Check a contractor's license before you write the check

Browse the register

Why this matters

Around 2% of the licensed tradespeople listed here are carrying an expired license today. Most of those are ordinary lapses, someone forgot to renew. But hiring one still exposes you: permits pulled under an invalid license can be rejected, and an insurer can contest a claim on work performed by an unlicensed contractor. The check takes ten seconds and it is free.

Where the data comes from

Every record here is public record published by a state licensing board: the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation and the California Contractors State License Board. We download their files, compute each license's status against today's date, and keep a history so we can see when a license is issued, lapses, or disappears from the register entirely. We are not affiliated with any state agency, we do not sell leads, and we do not rank contractors. Read the methodology.

What each state licenses

• Texas: Texas licenses individual trades at state level. There is no Texas general contractor license, so a general contractor here is regulated by the city, not the state.
• California: California licenses general contractors as well as individual trades, and publishes bond and workers' compensation status, so records here carry more detail than Texas.