Contractor verification. Finally done right.
Groundcheck isn’t a lead-gen marketplace selling you ad-tier “pros,” and it isn’t a slow individual background check. It’s trust infrastructure: a sourced verdict in about 90 seconds, federal court, OSHA and sanctions records in all 51 jurisdictions, first-party license checks in 38 of 51, and phoenix-entity detection that catches operators hiding across state lines.
Side by side
These products solve different problems. The chart below is honest about that — a marketplace listing isn’t a verdict, and an individual background check isn’t entity verification.
| Feature | Groundcheck | Angi | Thumbtack | ISNetworld | Checkr |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Verdict speed | ~90 sec | Membership listing | Instant matches | Days–weeks | ~1–3 days |
| State license coverage | 38 first-party / 51 | Varies | Varies | — | — |
| Permit history | 11 jurisdictions | ||||
| Federal court & bankruptcy filings | — | — | |||
| Mechanic’s liens / county civil judgments (we do not check these) | — | — | |||
| Phoenix / cross-state entity detection | |||||
| Real-time monitoring | |||||
| Price per check | $0 (homeowners) | Free to browse | Free to browse | Contractor-paid annual | Per-report |
| FCRA posture | Entity (not FCRA) | — | — | Entity | Individual (FCRA) |
| API available | |||||
| Insurance-carrier integration | |||||
| Fraud-report intake | |||||
| Post-disaster mode |
Competitor figures are drawn from each company's public pages and are approximate and subject to change. A dash means we could not source that capability from public information, not that it is necessarily absent. Angi and Thumbtack are lead-generation marketplaces; ISNetworld is enterprise supply-chain compliance; Checkr performs FCRA-regulated individual background checks.
What Groundcheck does not cover
Measured against our own database on August 20, 2026. We would rather you find these here than in a report.
- mechanic’s liens. There is no national public source for either, and we do not buy a commercial aggregate. A Groundcheck report will never claim a contractor is clear of them.
- county civil judgments. There is no national public source for either, and we do not buy a commercial aggregate. A Groundcheck report will never claim a contractor is clear of them.
13 of 51 jurisdictions have no first-party license lane and fall back to an open-web search. 6 of those have no statewide contractor license at all, so there is nothing to check. The remaining 7 do run a state licensing board we cannot yet reach: GA, HI, MS, NM, PA, SC, WI. In those, a license line is reported as an explicit coverage gap — never as “not licensed”.
Separately, 17 of 51jurisdictions have no statewide general-contractor license at all — licensing there is municipal. We say so explicitly rather than returning “no record found”, which would read as an accusation.
Groundcheck vs the field
Angi is a lead-generation marketplace. Its “pre-screening” is largely a membership and advertising tier plus an individual background check on the business owner — it surfaces pros who pay to be listed, not a fraud verdict on the entity. Groundcheck never sells leads and is never paid by the contractor; we read the public record and return whether the company is who it claims to be, free for the homeowner.
Thumbtack matches you with pros who bid on your job. Its trust signals are reviews and an optional background check, geared toward booking work fast — not toward catching license lapses, federal court filings, or an operator who dissolved a complaint-ridden LLC and re-registered next door. Groundcheck checks the entity across state lines before you sign, with the sources behind our signals.
ISNetworld is enterprise supply-chain compliance, built for industrial and oil & gas operators vetting their vendors. Contractors pay an annual fee to maintain certification, and onboarding can take days to weeks. That’s the right tool for a refinery’s approved-vendor list — and the wrong one for a homeowner or a carrier who needs an answer in minutes. Groundcheck is instant, entity-first, and free for the person checking.
Checkr runs FCRA-regulated background checks on individuals— criminal, employment, and identity screening with consent, disclosure, and adverse-action workflows. That’s a different product: it vets a person, not a business. Groundcheck verifies the entity (license, registration, permits, federal court filings, phoenix history), which falls outside FCRA. For individual checks we route through a licensed CRA — the two are complementary, not interchangeable. See our FCRA page.
Pricing, compared
Verifying a contractor is free for homeowners. Businesses, carriers, and agencies pay for monitoring, bulk checks, and the API.
- Full entity verdict in ~90 sec
- Federal court, OSHA & sanctions in every jurisdiction
- License & registration — first-party in 38 of 51
- Phoenix detection included
- The business is never notified
- Real-time monitoring & alerts
- Bulk checks
- REST API + webhooks
- Carrier / white-label options
- Contractor pays to be certified
- Industrial / oil & gas focus
- Days–weeks to onboard
- Approved-vendor management
- Background check on a person
- Consent & adverse-action flow
- Different product, not entity
- ~1–3 day turnaround
Competitor pricing models are summarized from public information and vary by plan, volume, and contract; treat them as approximate. Groundcheck Pro pricing shown generically — contact us for current rates.
Verify the entity, not the ad.
One name in. A sourced verdict in about 90 seconds. Free for homeowners.