We believe you deserve to know how we evaluate the professionals who work in your home. No pay-to-play. No advertising bias. Here's what goes into every score.
A plumber with 4.8 stars on Google might have poor ratings on HomeStars and an F with the BBB. A roofer with no Google presence might have dozens of five-star reviews on TrustedPros. No single platform tells the whole story.
FinderHub is the only Ontario directory that aggregates ratings from every major review platform, verifies government licenses at the source, and uses AI to analyze what customers actually write in their reviews. The result is the FinderHub Trust Index: a single score from 0 to 100 that reflects the full picture.
Every Trust Score is built from four independent pillars. Each measures a different dimension of trustworthiness, and they're combined using a proprietary weighting model that we continuously refine based on what best predicts real-world customer outcomes.
We pull ratings from Google, HomeStars, BBB, and TrustedPros and calculate a weighted composite. Platforms with more reviews carry more weight — a 4.5 from 300 reviews is more meaningful than a 5.0 from 3.
We analyze the full star distribution, not just the average. A natural spread of reviews is healthier than a suspiciously perfect record.
Cross-platform consistency matters. If a provider is rated highly on every platform, that’s a strong signal. If there’s a large gap between platforms, that raises questions.
Providers who respond to customer reviews earn credit for accountability.
We cross-reference every provider against Ontario regulatory databases. ESA/ECRA for electricians, TSSA for gas fitters and HVAC technicians. These are not self-reported — we check the source directly.
WSIB workplace insurance registration is verified. This protects homeowners from personal liability if a worker is injured on their property.
Better Business Bureau standing, Google verification status, and basic contact completeness all contribute to the verification picture.
Providers listed on multiple review platforms are more accountable than those on just one. We reward breadth of presence.
Profile completeness — photos, contact information, business description, review data — indicates a provider who takes their reputation seriously.
The more data available about a provider, the more confident we are in their score.
Star ratings tell you how much customers liked a provider. They don’t tell you why. Our AI reads every verified Google review and evaluates the provider across six dimensions of service quality.
Providers with more detailed reviews and higher confidence scores earn more credit. Identified weaknesses that appear across multiple reviews reduce the score.
This is the layer that separates FinderHub from every other directory. Nobody else reads the reviews at this depth.
Star ratings tell you how much customers liked a provider. They don't tell you why. Our AI reads every verified Google review and evaluates each provider across six dimensions of service quality \u2014 revealing insights that star averages hide.
Example: A contractor might score highly on quality and expertise but lower on communication and value. That tells you they do great work but might be slow to return calls or charge premium prices. This kind of nuance is impossible to get from a single star rating.
Based on their total score, every provider is placed into one of five tiers. Tier boundaries are calibrated to reflect meaningful differences in trustworthiness and are periodically adjusted as our dataset grows.
Exceptional across all pillars. Verified credentials, outstanding customer sentiment, strong presence on multiple platforms. The best of the best.
Strong performance with verified credentials. A reliable choice for most projects. Minor gaps in one or two areas.
Solid ratings but may be missing verification or multi-platform presence. Worth considering with due diligence.
Limited data available. May be new to the industry or missing key credentials. Score will improve as more data becomes available.
Significant concerns identified. Red flags detected. Review the provider’s profile carefully before making a decision.
Beyond scoring, our system identifies factors worth knowing about. When something stands out, we surface it on the provider's profile so you can investigate before hiring.
Our system detects statistically unusual review distributions that may indicate fake, incentivized, or manipulated reviews. Providers corroborated across multiple independent platforms are given appropriate consideration.
When a provider’s rating on one platform is significantly different from another, it may indicate that reviews on one platform aren’t authentic.
Providers with persistently poor ratings across platforms are flagged so homeowners can make informed decisions.
For trades that require specific licenses or insurance in Ontario, missing credentials are flagged as a concern.
When very few reviews or data points exist, we flag that the score has lower confidence. The provider isn’t necessarily bad — there’s just not enough information yet.
We aggregate data from four independent review platforms plus Ontario government regulatory databases.
Star ratings, full review text, reviewer credibility signals, owner responses, star distribution, verification status
Ratings and review counts from Canada’s largest home services platform
Letter grades, accreditation status, complaint history
Ratings and review counts from Ontario’s leading contractor directory
We cross-reference providers directly against official Ontario regulatory databases. These credentials cannot be faked, purchased, or self-reported.
No. The Trust Score is calculated entirely from public data and government records. No amount of advertising spend affects the score.
For the same reason credit bureaus don’t publish theirs: if the exact weights and thresholds were public, bad actors would game the system. We publish every factor that matters so you understand what drives the score.
Scores are recomputed regularly as new reviews, ratings, and verification data become available. Major algorithm updates are applied across all providers simultaneously.
Providers can claim their profile and submit updated credentials. If government records, insurance documentation, or other verifiable information changes, the score updates accordingly.
A provider with a 4.5-star average could have excellent craftsmanship but poor communication. Star ratings compress everything into one number. Our AI breaks reviews apart to show you where a provider excels and where they fall short.
We verify against ESA/ECRA (electricians) and TSSA (HVAC/gas fitters) databases directly. For trades without mandatory provincial licensing, we verify WSIB registration and BBB standing.
Browse 10,000+ evaluated Ontario trade professionals. Every profile shows the Trust Score, AI-analyzed customer sentiment, verified credentials, and ratings from multiple platforms.