity this week, with nothing to build first.

jobs posted every month
100,000+
Australian tradie members
33,000
a job posted every
25 sec

hipages Group Quick Facts, July 2026.

  • Fast to start

    Profile up, leads coming in within days. No build time, no setup project, nothing to learn.

  • You pay for activity

    Your plan loads credits each month and accepting a lead spends them. No commission on the job value, and you can see what every credit did.

  • The structure is built for you

    A business profile with reviews, plus quoting, invoicing and scheduling in the app. If you're starting from nothing, that's a real head start.

How do hipages leads actually work?

  1. You subscribe

    $139 to $649 a month plus GST. Each plan loads your account with a monthly batch of credits.

  2. A homeowner posts a job

    Matched tradies get notified. Accepting the lead spends credits; the price varies by trade, location, job size and demand.

  3. Up to 3 tradies accept

    Each pays for the same homeowner's details. After three, a waitlist forms.

  4. You quote against two others

    Win or lose the job, the credits are spent. Unused credits expire over time.

What kind of jobs come through?

Plenty of tradies win real work on it, and it varies by category and suburb. But ask around, and the same stories come up over and over:

  • "Bloke wanted his $900 oven installed, and the old one taken away, for $450."

    The lowball

  • "Booked a tap job priced for a pensioner's budget. Turned up to a marble entrance."

    The budget that isn't

  • "You'd be better off going fishing than putting in a tap mixer for fifty bucks."

    The race to the bottom

Patterns from Australian tradie Facebook groups, anonymised. Not every job, but every tradie recognises them.

Add the quote collectors, the leads that go nowhere, and the invoices you end up chasing after winning on price, and the credits burn faster than the calendar fills. Even hipages' own contract has a process for handing credits back when a lead isn't genuine. That process exists for a reason.

Why it skews that way

  • Homeowners post a job in a couple of minutes, with nothing riding on it. There's no filter on how serious it is.
  • Every lead invites up to three quotes, and when three strangers price the same job, cheapest is the easiest way to pick.
  • The homeowner hasn't seen your reviews, your photos or your work. You're one of three names on a screen.

None of that is a knock on hipages. It's what an open marketplace naturally optimises for. It's also the opposite of what your own engine attracts: someone who searched, found you, read your reviews and rang. That client arrives already leaning your way, not comparing three prices.

What does a shared lead really cost?

$2,381/year

what the average Australian member spends, per hipages' own FY25 ASX results (August 2025)

What that buys is chances to quote, not jobs:

Three businesses can pay for the same lead. Quote well and win one in three, and a third of your spend books work; the rest bought conversations with homeowners who picked someone else.

Real jobs come in for it, which is why tradies keep paying. But nothing stays behind: the profile, the reviews and the visibility all live on the platform. There's a name for that: lead renting. Not a con, just a deal where you never stop paying for the same thing.

Owning the engine runs the other way

Around 22,200 Australians search "plumber near me" every month, and a "plumber Brisbane" click runs about $13.90 at market rates (Semrush AU, July 2026). On your own site, those clicks land with your number on them and nobody else quoting.

$14.16 a lead Mr Loo ran ads into a site they own: $120k of extra work in three months. Read the case study $0 ad spend Quick Mick's ranks page one and takes around 10 new clients a month. Read the case study

Renting leads vs owning the engine

Renting leads Owning the engine
Where the enquiry goes To you and up to two others. Three businesses can accept each lead, then a waitlist forms. Straight to your phone. Nobody else sees it.
Who's on the other end A poster collecting up to three quotes, usually price-first. Someone who searched, read your reviews and chose to call you.
What you pay for Each lead you take, win or lose the job. An asset you keep: the site, the rankings, the Google listing.
When you stop paying The leads stop with the subscription. The site and rankings keep working. Rankings compound instead of resetting.
Where reviews build up On your platform profile. On your own Google listing, which ranks you in the map results.
Whose brand grows The platform gets the search traffic and the recognition. Yours. People start searching your business by name.

When does each one make sense?

This isn't either-or, and anyone who tells you to cancel everything tomorrow is selling something. Match the tool to where the business is at. If you're costing the owned side, the sourced numbers are in our tradie website cost guide.

  • Starting out or filling gaps

    Keep hipages. It does this job well: quick quoting activity while your name gets around. Just treat it as a bridge, not the destination.

  • Established, after better jobs

    This is where owning the engine wins. Your suburbs, the services you want more of, and clients who chose you rather than the fastest quote.

  • Running both

    The common path. Keep the platform on while your site and rankings spin up over a few months, then taper the lead spend as your own enquiries take over.

Weighing it up?

The questions tradies ask about lead platforms and going out on their own.

Is hipages worth it for tradies?

For filling gaps in the calendar or getting quoting activity early on, yes, it does its job. The trade-off is that leads are shared, the spend stops working the day you stop paying, and the profile you build belongs to the platform rather than to you.

How much does hipages cost?

Plans run from $139 to $649 a month plus GST, each loading a monthly allowance of credits that you spend accepting leads (hipages pricing page, July 2026). Subscriptions start on a six-month introductory term and renew on twelve-month terms, and hipages' FY25 results put the average Australian member's spend at $2,381 a year.

Can I run hipages and my own website together?

Yes, and plenty of trade businesses do exactly that. A common path is keeping the platform running while your own site and Google presence build up, then winding the lead spend back as your own enquiries take over.

How do I get leads without hipages?

Three channels you own: a website built to rank for your services and suburbs, a well-maintained Google Business Profile collecting reviews, and Google Ads when you want jobs on demand. They take longer to get going than a lead platform, and they compound instead of resetting.

Do hipages reviews help me rank on Google?

They strengthen your hipages profile, and that profile can show up in search results. But reviews on your own Google Business Profile are what move you up the map results for your area, and those stay yours whether or not you keep any subscription.

What does building your own site cost instead?

Anywhere from around $20 a month doing it yourself to $15,000 for a premium custom build, depending on who builds it and what it is built to do. We put the full sourced breakdown, including ongoing costs and what to check before paying anyone, in our tradie website cost guide.

Sources

Facts and figures retrieved July 2026. Platform pricing and mechanics change; check the source pages for current details.

Take your time.

Keep hipages while it's filling the calendar. When you're ready to see what an engine you own looks like for your trade and area, book a call and we'll walk you through it. No obligation.

Book a call