HdL Business License Lookup — City License Records

HdL Business License Lookup searches the public business-license portals that cities run on HdL Companies' platform (for example Pomona, California) and returns each matching record's license account number, business name, start date, expiration date and business address. It is built for compliance teams, B2B sales prospecting, vendor checks and local market research, and costs USD 5 per 1,000 license records on every pricing tier.

Enter one or more city portal URLs (https://<city>.hdlgov.com), choose to search by business name, business address or business type, and get structured rows instead of copying results from each city's search page.

What data does the business license lookup return?

One dataset row per license record:

Field	What it contains
licenseAccountNumber	Account number shown by the city portal; this may not be a state or professional license number
businessName	Business name as listed in the city's results
startDate	Start or issue date, normalized to YYYY-MM-DD when recognized
expirationDate	Expiration date as shown; it is not a current-status determination
address	Business address as listed
portalHost	The city portal that supplied the record, for example pomona.hdlgov.com
sourceUrl	The portal's public business search page
scrapedAt	Retrieval time (UTC, ISO 8601)

Optional values are null. The Actor does not infer whether a business is active, compliant or properly licensed from the dates.

Each run also saves a SUMMARY record with the outcome (DATA, PARTIAL, EMPTY, BLOCKED, REJECTED or FAILED), the number of matches the source reported, per-city diagnostics and warnings.

How do I look up a city business license by name, address or category?

Find the city's HdL portal (the city's website links to it), enter its base URL, and search.

1. HdL city portal URLs: 1–10 base URLs such as https://pomona.hdlgov.com. Enter the base URL only, not a search-page path.
2. Search field: businessName, businessAddress or businessType.
3. Search value: a business name (up to 50 characters), a street address (up to 255; usually the street part only, without city, state or ZIP), or a business-type category exactly as that city lists it.
4. Maximum records: 1–1,000 across all cities, default 5.

Starbucks locations licensed in Pomona (the Console prefill):

{
  "portalUrls": ["https://pomona.hdlgov.com"],
  "searchType": "businessName",
  "query": "Starbucks",
  "maxResults": 5
}

Every auto repair business in Pomona's category list:

{
  "portalUrls": ["https://pomona.hdlgov.com"],
  "searchType": "businessType",
  "query": "Automotive Repair",
  "maxResults": 200
}

Business-type categories differ by city; Pomona's portal lists about 100, such as Attorneys, Coffee Shop and Contractor - General (Based In City). Only these four input fields are accepted; any other field is rejected with a clear message.

When should I use it, and when not?

Use it when the city you care about runs its business-license search on an hdlgov.com portal and you want license account numbers, dates and addresses as data, for one city or up to 10 in a run.

Use another Actor when:

• You need City of Los Angeles business registrations: LA Business Licenses Scraper.
• You need state business-entity registrations: Sunbiz Florida Business Record Scraper, New York Business Entity Scraper or Multi-State Business Entity Registry (CO, CT, OR).
• You need contractor licenses: Contractor License Leads.
• You need phones and websites for the businesses you found: Google Maps Scraper.

Use it from an AI assistant

HdL Business License Lookup works from Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor or any MCP client through Apify's MCP server. Add it with https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=muhammadafzal/hdl-municipal-business-license-lookup, then ask, for example: "Check whether any business named Starbucks holds a license on the Pomona HdL portal and list the account numbers and expiration dates."

Run it with the API

JavaScript:

import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

const client = new ApifyClient({ token: process.env.APIFY_TOKEN });
const run = await client.actor('muhammadafzal/hdl-municipal-business-license-lookup').call({
    portalUrls: ['https://pomona.hdlgov.com'],
    searchType: 'businessName',
    query: 'Starbucks',
    maxResults: 5,
});
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
console.log(items.map((r) => `${r.businessName} | ${r.licenseAccountNumber} | expires ${r.expirationDate}`));

Python:

from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient("YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN")
run = client.actor("muhammadafzal/hdl-municipal-business-license-lookup").call(
    run_input={
        "portalUrls": ["https://pomona.hdlgov.com"],
        "searchType": "businessType",
        "query": "Coffee Shop",
        "maxResults": 25,
    }
)
for record in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(record["businessName"], record["address"], record["expirationDate"])

What does the output look like?

