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PlumbIntel vs Shovels
Shovels built an impressive national permit dataset. We built a daily selling machine for one state.
Shovels aggregates building permits and contractor records across the country and exposes them through search, dashboards, and an API — if you need many states, it’s a strong choice. PlumbIntel makes the opposite trade: one metro covered daily, fused with the AZ ROC roster, county assessor records, and property sales, and delivered as plays — who to call, why now, and the number — rather than as a dataset you query.
Choose Shovels if
You operate in many states, need permit data as an API or bulk dataset, or your team has analysts who want to build their own workflows on top of raw records.
Choose PlumbIntel if
You sell into Arizona construction — supplier rep, trade contractor, or local service business — and you want this morning’s changes turned into calls, account health, and a Friday report without touching a spreadsheet.
| Built for | Shovels | PlumbIntel |
|---|---|---|
| Coverage philosophy | National breadth — thousands of jurisdictions across the U.S. | Arizona depth — every Phoenix-metro portal pulled daily, joins verified locally. |
| The unit of value | The permit record — searchable, filterable, exportable. | The play — who to call, why now, talking point, phone number, outcome tracking. |
| Account intelligence | Contractor profiles and history lookups. | A living book: per-account health from permit pace, at-risk alerts, license-expiry flags. |
| Property fusion | Permit-centric records with property attributes. | Full assessor + sales fusion: owner of record, mailing address, absentee flags, sold-but-no-permit signals. |
| State license depth | Contractor license data as part of the national layer. | The full AZ ROC roster including disciplinary actions and the unlicensed-violator list, refreshed continuously. |
| Who it’s for | Data teams, multi-state operators, API builders. | The rep with a truck, a phone, and a Friday pipeline meeting. |
| Price | Tiered SaaS and API plans. | One plan: $199/mo, every feature, cancel anytime. |
The difference, in one screen
This is what a PlumbIntel morning looks like: not a query interface — a ranked list of reasons to pick up the phone, each with the why, the talking point, and the number. (Example data shown.)
See the full product →Permit volume down ~57% vs. their 12-month pace (27 last 90d, ~63 expected).
Quieter quarter than usual — worth a check-in before they drift.
9 permits on one site — an active project, not a one-off job.
Sold 9 days ago, no permit pulled yet — reach the new owner before the work starts.
Selling into Arizona construction? See your territory today.
Start 14-day free trial$199/mo · no card up-front · cancel anytime