Shovels vs FieldClients: Shovels alternatives, pricing and who each one is for
Shovels is a national building-permit database with an API; FieldClients is a lead service that reads permits and five other record types and sends you the account and the person to call. Facts as published on shovels.ai on the date above.
Shovels vs FieldClients at a glance
| Comparison criteria | Shovels | FieldClients |
|---|---|---|
| What you buy | Permit, contractor and property database with API credits | Finished B2B leads: record, account, verified decision-maker |
| Records | Building permits nationwide, contractor and resident datasets on paid plans | Building permits, certificates of occupancy, code violations, managing-agent changes, ownership transfers, business formations |
| Coverage | Roughly 2,770 US jurisdictions, about 85% of the population, per Shovels' own figures | United States and United Kingdom, per area; coverage by record type on the markets page |
| Pricing | $599 and $999 a month by credits, then custom | $800, $1,400 or $2,000 a month per area by area size |
| Contract | Monthly plans, annual for enterprise | Month to month, no setup fee |
| Who works it | Your analysts and reps, by API or dashboard | We do; one email a day |
| CRM integration | Through the API into Salesforce or HubSpot, built by you | Daily digest and shared sheet; daily CRM delivery on multi-area plans |
| Best for | Manufacturers, distributors, enterprise data teams | Sales teams at service companies selling to property managers, owners and operators |
| UK | No | Yes |
Shovels facts are quoted from shovels.ai on 16 October 2026. If something here is out of date, email [email protected] and we will correct it.
Choose Shovels if…
- You have an analyst who will query an API
- You sell building materials or services to contractors nationally
- You want permit history on every US property
Choose FieldClients if…
- You want leads, not records
- You sell to the owner or manager behind the building
- You want per-area pricing, month to month
Shovels pricing and what the credits buy
The two published plans, $599 and $999 a month, are sold by credits. Each record the API or the dashboard returns consumes credits, so the monthly fee is a budget for records rather than a flat rate for access, and the plan you need depends on how many permits, contractors and properties you pull. Above the two published tiers, pricing is custom, which is where the enterprise accounts sit. Contractor and resident datasets come with the paid plans; the integration into Salesforce or HubSpot goes through the API and is built on your side.
Shovels publishes its own comparison pages against other permit vendors and a Quarterly Permit Index built from the database. That index is the right use of the data for a manufacturer or distributor sizing a market: which metros are permitting, which trades are moving, where contractor volume is growing. It is a research product, and the credits buy the raw material for that research.
Where Shovels and FieldClients overlap, and where they do not
The overlap is building permits. Both read them, and a permit in a Shovels query and a permit in a FieldClients digest can be the same filing from the same city portal. That is where the overlap ends.
FieldClients adds five record types a permit does not carry: certificates of occupancy, code violations, managing-agent changes, ownership transfers and business formations. Each record is matched to the business account behind the building, the owner, operator or managing agent rather than the contractor who pulled the permit, and the decision-maker at that account is verified before the lead is sent. Verified decision-maker email on every lead. Company phone where listed. The result is delivered, as one email a day and a shared sheet, rather than exposed through an API for your team to query. And it covers the United Kingdom, which Shovels does not.
A team that wants both can use Shovels for market sizing and FieldClients for the leads: the index tells you where to sell, the digest tells you whom to call this week.
Questions
How much does Shovels cost?
On shovels.ai on 16 October 2026: $599 and $999 a month, sold as credits that are consumed per record, with custom pricing above that. FieldClients is $800, $1,400 or $2,000 a month per area by area size, month to month.
Is Shovels a lead generation service?
No. Shovels sells data: permits, contractors, properties, by API and dashboard. Turning a permit into a lead, the owner or manager behind the building and the person who signs, is work you do on top of it, or what FieldClients does for you.
What are the alternatives to Shovels?
Construction Monitor and PermitStack for permit data by API, BuildZoom's data product, or the city open-data portals directly if you have an engineer. For finished leads with a verified decision-maker, FieldClients. The permit lead services page compares seventeen US providers.
Does Shovels cover the UK?
No. Shovels is United States only. FieldClients covers the United Kingdom as well, from planning applications, Companies House and public tenders.
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