Where to find federal contracts
Two free official sites hold the record: SAM.gov for opportunities and USAspending for awards. Paid tools search both, add state and local bids and track your pipeline. Abierto sits in between, with the federal record joined up and free to read, and paid tracking on the way. It holds 620,632 opportunities posted since January 1, 2024, 8,913 of them open today, and 14,079,766 contract awards.
At a glance
Prices are the ones each vendor publishes, checked . Confirm on their sites before you buy.
| Tool | Best for | Price | Opportunities | Awards | State and local |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Abierto | Reading and tracking federal opportunities and awards | Free to read; paid plans from $39 a month at launch | Yes, every SAM.gov notice since January 2024 | Yes, joined to their solicitations | No |
| SAM.gov | Official notices, entity registration, responding | Free | Yes, the source | Separate search (Contract Data) | No |
| USAspending.gov | Official spending and award records | Free | No | Yes, the source | No |
| HigherGov | Federal and SLED search, alerts, pipeline | $500 or $2,500 a year; Enterprise by quote | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| GovTribe | Federal search, pipeline, AI, MCP; SLED on Plus plans | $1,500 to $6,000 a year; Scale by quote | Yes | Yes | On Plus plans |
| GovWin IQ | Analyst forecasts and market intelligence | Not published | Yes, and forecasts before posting | Yes | Yes |
Side by side
Abierto vs SAM.gov
SAM.gov is the official system: you register your business there and most solicitations are answered there.
Abierto vs USAspending.gov
USAspending.gov is the official record of federal spending, contracts included, and it is where Abierto's award data comes from.
Abierto vs HigherGov
HigherGov is a paid search and pipeline tool for federal and state and local contracts, billed yearly from $500.
Abierto vs GovTribe
GovTribe is a paid federal contracting platform billed yearly from $1,500 for one seat, with state and local coverage on its "Plus" plans.
Abierto vs GovWin IQ
GovWin IQ is Deltek's market intelligence service, known for analyst-written forecasts of opportunities before they are posted, and it covers federal, state and local government.