Groundbreak vs Shovels
Pick Shovels if you need permits nationwide through an API. Pick Groundbreak if you work one of its markets and want the whole record on each project, read by a person.
An API-first permit data company: permits, land-use decisions, contractors, properties and residents across more than 2,700 jurisdictions, with a dashboard and a conversational search.
- Sold to
- Data teams, proptech, lenders, insurers, contractor-marketing platforms. Credits are spent per record.
- Data from
- Permit and decision records from the jurisdictions themselves, normalized nationally.
- Covers
- Permits · Land-use decisions · Contractors · Properties
- Price
- Free: 500 credits per month. Basic $599 per month. Pro $999 per month. One credit per record. source ↗
The development database for 7 Sunbelt markets, read from the public record daily by a newsroom: permits, deeds, construction loans, notices of commencement, zoning and site plan cases, and the trade sub-permits, with the contractor, owner and lender named where the county publishes them.
- Sold to
- Subcontractors, suppliers, general contractors, architects and engineers, developers, brokers, lenders and insurers working one or more of the seven markets.
- Data from
- The source document on every row: city and county permit feeds, clerk and register of deeds indexes, appraisal rolls, planning and council agendas.
- Covers
- Land sale · Entitlement · Loan · Permit · Start · Trades · Delivery · Distress
- Price
- Free account (three files to start, then one a week). Pro $99 a month for one market or $199 for all 7, 7 days free. Team $299 a month, five seats. pricing →
What Shovels has that Groundbreak does not
- National permit coverage with one schema.
- An API and a CLI for data teams.
- Contractor histories across jurisdictions.
What Groundbreak has that Shovels does not
- Deeds, construction loans, notices of commencement and liens joined to the permit on one project, where the county publishes them.
- Owner of record on every parcel, not only the permitted ones.
- A newsroom that writes the story on the filing, so the project has a name before it has a permit.
- Priced for one person in one market, with the files free to read.
What Groundbreak publishes, market by market
Each cell is a hand-checked flag against the county's own feed (webapp coverage table, verified against the filings). A · means the county does not publish it, so neither do we.
| Market | Permits | Phone on permit | Deeds | Loans | Starts (NOC) | Liens | Zoning & site plans | Owner of record | Trade subs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Austin | Yes | Yes | Parties, no price | · | · | · | Yes | Yes | · |
| Atlanta | Yes | Yes | Parties, no price | Yes | · | Yes | Yes | Yes | · |
| Miami | Yes | Yes | Daily, with price | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Nashville | Yes | · | Daily, with price | · | · | · | Yes | Yes | · |
| Tampa Bay | Yes | Yes | Daily, with price | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | · |
| Charlotte | Yes | Yes | · | · | · | · | Yes | Yes | · |
| Dallas-Fort Worth | Yes | Yes | Parties, no price | Yes | · | Yes | Yes | Yes | · |
Questions
- Is Groundbreak a replacement for Shovels?
- Pick Shovels if you need permits nationwide through an API. Pick Groundbreak if you work one of its markets and want the whole record on each project, read by a person. The two are complements for a firm that works nationally and sells hardest in one Sunbelt market.
- How much does Shovels cost?
- As published on https://www.shovels.ai/pricing on 2026-10-05: Free: 500 credits per month. Basic $599 per month. Pro $999 per month. One credit per record.
- How much does Groundbreak Pro cost?
- Free account (three files to start, then one a week). Pro $99 a month for one market or $199 for all 7, 7 days free. Team $299 a month, five seats.
- Where does Groundbreak get its data?
- From the public record in each market: city and county permit feeds, the county clerk and register of deeds indexes, the appraisal rolls, and the planning commission and council agendas, read daily. Every row on the site links to the source document.
- Which markets does Groundbreak cover that Shovels does not?
- Groundbreak covers Austin, Atlanta, Miami, Nashville, Tampa Bay, Charlotte, Dallas-Fort Worth, each from its own county sources. Shovels covers permits, land-use decisions, contractors, properties nationally; the difference is depth per record, not the map.
Other comparisons
Vendor facts are from the vendor's own site on 2026-10-05. Product names belong to their owners. If something here is out of date, write to max@groundbreak.city and it will be corrected.