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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Oracle Pearl Schneider Electric TopBuild Angi BuilderTrend Beam Houzz Rewiring America PaintJet

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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
160M+
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>Introducing: The Department of Permit Efficiency (DOPE)</p>
Company

Introducing: The Department of Permit Efficiency (DOPE)

Introducing DOPE: our groundbreaking partnership with the federal government to eliminate permit delays through AI, blockchain, and executive orders. Now every permit gets approved instantly, inspected by satellites, and recorded on the DOGE blockchain. The future of permitting is here (and it only took one Sharpie).

Ryan Buckley

Ryan Buckley

CEO

<p>Top 5 Most Useful Derived Metrics</p>
Customer Success

Top 5 Most Useful Derived Metrics

Shovels provides a wide variety of construction data, including uniquely derived metrics that aren't available elsewhere. These five metrics are very useful for deeper insights into construction activity. Best practice is to combine these metrics with detailed filters for maximum impact.

Alex Brown

Alex Brown

Technical Support & Writer

<p>March 2025 Newsletter</p>
Company

March 2025 Newsletter

Our March newsletter highlights exciting opportunities: join our SF Climate Week Energy API Hackathon, connect with sales hackers on our growing Discord, and explore recent Shovels Online and API updates including website search filters, improved sorting, and expanded contractor data fields. Plus, learn how mapping permits to parcels can provide deeper property insights.

Ryan Buckley

Ryan Buckley

CEO