Shovels
Shovels - Building permit and contractor intelligence
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Find and sell to the right contractors

Shovels helps you identify qualified contractors, understand their work history, and connect with decision makers. Access rich permit data to power your contractor sales and marketing.

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Clean and useful building permit data that's easy to understand

Because you want to get insights from building permits, not wrangle with raw data.

Building permits in our database
170M+
Contractors in our database
3M+
US addresses covered
30M+
New permits added monthly
5M+

How we're different

Our data is Shovel-ready

We make building permits easy to understand and use for market research, go-to-market, and sales. No data engineering required.

Fanatical customer service
We're a small company with a big heart. We're here to help you succeed.
Constant innovation
We ship fast. We ship often. We ship quality. We use the latest technology to make your life easier.
Transparency
We're not afraid to show you exactly where our coverage gaps are. We're the only company that's fully transparent about our data.
Residents and employees
We go beyond just the properties and contractors. We also include residents and employees with contact information.
Helpful documentation
Our documentation is comprehensive and easy to understand. We keep our API documentation and data dictionary up to date.
AI-powered from the start
We run hundreds of millions of records through our AI to make sure our data is accurate.
Pricing for everyone
We work with all budgets. Our customers range from climate and proptech startups to publicly-traded companies.
Multiple interfaces
We're more than just a data provider. We're both a data platform and a software company.

Work with us

We offer three interfaces to interact with our building permit and building contractor data.

Shovels Online
Shovels Online

Purchase single or multiple seats to explore and download our building permit and contractor data.

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Shovels API
Shovels API

Automate access and integrate with other applications like CRMs, custom web apps, and more.

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Database Access
Database Access

Get parquet files or private table shares into Snowflake, Databricks, or Big Query.

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From the blog

We write about building permits, contractors, and the future of the built environment.

<p>Shovels Quarterly Permit Index: Q2 2025</p>
Data

Shovels Quarterly Permit Index: Q2 2025

The Q2 2025 Shovels Quarterly Permit Index analyzes U.S. construction trends, showing high electrical, plumbing, and HVAC activity. Florida, Texas, and California dominate permit volume, with surprising growth in West Virginia. The report analyzes processing times across project types and regional ADU development patterns, providing key insights for industry professionals, investors, and policymakers in the construction sector.

Morgan Friberg

Morgan Friberg

Head of Marketing

<p>August 2025 Newsletter</p>
Company

August 2025 Newsletter

This month we focus on jurisdiction expansion, processing time improvements, and new government partnerships. We're also working on enhanced property types and new tags for better permit identification.

Ryan Buckley

Ryan Buckley

CEO