Building Permit Data Sources Compared (2026)

Compare the main building-permit data source types — official open data, aggregators, bid boards and manual — and how Igni approaches each.

If you want building-permit data — to find leads, read demand, or research a market — you have several kinds of sources to choose from, and they make very different tradeoffs. This page compares the main TYPES of permit-data sources on the dimensions that actually matter, and explains how Igni approaches each. It's a buyer's framework, not a ranking: the right source depends on how many markets you cover, how fresh you need the data, and whether you need ADU-level typing.

The four broad source types are official municipal open data (going straight to each city's portal), permit-data aggregators (services that collect and resell permit records), bid boards and shared lead lists (project leads marketed to contractors), and manual collection (public-records requests and portal searches by hand). For the underlying mechanics, see our building-permit data guide.

How they compare

Building Permit Data Sources Compared (2026): Igni versus Typical alternatives
Dimension	Igni	Typical alternatives
Where the data comes from	Directly from official municipal open-data portals, normalized into one schema.	Open data = the city itself; aggregators = resold feeds; bid boards = submitted/curated leads; manual = portals & records requests.
Coverage model	60 cities across 37 US states today, expanding by jurisdiction.	Open data = one city at a time; aggregators = broad but varies; bid boards = wherever members post; manual = whatever you cover by hand.
Freshness	Sub-24h where the source portal supports it, ingested continuously.	Open data = as fresh as the portal; others vary by provider and update cadence.
ADU classification	Typed ADU classification (detached / attached / junior / conversion / unknown).	Rarely typed at the ADU-subtype level — usually raw work descriptions.
California SB-9 / SB-10 flags	Carried as flags on California records.	Not a standard feature of most general permit sources.
Normalization across cities	Consistent dates, statuses and recovered ZIP codes across all sources.	Open data & manual = none (per-city formats); aggregators = varies.
Effort to use at scale	One feed; no per-city portal work.	Manual = high; single-portal = high across many cities; aggregators = lower but varies.
Pricing model	Contact-driven during the pilot (pre-revenue, no public self-serve checkout).	Open data = free; aggregators & bid boards = paid (varies); manual = your time.

Official municipal open data: the source of truth

Going straight to a city's open-data portal is the most authoritative option — it's the original public record, and it's usually free. The catch is fragmentation: every jurisdiction publishes in its own format, with its own fields, export limits, and date conventions, and many lack consistent ZIP or valuation fields. For a single city, that's manageable. Across many, it becomes a daily integration project.

Igni is built directly on this source. Rather than replace open data, it ingests from official municipal portals and does the hard normalization on top — mapping dozens of systems to one schema, recovering missing ZIPs, and typing ADUs — so you get the authority of open data without the per-city plumbing. See where that data lives on our state coverage hub.

Aggregators, bid boards and manual collection

Permit-data aggregators collect records from many jurisdictions and resell them, which can save integration work — though coverage, freshness, and ADU-level typing vary by provider, so they're worth verifying against your specific markets. Bid boards and shared lead lists are a different animal: they market project leads to contractors, often to several at once, so they're better understood as a lead marketplace than a permit-data source.

Manual collection — portal searches and public-records requests — is the most flexible and the cheapest in dollars, but it doesn't scale: the per-city effort and staleness catch up quickly. Our blog post on construction lead sources for 2026 compares these channels for lead generation specifically.

How to choose — and where Igni fits

Match the source to your need. If you only ever care about one city and have time, the city's own portal is hard to beat on authority and price. If you need many markets, fresh, and typed for ADUs, the cost of doing that by hand is what a normalized feed removes.

Igni is the strongest fit when you need breadth (multiple cities), freshness (sub-24h), and ADU/SB-9 specialization in one place, sourced verifiably from official open data. It's contact-driven during the pilot — no public self-serve checkout yet — so to see coverage in your markets, request access. For a deeper buyer's view by audience, see our pages for ADU builders and lenders.

Frequently asked questions

What's the best source of building permit data?

It depends on your need. For a single city, the city's own open-data portal is the most authoritative and is free. For many markets, fresh data, and ADU-level typing, a normalized feed removes the per-city integration work that manual collection and single-portal access require.

Is building permit data free?

The underlying records are public and many cities publish them free on open-data portals. Paid sources add value by aggregating, normalizing, typing, and delivering that data across many jurisdictions, which is the work that's expensive to do yourself at scale.

How is Igni different from a bid board?

Bid boards market project leads to contractors, often to several at once. Igni is a permit-data feed sourced from official open data — it surfaces the public permit record early and typed, rather than selling a shared lead. They solve different problems.

Does Igni replace official open data?

No — it's built on it. Igni ingests directly from official municipal open-data portals and does the normalization, ADU typing, and freshness work on top, so you keep the authority of the public source without the per-city integration effort.

See how Igni fits your markets

Igni is contact-driven during its pilot. Tell us which cities and project types you focus on, and we'll show you the coverage, freshness and ADU typing for your markets.

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