Best Property Tax Protest Companies: 2026 Fee Comparison

There are two ways a property tax firm can charge you, and the difference matters more than which company you pick.

Contingency firms take a cut of what you save — 25% to 50% of your first-year tax reduction. You pay nothing if they lose. Flat-fee services charge one price whether the win is $200 or $6,000.

Contingency is cheaper on a small win. Flat fee is cheaper on a big one. The crossover sits around $500 in annual savings. Everything below is the same question asked with real numbers.

Every fee, as each company states it

These are quoted from each company’s own pricing page, with the date we checked at the bottom of this page. Rates can vary by region and by property type, so confirm yours before you sign.

What each fee costs on a real reduction

Say your appeal knocks $40,000 off your assessed value. In a Texas district with a 2.2% combined rate, that is about $880 off this year’s tax bill.

That last column is the one worth carrying around. A flat fee costs less per $1,000 the bigger your reduction gets; a percentage costs exactly the same per $1,000 forever. It is also the only column you can check on the day your reduction lands — every contingency fee here depends on tax rates that are not set until the autumn.

One note on our own number, because you will spot it anyway. Abode is cheaper on this case — it is a $99 annual membership, and if an appeal is all you want from it, it costs less than we do. Full-service representation is priced separately and is not in this table; see where TaxDrop Pro fits below.

The break-even, in one line

A $129 flat fee beats a 25% contingency once your annual savings clear about $516. It beats a 40% contingency at about $323, and a 50% contingency at about $258.

Below those numbers the contingency firms are genuinely cheaper, and you should use one. A percentage of a small win is a small number.

What the fee does not tell you

Price is the easy comparison. These four differences decide how the year actually goes.

• Who keeps the evidence. A contingency firm hands you a result. The working file — the comps, the adjustments, the math — usually stays with them. Next year you start from nothing.
• Whether you sign an authorization. Full-service firms become your agent of record for the property. That is how they file on your behalf, and it is also how enrollment rolls forward automatically.
• Who decides to settle. If the district offers a small reduction, someone has to accept or push. On contingency, a quick acceptable number closes the file and books the fee.
• What happens if you are already assessed fairly. Roughly 30–60% of properties are over-assessed, which means a lot are not. Ask what a firm does when yours is one of them.

The companies, one by one

TaxDrop One

$129 flat, per property, per tax year. We build the evidence packet — sales comps, equity comps, the adjustments and a defensible number — and you file it and speak for yourself. Available in Texas, California, Georgia, Florida, New Jersey and Maryland.

Best for: anyone whose expected savings clear roughly $500, and anyone who wants to keep the evidence and stay the owner of record.

The catch: you do the filing and the talking. On a small expected win, a contingency firm costs less.

TaxDrop Pro — full-service Texas representation

A different product from everything else on this page, which is why it is not in the price table above. A licensed agent registers as your representative, builds the case, negotiates with the district and presents at the Appraisal Review Board. You do not attend. 1% of the assessment reduction we win, no fee unless we reduce it. Seventeen Texas counties. See our Texas property tax consultant page for coverage and how Pro works.

Three things that are true of Pro and of nothing else here:

• You know the fee the day the reduction lands. Every contingency fee on this page is charged on tax savings, which depend on rates that are not set until the autumn. Texas Protax says so outright — theirs is the greater of three calculations, none of them knowable in the spring.
• Your fee does not rise when your district raises the tax rate. A percentage-of-savings fee does. Ours is anchored to the value we removed, which is the thing we actually control.
• It is checkable against your own notice. One percent of a number printed on a document you already hold, not a percentage of a figure the firm calculates after the season closes.

The honest trade: measured as a share of first-year tax savings, 1% of the reduction is not the cheapest way to buy an appeal — at Texas effective rates it works out near half of year one. What you are buying is representation rather than a filing, and a fee you can verify. If price is the only filter, TaxDrop One at $129 is the cheaper TaxDrop.

Ownwell

25% of your first-year tax savings, nothing if they get no reduction. They file for you, in multiple states.

Best for: small-to-mid expected savings, and anyone who wants it fully off their plate with no downside risk.

