Corrections & verification log

Four contractor registrations were ranked as licenses. Washington's general-contractor and roofing pages said a statewide license was required and the state was missing from the states-without-a-license guide — but RCW 18.27 is a registration (bond and insurance, no exam). New Jersey's Home Improvement Contractor registration was treated the same way; its 2024 licensing act exists but the license requirement is not yet in force. Kansas and Oklahoma roofing registrations carried a 'Required' license badge. The site's own rule — a registration is not a license, as applied to Iowa, Nebraska and others — was not being applied consistently.

Now reads: Washington and New Jersey general contractors, and Kansas and Oklahoma roofers, are shown as statewide registration, not a license — with the full fee, bond and insurance requirements behind a banner saying so. Washington and New Jersey now appear on the states-without-a-license guide (23 states, was 21).

Source: RCW 18.27.020; N.J.S.A. 56:8-138 and P.L.2023 c.237 §§5, 9, 40; K.S.A. 50-6,123; 59 O.S. §1151.3

Montana was listed as a state with no general contractor license — registration only, and only for contractors with employees. That stopped being true on 1 January 2026: House Bill 239 (2025) converted the contractor registration into the Construction Contractor License, which MCA 37-45-201 requires of anyone engaging in business as a construction contractor. The general-contractor, HVAC and roofing pages carried the old framing, and Montana appeared on the states-without-a-license guide.

Now reads: Construction Contractor License required (a business license — $70 application, $70 annual renewal, no exam, no CE; jobs under $2,500 exempt). Montana no longer appears on the no-license list.

Source: https://boards.bsd.dli.mt.gov/construction-contractor/ and MCA 37-45-201

Nebraska's Department of Labor contractor registration was listed at $25. The Department raised it to $40 effective 1 August 2026, so the figure was correct when written and wrong from that date — it appeared on the Nebraska general-contractor page and in the roofing section.

Now reads: $40, and described as the annual registration fee it is (was $25)

Source: https://dol.nebraska.gov/conreg

The Statutes & Rules exam fee was listed at $54. Arizona moved the exam to Gmetrix and the fee is $61. Every Arizona trade page carried the stale figure, and the license-cost article's exam total was $7 low.

Now reads: $61 for the Statutes & Rules exam (Arizona exam total $127, was $120)

Source: Arizona Registrar of Contractors official fee schedule

Both states require two exams, and our cost model counted only one. Arizona split the trade exam into a separate line the total ignored; Mississippi counted one $120 section instead of two.

Now reads: Arizona general contractor $974 (was $908); Mississippi general contractor $640 (was $520)

Source: State board exam schedules, re-audited across all two-exam states

The MHIC application fee was rounded to $281 and a $22.50 processing fee was omitted entirely. We also counted the $100 guaranty fund contribution as recurring when it is initial-only.

Now reads: Application $281.25 plus $22.50 processing — Maryland general contractor and roofing total $466.75

Source: Maryland Home Improvement Commission fee schedule

Our Georgia general contractor fees were estimates, not sourced figures, and they overstated the real cost by roughly six times — $200 application and $280 license against an actual $10 processing fee and $25 pocket-card fee. Georgia was wrongly listed among the five most expensive states.

Now reads: $245 total (was $690) — Georgia is no longer in the priciest five

Source: Georgia Board of Residential and General Contractors (GOALS) fee schedule

The site said it covered all 50 states while Massachusetts was missing from the dataset entirely — 49 states plus DC. Every "all 50 states" claim on the site was false, and anyone searching for Massachusetts found no page at all.

Now reads: Massachusetts published with all five trades, so the site genuinely covers 50 states and DC

Source: mass.gov primary sources (CSL, HIC registration, PSI-examined boards)

We showed a $149 application, $295 exam and $267 certification as three separate charges. Florida bills a single combined $335 application-and-examination fee plus $200 initial certification. Two blog sentences also quoted the retired $295 exam figure.

Now reads: $335 combined application and examination, plus $200 initial certification

Source: Fla. Admin. Code 61G4-12.009

The application and renewal fee was stale at $141.10.

Now reads: $150.20

Source: lni.wa.gov current fee page and form F625-001-000

We ranked Wisconsin the cheapest state at $45 without saying what the $45 buys. Wisconsin issues no statewide general contractor license; $45 is the residential Dwelling Contractor Qualifier credential. The number was right and the comparison was misleading.

Now reads: Still ranked cheapest, now with the caveat stated in the license-cost lead

Source: Wisconsin Department of Safety and Professional Services

City license fees carried over from a pilot batch had not been checked against the issuing authority. Kansas City's fee was wrong and both cities carried unverified bond and insurance claims.

Now reads: Kansas City $181 with no bond required; Chicago class A–D fees and per-class insurance corrected

Source: Kansas City Information Bulletin 118; Chicago general contractor license detail page

Three other sites publish a contractor license cost ranking, and one of them outranks us for it. Where their cheapest and most expensive states disagreed with ours, we re-derived ours and went back to the state boards to find out who was right.

Result: Our figures hold — Wisconsin $45 cheapest, Nevada $1,040 most expensive, a 23× spread across the 29 states that license general contractors. The disagreement was about what counts, not about the amounts: other comparisons rank states that require a contractor registration rather than a license, and we do not, which is why Nebraska appears at the top of their lists and not on ours. The page now says so. Two things did come out of the check — Nebraska's registration fee was stale and is corrected above, and the ranking's own methodology note was understating which fees we count. The site that ranks first for these queries withdrew its ranking on 8 September 2026, saying its fee records could not support one; ours is unchanged and its basis is now stated in full.

Re-audited every Arizona fee against the Registrar of Contractors schedule, not just the one we suspected.

Result: Structure reconciled exactly — B-1 General Commercial $200 + $580, Specialty Commercial $100 + $480. Only the exam fee was stale, and it is corrected above.

Re-derived the cost superlatives after the two-exam fix changed two states' totals.

Result: Unchanged — Wisconsin $45 cheapest, Nevada $1,040 most expensive, a 23× spread.

Re-checked the fee figures behind the license-cost analysis against board sources as part of a citation upgrade.

Result: Georgia was overstated and is corrected above. The rest held, and each now carries its citation on the page.

Verified city-level fees, bonds, insurance and class limits against each permit authority's own pages — Chicago, Kansas City, Washington DC, San Antonio, Colorado Springs and Columbus.

Result: Kansas City and Chicago are corrected above. Washington DC's conflicting fee resolved to $99 with classes A–E. Colorado Springs could not be confirmed from published pages and is flagged as unverified rather than published as fact.