FindWorker
Live · operated by us
Ours. Workers set their own price; customers choose. Category-driven selection, geolocation matching, calendar-synced booking, a live proximity map and milestone payments. First version built in 16 weeks.
Marketplaces · Home services
Home services marketplaces, from a team that runs one.
A home services marketplace connects customers with workers who come to their door, and lets workers set their own price. It is for you if your providers are independent workers, not your own staff. FindWorker is ours and we operate it in Pakistan, so this page is written from the operator's side.
The problem
The job happens in someone's home, away from the app, and it rarely matches the listing exactly. The worker may arrive late, not arrive, or find the job is bigger than described. A home services build is mostly about what the platform does in the gap between the booking and the finished job.
Is this you?
- Your providers are independent workers who choose their own jobs.
- Workers should set their own rates, and customers should compare them.
- Jobs happen at the customer's address, at a booked time.
- Some jobs are large enough to pay for in stages.
- You worry about no-shows, or jobs moving off the platform.
- You have several trades or categories, not one.
Not home services? See marketplace app development in general
What worker-set pricing does to the build
In a generic marketplace the platform sets the price and the provider accepts the job. On FindWorker, workers set their own price and customers choose. That one decision moves pricing out of the console and into the worker app, and it moves the hard part of the customer app from checkout to comparison. Rates have to be shown in the same unit, so a per-hour rate and a per-job rate never sit side by side as if they meant the same thing.
It also changes commission. When you do not set the price, you decide whether your cut comes off the worker's rate or is added on top for the customer. Both work. They produce different screens, different receipts and different conversations with workers, so we settle it in scope, not after launch.
A booking is a promise about a person, a place and a time
A food order can go to any rider nearby. A home services booking is for a named worker, at an address, at a time the customer has kept free. That is why FindWorker books into a slot that syncs with the worker's calendar, and why the live proximity map matters: on the day, the customer's real question is whether the worker is on the way.
The same map serves your team. When a worker has not moved towards a job close to its start time, the console can show it before the customer calls. We ask how early you want to act, and whether reassignment offers the customer another worker at that worker's own price, or holds the original price and lets the platform cover the difference.
Paying in stages, and who holds the money meanwhile
Many home jobs are too large for one payment up front and too risky for payment only at the end. FindWorker uses milestone payments: the customer's money is held and released to the worker as each agreed stage is done. That gives both sides a reason to keep the job on the platform, which matters in a sector where a worker and a customer who have met can arrange the next job directly.
Holding money is not only a build decision. Whether the platform may hold it, and through whom, depends on your country and your payment provider, and we ask before milestones go into the plan. We also write the refund and dispute flow for a half-finished job in phase one. Running FindWorker with our own money is what taught us to put it there.
What we ask before we quote a home services marketplace
On top of our five standard questions, a home services build adds three. Do workers price per hour, per job or per visit? What happens, in order, when a worker does not arrive? And can a worker change the price once they see the job? Each answer changes the worker app, the customer app and the console, so we settle them before the first working version is planned.
What changes from a standard marketplace
| Worker profile and rates | Replaces a generic provider listing: skills per category, the worker's own rate for each, and availability. |
|---|---|
| Category-driven selection | Customers pick a category, then compare workers by skills, rates and distance and choose one, instead of being assigned automatically. |
| Booking with calendar sync | One-tap booking into a time slot that syncs with the worker's calendar, so a taken slot is not offered twice. |
| Live proximity map | The customer sees the worker on the way; the console sees which workers are near an open job and who has not moved. |
| Milestone payments | Money held and released per stage of the job, in place of a single payment at checkout. |
| No-show and lateness rules | Penalties, rating effects and reassignment set in the console and triggered by the booked time. |
| Price change requests | The worker proposes a new price when the job is bigger than booked; the customer approves it in the app before extra work starts. |
Everything else is the standard build — see what's included.
What makes this one hard
The worker is the product, and the worker might not turn up.
Customers do not choose a platform; they choose a person, at a price that person set. When that person is late or absent, the platform takes the blame. So the rules for no-shows, lateness and reassignment belong in the first working version, not a later phase.
Proof
Questions for this build
How do milestone payments work on a home services job?
The customer pays for a stage, the money is held, and it is released to the worker when that stage is marked done. FindWorker uses milestone payments, sometimes called escrow, which means neither side has to trust the other with the whole amount. We ask how many stages a typical job has, who confirms each one, and what happens to held money if the job stops halfway. Who may hold it depends on your country and payment provider.
Read the full guideHow does the app match customers with nearby workers?
By category first, then location. The customer picks a category, and FindWorker shows workers with that skill near the job, with their rates, so the customer chooses. Geolocation matching decides who counts as near, and the live proximity map shows the worker approaching once a booking is made. We ask how far workers will travel, whether that differs by trade, and whether your team needs to override a match from the console.
What stops a worker being booked for two jobs at the same time?
Their calendar. On FindWorker, booking is one tap for the customer and the slot syncs with the worker's calendar, so a time already taken is not offered. We also ask how much travel time to leave between jobs, and whether workers can block out time for work they found elsewhere. Without those rules, a double booking becomes a no-show, and no-shows are where trust in a home services platform breaks.
How long did FindWorker's first version take to build?
Sixteen weeks. How long yours takes depends on three things: whether you need milestone payments or a single payment, how many categories have their own rules, and whether you launch the customer and worker apps together or one side first. We do not guess from someone else's timeline. The first phase answers those questions and writes the build down, and the first working version is priced before any code is written.
Read the full guideHow do you stop customers and workers arranging jobs off the platform?
Not completely. Once a worker has been inside a customer's home, they can swap numbers. What the build can do is make staying worth it: milestone payments protect both sides, a worker's ratings only count on the platform, and contact details stay hidden until a booking is confirmed. We ask how your commission model copes with some jobs leaving, and design the incentives to stay around that answer.
What happens when the job is bigger than the worker's price?
The worker proposes a new price in the app, and the customer approves or declines it before the extra work starts. When workers set their own price from a description, the job at the door does not always match: a dripping tap turns out to be a cracked pipe. The change, the new amount and the approval sit on the booking, so any dispute starts from a record. We ask whether a change adds a new milestone or adjusts the current one.
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