Understanding Best of Houzz Design and Service Awards When Choosing a Toronto Kitchen Renovator
Quick Verdict
- Best of Houzz Design badges reflect how often a pro’s project photos were saved by Houzz users in the past year, while Service (also called Customer Service) badges reflect the pro’s Houzz rating and client reviews for recent projects. Neither badge verifies licences or insurance.
- A run of consecutive Service badges backed by a high rating across 100+ reviews signals steady client satisfaction, but check that the most recent reviews continue the pattern.
- Just over 2% of the 3 million-plus pros on Houzz win a Best of Houzz award each year, according to Houzz.
- Houzz announces the awards at the start of each year for the prior year’s work, and the 2026 winners were announced on February 11, 2026.
- Consideration for most categories is free and automatic, so no renovator buys or applies for the badge.
Best of Houzz badges appear on renovator profiles, websites, vehicle wraps and proposal decks across Toronto. Homeowners see the little house logo so often that it starts to read like a licence or a quality guarantee. The badge is neither, and the category printed on it matters more than most people realize.
Plumbing, electrical work, cabinetry and often structural changes all sit inside one kitchen contract. A mistaken hire costs you money, time and sometimes a failed inspection. Reading the badge correctly is a small step that keeps you from giving it more weight than it deserves.
Toronto homeowners get the most from Houzz awards when they treat them as one data point among several. The sections below explain how each badge is earned, how to read a multi-year history, and which licence and insurance checks belong alongside it.
Design vs Service: How Each Badge Is Earned
Houzz runs Best of Houzz in four categories: Design, Service, Photography and Innovator. Kitchen hires mostly involve the first two, and they measure very different things.
| Design badge | Service badge | |
|---|---|---|
| What it measures | Popularity of project photos with Houzz users | Houzz star rating and client reviews |
| Data window | Photo saves during the past year | Reviews for projects completed in the past year |
| Minimum requirement | Photos that users save to ideabooks | At least one recent client review and a high overall rating |
| What it suggests for a kitchen hire | The firm’s finished work photographs well and inspires people | Recent clients reported a good experience |
| What it misses | Budget control, schedule, trades, permits | Licences, insurance, design range, warranty terms |
The Best of Houzz guidebook explains that Design winners are chosen by photo popularity, measured through saves in the past year. Service winners need at least one client review for a project completed in that year plus a high overall star rating, and reviews posted before December 31 count toward the next year’s award.
Houzz evaluates every professional on the platform automatically, based on profile activity, rating and reviews, as its Best of Houzz page describes. Photography and Innovator awards recognize other strengths, so neither tells you much about how a kitchen job will run. For a kitchen hire, the Design and Service badges are the two worth reading closely.
Reading Multi-Year Badges and Review Counts
A badge history tells a fuller story than any single year. Use these checks when you compare renovators:
- Consecutive years show sustained performance. Four Service badges in a row means recent clients kept leaving strong reviews year after year, which is the pattern on Easy Renovation’s Houzz profile for 2021 through 2024.
- Gaps in years deserve a question. A missing year can mean fewer reviewed projects, a slower season or less Houzz activity, so ask the renovator directly.
- Recency matters most. A badge from five years ago says little about the crew, designers and project managers working today.
- Review count and rating belong together. A 5.0 from 116 reviews carries more weight than a 5.0 from six, because one unhappy client barely moves a large sample.
- The Design and Service mix reveals the firm’s strength. Design-only badges point to photogenic work, Service-only badges point to client experience, and both together cover more ground.
Houzz verifies submitted reviews before they post, a process that takes 5 to 7 business days, according to Houzz Pro Help. That moderation makes the review count more meaningful than an unmoderated testimonial page on a renovator’s own website. Compare the Houzz count with Google and HomeStars, and look for the same strengths described across all three.
Cross-platform agreement is easy to test on a real profile. Easy Renovation’s Houzz Service run, for example, can be checked against HomeStars, where it won Best of the Best from 2022 to 2025, and against its Google listing, rated 5.0 from 87 reviews. The same three-way check works for any renovator on your list before you request quotes.
Review dates matter as much as the total. Sort each profile by newest first and note when the latest kitchen review was posted, because a badge earned on 2024 projects says little about a crew you hire in 2026. Several reviews from the last six to twelve months, describing similar budgets and scopes to yours, give you the strongest signal that the badge still reflects how the firm works today.
