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Permit lead services compared: prices and what you get
Published October 18, 2026 by the Job Start List team. We sell one of the options below, so every price is linked to the seller's own page or a named source, with the date we read it. Prices change; check the source before you buy.
Every service on this page starts from the same public record: a building permit published by a city or county. What you pay for is what happens next: which cities are covered, how fast new permits show up, whether contact details are attached, and how much cleaning and ranking is done for you. Here is what each seller publishes about its price and product, read on October 18, 2026.
Prices at a glance
| Service | What you buy | Published price | Free option | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PingPermit | A scored feed of every new permit in your market, plus one-off address reports | Lead feed $20/month; address report $29 one time | Free preview of an address report (permit count, years active, declared value) | pricing page |
| PermitGrab | Permit records with filters, CSV export, and contractor, owner and violation fields where a city has them | Pro $149/month | Free city directories and sample contractor data, no login; a trial; full refund within 30 days of the first payment | pricing page |
| Shovels | A nationwide permit, contractor and property data platform (web app, API, CLI) | Basic $599/month; Pro $999/month; Enterprise custom | Free plan: 500 credits a month, 1 year of history, up to 10 results per query, no card | pricing page |
| Construction Monitor | Permit lead subscriptions sold per market and per permit category | $31 to $1,281/month per subscription, as reported by Shovels; all-permit market subscriptions $62 to $1,250/month | Not stated in the source | Shovels comparison (a competitor's page; prices observed September 2, 2026) |
| BuildZoom | Contractor advertising shown to local homeowners, plus property reports; not a permit list | Advertising $99/month; property reports by email request | Not stated on the page | subscriptions page |
| Job Start List | A ranked list of new permit jobs for one city and trade, with next-trade signals | Free; paid plans (Starter $29/month, Pro $59/month) are not open yet | Free weekly Top 5 by email plus a dashboard of jobs added every morning, no card | plans |
What each one is built for
PingPermit says its feed covers 19 markets and includes exact addresses, full work descriptions, and the contractor and owner named on the permit where the city publishes them, with a short list emailed each morning only when something is new (pricing page). Its feed page lists Chicago, Seattle, Austin, New York City, Nashville, Detroit, Mesa, Cincinnati, New Orleans, Montgomery County and Louisville among its markets (feed page), so it overlaps with 11 of our 14 cities.
PermitGrab sells one plan at $149 a month and asks you to check a city's source date and available fields in its free directory before you subscribe, because coverage and contact fields differ by city (pricing page).
Shovels prices by records used: one credit is one record retrieved or exported, credits reset monthly, and every plan is nationwide (pricing page). It is built for teams that analyze permit data or build products on it, and its own comparison page says a local lead product "may be the better fit" if you just want a list of prospects to call (Shovels vs. Construction Monitor).
Construction Monitor has sold permit leads since 1989 and prices each market and permit category as its own monthly subscription, across roughly six states, with builder, owner and contractor contact information included, according to Shovels' comparison (source, last updated September 2, 2026). Construction Monitor's own pricing page did not show prices when we read it on October 18, 2026 (pricing page), so treat these figures as a competitor's report and confirm them with the seller.
BuildZoom is a different kind of product: for $99 a month your business is shown to local homeowners and on similar contractors' profiles; property reports with a home's improvement history are sold by email request (subscriptions page). It brings homeowners to you rather than giving you a permit list to work.
How to pick one
- Price the footprint you need for a year. Per-market, per-category pricing is cheap for one trade in one city and adds up as you grow; a flat or nationwide plan works the other way. Shovels makes the same point in its comparison.
- Ask how fast a new permit reaches you. Cities publish on their own schedules. Ask each seller when a permit issued on Monday shows up in what you buy. Our live freshness by city is on the status page.
- Decide whether you need names and phone numbers. PingPermit and PermitGrab attach owner or contractor fields where a city publishes them; Construction Monitor includes contact information. Job Start List does not show owner names or phone numbers at all.
- Ask how they tell a real job from paperwork. Revisions, sub-permits and repairs filed under broad types look like new jobs. Read why a permit is a signal, not an open job before you buy any list.
- Read the trial and refund terms. Shovels has a free plan with no card; PermitGrab offers a full refund within 30 days of the first payment; PingPermit lets you preview an address report before paying.
Where Job Start List fits, and where it falls short
- What you get free: a weekly Top 5 for your city and trade by email, and a dashboard that shows what is new each morning. No card.
- What we add: duplicate permits at one address merged into one job, paperwork-only permits removed, a 0 to 100 score (how scoring works), and a "Usually leads to" label for jobs that come before your trade.
- What we don't have: no owner names or phone numbers, 14 cities only (full list and sources), and paid plans are not open yet.
- Accuracy: our first hand-checked audit on October 16, 2026 found 9 of 20 random Top 5 jobs (45%) clearly relevant to the labeled trade, well below our 90% target. The sample and what we changed are on our accuracy page.
See this week's permit jobs for your trade, free
Sources (all read October 18, 2026 unless noted)
- PingPermit, Pricing: https://pingpermit.com/pricing
- PingPermit, Feed: https://pingpermit.com/feed
- PermitGrab, Pricing: https://permitgrab.com/pricing
- Shovels, Pricing: https://www.shovels.ai/pricing
- Shovels, "Shovels vs. Construction Monitor", last updated September 2, 2026: https://www.shovels.ai/compare/construction-monitor
- Construction Monitor, Pricing (no prices shown to our reader): https://www.constructionmonitor.com/marketing/pricing
- BuildZoom, Contractor Subscriptions: https://www.buildzoom.com/subscriptions
- Job Start List accuracy audit #1, October 16, 2026: /help#accuracy