Methodology · Version 2.0 · Updated October 10, 2026
How the Home Pros Score works
The Home Pros Score is a public reputation score from 0 to 100. It sums up what public reviews say about a business, so you can compare many businesses fast.
What the score does not measure
Workmanship, licensing, insurance, prices, background checks or whether a business is right for your job. A 96 is not a quality grade or a guarantee. Always check the license and insurance and get written quotes.
The formula
Three parts, each from public data. Paid plans, logos, websites and social pages are not part of it, and no one can pay to change a score.
| Part | Points | How it's figured |
|---|---|---|
| Reputation | up to 65 | The Google star rating, pulled toward a typical 4.3 when there are few reviews: (rating × reviews + 4.3 × 10) ÷ (reviews + 10). A 3.0 earns 0 points and a 5.0 earns all 65, in a straight line between. |
| Review volume | up to 25 | More reviews means more proof, on a log scale: log(reviews + 1) ÷ log(501) × 25. About 500 reviews earns full marks. |
| Experience | up to 10 | 2 points per year in business, full marks at 5+ years. If we don't know the business's age, this part is not counted (see below). |
Each part is rounded, and the parts add up to the score. Businesses with fewer than 5 public reviews show "Limited info" instead of a number. Labels: 85+ Excellent, 70+ Great, 55+ Good, below 55 Fair.
Data completeness
We often don't know when a business started. When years in business is unknown, the score uses only reputation and review volume: those two parts out of 90, scaled to 100. The profile then marks experience as "Unverified (pending claim)" and not counted, so you can see the score rests on less information. We don't guess or estimate experience.
Right now 23% of scored businesses have all 3 factors and 77% have 2. Owners can add their founding year from their dashboard, and we check it before it goes live.
Examples
| Business | Reputation | Volume | Experience | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4.9 stars, 300 reviews, 12 years | 61 | 23 | 10 | 94 |
| 5.0 stars, 8 reviews, 3 years | 52 | 9 | 6 | 67 |
| 4.6 stars, 120 reviews, years unknown | 51 | 19 | not counted | 78 (2 of 3 factors) |
Where the data comes from
Star ratings and review counts come from public Google Business Profiles and are refreshed periodically. Years in business comes from the business's own website or profile, or from the owner. We don't read and grade individual reviews; the score uses each business's rating and review count.
Recommendations and paid placement are separate
Our personal picks, Preferred Partners and Featured (paid) listings may appear first under the default sort, and each is labeled. They never change the score. Choose "Home Pros Score" in the sort menu to rank by score alone. See our disclaimers for our business relationships.
Version history
- 2.0 (2026-10-10): Experience is no longer estimated when years in business is unknown. Those scores now use 2 of 3 factors, scaled to 100.
- 1.0 (2026-10-08): First version. When years in business was unknown, experience points were estimated from the review parts.
Spot a wrong rating, review count or founding year? Tell us. Corrections are always free.