What a Badge Does Not Tell You
The Houzz Terms of Use state that Houzz does not run background checks on professionals or vet them. Users carry the responsibility for verifying licences, certifications and references before they hire.
A Best of Houzz badge therefore confirms nothing about the legal and financial protections a kitchen project needs. The award logic looks at photos, ratings and reviews, not documents. Specifically, the badge does not confirm:
- A City of Toronto Building Renovator licence, which the City requires for renovation businesses, including those that advertise renovation work.
- Liability insurance, which protects you if a crew damages your home or a neighbour’s property.
- WSIB coverage, which matters if a worker is injured on your property.
- ESA compliance, since only Licensed Electrical Contractors may do electrical work in your home.
- Warranty terms, including how long workmanship is covered and what the contract excludes.
Review platforms also face manipulation. The Competition Bureau Canada advises consumers to watch for sudden review spikes, vague praise and businesses that show nothing but five-star ratings, and to read the 2 to 4 star reviews across several sources. A Houzz badge works best when its reviews line up with what Google and HomeStars show.
Employee reviews create a separate risk. The Competition Bureau warns that staff must disclose their connection when they review an employer, and businesses can be held liable when they do not. A long run of glowing reviews from short-lived accounts deserves a closer look before you trust the rating behind a badge.
Google applies its own rules to the reviews you will compare against Houzz. Google’s contribution policy bans incentives for reviews and bans selectively asking only happy customers to post. In 2025, Google blocked or removed more than 292 million policy-violating reviews, according to the Google blog.
New-home warranty rules don’t help here either. Tarion protects enrolled homes bought from registered builders rather than later remodels, and the HCRA notes that renovators fall outside its oversight, which leaves the written contract and the renovator’s own warranty as your main protection.
Permits complete the picture. The City of Toronto requires a building permit for wall changes, new openings and plumbing changes, but not for swapping fixtures or installing cabinetry. Ask every shortlisted renovator which permits your layout needs and who files them. Then confirm the permit number is posted on site before demolition begins.
Pairing Houzz With Licence, Insurance and Warranty Checks
A six-step checklist turns a badge into a verified shortlist. Run each check before you sign a kitchen contract:
- Look up the City licence. Search the renovator’s business name in the Toronto Business Licence Look Up. The City of Toronto requires a trade exam, a criminal record check and a health and safety declaration for this licence.
- Request a WSIB clearance certificate. Use the WSIB clearance lookup. A clearance is valid for up to 90 days, so ask for a current one.
- Confirm the electrician. Check the electrical contractor’s 7-digit licence number in the ESA Contractor Locator, and expect an ESA Certificate of Acceptance after inspection.
- Verify RenoMark status. Search the RenoMark directory by city and project type. The RenoMark code requires a minimum two-year warranty and $2 million liability insurance.
- Know your contract rights. The Government of Ontario recommends three written estimates and a deposit of no more than 10%, and gives you a 10-day cooling-off period for contracts signed at home.
- Cross-reference HomeStars. Compare Houzz results with HomeStars, where Best of Awards require a Star Score of 85+, an active Verified badge and at least one year on the platform.
Best of Houzz FAQs for Kitchen Projects
Can a contractor pay for a Best of Houzz award?
Contractors cannot buy or apply for a Best of Houzz award. Houzz considers professionals for most Best of Houzz awards automatically and free of charge, based on profile activity, star rating and client reviews, as described on its Best of Houzz page.
When are Best of Houzz winners announced?
Houzz announces Best of Houzz winners at the start of each year, based on the previous year’s activity. The 2026 winners were announced on February 11, 2026, according to trade magazine KBB.
Is a Design badge better than a Service badge for a kitchen?
A Service badge tells you more about the hiring experience than a Design badge does. Design badges track photo popularity, while Service badges track ratings and reviews from recent clients. Choose based on your gap: judge design through portfolios and renders, and judge service through reviews.
Does Best of Houzz mean the renovator is licensed?
Best of Houzz does not confirm licensing, insurance or WSIB coverage. Houzz states that it does not vet professionals, so you still need to check the City of Toronto licence, a WSIB clearance and the electrician’s ESA licence yourself.
The Takeaway
Best of Houzz Design and Service badges measure two different things: photo popularity and client satisfaction. Neither one replaces a licence, an insurance certificate or a written warranty, and neither one should be the deciding factor on its own.
The strongest Toronto kitchen hires come from stacking evidence. Read the badge category and years, compare the review count across Houzz, Google and HomeStars, then run the licence, WSIB, ESA and RenoMark checks before you sign.