Content reviewed . Read the revision history.
The Level Index, Trades Reputation
How do contractors actually rate? 110,040+ listings analyzed
Median star ratings, review volume distributions, and listing claim rates across HVAC, plumbing, electrical, roofing, and landscaping. Use the same trade, platform, and listing snapshot when comparing your business. Review count, star rating, and listing ownership answer different questions.
4.6★
Electrician median rating, highest of these five trades
9
Median HVAC reviews, the p90 shop has 64
23%
HVAC contractors haven't claimed their listing
3.9★
Landscaping median, lowest of core trades
Testing reputation against gross profit
Which review-origin inquiries become profitable completed jobs?
Compare the inquiry source with your quote outcome, completed job, and actual labor and material cost. A bottom-quartile HVAC rating is 3.0 stars, but the directory does not show which competitor received a call. The separate 73.9% decided-quote and 85.1% collection medians are financial reference points, not a measured effect of reviews.
73.9%
Median quote conversion on decided quotes
Level research, n=794
85.1%
Median collected cash / billed revenue
Level research, n=464
9 reviews
Median HVAC shop, p90 has 64+
Yelp directory, n=42,943
Reputation benchmarks by trade
Rating distributions (p25 / median / p75), review count quartiles, claim rates, and closure rates. All figures from 110,040+ listings, last updated 2026-08-06.
HVAC
n=42,943Star rating distribution
4
p25 reviews
9
Median reviews
23
p75 reviews
64
p90 reviews
77.2%
listing claimed
4.8%
permanently closed
The median HVAC listing has 9 Yelp reviews, the bottom quartile 4, and p90 64. 77.2% are claimed, leaving 22.8% unclaimed. Check the correct service-area listing and its contact details before buying more lead traffic; then track which inquiries reach a decided quote.
Plumbing
n=11,748Star rating distribution
3
p25 reviews
7
Median reviews
16
p75 reviews
41
p90 reviews
68.7%
listing claimed
4.8%
permanently closed
Plumbing has a 4.2-star median across 11,748 listings, with p90 review count 41. Compare the 3.1-star p25 with the 4.9-star p75 by reading the underlying complaints: separate appointment communication, repair scope, and price disputes before choosing a service improvement. Only 68.7% of listings are claimed.
Roofing
n=22,796Star rating distribution
3
p25 reviews
6
Median reviews
12
p75 reviews
29
p90 reviews
77.9%
listing claimed
4.3%
permanently closed
Roofing has a median of 6 reviews and p90 of 29; its claim rate leads these five trades at 77.9%. Before comparing counts, distinguish a roof replacement from a small repair and confirm the same listing platform and snapshot date. Track completed work and authentic customer feedback separately from proposal volume.
Electricians
n=12,534Star rating distribution
3
p25 reviews
6
Median reviews
14
p75 reviews
39
p90 reviews
74.5%
listing claimed
3.8%
permanently closed
Electricians have the highest median among these five trades, 4.6 stars versus 4 for HVAC and 4.2 for plumbing; p25 is 3.7. A rating cannot establish code compliance or callback frequency. Compare complaint themes with your own inspection and callback records before attributing the gap to service quality.
Landscaping
n=20,019Star rating distribution
3
p25 reviews
6
Median reviews
12
p75 reviews
28
p90 reviews
67.5%
listing claimed
4.7%
permanently closed
Landscaping has a 3.9-star median, p25 3, and 67.5% of listings claimed. Separate recurring maintenance from one-time project feedback when reviewing complaints. Check whether a route, missed visit, or scope dispute recurs in your own records before changing renewal terms or staffing.
Most competitive contractor markets
Metros ranked by observed contractor listings, pooled across all trades. LA averages 4.34 stars versus Houston 3.67. This unadjusted difference does not identify competitive culture or account for trade mix, listing age, service area, or the businesses absent from the directory. Compare the same trade locally before choosing an operating change.
