Editorial Standards & Verification Process

License Verification

In Florida, Texas, New York, Louisiana and Washington DC, where we hold the state's license records, the license status we show comes from those records

How We Verify Licenses

Daily Scraping: We re-check the Florida and Texas state databases every day. Each run pulls license status and expiration dates from Florida DBPR and Texas TDLR.
Expiration Monitoring: A daily job at 6:00 AM UTC checks the expiration date on each active license record we hold, marks lapsed licenses expired, and recalculates the tier of the listings they belong to.
Kill Switch Protection: In Florida, Texas, New York, Louisiana and Washington DC, a listing left without an active license is removed from public listings when its tier is recalculated, unless our team has set its tier by hand. In other states we do not hold the state's license records, so we do not require a license to list a business there.
Re-verification Cycle:The Florida and Texas state databases are re-scraped every 24 hours. That refreshes the license numbers those databases return; a license added to a listing by hand is not part of that refresh. New York, Louisiana and Washington DC records are imported from each agency's published records and are not re-scraped on a schedule, but their expiration dates are still checked every day. We normalize and fuzzy-match scraped data to existing providers to maintain data integrity.

License records are either imported from state agencies' published records or added to a listing by our team. A license number a contractor submits goes on their profile only if it matches a license record we already hold or our team has reviewed it.

Insurance Verification

Proof of insurance protects homeowners from liability

How We Verify Insurance

Certificate of Insurance (COI) Upload: Contractors upload a Certificate of Insurance (COI) showing their general liability coverage.
Manual Review Process:Our team reviews each certificate by hand. Insurance counts toward a listing's tier only once our team has marked it verified.
One Tier Signal: Verified insurance is a single yes-or-no signal in our tier system. Carrying more coverage, or more types of policy, does not move a listing higher.
Expiration Dates: A policy can lapse after our team verifies it, so ask for a current certificate before work starts.

Listings without verified insurance sit at Tier C (Verified Pro), and verified insurance is on file for only a small share of listings. We recommend homeowners only hire insured professionals and ask for a certificate of insurance before work starts.

Ratings and Reviews

Star ratings and review counts from the Google Places API

How We Show Ratings

Google Places API Integration: All ratings and reviews are pulled directly from Google Places API. We do not host our own review system to prevent manipulation.
Minimum Review Threshold: To qualify as "Rated" (Tier A), contractors must have at least 5 reviews with a 4.0+ star average. This prevents single glowing reviews from inflating rankings.
Refresh Schedule: Ratings refresh from Google Places in a daily background job that updates a small batch of listings, oldest data first. Claimed profiles are refreshed about weekly, and contractors can refresh their own Google data from their dashboard. Most other listings refresh far less often.
No Self-Reporting: Contractors cannot edit their own ratings. All review data is read-only from Google's authoritative database.

We rely on Google's own spam detection. If Google removes a review for policy violations, the rating and review count we show catch up the next time that listing refreshes from Google.

Three-Tier Ranking System

Transparent rankings based on verification level

Tier A: Clinical Grade

Requirements: State license verified where we hold the state's license records; General liability insurance on file (COI verified); Rated 4.0+ stars from 5+ reviews

Tier A listings have verified insurance and a Google rating of 4.0 or higher from at least 5 reviews. In Florida, Texas, New York, Louisiana and Washington DC, where we hold the state's license records, they also hold an active license. A rating reflects customer opinion, not an inspection of the work.

Tier B: Advanced Verified

Requirements: State license verified where we hold the state's license records; General liability insurance on file (COI verified); Building toward full verification with reviews

Tier B listings have verified insurance, plus an active license in the jurisdictions where we hold the state's license records, but do not yet meet the Tier A rating threshold. They may be newer businesses or operating in areas with less online review activity.

Tier C: Verified Pro

Requirements: State license verified where we hold the state's license records; Insurance not yet verified

Tier C listings do not have verified insurance on file, and many are highly rated. We recommend homeowners request proof of insurance before hiring and verify coverage directly with the insurer.

Important: Tiers are calculated automatically from the verification data we hold, and in rare cases our team sets a tier by hand. Contractors cannot pay to improve their tier.

Data Freshness & Update Frequency

How often we refresh verification data

Update Schedule

License Scraping: Daily at 2:00 AM UTC from the Florida and Texas state databases (FL DBPR, TX TDLR) via Apify actors
License Expiration Checks: Daily at 6:00 AM UTC for each active license record we hold, whatever the state
Rating Sync: A daily background job refreshes a small batch of listings from the Google Places API, oldest data first; claimed profiles about weekly
Insurance Verification: Reviewed by hand by our team after a certificate is uploaded
Tier Recalculation:Runs when a license expires, when our team approves insurance or a license, and when a listing's Google rating refreshes

All scraping and enrichment tasks are orchestrated via Inngest background jobs to ensure reliability and error handling. If a scrape fails, the system automatically retries with exponential backoff.

Data Source Transparency

We believe in full transparency about where our data comes from:

• State Licenses: FL DBPR and TX TDLR (the Florida and Texas state databases, re-checked daily); NY DOL, LA LSLBC and DC DOEE (imported from each agency's published records)
• Business Information: Google Places API, Sunbiz (FL Secretary of State)
• Ratings & Reviews: Google Places API only (no proprietary reviews)
• Insurance: Direct uploads from contractors (manually verified by our team)

Questions About Our Verification Process?

We're committed to transparency. If you have questions about how we verify contractors or want to report an issue with a provider's credentials, please contact us.

Contact Our Team