Try “tree removal cost”, “R-value”, or “mowing per acre”.

About DIY vs Pros

What this site is

DIY vs Pros answers one question for each home service: should you do this yourself, or hire someone — and what will each actually cost? Every service gets the same treatment: a line-item DIY budget, the price range professionals charge and what moves it, the hidden costs on both sides, and a straight verdict with the conditions that would flip it. A calculator lets you plug in your own situation.

As of , that's 24 services and 98 glossary terms, with more added regularly.

Why it exists

Cost guides are everywhere, and almost all of them answer only half the question. They tell you what a pro charges — often in a range so wide it's useless — and either ignore the DIY option or wave at it with "you could save money doing it yourself." Nobody adds up the chainsaw rental, the safety gear, the dump fee and the weekend, and nobody says plainly when the savings aren't worth the risk.

We built this site to do that arithmetic properly, both ways, with the sources shown. Sometimes the answer is "do it yourself and keep $1,200 a year." Sometimes it's "renting the machine costs more than the contractor." Sometimes it's "this isn't legally something you can do." The point is to tell you which, with numbers.

Who runs it

DIY vs Pros is an independent, privately owned website, published under the DIY vs Pros Editorial Team name. We are not contractors, we don't sell any of the services we price, and we don't take referral fees from people who do. We're not a review site and we don't rank companies. Our only product is the comparison itself.

Because we don't publish individual bylines, we try to earn trust the other way: every figure links to its source with the month it was observed, every page shows when its numbers were last reviewed, and the methodology is spelled out in full so you can check our work.

How it makes money

Display advertising, through Google AdSense and other display networks. Ads are clearly marked and have no connection to what we write — we don't choose which ads appear beside which page, and advertisers have no say in the verdicts. There are no sponsored comparisons, no paid placements, no affiliate links, and no referral fees from contractors or service marketplaces. If that ever changes, it will be disclosed on the page where it applies and in our editorial policy.

We chose this model deliberately. A site that earns a fee when you hire a pro has a reason to tell you to hire a pro. A site that earns a commission on tools has a reason to tell you to buy tools. We'd rather earn a little from ads and be free to say "don't."

Where the numbers come from

Pro prices are built from U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics wage data for each specific trade, calibrated against contractor rate surveys and published price ranges from service marketplaces, and broken into job-size tiers with a low, typical and high figure. DIY prices come from current listings at national home-improvement retailers and tool-rental counters, plus disposal fees and permit costs where they commonly apply. Time is estimated for a first-timer, not an expert.

Sources currently cited across the site:

All figures are U.S. national estimates. Local prices vary — often by 20–30% — with regional wages, access, and season. We say so on every page, and every page ends with the same advice: get three written quotes. The full method, including how the verdict weighs money against risk, is on the methodology page.

What it covers

Services are grouped by category. Currently:

Each service has a cost comparison, a DIY guide, a guide to hiring, and a calculator, plus the glossary terms that show up in quotes and permits. New services are added based on what people search for and what we can source properly; if there's one you'd like priced, ask.

What it doesn't do

Corrections and contact

If a price on this site is out of date, a source has changed, or something is simply wrong, we want to know. Use the contact form or email [email protected], and include the page and, if you can, a link to the current figure you've seen. Corrections are made on the page, with the review date updated. We don't quietly edit numbers.

© 2026 DIY vs Pros. Independent since 2026.