hipages for Tradies and True Local: Listing Guide

hipages is an Australian marketplace where householders post jobs and a monthly subscription gives a tradie lead credits to claim them, and True Local is a separate directory run by Thryv Australia (formerly Sensis) that sits next to its Yellow Pages and White Pages brands. Our take: hipages is a lead-buying decision, not a listing, so judge it on cost per job won, not on SEO, and read the contract term before you pay. True Local is the opposite, a directory whose free-listing route is murky on the pages we could read, so never assume a free Yellow Pages ad also puts you on True Local, and fix your Google, Bing and map profiles first. This guide covers how each works on the platforms’ own materials, what we could and could not read, costs, what a free listing means, and the free Australian alternatives.

What we could and could not read

hipages’ own site (hipages.com.au) is closed to our fetch and search tools, and truelocal.com.au returned an access error when we tried to open it. hipages’ company page is closed to them as well. We did not try to get around either. For hipages we relied on two things: hipages Group’s FY26 results presentation to investors (24 August 2026), which we read in full, and two clearly named third-party sources for plan prices and terms, one of which is a competitor that discloses it. For True Local we relied on Thryv Australia’s own pages (its FAQs, its Sensis rebrand page and the Yellow Pages free ad page), plus a search for third-party descriptions of True Local. We flag every such point below. Where only a third party supports a number, we say so, and you should confirm it on hipages’ own pages and your contract.

How hipages works for tradies

The clearest source we could open is hipages Group’s FY26 results presentation (a copy of the 24 August 2026 investor deck). It describes the mechanics in its glossary:

• Householders post jobs on the hipages marketplace.
• Those jobs appear as leads to relevant trade businesses, according to hipages’ job-matching algorithm.
• Up to 3 businesses can successfully claim a lead, which creates a “Business-Household connection”.
• Connections are the trigger for lead credit consumption, and the credits are included in the business’s subscription.

So the model is a subscription that buys credits, and each claimed job spends credits. The same deck gives context worth knowing before you join, all as hipages Group’s figures for the year to June 2026:

• 36.4k subscription businesses across the group, 33.0k of them on hipages Australia.
• Average annual revenue of $2,575 per subscribing business in hipages Australia (up 8% on the year before). That is an average across all plans, not a price, but it works out to roughly $215 a month.
• A 58% last-12-months MRR retention rate for hipages Australia (the deck defines it as retention measured in dollars).
• A job connection rate of 84% (jobs with at least one business connection as a share of jobs posted), with job volume 3% lower than the year before and tradie-household connections about 5% lower (2.58 million against 2.70 million), which the deck puts down to subdued consumer confidence.
• More than 20% of new hipages users moving to a higher price point within their first 6 months.

Read that last pair together: three businesses compete for each lead, and a good share of new members end up spending more than they started with. That is hipages Group describing its own business, not a criticism, but it is the right frame for your budget.

If you want a comparison with US home-service marketplaces, our Angi, Houzz and Thumbtack guide covers how that model works there.

hipages plans and costs

At the time of writing (November 2026), hipages’ own pricing page was not readable by our tools, so these figures come from two third-party sources: a pricing-change tracker (captured 2 November 2026) and a cost guide from What’s The Damage? (checked 10 October 2026), whose author sells tradie leads and says so. Both report the same four core plans, per month plus GST:

Plan	Monthly price	Lead credits a month
Starter	$139	155
Advanced	$249	310
Premium	$449	595
Platinum	$649	850

What the two sources add, and where they differ:

• The cost guide says the prices rose in July 2026 from $129, $229, $429 and $599. The tracker logs a change on 6 July 2026 and says Platinum’s allowance went from 810 to 850 credits on 24 August 2026.
• The tracker also lists an Essentials plan at $29 (with no credit allowance given) and a custom Pro plan for businesses with 10 or more employees, and says annual billing is 5% off on the four core plans. The other source does not list Essentials, so treat that line as unconfirmed.
• Neither source gives a price per lead. hipages does not publish one: each job shows a credit price in the app and it changes with demand. The competitor’s guide cites independent estimates of $25 to $80 a lead, which is an estimate, not a hipages figure.
• The cost guide says the first term is 6 months and then it renews for 12 months at a time, that cancelling early can make the rest of the term fall due, and that you can cancel within seven days of joining or renewing if you have not accepted a lead.

hipages’ own investor deck groups its Australian customers into plan price bands running from under $69 a month up to $499 a month and above, which is consistent with a ladder like the one above but is not a price list. The only number we would plan around is the one on your checkout screen and your signed terms.

An old independent source adds a caution: CHOICE’s find-a-tradie websites article (last updated July 2019, so old) said that only positive reviews were published on hipages profiles and that hipages tended to charge tradespeople higher fees than most other tasker sites. We cannot confirm either today. Check how reviews appear on your own profile.

How an Australian tradie lists on hipages

We could not read hipages’ sign-up pages, so we will not recite its steps, checks or the documents it asks for. What the investor deck and the third-party sources support is this:

1. Decide the lead economics first. Work out what a job is worth to you, how many credits a typical job costs in your trade and area, and what share of claimed leads you can realistically win when up to three businesses are in the running.
2. Join through hipages’ own site and read the contract. Note the first term, the renewal term, the cancellation window and whether GST is added to the price you see.
3. Fill the profile completely. Business name, phone and website should match your website and your Google Business Profile exactly.
4. Plan to respond quickly. A claimed lead is shared with other businesses, so speed matters. That is a practical inference from the up-to-3 rule, not a hipages statement.
5. Track cost per won job, not leads claimed, for the first two or three months, before you move up a plan.

