How we vet tree pros

The honest version first: bidding is open, hiring is gated

Any registered tree company can place a bid, so you see the whole local market — but a company can only be hired and paid once it has passed verification and connected a verified payout account. Every bid card shows the company's verification badges, so you can compare an established, fully-credentialed outfit against a hungry newer crew with open eyes and pick the trade-off you want.

And whoever you pick, your payment sits in escrow — held by the platform, not the contractor — until you confirm the work is done right.

Business identity — matched to a real, reviewed business

We match each company to its public Google Business Profile — real name, real service area, real history. The star rating you see on a bid card is the company’s actual public Google rating, captured at verification and refreshed weekly. Pros cannot type in their own stars, and we never seed fake ratings. If a company has no public rating, we show none.

Licensing — recorded, reviewed, and tracked

Contractors submit their business and trade licenses by type and number, with the documents. Each license is reviewed by a human and tracked with a status — verified, expired, suspended, or revoked — not a one-time checkbox. Requirements vary by state and county, so we record what the pro holds and where it applies.

Insurance — certificate on file, not a promise

We collect the Certificate of Insurance (COI) — carrier, coverage type, and expiry — plus workers’ compensation and bond certificates where applicable. Tree work is one of the most dangerous trades there is; a crew without liability coverage and workers’ comp is a risk transferred to the homeowner. That is a risk you should get to see before you hire.

Payout identity — verified through Stripe

Before a pro can be paid, they complete Stripe’s identity and bank verification — the same know-your-customer checks banks use. A crew that can’t clear identity verification can’t receive an award on GivingStump, full stop.

Professional credentials — shown when held, checked when shown

Credentials like ISA Certified Arborist® are uploaded as documents and checked against the issuer’s public verification tools before they appear on a profile. Not every good tree company has a certified arborist on staff — and an honest marketplace shows you who does, rather than implying everyone does.

If a job calls for diagnosis rather than removal — a declining tree, storm damage that might be cable-and-brace work instead of a takedown — a credentialed arborist’s assessment is worth asking for in your job post. Removal is not always the right answer, and the right pro will tell you so.

What we don't claim

We won't tell you that every bidder has passed a screening or a background check — the lead-gen sites that promise that are usually describing a credit card on file. We verify what can actually be verified, we show you exactly which checks each company has passed, and we hold the money until the work is done. That's the deal.

Spot something that looks wrong about a company on the platform? Tell us: support@givingstump.com. Verification is a process, not a trophy — reports get reviewed by a human and credentials get re-checked.