The eight, side by side
| Site | Who pays it | Permit data | License check | Reviews | Free for you | Coverage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BuildZoom (for reference) | Hired contractors (referral fee; rate not published) | Yes, permit-derived project counts | Yes | Yes, in the score | Yes | US, depth varies |
| Contractor Records | Nobody | Yes, every permit by contractor, with finished share and days to final | Joined to state boards where published | No | Yes | 53 cities |
| State license board lookup | Public agency | No | Yes, the official record | No | Yes | One state each |
| City permit portal | Public agency | Yes, the official record, by address | Sometimes shows the license number on the permit | No | Yes | One city each |
| Shovels | Business subscribers, from $599/month | Yes, "196M+ U.S. building permits" | Contractor records | No | Free tier: 10 results per query, 1 year of history | National |
| regwatch.nyc | Freemium | Yes, DOB permits and violations by address | DOB license search page | No | Basic search | NY, NJ, CT |
| floridacontractorcheck.com | Contractors (lead sales) | No | Yes, a copy of DBPR data | Claimable profiles | Yes | Florida |
| Consumers' Checkbook | Subscribers; no business money | No | Not stated in its methods | Survey ratings | No, subscription | 7 metro areas |
| BBB | Accredited businesses (dues) | No | Sometimes noted | Complaints and reviews | Yes | US and Canada |
Sources for each row are listed at the end of the page. Where a site does not state something on its public pages, the table says so rather than guessing.
What BuildZoom does that the others do not, and the reverse
BuildZoom's score draws on "general business information (license status, permit history, and profile biography), customer reviews, and marketplace performance such as responsiveness and hire rate", with recent activity weighted more, and the score also sets the order in which it sends contractors projects (BuildZoom help centre). That makes it a matching service as well as a record: it introduces you to contractors, and the ones you hire pay it.
The alternatives split that in two. The public-record sites (boards, city portals, Contractor Records, regwatch, Shovels) show what was filed and leave the choosing to you. The reputation sites (Checkbook, BBB) show what customers said. None of them will send you a contractor.
When to use which
| You want to | Use |
|---|---|
| Confirm a license is active today | The state board (lookups for 24 states) |
| See every permit a contractor has pulled in your city, with how many passed final | Contractor Records, then the city portal for any single permit |
| See every permit ever filed at one address | The city portal (46 cities); in New York, regwatch.nyc also covers violations |
| Read complaints | The state board first (Oregon and Washington put complaints and bond lawsuits on the license record), then the BBB |
| Read survey ratings without ads or referral fees | Consumers' Checkbook, if you live in one of its seven metros |
| Pull permit data in bulk for a business | Shovels |
| Get introduced to contractors | BuildZoom, or one of the lead services in our sites like Angi guide |
Pick your city and see every contractor by permit record →
If you want contractors sent to you
Most lists of "BuildZoom alternatives" are lists of matching services, not record checks. They work the way BuildZoom's matching side does: you describe a job, contractors are put in front of you, and the contractor pays.
| Service | How the contractor pays | Shows permits? | What it checks |
|---|---|---|---|
| BuildZoom | Referral fee when hired; rate not published | Project counts from permits | License status, among other inputs to its score |
| Thumbtack | Pays to send you a quote, or per matched lead; no subscription (Thumbtack for pros) | No | "Licensed pro" badge: the license number the pro gave, checked against a public database (Thumbtack safety page) |
| Angi / HomeAdvisor | Fees per consumer match, plus advertising and memberships (Angi 10-K) | No | Owner attests to licensing and passes a criminal background check (Angi 10-K) |
Use one of them to get names, then run each name through the record checks above. More detail in Thumbtack vs Angi and sites like Angi that are free.
Notes on each
State license boards. The source of truth for license status. Washington's L&I Verify also shows "lawsuits against their bond" and citations; California's CSLB lookup includes complaint disclosure. They show nothing about permits or inspections.
City permit portals. The official permit record, free. They are searched mainly by address or permit number, so they are best once you know which job to look at.
Contractor Records. That's us. We read the same city permit files and file every permit under the contractor that pulled it, so you can see a firm's whole history in one city: permits, the share that reached a final, usual days to final, usual filed value, and license match. No reviews, no ads, no fee from anyone. We cover 53 cities, not the whole country.
