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TarSignal vs PermitStack

PermitStack is a national building permit API with self-serve plans from $29 a month, built for developers and data buyers. TarSignal covers 23 permit offices in Charlotte, the Triangle, the Triad, Wilmington, Asheville, Onslow County and Cumberland County and is built for the contractors and suppliers working them: new permits each morning with the contractor's contacts, a map and search, at one flat price.

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Choose TarSignal if…

You're a contractor or supplier who wants North Carolina permits to act on, not an API to build against.
You work Johnston, Onslow or Union County, Apex, Fuquay-Varina or Garner, which PermitStack's coverage page doesn't list.
You want each permit's status in plain words, with each office's own status terms explained in our glossary.
You want three years of permits free with a login, then everything up to today for $199/mo.

Choose PermitStack if…

You need permits from outside North Carolina, through one API.
You're a developer: their API plans start at $29/mo, with webhooks from $79/mo.
You work Harnett County, Greenville and Pitt County, Jacksonville or New Bern, which they list and we don't cover.
You want full history on a jurisdiction, not three years.

Side by side

	TarSignal	PermitStack
Built for	Built forContractors, suppliers and the teams that sell to them	Developers and data buyers (REST API, SDKs, CSV), plus email lead feeds for trades
North Carolina coverage	North Carolina coverage23 permit offices in Charlotte, the Triangle, the Triad, Wilmington, Asheville, Onslow County and Cumberland County	37 NC sources on their coverage page, 11 of them marked lagging
Price	PriceFree, or $199/mo flat	Free; Indie $29, Hobbyist $39, Developer $79, Business $149, Scale $499 a month; one-city CSVs $39–$349 once
Free tier	Free tierThree years of permits, older than 30 days, with a login	The last 30 days of permits, 100 API requests a day
Contractor contacts	Contractor contactsPhone and email where the permit or the license board has them	Name, license and trade on every plan; business phone for 380,000+ contractors from $79/mo
New-permit alerts	New-permit alertsDaily email (Pro), weekly for one ZIP (free)	Daily or weekly saved-search emails; webhooks from $79/mo
API	APIQuery API with a free trial key; bulk CSV and S3 drops	Yes, on every plan, with Python and TypeScript SDKs

What we say about PermitStack comes from their own website, as of October 26, 2026. Prices and plans change; check their site for the latest.

Coverage, office by office

PermitStack's coverage page listed 37 North Carolina sources when we checked on October 26, 2026, from Raleigh and Charlotte to Aberdeen and Mebane, with how current each one is. Eleven were marked lagging, among them one of their two Wake County feeds (last record August 10), Wilmington and Wake Forest.

Where both of us read an office (Raleigh, Charlotte-Mecklenburg, Durham, Cary, Greensboro, Wake County, Cumberland County, High Point and others), the records are the same public permits. The differences are in what's added and how you get it: TarSignal adds the contractor's phone and email where the license board has them, sorts each office's status words into plain groups, and sends new permits by email each morning.

If you're building software

PermitStack is the stronger fit for a national product, and its entry plans are inexpensive. If North Carolina is your market, our query API returns every office we cover in one format, with the contractor contacts and status groups included; you can try it with a free trial key on our Data & API page.

Questions

How much does PermitStack cost?

When we checked on October 26, 2026, PermitStack listed a free plan (100 requests a day, the last 30 days of permits), Indie at $29/mo, Hobbyist $39, Developer $79, Business $149 and Scale $499, with about 17% off yearly, plus one-time city CSV exports from $39 to $349. TarSignal is free to start, and Pro is $199/mo.

Is TarSignal a PermitStack alternative?

For North Carolina contractors and suppliers, yes: TarSignal covers 23 permit offices with contractor contacts and a daily email at a flat price. For permits across the country through an API, PermitStack is built for that and we aren't.

Which North Carolina areas does PermitStack cover that TarSignal doesn't?

Their coverage page lists Harnett County, Greenville and Pitt County, Jacksonville, New Bern, Sanford, Kernersville and several smaller towns that we don't read today. Both of us read Cumberland County's office; neither of us lists the City of Fayetteville's. We cover Johnston, Onslow and Union Counties, Apex, Fuquay-Varina and Garner, which their page doesn't list.

Sources

Checked October 26, 2026.

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