What is the best construction lead service?

There is no single best. Dodge and ConstructConnect are the national bid-stage databases; BuildCentral sells vertical lists; Shovels sells permit data through an API; Reonomy and PropertyRadar sell property and owner data; Groundbreak sells the public record on each project in seven Sunbelt markets. The right one depends on where you sell and at which stage of the job.

How much do construction lead services cost?

As published in 2026: ConstructConnect from $129 a month per market; Shovels from $599 a month; Reonomy from $400 a month on an annual plan; PropertyRadar from $119 a month; YIMBY+ from $499 a year; Groundbreak Pro $99 a month for one market. Dodge and BuildCentral publish no price.

Are construction leads from permits any good?

For most trades the permit is late: the general contractor is named and the first subs are hired. It is excellent for suppliers and for the trades that follow the frame, and it is the only record that carries a phone number. The earlier records are the land sale, the zoning case, the site plan and the recorded loan.

Who wrote this comparison?

Max Gillespie, the founder of Groundbreak, which is one of the products compared. The vendor facts are from each vendor's own site on the dates shown on the comparison pages, and the bias is stated up front.

Construction lead services compared, 2026: Dodge, ConstructConnect, BuildCentral, Shovels and the public record

What each construction lead service sells, what it costs as published on its own site, where its data comes from, and when a sub, supplier, GC, lender or engineer should pick which. Written by a vendor, with the vendor's bias stated.

This comparison is written by one of the vendors in it, so read it that way. The facts about each product are from its own website, on the dates shown on the individual comparison pages, and the opinions are mine. The mistake I see most often is a subcontractor paying for a bid-board database when they needed the permit feed, or a lender paying for a permit feed when they needed the recorder's index, so the aim here is to say plainly what each product is for.

The products, in one line each

Dodge Construction Network. The national construction project database, researcher-verified, from pre-planning through bidding, with bid invitations and plan rooms. Sold on demo; no published price. Full comparison.
ConstructConnect. The other national database, with a bid workflow built in (inbox, under review, bid sent, won) and material quantities from the drawings. Published from $129 a month per market, Professional from $199 a month per market per seat. Full comparison.
BuildCentral / ConstructionWire. Vertical project lists (retail, restaurant, hotel, medical, multifamily) with people reports and research on demand, over a $500,000 floor. No published price. Full comparison.
Shovels. Permit data, nationally, through an API and a dashboard, with contractor histories. Free tier, then $599 and $999 a month. Full comparison.
Reonomy. Commercial property search with ownership unwinding, debt and lien history, and owner contacts. From $400 a month on an annual plan. Full comparison.
PropertyRadar. Residential investor lists with distress signals, skip tracing and marketing tools. From $119 a month. Full comparison.
Zabalist. A free Texas permit search with a $19-a-month daily alert. Full comparison.
YIMBY+. New York's development tracker from the YIMBY newsroom, with a 3D city. From $499 a year. Full comparison.
Groundbreak Pro. The public record on every project in Miami, Austin, Atlanta, Nashville, Tampa Bay, Charlotte and Dallas-Fort Worth: permits, deeds, loans, notices of commencement, zoning and site plan cases, trade sub-permits, with the people on them named where the county publishes them. Free account; Pro $99 a month for one market, $199 for all seven. Pricing.

Three kinds of data

Every product above sells one of three things, and the word "leads" hides which.

Researched project leads. Dodge, ConstructConnect and BuildCentral employ researchers who call owners, architects and GCs, read plans, and write up a project with its stage, its team and its bid dates. The strength is national coverage and bid-stage detail you cannot get from any public record: who is holding plans, when bids are due. The weakness is that the source is a phone call and a summary, so the record is as current as the last call, and the provenance is implicit.

Property and owner data. Reonomy and PropertyRadar start from the parcel: who owns it, what they paid, what they owe, how to reach them. The strength is ownership resolution across the country. The weakness is that nothing in them says a project is coming; they describe the building that is there.

