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Plumb Intelligence vs Shovels
Arizona depth, refreshed daily — not on a periodic national batch.
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. Plumb Intelligence makes the opposite trade: one state 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 Plumb Intelligence 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.
Contractor-of-record is resolved on 43% of all permits and 67% of the permits that name a contractor — every link carries a match-confidence badge, so you see how sure we are, not just a name.
The difference, in one screen
This is what a Plumb Intelligence 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.
Shovels vs Plumb Intelligence — common questions
Is there an Arizona-specific alternative to Shovels?+
Yes. Plumb Intelligence covers Arizona building permits daily and fuses the Arizona ROC license roster, county assessor records (Maricopa, Pima, Yuma), and property sales — delivered as ranked plays (who to call, why now, the number) rather than a national dataset you query.
How often does Shovels update vs Plumb Intelligence?+
National aggregators refresh on their own published cadence, which can lag a given Arizona jurisdiction. Plumb Intelligence pulls every covered Arizona permit daily, so a new permit surfaces in your plays the next morning.
Does Shovels cover all Arizona jurisdictions?+
Shovels aggregates nationally across thousands of jurisdictions. Plumb Intelligence focuses on Arizona and verifies every join locally — including AZ ROC license status, classifications, and disciplinary history that a 50-state pipeline tends to normalize away.
How does Plumb Intelligence pricing compare to Shovels?+
Plumb Intelligence is self-serve at $199 per seat per month ($179 at 3+ seats), with a 14-day free trial and no card up-front. Shovels is sales-led with tiered SaaS and API plans.
Selling into Arizona construction? See your territory today.
Start 14-day free trial$199/seat/mo · no card up-front · cancel anytime