| # | City | State | Listings | Avg rating | Median reviews |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Los Angeles | CA | 1,102 | 4.34★ | 15 |
| 2 | Houston | TX | 898 | 3.67★ | 6 |
| 3 | San Diego | CA | 833 | 4.30★ | 16 |
| 4 | Phoenix | AZ | 782 | 3.92★ | 10 |
| 5 | Las Vegas | NV | 752 | 3.95★ | 18 |
| 6 | Austin | TX | 736 | 4.00★ | 12 |
| 7 | San Jose | CA | 712 | 4.29★ | 21 |
| 8 | Chicago | IL | 627 | 3.91★ | 11 |
| 9 | San Antonio | TX | 608 | 3.81★ | 6 |
| 10 | Denver | CO | 479 | 3.66★ | 8 |
| 11 | Tucson | AZ | 471 | 3.79★ | 9 |
| 12 | Sacramento | CA | 456 | 4.06★ | 15 |
| 13 | Mesa | AZ | 424 | 4.01★ | 11 |
| 14 | San Francisco | CA | 412 | 4.40★ | 16 |
| 15 | Dallas | TX | 398 | 3.63★ | 7 |
| 16 | Miami | FL | 390 | 3.66★ | 6 |
| 17 | Colorado Springs | CO | 378 | 3.65★ | 7 |
| 18 | Seattle | WA | 377 | 4.11★ | 13 |
| 19 | Portland | OR | 373 | 3.88★ | 13 |
| 20 | Jacksonville | FL | 368 | 3.40★ | 6 |
| 21 | Tampa | FL | 355 | 3.40★ | 7 |
| 22 | Brooklyn | NY | 353 | 3.79★ | 7 |
Source: Yelp directory listings collected April 2026. The five-trade cards cover 110,040 mapped listings, including permanently closed listings; the state tool covers operating listings only. Directory aggregates describe this collected cohort, not a census of U.S. contractors. Data edition last updated August 6, 2026.
Check your own numbers
Your reviews tell prospects what to expect. Your books tell you what you're actually earning.
Public benchmarks show where the median contractor stands. Your own numbers show whether your crew is producing gross profit per hour at the top of the range or leaking margin somewhere between dispatch and invoice. The Level team will show you where the gap is.
In the free audit, we check:
- •gross profit per technician hour from supported labor and job costs
- •quote conversion rate and what's holding it back
- •collection timing, invoice status, and bank receipt matching
We use this to prepare your audit before the call. Your numbers stay private.
Methodology & data sources
How we built this, and how to reproduce it
Expand 4 methodology cards & formula walkthroughs
The source data
Yelp directory listings collected April 2026. The five-trade cards cover 110,040 mapped listings, including permanently closed listings; the state tool covers operating listings only. Directory aggregates describe this collected cohort, not a census of U.S. contractors. Data edition last updated August 6, 2026. Tier B confidence, a commercial directory dataset useful for aggregate market comparisons, not a primary financial dataset. Ratings and reviews reflect consumer sentiment, not audited financials.
How we aggregated it
Every listing was scanned once and assigned to a single primary trade to avoid double counting. Distributions (p25/median/p75/p90) describe the full collected and mapped directory cohort, not all U.S. contractors. Closed businesses stay in the counts so the closure rate can be reported. No imputation, no weighting, no adjustment.
Why quartiles, not averages
A median of 9 reviews with a p90 of 64 tells you more than a bare "average." Averages are pulled up by a small number of dominant shops. Quartiles show where you actually stand in the distribution, and how skewed the observed review counts are.
Level proprietary data, separate source
Quote conversion (73.9%, n=794 eligible companies) and collected cash / billed revenue (85.1%, n=464 eligible companies) are separate metric cohorts within Level's wider 2,200+ contractor analysis representing $13.25B in job revenue. Collection windows were not standardized. Gross profit per technician hour is an operator analysis to build from supported job costs and hours, not a published metric in this directory dataset.
How we arrived at each conclusion
"Electricians rate highest of these five trades (4.6★ median)."
The median overall_rating across the 12,534 listings mapped to Electricians. Cross-checked against the mean (4.19). The p25 floor of 3.7 confirms the finding is not driven by outliers.
"The median HVAC contractor has 9 reviews."
The median reviews_count across the 42,943 HVAC listings. The p90 value of 64 was computed the same way. The gap between median and p90 is arithmetic, not an estimate.
"23% of HVAC contractors haven't claimed their listing."
1 - (claimed / total) on the HVAC subset. The is_claimed field is a boolean set when a business owner takes control of their listing.
"Los Angeles leads the observed city listing counts (1,102 listings)."
A count of listings grouped by city and state across all trades. The rating gap between LA (4.34) and Houston (3.67) is a direct average, not adjusted for trade mix or listing age.
Volume versus rating, and what neither one does
Test review count and star rating against your own inquiry outcomes
Review count measures how many reviews a listing has; star rating summarizes their scores. Neither field identifies the reason a customer called, the scope sold, or the job's margin. Ratings near a 4.0 median can coexist with very different review volumes.
Before spending on reputation work, capture the inquiry source and join it to a decided quote, completed job, and invoice. Compare the same service type and time period; separate repeat customers and large accounts. Check missing job costs before labeling a lead source profitable.
Keep residential and commercial inquiry cohorts separate. Use observed outcomes to decide whether the next step is listing maintenance, quote follow-up, service recovery, or account development.
If your work is commercial
Compare reputation with the scope and economics of your commercial accounts
For a commercial account, verify property type, covered equipment, service scope, and actual customer billing alongside any inquiry-source evidence. Level combines measured account data with trade-specific public evidence, then shows the assumptions behind the estimated revenue and gross profit instead of forcing every trade through one dollars-per-square-foot shortcut.