On licensing and checks, we could not open hipages’ own pages, so we do not describe what it verifies. Licensing rules differ by state and trade, so check your state regulator’s requirements for the work you advertise rather than relying on any directory’s wording.

What hipages shows publicly

Because we could not open hipages’ profile pages, we cannot list the fields a homeowner sees, and we will not guess. The deck confirms that householders see businesses through the marketplace and that jobs are matched by an algorithm. Open a competitor’s public profile on hipages yourself and compare it with what you would put on yours: the name, phone, website and service area are the fields that matter for consistency across the web. Run the free NAP checker afterward to see whether those details still match what the rest of the web says about you.

True Local: what it is and the free listing route

True Local is operated by Thryv Australia. The Sensis page says “Sensis is now Thryv Australia”, lists truelocal.com.au in its network, and says that “a True Local digital listing can help make you their first choice”. We also tried True Local’s own business products page, but it refused our tools, so we cannot quote True Local’s own products or prices.

What we can read is Thryv’s free listing material, and it is about Yellow Pages and White Pages:

• Where it starts. The Sensis page’s “Sign up for a Free Listing” section says “List your business in the Yellow Pages and White Pages for free” and sends you to the Yellow Pages free ad page.
• What the free ad shows. That page lists the plan as “From $0/mth”, with business details, contact details (postal address, phone number, email, website) and opening hours and service notes. It gives no steps specific to the free plan: its Select button opens a general enquiry form where you fill in a few details, press Send enquiry and the team calls you back.
• Limits. Thryv’s FAQs say you can request only one free listing per business and address, that a free request will not get you printed in the Yellow Pages book, and that accepting a free ad is at Thryv Australia’s absolute discretion.
• Verification and reviews. Per the same FAQs, Thryv needs to verify that you are the authorized representative of the business, and once verified your account lets you respond to reviews. You do not have to be a paid advertiser to respond.
• True Local specifically. Neither the free ad page nor the FAQs say the free ad appears on True Local. A third-party article (FlexCareers, seen only in a search result, not True Local) says True Local offers every business a free listing, but we could not open truelocal.com.au to confirm it. We also found that older business-hub addresses on business.truelocal.com.au redirect to the True Local homepage, so some of its old business pages are gone.

The honest conclusion is that a free listing exists in the Thryv family, True Local may offer one of its own, and you should confirm on truelocal.com.au whether it covers True Local before you assume it. Thryv’s free ad page also mentions Yahoo!7 in its FAQ, which suggests parts of the wording are old.

How to edit, remove or pause

• hipages. We found no readable hipages page on editing or removal. From the third-party cost guide, the cancellation route is within seven days of joining or renewing if no lead has been accepted, and otherwise by the contract term. Ask hipages in writing how to pause, and keep the reply.
• True Local and Yellow Pages. Thryv’s FAQs describe verification before you can respond to reviews. Nothing we read describes editing or removal, so ask Thryv Australia through its contact page and give the exact URL of the listing.
• Either way, keep a record of the exact name, address and phone you submitted. If a duplicate appears, see our free business listing sites guide for how to clean up a messy footprint.

Does it help local SEO?

Both create a public record of your business name, address and phone on an Australian website, which is what a citation is. That is useful, but we found no independent source showing that a hipages or True Local profile is a confirmed Google ranking factor, so the benefit is indirect.

Here is our own catalog data. hipages appears on 12 of our Australian trades citation lists, and it is first for pest control and second for electricians. Our catalog labels it paid. True Local is in our catalog but marked inactive. Neither fact is a recommendation: a paid lead marketplace and an inactive directory serve different jobs from a free, consistent citation. The full set is on our Australia citation sites page.

Free Australian alternatives

These cost nothing and build the core record every tradie needs:

• Google Business Profile. Where most local customers read your reviews and find your phone number.
• Bing Places. Free to claim and it can import from Google. See our Bing Places guide.
• OpenStreetMap. A free, community-edited map whose data many apps read. See how to add your business to OpenStreetMap.
• Foursquare. Free to add or claim.
• Yellow Pages free ad. The Thryv free route above, subject to its one-per-business-and-address rule and its discretion.

Localsearch and Nextdoor Australia also appear on our Australia list, so check each one’s own pages for what it charges.

A short checklist

• Work out the cost per won job before choosing a hipages plan, and remember up to three businesses can claim the same lead.
• Read the first term, the renewal term and the cancellation window in your own contract.
• Treat every hipages price in this guide as third-party until you see it on your checkout screen.
• Do not assume a free Yellow Pages ad puts you on True Local.
• Keep name, address and phone identical on your website, Google Business Profile and every listing.

Common mistakes

• Buying a plan to “get listed”. hipages is a lead marketplace, not a free directory entry.
• Judging it on leads claimed. What matters is jobs won against what you paid.
• Missing the renewal term. The third-party guide says renewals run 12 months at a time.
• Requesting several free listings for one address. Thryv allows one per business and address.
• Letting your details drift. A new phone number on one profile and an old one on another creates the kind of conflict citations are meant to prevent.