# How Boardwalk is different

Early-stage projects at scale, found first, at a price your whole team can use.

Last reviewed Oct 14, 2026. Page: https://boardwalkai.com/compare/

## In short

- **First to know.** Projects show up at their first public hearing, often months before construction starts.
- **Early-stage projects, at scale.** 160,000+ private development projects a year, from 16,500+ cities, towns, and counties.
- **Software, not phone calls.** Boardwalk reads agendas, minutes, and staff reports every week. Each project links to its filing.
- **Priced for the whole team.** $500 a year for a county, with 10 seats and 100,000 project exports a month.

## Boardwalk and the alternatives

From each company's own website, with sources and dates.

- **Dodge Construction Network.** Commercial projects from planning on, checked by field specialists, with plans and specs for bidding. Prices by demo. Boardwalk: Starts at the public hearing, links every filing, and publishes its prices. Sources: [construction.com](https://www.construction.com/), [construction.com/apis](https://www.construction.com/apis/) (checked Oct 11, 2026).
- **ConstructConnect.** Bidding and estimating, priced per seat in each market. Planning-stage projects start at $199 a month. Boardwalk: Planning-stage projects in every subscription, priced by area, with 10 seats included. Sources: [constructconnect.com/pricing](https://www.constructconnect.com/pricing) (checked Oct 11, 2026).
- **Construction Wire.** Private commercial projects of $500K or more, verified by phone: 3,000 to 5,000 a month, by its count. Prices by phone. Boardwalk: About 13,000 private projects a month, found in public meetings by software. Sources: [constructionwire.com/Features](https://www.constructionwire.com/Features), [constructionwire.com/Faq](https://www.constructionwire.com/Faq) (checked Oct 14, 2026).
- **Construction Monitor.** Building permits nationwide, updated daily. Online, it sells monthly access to one jurisdiction at a time, in five states. Boardwalk: Planned projects from the first public hearing, in all 50 states and DC. Sources: [shop.constructionmonitor.com](https://shop.constructionmonitor.com/), [constructionmonitor.com/data](https://www.constructionmonitor.com/data) (checked Oct 14, 2026).
- **Doing it yourself.** The records are free on each city and county website, each in its own format, if someone keeps rereading them. Boardwalk: 16,500+ places read weekly, each project merged into one record, new ones emailed to you. Sources: [How Boardwalk reads the record](https://boardwalkai.com/our-data/) (checked Oct 11, 2026).

## Get the full data

- **Count for free.** Connect Boardwalk to Claude or ChatGPT and ask how many projects match. Counting is free during your trial and on every plan. [Use it in Claude or ChatGPT](https://boardwalkai.com/mcp/)
- **Open the records.** Start a 7-day free trial, no credit card. It includes 50 project records. [Start free trial](https://boardwalkai.com/auth/signup/)
- **Use it in your tools.** CSV export, the API, and the MCP server come with every plan. [API docs](https://boardwalkai.com/docs/api/)

## How to cite

Source: Boardwalk, "How Boardwalk is different", boardwalkai.com/compare/, data as of Oct 14, 2026.

How we count: https://boardwalkai.com/coverage/#how-we-count