Frequently asked questions

ArtisHelp is a marketplace for skilled trades. Customers use it to find plumbers, electricians, carpenters, painters, tailors, barbers, housekeepers, and other professionals nearby. Artisans use it to build a public profile, appear in searches, and receive job requests and messages from customers who need their skills.

The platform includes search, public profiles with photos, service listings and reviews, direct messaging, structured job requests, paid plans that affect search ranking and listing limits, and a paid verification badge.

Yes. There is no charge to browse the platform, search for artisans, open a profile, contact anyone, or submit a job request. You do not need an account to browse or to reach out. Creating an account unlocks messaging across devices, job requests, and the ability to leave reviews.

ArtisHelp does not take a cut of jobs between a customer and an artisan. What the two of you agree on is what the artisan receives.

Every artisan starts on the Free plan. It is a real, working listing. Free artisans appear in searches, receive messages, receive job requests, and can be reviewed. The only limits are that Free profiles show up to three portfolio photos, can list up to three services, and rank below paying artisans of similar quality in search results.

Pro and Featured are optional upgrades that raise search ranking and unlock extras. Neither is required to use the platform.

Free is ₦0 forever. It includes a public profile, appearance in search, receiving messages and requests, unlimited reviews, and up to three portfolio photos. Free artisans can list up to three services.

Pro is ₦2,750 per month or ₦26,000 per year. It adds higher search ranking above Free artisans, a blue Pro badge on search cards and the profile, and up to fifteen portfolio photos. Pro artisans can list up to seven services.

Featured is ₦7,550 per month or ₦60,000 per year. It adds top of search placement, a gold Featured badge, a rotating slot on the ArtisHelp homepage, unlimited portfolio photos, unlimited service listings, and access to the analytics dashboard.

If a paid plan expires or you downgrade, your existing service listings stay on your profile. You can edit or remove them, but you cannot add services until you are below the new plan limit.

Artisans can add service cards from the Your services section of their profile editor. Each card can describe the work, specify a fixed price, starting price, or quote, and include up to three photos or videos. Published services appear on the artisan's public profile so customers can review the offering before making a request.

The service allowance is three listings on Free, seven on Pro, and unlimited on Featured. Editing an existing service does not use another slot. If a plan expires or is downgraded, existing listings stay visible and can still be edited or removed, but the artisan must be under the new plan's limit before adding another service.

The analytics dashboard shows how many people opened your profile, tapped the Call button, tapped the WhatsApp button, sent you a message, and left you a review. It shows daily numbers for the last week and rolling totals for the last month, along with a comparison to the previous month so you can see whether your traffic is growing.

Analytics is a Featured plan feature. It is not included in Free or Pro. If you upgrade to Featured later, the counters have been running the whole time, so you will see your history from the day you joined.

An artisan with a green checkmark has been reviewed by our team. Before granting the badge we look at the profile details, the category, and the contact information, and we only mark someone verified once we are confident they are who they say they are.

Verification is a single payment of ₦30,000. It does not expire and it does not renew. It is independent of the plan, so a Free artisan can be verified and a Featured artisan is not automatically verified. The badge and the plan tell a customer different things.

Open the Find an Artisan page. You can type what you need into the search box, choose a category from the dropdown, and type your area or city into the location field. The results update as you type.

Featured artisans sort first, then Pro artisans, then Free artisans. Within each group the sort is availability first, then rating, then verified status, then alphabetical. Every result card shows the name, photo, category, location, availability, years of experience, starting price, and rating if there are reviews.

Open any profile and you will see Call, WhatsApp, and Message buttons. Call opens your phone dialer with the artisan number filled in. WhatsApp opens the WhatsApp app or web client. Message opens a private chat on ArtisHelp that both of you can read from any device.

If the artisan has marked themselves unavailable, Call and WhatsApp are hidden but Message still works. They will see your message when they return.

A job request is a structured way to tell an artisan what you need. From any profile you click Request a job and fill in a short description, an optional preferred date, an optional budget, and up to three photos of the problem.

The artisan receives the request on their dashboard and accepts or declines. Once accepted, you message each other to coordinate. When the work is done, you mark the request complete on your dashboard. That unlocks a review.