Shovels. Sells permit data to businesses: "196M+ U.S. building permits", "3.89M+ contractors" and "2,820+ jurisdictions", covering "approximately 85% of the U.S. population" (Shovels). Plans start at $599 a month; the free tier gives 500 credits a month, 10 results per query and one year of history (Shovels pricing).
regwatch.nyc. A free address search across DOB permits, DOB and ECB violations and other New York City records, with "10.9M+ tri-state properties". It answers "what happened at this building", not "what has this contractor done".
floridacontractorcheck.com. A searchable copy of Florida DBPR license data, run by Contract Advantage LLC and "Not affiliated with the State of Florida or DBPR"; it sells leads to contractors. For a Florida license, the DBPR lookup itself is the primary record.
Consumers' Checkbook. A non-profit that says it does not "accept advertising, referral fees, or similar money from businesses". It surveys consumers in seven metro areas and charges a subscription.
BBB. Rates businesses A+ to F based partly on complaints; BBB says "Customer Reviews are not used in the calculation of the BBB Letter Grade Rating" and that the rating "is not a guarantee of a business's reliability or performance". Accredited businesses pay dues.
Limits of this comparison
Each row reflects the site's own public pages when we read them in October 2026; prices and coverage change. We have not tested every site's search in every city. Contractor Records is one of the eight, so read our row with that in mind and check it against the city portal: the portal is the record.
How we know this
Every claim about another site comes from that site's own public pages (BuildZoom help centre and New York list page, Shovels product and pricing pages, regwatch.nyc, floridacontractorcheck.com, Checkbook, BBB), recorded in our competitor file in October 2026 and listed under Sources. We did not use review-site scores. Our own counts are from the permit files of the cities we cover.
Numbers come from public permit records in 53 cities, data through October 17, 2026. Nobody paid to be on this page and nobody can.
Questions
- Is there a free alternative to BuildZoom?
Yes. Every state license board's lookup is free, most city permit portals are free, and Contractor Records is free. BuildZoom itself is also free for homeowners; hired contractors pay it a referral fee, and BuildZoom does not publish the rate on its public pages.
- Which alternative shows building permits?
Contractor Records (by contractor, 53 cities), the city permit portals (by address, one city each), regwatch.nyc (by address, New York area) and Shovels (national, built for businesses; the free tier gives 10 results per query and one year of history).
- Which alternative has reviews?
Of the eight here, Consumers' Checkbook (surveys of its subscribers and other consumers, seven metro areas, paid) and the BBB (complaints, plus reviews it says are not used in its letter grade). Contractor Records and the license boards have none.
- Which alternatives will send me contractors, the way BuildZoom does?
The lead services: Thumbtack (pros pay to send you a quote or per matched lead) and Angi and HomeAdvisor (pros pay per match, for ads and for memberships, per Angi's 10-K). All are free to you, and none shows permits. Our Thumbtack vs Angi guide compares what each checks.
- Is Shovels a BuildZoom alternative for homeowners?
Only partly. Shovels describes its permit data as built for sales, operations and marketing teams, with paid plans from $599 a month. Its free tier is enough for a single look-up.
Build your own list
Pick your city and the kind of work. Every firm with a permit on record, sorted by what you value.
Related guides
- Angi vs HomeAdvisor: same company, how each works and what it costs, and what neither shows you
- BuildZoom vs Contractor Records: how BuildZoom works and what it costs
- Houzz vs Angi for a remodel: how Houzz and Houzz Pro work
- Is Angi (formerly Angie's List) worth it? How it works and what it costs homeowners
- Sites like Angi that are free: Angi alternatives, and who pays for each
- BuildZoom Help Center for Contractors (current; read 2026-10)
- Top 10 General Contractors in New York, NY (BuildZoom) (2026-10)
- Shovels permit database (2026)
- Shovels pricing (2026)
- NYC Permit Search by Address — regwatch.nyc (2026)
- Florida Contractor License Check (floridacontractorcheck.com) (2026)
- You Won't Find Anything Else Like Checkbook — Consumers' Checkbook (current)
- Overview of BBB Ratings (current)
- Verify a Contractor, Tradesperson or Business — Washington L&I (2026-10-20)
- Check a License — CSLB (2026-10-20)
- Thumbtack for pros (2026-10-20)
- Your Safety (Thumbtack) (2026-10-20)
- Angi Inc. Form 10-K FY2024 (2025-02)