How Much Do Contractor Leads Cost? What to Compare

By PermitGrab Research · Source coverage and publishing cadence vary by jurisdiction

154,583

Named contractor profiles

20,856

Profiles with a phone

271,357

Public violation records

16,569,475

Public owner records

Availability varies by market · Browse market coverage →

There is no trustworthy universal price for a contractor lead. A lead can mean a consumer enquiry, a paid call, a quote opportunity, a public-record project signal, or a contact record. Those products have different buying motions, and their price and usefulness vary by trade, market, qualification rules, and the work required after you receive the record.

The useful comparison is not a published national average. It is the cost of a source against the business result you can measure: the eligible records received, the conversations started, appointments set, and work actually won. Review a provider's current terms directly; platform prices, eligibility rules, and delivery methods change frequently.

First, define what you are buying

Source type	What it can represent	What to verify before paying
Consumer-request marketplace	Someone asking for help or a quote through that marketplace.	How the request is qualified, whether it can be shared, the charge event, and its refund policy.
Paid local advertising	Traffic, calls, forms, or another configured conversion event.	Target geography, tracking, the conversion definition, and the full cost through booked work.
Referral or partner channel	An introduction from a relationship or distribution partner.	Who owns the customer relationship, compensation terms, and the follow-up process.
Public permit research	A public record that may describe a project, trade, date, address, or permit contact.	The publishing jurisdiction, newest source date, record fields, and whether the workflow fits your outreach and compliance process.

How PermitGrab fits the comparison

PermitGrab is a subscription for researching public building-permit records. It is not a consumer lead marketplace: a permit is not a request for a bid, and the underlying public record is not exclusive. A record can still be useful for market research, contractor outreach, supplier sales, or a project-specific workflow when its source and available fields support that use.

Before subscribing, inspect the city coverage directory and the relevant city page. Each market should be evaluated on the official source shown, the newest available record date, jurisdiction, and the fields actually present. Contractor, owner, and phone fields vary by source and record; they are not a universal feature of permit data.

Calculate your own acquisition cost

Set an outcome. For example, a qualified conversation, appointment, estimate, signed job, or a documented partner introduction.
Track the source. Record the channel, market, trade, date received, contact attempt, and outcome in your CRM or a simple spreadsheet.
Include operating effort. Add subscription or media cost, staff time, enrichment tools, and any partner payments. A cheap record is not automatically a cheap customer.
Use a sensible window. Compare like with like over enough time for your normal sales cycle; do not infer a close rate from a few early records.
Respect the record's limits. Confirm public-source terms and applicable outreach, privacy, and licensing requirements before contacting anyone.

Try it with one city: a 30-day worksheet

Example: Open the Chicago permits page. Note the source date and whether contractor or phone fields appear on the records you see. If the fields your workflow needs are present, run this 30-day worksheet:

Filter to your trade and note how many records appear in the last 30 days.
Pick 10 records with a contractor or contact field and attempt your normal outreach.
Track: contact attempted, conversation started, estimate given, work signed.
After 30 days, calculate your cost per conversation and cost per signed job. Your numerator is the total channel cost: the $149/mo Pro plan subscription plus the staff time and any tools you used for outreach and follow-up during the test.
Compare that outcome against the same 30-day window on your existing channels, using the same total-cost method (media spend + labor + tools) for each.

If Chicago does not serve your market, browse the coverage directory for a city you do serve and repeat the same steps.

Second worked example — Philadelphia: Open the Philadelphia permits page and run the same five steps against a different market. That page prints the newest published record date and a count of permits this source published for the city in the last 30 days, so step 1 is a figure you read off the page instead of an estimate. Filter to your trade, then use the Reveal control where a phone is available. Check the contact’s provenance before outreach: a phone may come from an additional public source rather than the permit record. The Philadelphia feed carries a contractor name on many records, but contact availability should be confirmed row by row. Once the fields your workflow needs are present, CSV export on the Professional plan takes the filtered set into your CRM. Philadelphia is a public-record research market: these records are not an exclusive list, and a permit is not a request for a bid. Your numerator does not change — the $149/mo Pro plan plus the staff time and tools you spend on outreach during the test.

Which approach is a fit?

Consumer-request channels can fit teams that want incoming enquiries and can accept the provider's rules. Advertising can fit teams with a measurable local offer and a strong landing-page-to-sales handoff. Public permit research can fit teams that already have a targeted outreach, supplier, market-research, or partner workflow and want to inspect documented project activity.

No source guarantees work won. The right test is small and measurable: choose one market you serve, verify the published data on the city page, define the follow-up motion, and compare your recorded outcomes against the alternatives you already use.

Review current PermitGrab plan terms and the markets and source disclosures before deciding whether the workflow fits your team. For a side-by-side of shared leads vs permit research, read permit data vs Angi and HomeAdvisor. For the product lander contractors use to inspect city sources before a trial, see permit leads for contractors. Compare the Shovels alternative and the Angi Leads alternative on their own terms. You can also read the how-to guide: contractor leads from building permits and the shorter contractor activity from permits FAQ.

Frequently asked questions

How much do contractor leads cost?

There is no reliable national price because "lead" can mean a consumer enquiry, a call, a request for a bid, a public-record signal, or a contact record. Compare the current terms and the outcome you need rather than treating unlike products as one price category.

What's the real cost per closed customer?

Use your own recorded path from eligible record or enquiry to conversation, appointment, estimate, and signed work. Include the provider charge, media or subscription cost, staff time, enrichment tools, and partner payments; a low-cost record is not automatically a low-cost customer.

How should I compare one provider with another?

Verify each provider's current charge event, qualification rules, sharing terms, refund policy, geography, and workflow directly. Those details can change by product and market, so a generic comparison table is not a substitute for the current terms.

Is public permit research the same as a consumer lead?

No. A permit record is a public government record about a project, not a consumer enquiry or a request for a bid. It can support market research and compliant outreach planning, but it does not establish purchase intent or a promised conversion outcome.

Are permit records exclusive?

No. They are public records. Before relying on a market, review the city source, its publication date, and the fields on the individual record; availability and cadence vary by jurisdiction.

Will every record include contractor, owner, or phone information?

No. Contractor, owner, license, and contact fields depend on what the responsible public source publishes for that jurisdiction and record. Confirm the fields on the records you intend to use instead of assuming coverage.

How should I test a permit-data workflow?

Start with a city and trade the product actually serves, inspect the linked source and record fields, use a compliant workflow, and measure your own results over a sales cycle. Pricing terms describe access; they do not guarantee a specific number of leads, jobs, or revenue.

Choose a market before you start a trial

See the public source date and available fields for a market you serve, then choose the project-research workflow that fits your team. Permit records are public records, not bid requests or exclusive leads.

Choose market and workflow → Browse source coverage →

14-day Pro trial · choose your market first, then card required at checkout · cancel anytime · Pro $149/mo after the trial