Shovels.ai is a capable, enterprise-grade permit platform — but its lowest PAID plan is $599/month (it does publish a free tier), which is steep for indie developers, small contractors, and early-stage teams. Here's an honest look at the alternatives, and where each one fits.
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A free tier, paid plans from $29, and a $79 Developer plan with webhooks. Business ($149) adds the change feed and owner mailing addresses. The most direct answer for teams priced out of a $599 floor.
Tools like BatchData bundle permits with skip tracing and owner data — more expensive, but built for outreach to property owners.
Construction Monitor, PermitGrab and HBW sell curated permit leads — handy if you never want to touch an API, though usually pricier per metro.
The right alternative depends on what's pushing you to look. Here's the quick map.
| Feature | PermitStack | Shovels.ai |
|---|---|---|
| Entry price | Free → $29/mo | Free tier, then $599/mo |
| Free tier | 100 requests/day, no card | 500 credits/mo, no card |
| Self-serve signup | ~2 minutes | Self-serve |
| Data refresh | Nightly ingest; data-through date per jurisdiction | Twice a month |
| Webhooks | From $79/mo | Not documented |
| AI / NL features | Enrichment + MCP server | NL agent + MCP |
| National coverage breadth | 8,000+ cities / 48 states and DC | 2,770+ claimed |
| Transparent public pricing | Free / $29 / $39 / $79 / $149 / $499 | Free / $599 / $999 published; Enterprise custom |
Shovels.ai details reflect publicly available information re-verified against each vendor's own site on 9 September 2026 and may have changed. PermitStack is an independent company and is not affiliated with Shovels.ai. All trademarks belong to their respective owners.
Match the tool to why you're leaving, not just the logo.
This is the most common reason teams look, and it's exactly PermitStack's lane: free to start, $79 for webhooks and the full API, month-to-month.
If your use case is time-sensitive — solar/roofing leads, underwriting — a nightly-ingest, webhook-push model beats waiting on a twice-monthly batch. Check each jurisdiction's data-through date on our coverage page first.
If a procurement process is a dealbreaker, pick a tool you can sign up for with an email and a credit card in minutes.
If permits are only step one and you need owner contacts or a curated lead list, a property-data suite or a lead vendor may fit better than any pure API.
If you're an enterprise that needs the broadest possible jurisdiction coverage, Snowflake/Databricks marketplace delivery, SOC 2 Type 2, and a named account manager, Shovels.ai is a serious, well-funded platform built for exactly that — and worth its price for organizations with those requirements.
For everyone earlier on the curve — indie devs, small contractors, startups, growth experiments — a cheaper, self-serve option like PermitStack usually wins. See the full PermitStack vs Shovels.ai comparison →
PermitStack is among the most affordable: a permanent free tier (100 requests/day) and paid plans from $29/mo, versus Shovels' $599/mo lowest paid plan (they publish a free tier too). See our cheap permit API guide.
PermitStack does — webhooks push each new matching permit after the nightly ingest, within about a minute of it landing in our data, plus daily/weekly email lead feeds. Many batch-refresh platforms ask you to poll instead.
Property-data suites like BatchData bundle permits with owner contacts and skip tracing. PermitStack offers the owner of record and mailing address on assessor-linked permits from the Business plan ($149/mo), but no homeowner phone numbers or emails, to stay compliance-light.
No — Shovels advertises far more jurisdictions via proprietary scraping. PermitStack covers 8,000+ cities across 48 states and DC and labels freshness honestly. Check the live coverage page for your metro.
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