HomeStars or Google reviews? Where GTA contractors should ask customers first

The question every GTA contractor asks

If a happy customer will write one review, where should it go? Google, where most people search? Or HomeStars, the Canadian site built for exactly your kind of work? The answer depends on what each one does for you, and what's documented versus guessed.

What Google reviews do, according to Google

• Local ranking. Google's local ranking tips say prominence draws on reviews, and more reviews and positive ratings can help.
• Gemini and Maps. Google's Maps grounding documentation says Gemini retrieves places, reviews, photos, addresses and opening hours from Maps data.
• AI Overviews and AI Mode. Google's guide to generative AI features says responses can include information about local businesses, and that Business Profiles can help your services be visible in AI responses.

No other review site has that much documented reach into Google's own AI answers. That's why Google comes first.

What HomeStars is

HomeStars is a Canadian home-services review site, founded in 2006 and now part of Angi Inc., according to its about page. HomeAdvisor (then part of IAC) bought it in 2017. Its pages are organized the way homeowners shop: by trade and by city, with reviews that describe the job.

HomeStars runs its own badges and awards and has paid plans for leads. Those programs change, so check the current terms on HomeStars directly before you rely on them. Judge paid plans on lead economics alone: there's no public evidence that paying HomeStars changes what AI engines say about you.

What the studies say about AI and review sites

No AI company publishes a list of the review sites it trusts. Several marketing firms have measured which sources AI answers cite. Here's what they found, with their limits:

• BrightLocal, December 2024 (ChatGPT search sources, 800 US searches): business websites were 58% of sources, business mentions 27%, directories 15%. BBB and Angi showed up as minor directories.
• BrightLocal, July 2025 (AI search and local listings, 20 searches across 10 niches): Yelp was a source in 33% of searches overall, Perplexity used it in every industry tested, and Gemini never cited it directly. Home services weren't covered.
• 8ight.AI, September 2026 (reported by PPC Land, 39 trades in 49 places including 17 in the GTA): ChatGPT cited the BBB in 38.7% of answers, Angi in 11.8% and government or licensing pages in 25.1%. It cited Yelp in none of 1,412 answers. This is vendor research and measured the API, not the app.

Notice what's missing: none of these studies reports on HomeStars. That doesn't mean AI ignores it. It means nobody has published a measurement. Anyone who tells you exactly how much ChatGPT trusts HomeStars is guessing.

Also notice how much the results disagree. Yelp is a top source in one study and absent in another. Engines differ, questions differ, and answers change from day to day. That's the strongest argument for checking your own trade and city rather than trusting a national average.

How to split your review asks

A simple rule that works for most GTA HVAC and plumbing companies:

1. Default to Google. Send most review requests to your Google Business Profile link. It feeds Maps, the local pack, AI Overviews and Gemini.
2. Rotate some to HomeStars. For example, every fourth or fifth customer, or customers who mention they found you on HomeStars. This keeps your HomeStars profile current for the homeowners who compare there.
3. Ask everyone the same way. Whichever site you send someone to, don't pick based on whether you think they're happy. Google's content policy bans selectively soliciting positive reviews.
4. Never pay or discount for a review on either site.
5. Don't push Yelp asks. Keep your Yelp listing claimed and accurate, but Yelp discourages businesses from asking for reviews.

If you have very few Google reviews (under about 20), put every ask into Google until that number looks credible next to your competitors. BrightLocal's 2026 consumer survey found 47% of US consumers won't use a business with fewer than 20 reviews.

Keep the facts identical everywhere

Whichever sites you use, the business name, phone, website and service area should match your Google profile exactly. A HomeStars page that still lists an old phone number, or a BBB profile with your previous address, is the kind of mismatch that makes it harder for an engine to be sure two listings are the same company. Our citations guide lists the Canadian directories worth checking.

Check what AI actually cites for you

This takes 20 minutes and replaces guessing with evidence:

1. Write five questions a homeowner would ask, with a GTA place: "Who's a reliable furnace repair company in Vaughan?", "Best HVAC company in Oakville for a heat pump?"
2. Ask each one in ChatGPT, Gemini and Google (in a private window).
3. For each answer, note who's named and which sources are linked: Google, HomeStars, BBB, Yelp, a news story, a company website.
4. Count. If HomeStars shows up in answers for your trade and city, your HomeStars profile is worth more attention. If it never does, keep it accurate and move on.

Repeat every season. Our guide to checking whether AI recommends your company has a fuller method.

The short version

Google is documented, so it gets most of your asks. HomeStars is where Ontario homeowners compare trades, so keep it current. Everything else should be accurate and consistent. And measure your own market instead of trusting anyone's ranking of "the sources AI trusts", including ours.