Contractor Research Service and Pricing
Effective date: 2026-10-20
Contractor research is available free during launch: up to 3 reports per account every 30 days, with no purchase or subscription. An optional one-time purchase, Project Guard ($39 for one home project, no renewal), is described in Service and Pricing. It covers contractors licensed by the California Contractors State License Board (CSLB). It is not a verified provider network or a quality ranking.
Current availability
Sign in at app.acostekai.com with your email, accept the current terms once, and describe the repair and its California city or ZIP code. Research is free during launch, limited to 3 reports per account every 30 days and a daily service-wide capacity. Research has no paid plan, trial conversion, or automatic charge.
Each report reads the public CSLB records of licensed businesses whose address of record is near the California city or ZIP code you give. For each business it shows the license status, whether it holds the license class your job needs, its bond, workers' compensation coverage or exemption, LLC liability insurance where required, and complaint or legal-action disclosures, with the source and the time the record was read. Each report also states what was not checked, including reviews, experience with similar repairs, availability, and who would perform the work. Records can change after we read them, and CSLB may not have entered every recent event.
You independently contact, choose, contract with, and pay any repair provider. Our service is limited to researching public contractor information; it does not perform repair work, contact contractors, or act on your behalf.
Existing agreements
This update applies prospectively. Previously accepted terms and purchase receipts continue to govern existing agreements and their rights. This page does not replace those agreements, change a completed purchase, or remove support, privacy, refund, cancellation, receipt, or retained-record access rights.
Project Guard (optional, paid)
For one home project: $39 in total, paid once, active for 90 days from payment. Not a subscription; it does not renew, and no one is charged automatically. It includes: checking and comparing up to five bids against California contract rules with live CSLB records; checking your final contract and setting up a payment schedule within California's down-payment and payment-timing rules; before each payment, a fresh CSLB check of your contractor and a checklist of the lien releases to collect; a weekly CSLB check of your contractor while the pass is active, when CSLB's website is available; and a project file you can download.
Project Guard gives general information and organizes your own records. It is not legal advice, and we are not your lawyer; for advice about your situation, consult a California attorney. It reduces risk but cannot guarantee a contractor's work, availability, or price, or that you will not lose money. We do not hold, send, or insure your money, we do not reimburse losses, we do not contact contractors for you, and we are not a party to your contract with a contractor. We take no money from contractors, and paying never changes what a report shows.
You can ask for a full refund within 7 days of paying, for any reason. Full terms: Terms and Refund and Cancellation Policy. Provider: MING ZHANG, (909) 619-4946, [email protected]; the Terms include the California consumer notice with the Department of Consumer Affairs' contact details.
If an existing agreement includes renewal or cancellation, the accepted interval, required notices, and cancellation rights remain in place.
Sign in to your existing account or contact [email protected] for account help. New-service availability does not remove existing customer rights.