I Asked Chat GPT To Compare RoofHero To InstantRoofer.com and RoofingCalculator.com

February 15, 2025

There's tons of options online for homeowners to connect with roofing companies.  Google offers up the ability to see a map of roofing companies for most roofing-related queries, followed closely by Google Guaranteed – a newer service by Google offering another way for them to monetize and control the market without offering much more value to homeowners or roofers (half joking).  After that, you'll see a variety of organically ranked sites and ad placements related to roofing inquries, ranging from sites like Angi, roofing company websites, and blogs.

Then, there's the category that RoofHero falls into – adtech for the roofing vertical with built in AI.  Because of the unique nature of publicly available data, online roofing marketplaces are able to pull satellite images of properties and pretty accurately measure roofs.  Combining the roof measurement with a database of roofing pricing from local contractors enables us to give homeowners a real roof price online.  RoofHero isn't the only company doing this.  Our competitors include instantroofer.com and roofingcalculator.com.

Our websites are similar in nature and monetization models.  At the time of this writing, here's the key unique differentiators (pros and cons, in no particular order) for each site:

roofingcalculator.com

  • Clean and intuitive design.
  • Lots of keyword stuffing and unrelated blog posts, likely to rank higher on Google.  Here's an example of a topic completely unrelated to roofs: https://roofingcalculator.com/news/best-central-air-conditioners-for-your-home
  • Pretty good form – asking for homeowner's address, questions related to the roof, verifying homeownership status, etc.
  • It appears they're using Google's solar API to get the surface area of the roof, although I'm not 100% certain of this.
  • 2-factor authentication.  Homeowners have to enter a code texted to them to verify their identity prior to being connected with roofers.
  • Page speed metrics for mobile devices are sub 50.  All other metrics are pretty good.
  • Where I think they really fall short is the “thank you" page.  After submitting your information, which you provide in exchange for your free online quote, you are presented with a massive price range – not specific to any real pricing.
  • They appear to be selling both exclusive and shared leads – which if you're a homeowner means you don't have control over who is going to contact you when you provide your information to them in exchange for an extremely wide price range.
  • They do not present the names of the roofing companies going to contact you, prior to you submitting your information.
  • Charges cost per lead to roofing companies to advertise on the site for access to homeowner inquiries.

instantroofer.com

  • Interesting choice of UI and design.
  • Extremely good on page speed and SEO metrics.
  • Same keyword stuffing approach roofingcalculator.com uses, also likely with the intent to rank higher on Google.
  • They appear to be using a proprietary surface area algorithm.
  • Pretty intuitive form – faster time to complete than RoofHero and RoofingCalculator due to the number of questions asked being less.  
  • Slower measurement algorithm than RoofingCalculator and RoofHero.
  • No 2-factor authentication, although their lead form is protected by CloudFlare which is good security practice.
  • Their “thank you” page is interesting – they present a price range with named and rated roofing companies (it looks like up to three).  In order to click “generate quote”, you have to provide your information.
  • This messaging is a bit opaque in my opinion, as what “generate exact quote” really means is “instantroofer is now going to send your information to these roofing companies who are paying for this ad placement”.
  • Monetizes the same as roofingcalculator.com. 

roofhero.com

  • This is self-reviewed, so take it with a grain of salt.
  • We really worked hard on getting our UI clean, intuitive, and fast – particularly for mobile devices.
  • Our form takes anywhere from 30 seconds to 2 minutes to complete.  Our surface area algorithm measures your roof in 3 seconds.  It is proprietary and wholly owned.
  • We show your surface area for free, prior to asking for your info (all three sites do this).
  • We show you the name of a single company that our algorithm selects for you, prior to asking for your info, based on how you answer your questions (This is part of why we have more questions than instantroofer.com, to bring you a customized solution).
  • We have 2 factor authentication as well, similar to roofingcalculator.com.
  • We show you a real price range from that specific roofer, your roof's surface area, and your roof's material.
  • Homeowner receives a text with the phone number of the one roofer to call, and an emailed permanent quote link.  Roofer receives a text and email with homeowner info to connect as well.
  • Charges a subscription to roofing companies to advertise on the platform, versus cost per lead model like the other two sites.

Finally, I asked Chat GPT to compare the sites.  Here's a link to the conversation: https://t.co/OeYN5ygSWs.  I thought it was a pretty fair assessment! 

In summary, all three sites are pretty good.  We are all taking slightly different approaches to help homeowners find good roofing companies, and help roofers grow their business. If you're a homeowner in need of a roof estimate, check out all three and use the one that best fits your needs.

About RoofHero | RoofHero is your go-to platform for instant roof estimates and seamless roofing services. RoofHero connects you with vetted roofing professionals and provides AI-driven pricing that save you time and money. Our services include custom roof estimates tailored to your needs and access to roofing contractors with transparent pricing. Trust RoofHero for a smooth and stress-free roofing experience.

Get your free, instant estimate with RoofHero today for your next roofing project!