Where do you rank?
The national numbers above rank 36.7% of HVAC shops more than 10 points from their state-reference position
The operating-listing distributions differ by state. The median HVAC shop has 26 reviews in CA and 4 in AR, so the same count can be bottom-quartile in one state and top-quartile in another. We built per-state curves for every trade on this page where a state has at least 100 operating listings in that trade. A state reference is still broader than your actual service area and does not establish which competitors a customer considered.
Rank me against my state →Raw data, free to cite
The Level Index dataset
Trade and metro figures ship with sample size and source; see the JSON methodology for definitions. State curves are available through the calculator. Free to cite with attribution to the Level Index.
Frequently asked questions
How many reviews does a contractor need?
The operating-listing reference has a national HVAC median of 9, p25 of 4, and p90 of 65. The median is 26 in CA and 4 in AR. Changing the reference from national to state moves 36.7% of HVAC listings by more than 10 percentile points, with all five trades between 30% and 39%. These are comparison points, not a required review count or a sales threshold. The trade cards below include closed listings and show HVAC p90 of 64; the operating-only curve shows 65.
Does review volume or star rating predict revenue?
This directory benchmark measures ratings and review counts, not revenue. To test the connection in your business, join inquiry source, service type, accepted quote, completed job, and collected invoice over the same period. Compare residential and commercial work separately and account for repeat customers and company size. A correlation would not by itself prove that adding reviews caused revenue to rise.
What is the average Yelp rating for HVAC contractors?
The median HVAC contractor has a 4.0-star rating across 42,943 listings analyzed. The average (mean) is 3.74. The bottom quartile sits at 3.0 stars; the top quartile reaches 4.8. Source: Yelp business listings, ~110,000 U.S. trades contractor locations, scraped April 2026.
How many Yelp reviews does the typical contractor have?
The median HVAC contractor has 9 reviews. Plumbing and electricians sit at a median of 6 to 7, roofing and landscaping at 6. The top 10% of HVAC shops reach 64 reviews, versus a median of 9. Most businesses are concentrated in the low-review tail.
Which contractor trade has the best Yelp ratings?
Electricians rate highest among these five trades: 4.6-star median, 4.19 average, with even the bottom quartile at 3.7 stars. HVAC and roofing both have a 4.0 median and plumbing a 4.2 median. Landscaping has the lowest median at 3.9 stars and the lowest claim rate at 67.5%.
What does my Yelp rating have to do with my gross profit?
Start with a checkable question: do review-origin inquiries become profitable completed jobs? Record inquiry source, decided-quote outcome, job revenue, cost completeness, and collection status. Level median quote conversion of 73.9% on decided quotes comes from a separate n=794 company cohort. It cannot show how reviews caused a call or how much gross profit one more review would add.
What percentage of contractors have claimed their Yelp listing?
Between 67.5% (landscaping) and 77.9% (roofing) of observed listings are claimed depending on trade. Roofing leads, with HVAC at 77.2%. Subtract the claimed share from 100% for the unclaimed share; HVAC and roofing are below one quarter unclaimed. Confirm whether your correct listing is already controlled by an authorized owner before starting a claim.
Where does this data come from?
Yelp business listings, approximately 110,000 U.S. trades contractor locations, scraped April 2026. This is Tier B confidence, a commercial directory dataset, not a primary financial dataset. Aggregate distributions only; no individual business is identified. Quote conversion (73.9%, n=794 eligible companies) and collected cash / billed revenue (85.1%, n=464 eligible companies) come from separate metric cohorts within Level's wider analysis of 2,200+ contractors representing $13.25B in job revenue. These are not directory-listing outcomes.
Related benchmarks
Contractor Financial Benchmarks
Job margins, collection rates, billing speed, and quote conversion from Level's proprietary research.
See the benchmark →Labor Productivity
Hours vs budget, job-level margin, and labor share of revenue. Where your crew's hours go.
See the benchmark →Quote Conversion
Median recorded status interval: 2 days to accepted versus 29 to marked lost; customer decision and update lag are not separated. Median decided-quote conversion is 73.9%.
See the benchmark →Simple pricing
Three tiers, one ladder.
$500+/mo
Bookkeeping
The clean data layer: monthly books, reconciliations, and organized financials AI can work with.
$1,500-$5,000/mo
Scale
The full AI operating layer: custom agents, weekly actions, and benchmarks to grow margin per hour.
Custom
Platform / Multi-Office
Multi-branch benchmarking and scorecards for PE-backed and multi-location groups.
Grow without losing control of the numbers
Drop your info and we’ll show your real margin across jobs, crews, products, and customers, where profit leaks to rework or hidden costs, and how much cash is sitting in unbilled work or inventory.
No commitment. Real numbers, not generic advice.