The short version
| Question | A review can answer it | The permit file can answer it |
|---|---|---|
| Did the city inspect and close the job? | No | Yes: permit finalled or not |
| How long did the job take? | Sometimes, from memory | Yes: days from issue to final, measured |
| Is the license active today? | No | Yes, where the state publishes status |
| What size of job do they usually take? | No | Yes: the usual filed value |
| Were they polite, tidy, on time? | Yes | No |
| Was the price fair? | Yes, by the customer's judgement | Partly: the filed value, which is an estimate |
| Did they answer the phone? | Yes | No |
| Is the writer a real customer? | Not verifiable by you | The city recorded the permit |
Choose reviews when the question is about manners, communication and how the price felt. Choose the file when the question is about completion, speed, license status and whether this firm does this kind of work at all.
What a review actually measures
A review is one person's account of one job, written at a moment they chose. It is strongest on the things only a customer can see: whether the crew turned up, whether the quote matched the bill, whether anyone returned the call. Those things matter and the city does not record any of them.
A review is weakest on the things the writer cannot see. The final inspection can come months after the crew leaves (a usual 105 days for a Seattle heat pump), so a review posted the week of the job cannot report it. A five-star review for a furnace swap tells you the installer was pleasant. It does not tell you the permit was closed.
There is also the question of who wrote it. The Federal Trade Commission's rule banning fake reviews, including reviews from people who never used the business and reviews bought on condition of a particular sentiment, was announced on 14 August 2024 and took effect on 21 October 2024; it lets the FTC seek civil penalties from knowing violators (FTC press release; Federal Register, 89 FR 68034). Yelp's annual report says about 76% of reviews submitted were recommended by its software, about 15% were not recommended but still accessible, and about 9% had been removed (Yelp 10-K FY2025). We are not saying any site's reviews are fake. We are saying you cannot tell from the outside which ones are.
What the permit file actually measures
A permit is a public record the contractor created by filing with the city. It has a date issued, a filed value, a contractor name and, when the inspector signs off, a final date. From those four fields we compute what we publish:
- Finished share. Of a firm's permits old enough to be done, how many reached final. A firm that pulls permits and does not close them is leaving open files on customers' houses.
- Days to finish. Measured from issue to final, adjusted so that still-open permits count as unfinished rather than ignored.
- Usual filed value. The middle value the firm wrote on its permits. It is the contractor's estimate to the city, not a quote and not the final bill.
- License status. Whether the business name matches a state license record and what that record says today.
The file is weakest where the city is. Some cities name a contractor on only some permit types; some do not publish a final date; some have no state license to join. Every city page says what its file is missing.
Three cities, three trades, side by side
These are the numbers a review site cannot show. Each row is one trade in one city over the window in the box below.
| City and trade | Permits | Firms | Usual filed job | Finished | License active |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Seattle electrical | 15,130 | 749 | $4,067 | 94.6% | 82.6% |
| San Francisco roofing | 9,537 | 1,072 | $15,275 | 87.3% | 91.7% |
| Miami plumbing and gas | 7,927 | 1,002 | $4,900 | 90.8% | 92.5% |
"Finished" is permit-weighted across the ranked firms in that trade. "License active" is the share of ranked firms whose business name matched a state license record with status Active on the snapshot date; a firm that is not matched is not necessarily unlicensed, because names on permits are often abbreviated.
The usual Seattle electrical job was $4,067 and took 44 days to final. The usual San Francisco roofing job was $15,275 and took 36 days. The usual Miami plumbing job was $4,900 and took 127 days. A quote far outside that range is a question to put to the contractor.
Where reviews beat the file
The file knows nothing about:
- Manners and communication. Whether they explained the options, whether they called back, whether they left the site clean.
- Price fairness. The filed value is what the contractor told the city. The bill you pay is between you and them. A review that says "the quote went up 30% mid-job" is useful and nothing in a permit will show it.
- Small jobs. A tap washer, a light switch, a patch of drywall: no permit, no record. For handyman work, reviews are most of what you have.
- The last six months. A permit takes weeks to months to reach a final, so the file lags the work.
Where the file beats reviews
- Completion. A review cannot verify it; the final inspection date is in the file.
- Volume and specialty. A firm with 87 electrical permits in the last twelve months (that is Seatown Electric Corp, the busiest in Seattle's file) plainly does electrical work. A firm with three permits in a trade it advertises heavily is worth a second look.
- License status today. Not a badge from two years ago.
- Sample size. A review site shows you the people who chose to write. The file shows every permitted job the firm filed in the window, whether or not the customer was in a writing mood.
What neither tells you
Neither knows about unpermitted work, which is by definition not recorded, and neither knows whether the workmanship will hold up in ten years. For that you have references, and your own eyes.
How to use both
- Start with the file. Pick the city and trade on the compare page, set the sliders to what you care about (finishing, speed, price fit, recent activity) and build a short list of firms that close their permits.
- Check the license on the state board's own site. We link it on every firm page.
- Then read the reviews of the three or four firms left. At that point the reviews are answering the questions they are good at: manners, communication, price.
- Ask the contractor whether the job needs a permit. If they say no and the file says their competitors pull one for the same work, ask again.
How we know this
The numbers on this page come from each city's open permit dataset (Seattle Department of Construction and Inspections, San Francisco Department of Building Inspection, City of Miami) over the window 2023-10 to 2026-09, joined to the Washington L&I, California CSLB and Florida DBPR registers by business name. Fields used: permit count, distinct firms, filed value (usual = middle value), issue-to-final days, finished share of mature permits, license status at snapshot. Name matching misses firms whose permit name differs from their license name; an unmatched firm is not shown as unlicensed. Third-party facts: FTC press release of 14 August 2024 and the Federal Register notice (effective 21 October 2024) on the consumer-review rule; Yelp Inc. 10-K for FY2025 (recommended, not recommended and removed shares).
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; City of Miami building permits (since 2014), data through October 17, 2026. Nobody paid to be on this page and nobody can.
See every Seattle electrician by their permit record →
See every San Francisco roofer by their permit record →
See every Miami plumber by their permit record →
Questions
- Can a contractor with great reviews have a bad permit record?
Yes, and the other way round. A review is written by the customer at the end of the visit; a permit is finished when an inspector signs it off, often months later. The two measure different things, which is why we suggest checking both.
- Does a finished permit mean the work was good?
It means the city inspected it and closed the file. That is a minimum standard, not a quality mark. A permit record cannot tell you about finish quality, tidiness or whether the crew showed up on time.
- How many reviews are removed or filtered?
Yelp's 10-K for 2025 says about 76% of reviews submitted were recommended by its software, about 15% were not recommended but still accessible on secondary pages, and about 9% had been removed. We have no comparable figure for other review sites.
- Is a contractor with no permits a bad sign?
Not always. Some work needs no permit, and some cities record a contractor's name on only a few permit types. Seattle's building permits, for example, name a contractor on 6.3% of filings in our window and about 1% of residential additions, alterations, new homes and demolitions, so Seattle general contractors are not in our file at all.
- Where do your numbers come from?
Each city's own open permit dataset, joined to the state license register by business name. The window, snapshot date and permit counts are in the "How we know this" box on every page.
Build your own list
Every firm with that kind of permit on record. Pick what you value. The list moves.
Related guides
- Licensed vs unlicensed: what the permit file shows in your state
- Does a contractor need a license? By trade, in 10 states
- How to check a contractor's license in Florida
- Miami contractor license lookup: which license, where to search, and what the permits show