Side by side
| BuildZoom | Contractor Records | |
|---|---|---|
| Who pays | Hired contractors pay a referral fee; BuildZoom does not publish the rate on its public pages (HigherVisibility, Oct 2025) | Nobody |
| How listings are ordered | The BuildZoom Score: license status, permit history, profile bio, customer reviews, responsiveness and hire rate, recent activity weighted more; BuildZoom uses the score to set its "batting order" when matching clients with builders (BuildZoom help). Sort options on list pages: Top 10, BuildZoom score, verified projects, client ratings, average project value (BuildZoom NYC page) | Weights you set: finished share, price fit to your budget, experience with this work, recent activity (plus speed, home value and ZIP on the compare page). The list re-sorts as you move them. No position a firm can buy |
| Reviews | Yes, and they count toward the score | None |
| Permits and inspections shown | Permit-derived project counts and value ranges per contractor | Every permit in the window, finished share, usual days from issue to final, usual filed value |
| License check | Yes; the NYC page names the Department of Consumer Affairs and the SF page names the California CSLB | Joined by name to the state board where the state publishes one, status shown and linked to the live lookup. Name matching can miss |
| Cost to homeowner | Free | Free |
| Coverage | US-wide claim; "300 million building permits and reviews" (BuildZoom help meta); depth varies by city | 53 cities, 1,538,085 permits, 167,325 firms |
What BuildZoom shows a homeowner
A list page per city and trade with a score, a count of verified projects, client ratings and an average project value, sortable by each. Profiles show recent permitted projects with addresses and values. The NYC page names its sources: license data from the Department of Consumer Affairs, permits from the Department of Buildings (BuildZoom, Oct 2026).
The score is where our methods part. BuildZoom's help centre says it looks at three sources: general business information (licensing, permit history, bio), customer reviews, and "marketplace performance" such as responsiveness and how often a contractor is hired with satisfied clients. It also says the score sets the order in which BuildZoom sends contractors projects. So a contractor who bids quickly and wins often on BuildZoom scores higher than one with the same permit record who does not use BuildZoom. The score therefore measures the record and the relationship with BuildZoom, and the weights are not published.
What Contractor Records shows a homeowner
The record and nothing else. For each firm: permits in the window, how many reached final, usual days from issue to final, usual filed job value, license status with a link to the board. For each trade in a city: the same numbers across all firms, so you can see that Seattle electrical permits finish 94.6% of the time in a usual 44 days, or that San Francisco roofing finishes 87.3% in 36 days, before you judge one firm against it.
The ranking is yours. Slide "must finish the job" up and firms with open permits drop; slide "price fit" up with your budget set and firms whose usual filed value is near it rise. There is no default order that a firm can improve by doing anything other than pulling permits and passing inspections.
Where we are weaker
53 cities. BuildZoom has a page for most US cities. We have 53, and only where the city publishes a usable permit file. Outside them we have nothing for you.
No reviews. By design. The file cannot tell you whether the crew showed up on time, cleaned up, or returned calls. BuildZoom's client ratings can.
Not every trade in every city. Seattle, for example, has 10 trades on our site and general contracting is not one of them. BuildZoom lists Seattle general contractors. If you want a GC in Seattle, use BuildZoom and the L&I lookup.
No home values in some cities. Our compare pages use a home-value figure where we have one (Seattle's is $1,026,000). Anaheim, Elk Grove and Palo Alto do not have it yet, so the home-value control is missing there and the list uses filed job value alone.
License matching by name. We join permits to the license board by firm name. Trading names, typos and "Inc" versus "LLC" cause misses. On our pages an unmatched firm shows as unmatched, never as unlicensed, and the board link is right there; but it is a weaker join than a license number on the permit, which some cities do not record.
Where BuildZoom is weaker
The score's weights are not published, so you cannot tell how much of a 90 is permits and how much is responsiveness. Hired contractors pay BuildZoom a referral fee, and BuildZoom does not publish the rate on its public pages (HigherVisibility, Oct 2025). And the complaint pattern on review sites is homeowners describing unsolicited contractor calls after submitting a project (Trustpilot, Oct 2026), which follows from the matching model: your project is the lead.
When BuildZoom is the right choice
- You are outside our 53 cities.
- You want a general contractor in Seattle, or any trade we do not rank in your city.
- You want reviews next to the permit count, and you do not mind the calls.
- You want BuildZoom to find and introduce the contractor for you.
When Contractor Records is: you are in one of our cities, you have names or want the full list, and you want to rank them on the record with your own weights, knowing nobody on the list paid and nobody could. Either way, confirm the license on the state board before you sign.
How we know this
BuildZoom facts are from its contractor help centre, its New York general-contractors page and its San Francisco roofing-contractors page, all read on 20 October 2026; the referral-fee model is from a marketing agency's review (BuildZoom does not publish its rate); the complaint pattern is from Trustpilot and is a self-selected sample, not a satisfaction score. Our counts are from each city's public permit file for the stated window, joined by firm name to the state license board; name matching can miss.
Numbers come from City of Seattle (SDCI) building, trade and electrical permits on single-family and duplex homes (the city's open-data exports); San Francisco DBI building permits on one- and two-family homes, with the contractor from the city's permit contacts file, data through October 17, 2026. Nobody paid to be on this page and nobody can.
See every San Francisco roofer by their permit record →
Questions
- Is BuildZoom legit?
Yes. It is an established contractor-matching service that reads public permit and license data, and its help centre explains what goes into its score. It is free for homeowners; hired contractors pay it a referral fee, and BuildZoom does not publish the rate on its public pages.
- How is the BuildZoom score calculated, and how is it different from a Contractor Records ranking?
BuildZoom's score mixes license status, permit history and profile bio with customer reviews and marketplace performance such as responsiveness and hire rate, with recent activity weighted more (BuildZoom help). Our ranking uses only the permit and license record, and you set the weights yourself.
- BuildZoom vs Angi, which is better?
They are different kinds of site. Angi shows reviews and a background-check badge and holds no permit data (Angi 10-K, Feb 2025). BuildZoom shows permit-derived project counts alongside reviews. If you want to see what a contractor filed with the city, BuildZoom or Contractor Records; if you want quotes fast, Angi.
- Does Contractor Records have reviews?
No, and it will not. We show what the city recorded: permits, finals, days to final, usual job value, license status. Whether a contractor is pleasant is not in the file.
- Which cities does Contractor Records cover?
53 as of this snapshot, and not every trade in every city. BuildZoom has pages for cities across the US.
Build your own list
Every firm with that kind of permit on record. Pick what you value. The list moves.
Related guides
- Angi vs HomeAdvisor: same company, how each works and what it costs, and what neither shows you
- What's a good completion rate for a contractor? The benchmarks from 12 trades and cities
- What does a suspended contractor license mean? The rules, and how often it shows up in permits
- Licensed vs unlicensed: what the permit file shows in your state
- Yelp vs Google reviews for contractors (and what both miss)
For one city
- BuildZoom Help Center for Contractors (2026-10-20)
- Top 10 General Contractors in New York, NY (BuildZoom) (2026-10-20)
- Best contractors in San Francisco, CA matching "roofing contractors" (BuildZoom) (2026-10-20)
- BuildZoom Review 2024: Is it Worth it for Contractors? (HigherVisibility) (2025-10-08)
- BuildZoom Reviews - Trustpilot (2026-10)
- Angi Inc. Form 10-K FY2024 (2025-02)