PermitGrab vs. ConstructConnect: Which Is Right for Your Contracting Business?
An honest comparison of permit monitoring vs. plan room services for contractors at different stages of growth.
See live building-permit leads
Every new permit with the contractor, owner, and phone on file — updated daily. Free to browse.
Browse live permits →If you're a contractor looking for construction lead services, you've probably come across ConstructConnect (formerly iSqFt and CMD). It's one of the biggest names in construction data. But at $500-2,000+ per month, it's priced for mid-to-large firms with dedicated estimating departments.
What ConstructConnect Does Well
ConstructConnect is a comprehensive construction intelligence platform. It provides access to project plans and specifications, bid management tools, takeoff software, and a massive database of commercial projects. If you're a GC or large subcontractor bidding on $1M+ commercial projects, ConstructConnect is purpose-built for your workflow.
Where ConstructConnect Falls Short for Small Subs
Price: At $500-2,000/month, that's $6,000-24,000/year. For a sub doing $1-3M in annual revenue, that's a significant line item.
Project mix: ConstructConnect focuses heavily on commercial and institutional projects. If your bread and butter is residential and light commercial, most of the database isn't relevant to you.
Timing: Small and mid-size commercial projects often don't get posted to plan rooms at all.
What Permit Monitoring Offers Instead
Coverage of small and mid-size projects: The residential renovation, the 3,000 sqft office build-out — these projects require building permits but don't show up in plan rooms.
Speed: Permit filings happen at the start of a project's construction phase.
Price: At $150/month, permit monitoring is 70-90% less expensive than ConstructConnect.
Head-to-Head Comparison
Best for large commercial subs ($5M+ revenue): ConstructConnect.
Best for specialty subs doing residential and light commercial ($500K-5M revenue): Permit monitoring.
Cost Per Lead Comparison
ConstructConnect at $1,000/month surfaces 30-50 relevant projects per month = $20-33 per lead.
Permit monitoring at $150/month surfaces 100-300 relevant permits per month = $0.50-1.50 per lead.
The difference in cost per lead is 20-60x.