Two records from the 2026-10-26 prefill run:

[
  {
    "licenseAccountNumber": "00209617",
    "businessName": "Starbucks Coffee #10112",
    "startDate": "2006-06-23",
    "expirationDate": "2027-06-30",
    "address": "68 RIO RANCHO RD, POMONA, CA 91766-4898",
    "portalHost": "pomona.hdlgov.com",
    "sourceUrl": "https://pomona.hdlgov.com/Search/Index/BusinessLicense",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-10-26T06:55:11.117Z"
  },
  {
    "licenseAccountNumber": "00209620",
    "businessName": "STARBUCKS COFFEE #23599",
    "startDate": "2015-03-19",
    "expirationDate": "2027-03-31",
    "address": "1010 N GAREY AVE, POMONA, CA 91767-3802",
    "portalHost": "pomona.hdlgov.com",
    "sourceUrl": "https://pomona.hdlgov.com/Search/Index/BusinessLicense",
    "scrapedAt": "2026-10-26T06:55:11.117Z"
  }
]

Pricing: how much does a business license lookup cost?

HdL Business License Lookup uses pay-per-event pricing. Platform usage is included in the event prices, and the prices are the same on every tier.

Event	FREE	BRONZE	SILVER	GOLD	PLATINUM / DIAMOND
Municipal license record (one dataset row)	USD 0.005	USD 0.005	USD 0.005	USD 0.005	USD 0.005
Actor start, per started GB of allocated memory	USD 0.005	USD 0.005	USD 0.005	USD 0.005	USD 0.005

Runs use 256 MB by default, so one start event is charged. Worked totals:

• 5 records (the prefill): 5 × USD 0.005 + USD 0.005 = USD 0.030
• 100 records: 100 × USD 0.005 + USD 0.005 = USD 0.505

A search with no match charges only the start event. If you set a maximum cost per run, the Actor lowers its record cap to fit before it starts; set at least USD 0.010 to cover the start event and one record.

How long does a run take, and what are the limits?

• Speed: the 5-record prefill run took 5 seconds. Cities are searched one after another, and a run stops after 8 minutes, keeping the records already saved.
• One results page per city: the Actor reads the page the city's search form returns. If the city reports more matches than your limit, SUMMARY says so.
• Duplicates are removed by account number within each city.
• Access: the Actor tries a direct request first and retries a blocked portal through its own proxy routes. A portal that still shows an access denial or security challenge is reported as BLOCKED; no CAPTCHA or login is bypassed.
• Very broad searches can return a large page; oversized pages fail with a prompt to narrow the search.
• Not a statewide index: it searches only the HdL portals you list.

FAQ

How do I find out if a business has a city business license?

Search the city's HdL portal by business name or address. A matching record shows the account number, start date and expiration date as the city lists them; confirm current status with the city.

Which cities does it cover?

Any city whose public business-license search runs on an https://<city>.hdlgov.com portal. You supply the portal URLs, up to 10 per run.

Is the license account number the same as a state license number?

No. It is the city's account number for that business and may not match state or professional license numbers.

Can I get a list of every business of one type in a city?

Yes, with businessType and a category exactly as that city's portal lists it, up to 1,000 records.

Does it show whether a license is active?

It returns the dates the city shows. It does not decide whether a license is current or valid.

What happens if a city portal blocks the request?

The city is marked BLOCKED in SUMMARY, other cities in the run continue, and nothing is charged for that city beyond the start event.

Related Actors

Business-record and license tools from the same developer:

• LA Business Licenses Scraper for City of Los Angeles registrations
• Contractor License Leads for licensed US contractors
• Building Permits Scraper for permit-based construction leads
• Google Maps Scraper for phones and websites of local businesses

Legal and compliance

These are public municipal records, but an address can identify a home-based business or sole proprietor. Follow each city's terms and applicable privacy, marketing and data-retention rules, and confirm important records with the city before making compliance, credit, employment, housing or insurance decisions. HdL Companies and each city remain the authoritative sources. This is not legal advice.

Last verified: 2026-10-26