Side by side
| PermitPipeline | Construction Monitor | |
|---|---|---|
| Coverage | 4 metros, deep: NYC, Chicago, San Francisco, Miami-Dade | Nationwide U.S., by county/city area |
| Data focus | Pre-issuance and issued filings, commercial and project-based work | Issued building permits, residential and commercial |
| Delivery | Daily scored feed + searchable app | Weekly permit delivery (lists/exports) |
| Scoring | Every filing graded for contractor fit (A+/A = high-priority) | Raw records; you filter yourself |
| Workflow | Search, project tracking, saved searches, contact research | Data delivery; workflow lives in your tools |
| Pricing | $149–$599/mo, public pricing, self-serve, 14-day trial | Published per area in their store: $63 to $1,250/mo depending on region and permit type. New York City and Chicago are not sold self-serve. |
| Best for | General Contractors, Subcontractors, and design firms working the four covered metros | Teams needing broad raw permit data anywhere in the U.S. |
Comparison last verified August 1, 2026 from public information. Products and pricing change; check the other provider's site for current details.
Construction Monitor pricing
Construction Monitor publishes prices in an online store. You buy one jurisdiction at a time, billed monthly. The store currently sells five states: Alabama, California, Florida, Georgia, and Texas. Anything wider than one jurisdiction, or any longer term, goes through their sales team.
Here is what that costs in the metros PermitPipeline also covers, taken from their store on August 1, 2026.
| Area | All permits | Commercial only |
|---|---|---|
| San Francisco West Bay | $437/mo | $219/mo |
| San Francisco East Bay | $375/mo | $188/mo |
| San Francisco South Bay | $250/mo | $125/mo |
| San Francisco North Bay | $312/mo | $156/mo |
| Miami | $875/mo | $438/mo |
| New York City | Not sold in the store. Contact their sales team. | |
| Chicago | Not sold in the store. Contact their sales team. | |
Prices read from shop.constructionmonitor.com on August 1, 2026. They change. Check the store for current figures.
Two things are easy to miss. First, the Bay Area is sold as four separate areas, so covering it the way a San Francisco contractor actually works it means buying West, East, South, and North Bay: $1,374 a month at all-permit prices. Second, two of the four metros PermitPipeline covers cannot be bought without a sales conversation.
PermitPipeline publishes three tiers: Brief at $149/mo, Pro at $299/mo, and Team at $599/mo. Each includes one city. Additional cities are $99, $149, or $199 a month depending on tier. Every tier is self-serve with a 14-day trial.
The difference in one line: Construction Monitor sells permit records by area and prices them by how much data the area produces. PermitPipeline sells a scored daily feed and a pursuit workflow, priced by what the software does rather than by volume of records.
What Construction Monitor covers
Nationwide building permits across four types: commercial, residential, solar, and swimming pool. Their FAQ states permit reports are added and updated daily across the country. Coverage is the product, and it is genuinely broad. What arrives is the permit record itself, so filtering, prioritizing, and deciding who to call stay on your side.
Construction Monitor reviews: what to check yourself
PermitPipeline is not a neutral reviewer of a competitor, so treat this as a checklist rather than a verdict. Four things decide whether the data works for a given firm, and all four are answerable during a trial:
- Does your jurisdiction publish the fields you need? Permit data quality is set by the city, not the vendor. Owner, architect, and contractor fields are present in some jurisdictions and blank in others. This is true of every permit product, including this one.
- Issued or filed? Records that appear at issuance arrive later in the project than records that appear at filing. Ask which you are buying, because it decides whether you are early or late.
- What is the volume per week, and who reads it? A broad area produces a lot of records. Someone on your team has to work through them. Price the hours, not just the subscription.
- Does the area on sale match the area you bid? Metro boundaries in any permit product are drawn for data reasons, not for how you actually chase work.
Both products publish enough to test without a sales call. Construction Monitor sells one jurisdiction monthly in five states, and PermitPipeline runs a 14-day trial. Buying a month of each and comparing what lands is cheaper than reading either company's opinion of the other.
Where Construction Monitor is stronger
Coverage and history. Construction Monitor has tracked permits for decades and covers markets PermitPipeline does not. If your work is outside NYC, Chicago, San Francisco, or Miami-Dade, or you need residential repair-and-remodel volume, it is the more complete raw source.
Where PermitPipeline is different
PermitPipeline is built as a lead workflow, not a data delivery. Filings are scored daily for contractor fit, so the feed opens with the projects worth a call rather than a spreadsheet of every water-heater permit. Owner, architect, and GC signals are attached where the jurisdiction publishes them, and the app carries the pursuit: search, tracking, and contact research. A filing is an opportunity signal, not proof a project is open — the scoring exists to make that signal usable.
How to choose
Work in one of the four covered metros and want a ranked daily pipeline: start with construction leads from permit filings. Need national raw data or markets we do not cover: Construction Monitor. Some teams run both — breadth from one, depth and workflow from the other.
Related: PermitPipeline vs Shovels.ai · PermitPipeline vs Dodge · coverage & data dictionary.
Frequently asked
Is PermitPipeline a Construction Monitor alternative?
Yes, for contractors in NYC, Chicago, San Francisco, and Miami-Dade who want scored, daily project leads rather than raw permit lists. Construction Monitor remains a strong choice for nationwide raw permit data, especially outside PermitPipeline's covered metros.
What is the main difference between PermitPipeline and Construction Monitor?
Construction Monitor delivers broad weekly permit data by county across the U.S. PermitPipeline covers four metros deeply, updates daily, scores each filing for contractor fit (A+ to lower grades), and wraps the data in a lead workflow: search, tracking, and contact research.
Which is cheaper, PermitPipeline or Construction Monitor?
It depends on the market. In their store on August 1, 2026, Construction Monitor listed San Francisco West Bay all-permit data at $437 per month and Miami at $875 per month, with commercial-only feeds from $125 to $438. New York City and Chicago are not sold self-serve at all. PermitPipeline is $149 to $599 per month with one city included, which is below every Construction Monitor all-permit area price in those metros and comparable to their commercial-only feeds.
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