HdL Municipal Business License Lookup

Pain points

• Every city's HdL business-license portal is its own manual, one-search-at-a-time web form.
• New local business registrations often show up here before a state filing or incorporation record exists.
• There's no bulk or API access -- checking many businesses (or many cities) means repeating the same search by hand.

What we solve

• Search a city's HdL business-license portal by business name or address in one call.
• Returns account #, issue date, expiration date, and address for every match.
• Same actor works across every HdL city we've confirmed reachable -- just change the city input.
• Pay per result; searches with no matches are free.

Summary

Search any HdL Companies municipal business-license portal -- Pomona, Hayward, El Cajon, and dozens more California cities run the same HdL system -- by business name or address and get back the account number, issue date, expiration date, and address for every match. One actor, parameterized by city, instead of clicking through a different city portal one search at a time.

Who it's for

• Local B2B marketing agencies prospecting newly-licensed businesses
• Hyper-local service providers (janitorial, IT, accounting) sourcing new-business leads
• Commercial real-estate brokers tracking new tenants/occupants in a city
• RevOps and BD teams enriching a lead list with a city's official license record

How to use

Set the input, run the actor, and collect results from the run's dataset (export to JSON/CSV/Excel, or pull via the Apify API). Example input:

{
  "citySubdomain": "pomona",
  "query": "Nail",
  "searchType": "Business Name",
  "maxResults": 100
}

See Inputs below for every available field.

What you get

One row per record:

Field	Description
jurisdiction	The HdL city instance searched (e.g. 'Pomona')
account_number	The city's business-license account number
business_name	Licensed business name
issue_date	License start/issue date
expiration_date	License expiration date
address	Street address, when the city publishes it
city	Address city -- may differ from the jurisdiction searched
state	Address state
zip_code	Address ZIP code
matched_by	Which search index matched: 'Business Name' or 'Business Address'
source_url	The HdL city search endpoint this record came from

Sample:

{
  "jurisdiction": "Pomona",
  "account_number": "00204231",
  "business_name": "BEE POLISHED NAILS SPA",
  "issue_date": "4/24/2019",
  "expiration_date": "3/31/2027",
  "address": "663 E FOOTHILL BLVD",
  "city": "POMONA",
  "state": "CA",
  "zip_code": "91767",
  "matched_by": "Business Name",
  "source_url": "https://pomona.hdlgov.com/Search/SearchBy"
}

Inputs

Field	Required	Type	Default	Description
citySubdomain	no	string	"pomona"	The HdL Companies city subdomain to search, e.g. 'pomona' for pomona.hdlgov.com. Confirmed reachable: pomona, hayward, elcajon. Many other hdlgov.com cities share the same search schema; some sit behind a Cloudflare challenge and can't be reached with a plain HTTP request -- the run fails with a clear message if so.
query	yes	string	"Nail"	A business name (or address) fragment to search for, e.g. 'Nail' or '123 Foothill'. Matches are partial/substring, not exact.
searchType	no	string	"Business Name"	Search the business name index or the business address index.
maxResults	no	integer	200	Cap on the number of license records returned in a single run. A broad query (e.g. a single letter) can match thousands of licenses -- narrow the query rather than raising this for routine lookups.
proxyConfiguration	no	object	{"useApifyProxy": false}	Optional. HdL city portals are usually reachable directly; enable a proxy only if a run is blocked from a datacenter IP. Does not help against a Cloudflare-challenged city -- pick a different citySubdomain instead.

Pricing (Pay Per Event)

You pay per result (dataset-item) — no charge for empty runs. Example: 100 business-license records at $0.004/result ≈ $0.40.

Illustrative -- the final per-result price is set at publish time. Apify platform usage (compute) is billed separately per your plan.

Use cases

• Local lead generation -- a marketing agency pulls newly-licensed businesses in a city before they show up anywhere else.
• New-tenant tracking -- a commercial broker checks which businesses just took out a license at a given address.
• Vetting -- confirm a business actually holds an active municipal license before doing business with it.
• Record enrichment -- turn a business name or address into a structured license record for a CRM.

Why this actor

• Straight from each city's official HdL Companies business-license system, not a stale copy.
• One actor covers every HdL city we've confirmed reachable -- just change the city input.
• Pay per result; searches with no matches are free.

Limitations & updates

Covers HdL Companies municipal business-license portals only, one city per run. A city's address field sometimes reads '--ON FILE--' when the licensee's address isn't public (returned as null rather than parsed). Some hdlgov.com cities front their portal with a Cloudflare challenge that a plain HTTP request can't pass -- the run fails with a clear message naming a confirmed-reachable alternative rather than returning wrong data. A broad query (e.g. a single letter) can match thousands of records; narrow the query for a routine lookup.

FAQ

Where does the data come from?

Each city's own public HdL Companies business-license search portal (e.g. pomona.hdlgov.com) -- the same system dozens of California municipalities use.

Which cities are supported?

Any hdlgov.com city can be searched via the citySubdomain input. Pomona, Hayward, and El Cajon are confirmed reachable directly; some other HdL cities sit behind a Cloudflare challenge and the run fails with a clear message if you pick one of those.

What can I search by?

A business name or a street address fragment (partial/substring match, e.g. 'Nail' or '123 Foothill').

How am I charged?

Pay-per-result -- per business-license record returned. No charge for searches with no matches.

Is this personal data?

No -- it's public commercial/DBA business-license data (business name, account #, dates, business address), not consumer PII.

How current is it?

It reflects the live city portal at lookup time.

Which actor to choose

Part of the license/registry lookup suite -- pick the one that fits your goal:

• California Contractor License Lookup & Verify (CSLB) — You need a California contractor's state license verified, not a city business-license record.
• Florida Contractor License Lookup & Verify (DBPR) — You're verifying a Florida contractor or tradesperson's state license (DBPR).