Comparison · checked 2026-10-26
PropRaven vs Shovels
Shovels and PropRaven both offer U.S. building permit data by API and in bulk. This page compares what each company publishes about itself. Every statement about Shovels links to Shovels' own page and was checked on the date shown; where Shovels' public pages do not describe something, we leave it out rather than guess.
Side by side
| PropRaven | Shovels (its own pages, checked 2026-10-26) | |
|---|---|---|
| Permit data | Building permit history matched to each parcel, collected from the cities and counties that publish permits. About 2.8% of served parcel records had a matched building permit on 2026-10-02. Coverage is uneven, and the permit data API page publishes the state-by-state share. More | The API provides "building permit records, contractor profiles, property details, and government decisions data" that are "AI-enriched and normalized to a single schema." "Every permit is standardized, classified, and enriched during ingestion." The pricing page describes that dataset as "Every building permit we cover, AI-classified into structured records." Source: shovels.ai/solutions/api · shovels.ai/pricing (2026-10-26) |
| Contractor and licensee data | Licensed firms in FL, CA, NY, CT, VA, AZ, OH, OR, NJ, WV: real-estate brokerages, insurance agencies (Florida), CPA firms and community-association managers. Not contractor or inspector licenses. A permit can still carry the contractor name and license number the city or county published on it. More | Shovels is stronger on contractor licenses. The pricing page lists "Contractor profiles with licenses, work history, and contact details." "Shovels provides comprehensive contractor data derived directly from permit records." Contractor information comes from permit application data, "state contractor licensing boards" and business registration records. When available, records include business name and contact information, "license numbers and status", permit history and volume, performance metrics and employee information. Source: shovels.ai/pricing · docs.shovels.ai: contractor data (2026-10-26) |
| Parcel and owner context joined to permits | Permits are matched to the parcel they were filed against. For an account, each permit includes the owner and applicant names the jurisdiction filed with it. More | "Parcels and addresses with full permit and ownership history." A property search returns "one property with its permit history already summarized on the record" (permit counts, work-type tags, latest activity dates, contractors, and job values), "so you don't have to stitch individual permits together yourself." Search can take "a property owner name" (legal_owner). "Residents and homeowners tied to properties, with contacts." Source: shovels.ai/pricing · docs.shovels.ai: property search (2026-10-26) |
| API and SDKs | REST API described by a public OpenAPI 3.1 spec, with Python, TypeScript and Go SDKs. The Free plan includes API keys. More | "The REST API uses standard HTTP methods and returns JSON." "Sign up at app.shovels.ai to get your API key." "The API can be integrated using any programming language that supports HTTP requests," including Python, JavaScript/Node.js, Java, Go, Ruby and PHP. The docs "provide code snippets in multiple languages for each endpoint." The same API is also available through an open-source CLI that returns JSON. Source: shovels.ai/solutions/api · docs.shovels.ai: automate API calls · shovels.ai/features/cli (2026-10-26) |
| AI agents (MCP) | Hosted MCP server (OAuth sign-in or API key) with 47 publicly listed tools. Parcel data can also be paid for per call over x402 without an account; people data always needs an account. More | "Charlie, the in-app AI agent" lets you "Ask permit questions in plain English, inside Shovels Online." The CLI is "One binary, JSON output, built for terminals and agents" and "It was designed from the ground up for AI agents, scripts, and data pipelines." "AI agents like Claude Code, Codex, and Cursor simply shell out to the shovels command." Source: shovels.ai/pricing · shovels.ai/features/cli (2026-10-26) |
| Bulk delivery | Databricks Delta Sharing, versioned Parquet on Cloudflare R2, and CSV export from search. A Snowflake share by request today; the Snowflake Marketplace listing is in review. More | "The API lets you retrieve records on demand. The Enterprise Data License gives your team the full dataset, delivered as parquet files or table shares in Snowflake, Databricks, or BigQuery, including fields not available through the API." The API page also says Shovels "offers native data delivery to Snowflake, BigQuery, and Databricks through our Enterprise plan." Source: shovels.ai/pricing · shovels.ai/solutions/api (2026-10-26) |
| Where the data comes from | Assessor, recorder, permit and licensee records are collected from the agency that publishes them (county, city or state), not bought from data resellers. More | "Shovels collects permit data directly from city and county jurisdictions" and "we don't purchase data from third-party vendors." Collection is through relationships with local governments, integration with online permitting portals, and public records requests. Source: docs.shovels.ai: data sources (2026-10-26) |
| Self-serve pricing | Free $0 (1,000 lookups a month, no card); Developer $99/mo (100k lookups a month); Team $1,000/mo (1M lookups a month); bulk data licenses priced on request. More | Free $0/month with 500 API credits ("No credit card is required", "one year of record history", "up to 10 results per query"); Basic $599/month with 25,000 API credits and full historical records; Pro $999/month with 50,000 API credits; Enterprise is "Custom". "A credit is one record retrieved." "Basic and Pro plans are billed monthly." "Every plan includes Shovels Online (with Charlie built in), the API, and the CLI." Source: shovels.ai/pricing (2026-10-26) |
What PropRaven adds
These describe PropRaven only. They are not claims about what Shovels does or does not offer.
- Building permits on the parcel
- Permit history matched to each parcel, collected from the cities and counties that publish permits. Coverage is uneven, and we publish how uneven: about 2.8% of served parcel records had a matched building permit on 2026-10-02, with a state-by-state table on the permit data API page.
- State-licensed firms
- A licensee firm search over the free bulk files of the state licensing boards in FL, CA, NY, CT, VA, AZ, OH, OR, NJ, WV: real-estate brokerages, insurance agencies (Florida), CPA firms and community-association managers, placed on the parcel where the address matches.
- Property-tax delinquency
- A parcel's tax-delinquency status as the treasurer or tax collector publishes it (delinquency rolls, lien-sale and tax-sale lists), in pilot jurisdictions only.
- Built for AI agents
- A hosted MCP server with 47 publicly listed tools, including free discovery tools that show what a parcel record would contain and cost before anything is bought, and pay-per-call over x402. See the MCP docs.
- Coverage stated honestly
- Per-state and per-county fill rates are published on coverage and each parcel data page, and the column catalog says which columns are rebuilt every epoch and which come from a reference export.
What Shovels also offers
Shovels also publishes products this page does not compare: "Zoning and development decisions, before a permit is filed" (shovels.ai/pricing), "Employee counts and roles tied to contractor profiles" (shovels.ai/pricing), and hosted feature layers "in Esri's ArcGIS platform" (shovels.ai/solutions/api). PropRaven covers U.S. parcels only. All checked 2026-10-26.
How this page was made
Statements about Shovels come only from Shovels's own public pages, linked beside each one and read on 2026-10-26. Prices are as those pages listed them on that date and may have changed. We do not compare parcel, permit or record counts, because the two companies count different things. If anything here is wrong or out of date, email support@propraven.com and we will correct it.
Try PropRaven free: 1,000 lookups a month, no card. Create an account or read the API reference.