If hipages is eating your margin, you are not stuck with it. This is an honest rundown of what else is out there, what each one actually does with your money, and the one lead source most tradies overlook because it is not a platform at all. We went deeper on hipages itself in is hipages worth it. This one is about where else to put your time and money.
We have not quoted any platform's prices below. They change, they vary by trade and suburb, and most of them do not publish a price list. Where a platform explains how it charges on its own site, we link it so you can check the current figure yourself.
The other lead platforms
They all run on the same idea: a customer posts a job, and several businesses get the chance to quote on it.
- hipages. You pay a subscription that comes with credits, and accepting a lead takes credits off your account, per hipages' own page for businesses. On the customer side, hipages tells homeowners they can "receive up to 3 free quotes", so on a given job you are usually one of up to three.
- Airtasker. Customers post a task and receive quotes, and the money is held with Airtasker Pay until the task is done, per its how-it-works page. It suits small, well-defined jobs. Its fees for the person doing the work were not on that page, so check them before you sign up.
- ServiceSeeking. Customers get quotes from local businesses and, once they have "enough quotes", press a "Stop Quotes" button, per its how-it-works page. We could not find its prices for businesses published on a public page, so ask them.
- Bark. You buy a pack of credits and spend them to contact the customers you want. Bark says the cost of each one depends on the service, the value of the job and supply and demand in the area, per its pricing page.
What happened to Oneflare
Oneflare has closed. When we checked on 15 October 2026, oneflare.com.au sent visitors straight to Airtasker. If you got work from it, that is the lesson worth keeping: the customers, the reviews and the repeat work lived inside the platform, so when it shut, none of it came with you. Any platform can change its prices, its rules or its mind. The leads you own are the ones it can't switch off.
What they all have in common
Swapping one platform for another does not change the deal:
- the customer is comparing you with other businesses from the first minute, so you compete on price and on how fast you reply;
- you pay for the chance to quote, whether you win the job or not;
- the day you stop paying, the work stops.
That is fine for filling a quiet week. It is a poor place to build a business, because you never end up owning anything. If you want to work out what a platform job really costs you, the maths is in how much tradie leads really cost.
The one most miss: the calls already ringing your number
Before you pay for another lead, look at the ones you are already getting for free. Every time someone rings your mobile, they have picked you. They found your number on your ute, your Google listing, a mate's recommendation or a job you did down the street. Nobody else got that lead and nobody charged you for it.
Then a lot of those calls ring out, because you are up a ladder or under a house. The caller gets voicemail, and many callers hang up without leaving a message and ring the next tradie instead. That is a paid-for-nothing lead, lost.
Try this: open your phone's recent calls and count the missed calls from numbers you don't know over the last week. Then ask how many of those you rang back within the hour. Most tradies are surprised by the first number and a bit embarrassed by the second.
This is the cheapest fix on the list:
- Get to those callers before the next tradie does. When you can't pick up, missed-call text-back sends the caller a text from you within seconds, so they know you got the call and can tell you what they need. With BizEdge, they hear you are on the tools, get your text, and you get one text and an email with their number and what they said.
- Keep your own number. Nothing changes for your customers. Setup is a few standard codes on your mobile and one test call, and the set-up guide walks you through it for Telstra, Optus and Vodafone.
- Know what voicemail is costing you. On most phones, voicemail answers first and the caller gets a mailbox. Voicemail vs missed-call text-back explains the race and how to switch it off on your carrier.
It will not replace a platform on day one. But it stops you paying for leads you already had.
The slow second move: your own Google presence
The other alternative that is not a platform is being the tradie who turns up when someone searches "electrician Werribee" or "plumber Point Cook". Those people ring you directly, there is no per-lead fee, and they don't go to anyone else.
It is slower. A Google profile and reviews take months to build, not days. It comes down to three things:
- Your Google Business Profile, sorted. Right category, service area, photos and hours. Here is how to set it up.
- Recent reviews. They are what tips a searcher into ringing you instead of the next listing. How to get more 5-star reviews covers the asking.
- A page for each suburb you work, if you have a website. Why suburb pages win local jobs explains why.
More on ranking in how to rank your trade business on Google. And note the order: a better Google listing makes your phone ring more, which only pays off if you catch the calls.
Word of mouth, made regular
Your past customers are the cheapest repeat work you will ever get, and most tradies never ask. A short reminder text brings them back. We broke that down in the 10-minute win-back text.
So what should you actually do
Don't quit a platform cold turkey if you need work this week. Do it in this order instead:
- This week: stop losing the calls you already get. Switch voicemail off if you can, set up the divert, and do one test call.
- This month: sort your Google profile and start asking every happy customer for a review.
- Ongoing: keep a platform running for the quiet weeks while more of the work comes to you directly. Over time the lead bill shrinks on its own.