Honest comparison
Shovel Radar vs Construction Monitor
Construction Monitor is a long-standing US building-permit aggregator. Shovel Radar is Canadian-native and ships a wider data layer than just permits.
TL;DR
Use Construction Monitor if you sell into US markets and you just need raw building-permit lists for prospecting.
Use Shovel Radar if your buyers are in Canada and you want permits + business licences + federal procurement in one feed, trade-routed.
Side-by-side
| Dimension | Shovel Radar | Construction Monitor |
|---|---|---|
| Geographic focus | Canada (382 cities + federal) | USA |
| Data coverage | Permits + licences + procurement + property + macro | Permits (residential + commercial) |
| Delivery format | Weekly Excel, trade-routed | CSV + map UI |
| Trade routing | Pre-segmented per trade | You filter by category code |
| Federal procurement | Included (CanadaBuys, MERX) | Not in scope |
| Business licences | Included (where municipality publishes) | Not in scope |
| Starting price | $29/mo | ~$50+/mo per market |
| Free sample | 5 rows of any product | Demo / trial |
* Construction Monitor pricing based on publicly available information as of May 2026; per-market rates vary. Contact CM for current rates.
When Construction Monitor is the right fit
- Your sales territory is US-only (or US-dominant).
- You target residential builders or single-family permits (CM has deep residential coverage).
- You're comfortable filtering raw permit data yourself.
When Shovel Radar is the right fit
- Your buyers are in Canada — 382 cities across every province + territory.
- You want commercial focus, not residential.
- You sell to GCs, sub-trades, or specialty vendors and want the federal + provincial procurement layer too.
- You'd rather have an Excel emailed weekly than log into another dashboard.
See for yourself
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