Groundbreak vs Zabalist
Pick Zabalist to search Texas permits for free. Pick Groundbreak for Austin and Dallas-Fort Worth when you want the entitlement before the permit, the deed and the loan, and the project it all belongs to.
A Texas construction data site: a free permit search by city, county and contractor, a contractor directory, project pages, and a paid daily alert when new construction starts in a city.
- Sold to
- Texas contractors, suppliers and homeowners.
- Data from
- City open-data permit portals (for Austin, the city's Issued Construction Permits dataset), re-synced nightly.
- Covers
- Permits · Site plans · Contractor directory
- Price
- Search is free. A daily email when new construction starts in a city is $19 per month. 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 Zabalist has that Groundbreak does not
- Statewide Texas coverage, every city with an open permit feed.
- Free search with no account.
- A low-cost daily alert.
What Groundbreak has that Zabalist does not
- Site plan and zoning cases before the permit, TDLR registrations on every Texas project over $50,000, and owner changes off the appraisal roll.
- In Dallas-Fort Worth, deeds and deeds of trust from four county clerks joined to the project.
- Each filing tied to a named project with its history, team and the newsroom's coverage.
- Owner of record on every parcel in Travis, Dallas, Tarrant, Collin and Denton.
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 Zabalist?
- Pick Zabalist to search Texas permits for free. Pick Groundbreak for Austin and Dallas-Fort Worth when you want the entitlement before the permit, the deed and the loan, and the project it all belongs to. The two are complements for a firm that works nationally and sells hardest in one Sunbelt market.
- How much does Zabalist cost?
- As published on https://www.zabalist.com/pricing on 2026-10-08: Search is free. A daily email when new construction starts in a city is $19 per month.
- 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 Zabalist does not?
- Groundbreak covers Austin, Atlanta, Miami, Nashville, Tampa Bay, Charlotte, Dallas-Fort Worth, each from its own county sources. Zabalist covers permits, site plans, contractor directory in its own footprint; the difference is depth per record, not the map.
Other comparisons
Vendor facts are from the vendor's own site on 2026-10-08. Product names belong to their owners. If something here is out of date, write to max@groundbreak.city and it will be corrected.