How Porch Approved works.

A two-minute read before you sign up. What it is, who it's for, what it costs, and how to start.

1. What is Porch Approved?

Porch Approved is a private directory of home-service people — plumbers, electricians, HVAC, landscapers, painters, handymen, cleaners, the works — that your neighbors have actually hired and recommended.

It is not Yelp, Angi, Nextdoor, or Google Reviews. There are no paid ads, no scraped listings, no fake stars. Every entry was added by someone in your community who used that person. Every rating came from a neighbor on your street.

One community = one small group of people who trust each other. That can be an HOA, a townhouse block, a cultural or religious group, a parents' chat, a professional circle — any group where members would actually share a phone number when one of them says "who do I call for a leaky water heater?"

2. Who it's for

You don't need to be an HOA board member, lawyer, or nonprofit to start one. One neighbor + a group chat is enough.

3. How a community works, end to end

1. One neighbor starts the community. Picks a name (e.g. "Greenway Place"), sets a member password, picks an emoji + accent color. Takes 30 seconds.
2. They share the link. Drop the community URL + member password into the neighborhood group chat, WhatsApp, Facebook group, or HOA email. There's also an invite-link option that handles SMS verification automatically.
3. Neighbors sign in. Enter the member password (or click their email magic link, if the admin enabled individual mode). Browse the existing directory.
4. They add the people they trust. "I had Joe do my A/C last summer, he's great." Add Joe's number, give him 5 stars, write a sentence.
5. The directory grows. A few weeks in, the community has 15-30 listings of real, vetted providers across plumbing, HVAC, electrical, lawn, roof, paint, etc.
6. Neighbors stop guessing. Next time someone's dishwasher dies, they open Porch Approved, see two highly-rated appliance-repair folks, and call.
7. Group rates emerge. "I'd join a group rate" buttons let neighbors signal interest in coordinating a booking (e.g. five lawns the same week → discount). Providers see that demand pulse and reach out.

4. If you're the one starting a community

You're going to be the first admin. Here's what you do, in order:

1. Sign up. Pick a community name, slug (URL), a short description, an emoji, and an accent color. Pick a member password — something easy enough to share in a group chat ("greenway2026") but not so common it leaks beyond the group.
2. Add 3-5 providers you already trust. Don't wait for neighbors to seed it. Add the plumber, electrician, and lawn person you'd already recommend. Empty directories don't grow; seeded ones do.
   Tip: the dashboard has a Quick add box at the top — type one sentence per provider ("Mike ABC Plumbing 469-555-0148, emergency calls") and the system pulls out the fields for you to review. Beats filling the form 5 times. Bulk works too — paste several lines at once.
3. Share the link. Drop a one-line message in your neighborhood group chat:
   "Hey — I started a thing for our trusted home-service folks. Members-only, no ads. URL: porchapproved.net/c/your-slug · password: yourpassword. Add the people you've used."
4. Watch + nudge. When someone hires a plumber, ask them to add a rating. The first 10 ratings are the hardest; after that it self-sustains.
5. (Optional) Tighten security. In Admin → Members you can:
   • Switch to individual email sign-in — each member uses their email + a one-tap link, instead of one shared password.
   • Or keep the shared password and add SMS 2FA for a second factor.

5. If a neighbor invited you

Easiest path:

1. Click the community URL you were sent (looks like porchapproved.net/c/your-community).
2. Enter the member password they shared.
3. You're in. Browse the directory, click any phone number to dial, click any name to see ratings + comments, click "I'd join a group rate" if you want to coordinate a booking with neighbors.
4. When you hire someone, come back and add a rating. 1-5 stars + a sentence is enough. This is the only thing the community asks of you.

If your community runs in individual email mode, you'll see an email box instead of a password field — enter your email, get a one-tap link in your inbox, click it.

6. If you're a service provider

If neighbors in a community have already vouched for you, you may be in the directory already. You can claim your listing for free at porchapproved.net/p/register. Once claimed you'll see:

• All ratings + comments across every community that's vouched for you
• Average star count + recent activity per listing
• Signal when neighbors are organizing for a group-rate booking

Once you register, your provider account gets full feature access for 6 months, free of charge: public replies to ratings, automatic alerts when group-rate interest crosses 3+ neighbors, an AI summary of what your reviewers actually say, and a 12-week trend chart per listing. No card required, no auto-renewal, no upsell.

7. What's free, what's paid

Free for basic use (neighbors and communities):

• Starting a community
• Adding providers, rating them, commenting, chatting with neighbors
• Member sign-in (shared password or individual email link)
• Providers claiming their listings and viewing all their ratings
• Service providers — full feature access for 6 months free, including replies to ratings, group-rate alerts, AI sentiment summary across reviews, and a 12-week trend chart. No card required, no auto-renewal — just register and use it.

No ads, ever. No upsells. No "premium membership" gating the core directory. We don't sell your data — that's not the business model and never will be.

Power features that have a real per-use cost — most notably high-volume AI assistant (Approo) questions beyond the daily/hourly limit — may move to a low-cost subscription as usage grows. We'll loop existing communities in well before anything changes, and the basics above stay free. Full details in our Terms.

8. Your data, in plain English

• We don't sell your data. Not to advertisers, not to anyone. The full Privacy Policy spells out what we do collect (mostly: session cookies, rate-limit logs, the obvious necessary metadata for SMS + email delivery).
• Communities are private. Your community's directory is gated by the member password or sign-in mode. We don't expose it to search engines.
• Phone numbers stay in the community. A provider's phone is visible to members so they can call. We don't share member phones with providers unless a member explicitly opts into a group-rate intro.
• Admin views are minimized. When an admin opens settings, member phones and emails are masked by default (e.g. (•••) •••-1234) with a click-to-reveal for when you need to copy one — defense against shoulder-surfing and screen-share.
• You can delete your data. Email support and we remove ratings, phones, and accounts within a few business days.

9. FAQ

10. Ready to start a community?

Two minutes. No card. No HOA approval needed. You'll have a working community URL to share with your neighbors before your coffee gets cold.