The catch: the fee grows with your result and returns each year they win again. They also sell insurance and energy plans alongside the appeal. Full TaxDrop vs. Ownwell comparison.

Home Tax Shield

$30 a year plus 30% of tax savings, Texas only. A hybrid: a small subscription with a lower-than-typical contingency on top.

Best for: Texas owners who want full service and a contingency below the 40–50% norm.

The catch: the $30 is charged whether or not the protest wins.

Five Stone

40% of actual tax savings, Texas only, full service.

Best for: owners who want an established Texas firm handling the ARB hearing.

The catch: 40% is at the higher end of the market, and it repeats each winning year.

Texas Protax

The greater of three calculations: 40% of tax savings, $2.50 per $1,000 of market value reduction, or a $50 per-parcel minimum. Texas only, full service.

Best for: owners who want a long-established Austin and Houston firm with in-house licensed agents.

The catch: the greater-of structure means the fee is hard to predict before the season closes, and the minimum applies even on a small reduction.

O’Connor

50% of your first-year savings, the highest contingency on this list, and the deepest bench — they pursue binding arbitration and judicial appeals that most residential firms will not.

Best for: difficult or high-value cases where the extra escalation is worth half the first year.

The catch: half. Full TaxDrop vs. O’Connor comparison.

Abode

$99 a year ($149 concierge) for a membership that bundles a tax appeal with other homeowner money services.

Best for: people who want the whole bundle, not only an appeal.

The catch: you are buying a subscription, not an evidence packet for one property. Full TaxDrop vs. Abode comparison.

Filing it yourself

Free. The form takes about twenty minutes and nobody can file it better than the owner. What it costs you is the evidence: pulling comparable sales, adjusting them for size, age and condition, and knowing which ones a board will throw out.

Best for: anyone with the hours, and anyone whose expected savings are under about $129. The honest math on DIY versus paying for the evidence.

How to choose

• Expected savings under ~$300? Use a contingency firm, or file it yourself. A percentage of a small number is a small number.
• Expected savings over ~$500? A flat fee costs less, and the gap widens every dollar above that.
• Want it completely off your plate? Full service. Accept that the fee scales with your win and recurs each year.
• Want to keep the evidence and stay in control of the settle-or-push decision? Flat-fee evidence, filed by you.

Outside Texas, the words change and so do the rules

Most of the firms above are Texas-only, and Texas is the only state that calls it a protest. California, Georgia, Florida, New Jersey and Maryland all call it an appeal, and each has its own deadline and its own evidence standard. The unequal-appraisal argument that wins Texas cases is a Texas and Georgia statute; it does not exist elsewhere.

New Jersey deserves a specific warning. New Jersey decides appeals on the Chapter 123 ratio test rather than market value. If your assessment sits below the common level range, the county board is required by statute to raise it. New Jersey is also the one state here that charges to file — $5 to $150 up front by assessed value, non-refundable. Never file there without checking the ratio first.

Where TaxDrop lands

We are the flat-fee option: $129 per property, per tax year, in Texas, California, Georgia, Florida, New Jersey and Maryland. You keep 100% of the reduction, this year and every year it carries forward. If we do not find you a case worth making, we tell you before you pay. In seventeen Texas counties you can hand the whole thing to a licensed agent instead — see TaxDrop Pro.

Check what your property is really worth — free, about two minutes →

Comparing in a specific metro?

The break-even moves with local values and tax rates, so we ran the same math on the two biggest Texas markets using each county’s median home value and effective rate:

• Best property tax protest companies in Dallas — every fee priced on a median $277,900 Dallas County home
• Best property tax protest companies in Houston — every fee priced on a median $255,000 Harris County home

How we verified these fees

Every figure above is taken from the company’s own published pricing, checked in August 2026, except O’Connor’s, which was last confirmed in July 2026. Contingency rates can vary by region, property type and product tier, and companies change them. Treat this as a starting point and confirm the current rate for your property before you sign anything. Dollar examples are illustrations built on a $40,000 assessment reduction at a 2.2% combined Texas rate, not predictions about your property.

Spot something out of date? Tell us and we will correct it.