Every request has a status you can see at any time: pending, accepted, completed, declined, or cancelled. Both sides see the same status.

To leave a review on an artisan profile you need three things. First, you must be signed in with a customer or artisan account. Second, your email address must be verified. Third, you must have either completed a job request with that artisan or exchanged at least one message with them.

The last condition is deliberate. Reviews reflect customers who actually engaged with the artisan, not strangers who happened to click through. Each customer can review each artisan once. Reviews cannot be edited after submission.

Because reviews are tied to real interactions. Open the profile and click Message to start a conversation, or click Request a job to submit a request. Once the artisan replies or accepts, the review form appears the next time you load the profile.

This rule keeps the star ratings on ArtisHelp meaningful. A profile with a 4.9 rating reflects customers who actually hired the artisan, not random visitors.

Sign in as an artisan and open the dashboard. Click the Upgrade plan card or go to the plans page directly. You can pick Pro or Featured, choose monthly or yearly billing, and pay through Paystack.

To cancel an active plan, open the plans page and click the red Cancel subscription button on your current plan. Cancellation is immediate. No refund is issued for the remaining period, which is stated clearly before you confirm.

To switch between paid plans, cancel the current plan first, then subscribe to the new one.

All payments are handled by Paystack. You will be redirected to Paystack checkout where you can pay with a card, a bank transfer, USSD, or mobile money depending on what Paystack offers in your area. ArtisHelp never sees your card details.

After a successful payment, Paystack redirects you back to ArtisHelp and the plan or verification is applied within a few seconds. If the badge or plan does not appear immediately, wait a minute and reload the dashboard.

The limit depends on your plan. Free allows up to three photos. Pro allows up to fifteen. Featured allows as many as you want.

If you downgrade from a paid plan to Free, your extra photos stay in storage but only the first three appear on your public profile. If you upgrade again later, the extras become visible again without you having to re upload them.

Yes. Every artisan account can switch to customer mode from the dashboard and use the platform exactly as a customer would. You can search for other artisans, message them, submit job requests, save them, and leave reviews.

Your artisan listing is unaffected by hiring other artisans. The two sides of the account do not interfere with each other.

When you click Message on a profile, you open a private conversation with that user. Nobody else can read it, not other customers, not other artisans, and not our admin team unless there is a specific legal reason to investigate.

Both sides can attach photos to messages. Unread messages appear as a red badge on the dashboard. Conversations appear in your Messages page with the most recent at the top. Messages arrive in real time.

Sign in and open your account settings page. Scroll to the Danger zone at the bottom. Click Delete my account and type DELETE in the confirmation prompt.

This removes your account document, your artisan profile if you had one, your reviews, your conversations, the messages inside them, your saved artisans, your notifications, your analytics counters, and your sign in record. The removal is immediate and irreversible. You will be signed out and redirected to the homepage.

If you are an admin, you cannot delete your own account. Another admin must do it for you, which prevents the platform from being locked out of its own admin panel.

Passwords are hashed and salted by Firebase Authentication. Nobody at ArtisHelp can read your password, not even our team. Your name, profile photo, category, location, and public description are visible to anyone using the platform, because that is what makes the platform work.

Your phone number and WhatsApp number are only revealed to customers who click Call or WhatsApp on your profile. Messages and job requests are readable only by the two people in the conversation. We do not sell your information and we do not share it with advertisers.

For the full picture of what we collect and how we use it, see our privacy policy.

Yes, to use some features. Browsing, searching, and viewing profiles do not require a verified email. Sending messages, submitting job requests, and leaving reviews all require that your email is verified.

When you register, ArtisHelp sends a verification email automatically. If you did not receive it or the link expired, a banner appears at the top of every page while you are signed in, with a Resend email button. Click it and check your inbox again.

Use the contact form. Describe what you were trying to do, what happened, and if you can, the email address on your account and the approximate time it happened. If you saw an error message, copy it into the message. Every report is read by a real person, usually within 24 hours on business days.

For urgent issues involving money or safety, mark the subject line with the word URGENT and we will prioritize it.