Where Our Data Comes From
We pull from three primary public record systems to build the most complete contractor profiles in Florida. Nothing is crowd-sourced, pulled from review sites, or self-reported by contractors.
155,000+
Contractor Licenses
75M+
Building Permits
8390+
Permit Jurisdictions
Daily
DBPR Sync Cadence
1. Florida DBPR — Contractor License Records
Every contractor license in Florida is issued and tracked by the Department of Business and Professional Regulation. We import the full DBPR licensee data extract every morning, which gives us current license status, expiration dates, disciplinary actions, qualifying business relationships, and trade categories for 155,000+ license holders across 22+ contractor license types.
This is the same data the state itself uses to determine whether a contractor is legally authorized to work. When you look up a contractor on FloridaContractorCheck, the license status, type, and expiration date you see come directly from this extract.
2. County & City Permit Portals — Building Permit Records
Florida's building permit system is decentralized. There is no statewide permit database. Each of Florida's 67 counties and hundreds of incorporated cities runs its own building department, and most publish permit records through their own online portals. We index 8390+ of these jurisdictions, pulling newly issued, finaled, and in-progress permits as the source publishes them.
The sources fall into a few broad categories, each publishing different fields on different schedules:
County building departments
The big metros run their own permit portals with years of searchable history and contractor attribution.
City building departments
Many Florida cities permit independently of their county, each on its own system with its own data fields.
Open data portals
Some jurisdictions publish permit records through public open-data APIs with structured, machine-readable fields.
Legacy and small-town systems
Smaller municipalities publish through older portals with limited history. We index what they make available.
Not every portal publishes the same fields. Some include the contractor of record with a license number, which lets us match the permit directly to a state license. Others only include a company name, which goes through our matching system. A few publish permit records with no contractor attribution at all — those permits appear on jurisdiction pages but can't be linked to a specific contractor profile.
3. Florida Sunbiz — Corporate Entity Verification
The Florida Division of Corporations maintains Sunbiz, the state's official corporate registry. We cross-reference contractor names and qualifying businesses against Sunbiz filings to verify that the business entity behind a license is actually registered, active, and in good standing.
This catches a specific failure mode that license-only checks miss: a contractor whose state license is technically current, but whose underlying business entity has been dissolved, administratively revoked, or never properly registered. When a contractor's Sunbiz status conflicts with their DBPR license status, we flag it on their profile so homeowners can ask questions before signing a contract.
Data Integrity and Paid Features
Every data point on a contractor profile traces back to a specific government record — a DBPR license extract, a county building permit, or a Sunbiz corporate filing. We do not accept self-reported license or permit data, and we do not pull from review sites or aggregate third-party ratings.
Contractors can claim their profile and optionally upgrade to a Premium membership, which gives them enhanced visibility, priority placement in search results, and the ability to add business photos, descriptions, and respond to reviews. Premium placement is clearly marked. It does not change the underlying license or permit data, which always comes straight from official records regardless of membership tier.
If you see something that looks wrong on a profile, it usually means the source record is wrong or out of date. We're happy to investigate — reach out at [email protected].
Frequently Asked Questions About Our Data
How many contractors does FloridaContractorCheck track?▼
Our database indexes 155,000+ contractor license records from the Florida DBPR, covering 22+ license types across all 67 Florida counties. This includes both active and inactive licenses, so you can check whether a contractor held a valid license at the time work was performed.
How often is contractor license data updated?▼
We sync with the Florida DBPR extract daily. The DBPR publishes a full licensee data extract that we import every morning, so license statuses, expiration dates, disciplinary actions, and qualifying business relationships typically reflect changes within 24 hours of the state updating their records.
How many building permits does the database contain?▼
We have indexed 75,900,000+ building permit records from county and city portals across Florida. Coverage varies by jurisdiction — some publish decades of history, others only the last few years. We add new jurisdictions regularly and backfill historical data where the source portal makes it available.
Which counties and cities are covered for permit data?▼
We index permit data from 8390+ county and municipal jurisdictions spanning 219 Florida counties, including all the major metros — Miami-Dade, Broward, Palm Beach, Orange, Hillsborough, Duval — plus dozens of smaller jurisdictions, with new ones added regularly. Within a county, we also pull from individual city portals where the city runs its own building department. Each jurisdiction page on the site shows the permits we have on record for that area.
How are permits matched to contractors?▼
We use a multi-strategy matching system that goes well beyond simple name matching. It prioritizes verified license numbers from the permit record and applies built-in safeguards against false positives before accepting any name-based match. Every match is scored for confidence, and low-confidence matches are flagged for manual review rather than shown on a contractor profile.
What is the Sunbiz cross-reference?▼
Florida Sunbiz is the state Division of Corporations database. We cross-reference contractor names and qualifying businesses against Sunbiz corporate filings to verify that the business entity behind a license is actually registered and in good standing with the state. This catches edge cases where a license is active but the underlying business has been dissolved or administratively withdrawn.
Is FloridaContractorCheck affiliated with the Florida DBPR?▼
No. FloridaContractorCheck.com is independently operated. We source our data from publicly available DBPR records under the Florida Sunshine Law (Chapter 119, Florida Statutes) and from public county and city permit portals. We are not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by any government agency. For authoritative license verification, always cross-check at myfloridalicense.com.
See the Data in Action
Search any Florida contractor by name, license number, or city. Every result pulls from DBPR license records and county building permits.