How Koira's data is made

The rules for every number

• Named sources only. Each figure is read from a public source, and the page it appears on names that source.
• Gaps stay gaps. Where a source did not publish a figure, the page leaves it out or says so. It is never filled from memory or guessed.
• Estimates say so. Where a figure is worked out by Koira, such as a job price for one state, the page labels it a Koira estimate and shows the method.
• A weekly freshness check. Every week an automated check reads the dates on every free tool page, every tool source and every licensing row. Anything older than 180 days, or with no date, goes to a person to re-open the source and check again.

Trade wages and salary pages

Used on the trade salary pages, the trade wages by state report and the state of the trade reports.

• Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025, read cell by cell from the BLS state and national data files.
• What it covers: wage and salary workers across all industries, not the self-employed or owner-operators.
• Gaps: a figure BLS did not publish is left empty, never estimated. A state page for a trade publishes only when BLS published a median hourly wage for it.
• How current: every page names the survey it is read from, May 2025, so you can see how current the figures are.

License requirements

Used on the license guides by trade and state, the contractor license requirements report and the state of the trade reports.

• Source: each state's own licensing board or statute. Every row lists the official pages it was read from and the date it was checked.
• Gaps: a detail the official pages did not confirm reads "Check with the board". It is never filled from a third-party guide. A state row publishes only when an official page confirmed whether a state license exists.
• Left out: city and county rules. These pages are general information, not legal advice.
• Re-checked: the weekly freshness check flags any row whose checked date is more than 180 days old for a person to re-check against the board.

Cost guides

Used on the cost guides and in the state of the trade reports.

• Source: the headline figures of two or more published cost guides for each project, each read in the guide's own page text. The guides drawn on are Fixr, HomeAdvisor, Bob Vila, This Old House, Today's Homeowner, Homewyse, CostHelper and Thumbtack.
• How the range is worked out: the national low is the middle of the guides' lows, the high the middle of their highs, and the typical price the middle of their averages (or of their midpoints when a guide gives no average). A guide that repeats another guide's numbers is shown but left out of the range.
• By state: a Koira estimate. Only the labor share of the national range is scaled, by the state's BLS median wage over the national median. Materials are never scaled. When no guide splits labor out, the labor share is a Koira working assumption, and the page says so.
• How current: every guide lists its sources and the date the prices were checked.

Calculators

Used in the free tools, the price check and the typical job prices by state report.

• Source: calculators built on published figures list those sources under the answer, with the date they were checked. Every calculator shows the math behind its answer, step by step.
• Your area: a ZIP code is matched to its state by its first three digits, from Census Bureau 2020 ZIP code areas, and the labor share of a price is scaled by the state's BLS median wage for that kind of work over the national median (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025). Materials are never scaled.
• Re-checked: the weekly freshness check flags any tool page or tool source more than 180 days past its date for a person to re-check.

Koira reports

The Koira reports are built only from the datasets above.

• Trade wages, license requirements and job prices by state: built from the wage, licensing and calculator data above. Each report shows the date it was built (October 9, 2026) and its sources.
• State of the trade reports: join BLS pay and employment, the Projections Central long-term projections, 2022 to 2032 published by state labor market offices, the checked license rows and the cost guides. Each dataset on the page carries its own as-of date.
• Free to use: every report has a CSV of its full table and a citation to copy. All of them are listed on Koira data.

Competitor prices

Used on the Koira comparisons and the alternative and pricing pages for other software.

• Source: every price and plan was read from the raw text of the company's own pricing page, with a real browser for pages that block a plain fetch or fill prices in by script. Nothing comes from a summary or a third party. The pages show the date the prices were checked.
• Gaps: a feature we did not see on the company's pricing page reads "Not listed". That is not a claim the product lacks it, and every page says so under the table.
• Re-checked monthly: on the first of every month an automated check re-reads every pricing page and compares the dollar amounts we quote with the ones on the page. Every run sends a person one email listing which prices still match, which changed and which pages need a browser to confirm.

Questions and corrections

The guides are written by Shane Allen, co-founder and CEO of Koira. If a figure looks wrong, email hello@koira.ai with the page and the figure. Writing about the trades? The Koira data page has every dataset with its CSV and a citation.