The public record on the project. Shovels, YIMBY+ and Groundbreak show the filings themselves. Shovels does it for permits nationally through an API. YIMBY+ does it for New York from a newsroom. Groundbreak does it for seven Sunbelt markets from a newsroom, and adds the records a permit feed does not have: the deed, the construction loan, the notice of commencement, the lien, the zoning case, the trade sub-permits. The strength is that every row cites its document and dates to the day the county recorded it. The weakness is the map: if you sell in Phoenix, none of the three covers you yet.

Which record, for which reader

The question to ask before buying any of them is which public record your lead is, because each stage of a project leaves a different one.

| Stage | Record | Who it is the lead for | Who has it | |---|---|---|---| | Land sale | Deed, or an owner change on the roll | Developers, brokers, lenders | Groundbreak (7 markets), Reonomy, PropertyRadar | | Entitlement | Zoning case, site plan | Architects, engineers, land-use, pre-con | Groundbreak, Dodge and ConstructConnect (as "planning") | | Financing | Mortgage, deed of trust, security deed | Lenders, insurers, sureties, title | Groundbreak (where the clerk publishes), Reonomy (as debt history) | | Permit | Building permit, with the GC | Subs, suppliers, equipment | Groundbreak, Shovels, Zabalist (Texas), Dodge and ConstructConnect (as "awarded") | | Start | Notice of commencement (Florida) | Every trade, suppliers, surety | Groundbreak (Miami, Tampa Bay) | | Trades | Trade sub-permits | Suppliers to each trade, competing subs | Groundbreak (Miami-Dade), Shovels (as permits) | | Bid | Plan holders, bid dates | GCs, subs bidding | Dodge, ConstructConnect | | Distress | Lien, lis pendens | Investors, subs owed money | Groundbreak, Reonomy, PropertyRadar |

Read down your column. A GC whose business is bidding public work needs the bid row, and that is Dodge or ConstructConnect. A formwork supplier in Miami needs the start and trades rows, and that is the clerk's notice of commencement and the county's concrete permit, which is Groundbreak. A construction lender in Dallas needs the land sale and financing rows across four county clerks, which is Groundbreak or a paralegal. A roofer in Ohio needs the permit row, which is Shovels or Dodge, because Groundbreak is not in Ohio.

What the prices buy

The published prices, read from each vendor's site in October 2026 (the comparison pages carry the dates and links):

| Product | Entry price | Unit | |---|---|---| | ConstructConnect | $129 a month | per market; Professional $199 per market per seat | | Shovels | $599 a month | 1 credit per record; free tier of 500 | | Reonomy | $400 a month | annual plan; exports metered | | PropertyRadar | $119 a month | exports, phones and emails metered | | YIMBY+ | $499 a year | 3 full records a month free | | Zabalist | $19 a month | daily alert; search free | | Groundbreak Pro | $99 a month | one market; $199 all markets; free account with open files | | Dodge, BuildCentral | not published | demo |

The metered unit tells you what the vendor thinks is scarce. Shovels meters the record, Reonomy and PropertyRadar meter the contact and the export, ConstructConnect meters the market and the seat. Groundbreak meters the market: the files are open and the parties on each record are what the plan opens.

When to buy two

A firm that sells nationally and sells hardest in one of the seven Sunbelt markets usually ends up with two: a national database for the map and Groundbreak for the market, because the national product's record for a Miami tower is a researcher's summary and Groundbreak's is the notice of commencement, the mortgage and the twelve trade permits under it. A lender that already pays for Reonomy's ownership data adds the recorder's feed for the deals in motion. A sub that lives on bid boards adds the permit feed to see the jobs that never reached one.

The individual pages say more, with the dates: Dodge, ConstructConnect, BuildCentral, Shovels, Reonomy, PropertyRadar, Zabalist, YIMBY+. What Groundbreak publishes in each market, and what no one can get, is on the coverage page.

Who should not buy Groundbreak

If you work outside Miami, Austin, Atlanta, Nashville, Tampa Bay, Charlotte and Dallas-Fort Worth, nothing here covers you yet. If your business is bidding from plan rooms and bid documents, Dodge or ConstructConnect carry those and Groundbreak does not. If you do residential remodels or home services, the feeds are read for commercial and multifamily work and a permit product like Shovels or Zabalist will serve you better. If you need owner contacts across the country, that is Reonomy or PropertyRadar.