fedlane.us vs. SAM.gov
SAM.gov is where federal contracts live. It's also where small contractors spend hours every week manually searching for the handful of notices that actually match their business. fedlane.us automates that work.
TL;DR
SAM.gov is the authoritative source — you have to use it, and it does more than it gets credit for: saved searches keep your filters, email you daily or weekly, and now carry all federal award data. What it does not do is rank. Every match arrives equally weighted, with no fit score, no bid/no-bid call, and no alert when a contract in your lane is coming up for recompete. fedlane.us is the layer that adds the judgment.
Feature comparison
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| Feature | fedlane.us | SAM.gov |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | Free tier + Scout at $149/mo | Free (government-funded) |
| Lane digest | fedlane.us advantage: Scout: weekday morning email, every lane-matched notice ranked by fit, unlimited — plus a free weekly tier (up to 10 per digest) | Manual saved search, unranked |
| Set-aside filtering | fedlane.us advantage: SDVOSB and 8(a) across six active lanes — Free tier; additional certifications planned | Filterable and saveable, but you choose the filters — no fit ranking within results |
| AI bid/no-bid score | fedlane.us advantage: Every opportunity scored on scope, size, and lane fit — Scout tier | Not available |
| Recompete radar | fedlane.us advantage: Alerts when incumbent contracts in your lane approach expiry — Scout tier | Award data is searchable (Ultimate Completion Date), but no alerting — you run the query yourself |
| SAM registration / cert expiry alerts | fedlane.us advantage: Tracked and surfaced before they lapse — Scout tier | Emails the Electronic Business POC at 60/30/15 days — entity registration only, not third-party certifications |
| Presolicitations & Sources Sought | fedlane.us advantage: Included in digest, labeled by notice type — Free tier | Searchable and alertable by notice type — but mixed in unranked with everything else |
| Authoritative contract data | Sourced from SAM.gov (reads the same data) | Competitor advantage: Primary source — government-maintained |
| Registration & awards posting | Not applicable — read-only intelligence layer | Competitor advantage: Required for all federal business (register here) |
| Full notice search | Digest-focused; full search via SAM.gov link-through | Competitor advantage: Comprehensive full-text search of all notices |
SAM.gov details reflect the platform's published behavior as of July 19, 2026. Government systems change — SAM.gov absorbed FPDS contract award search in February 2026 — so verify current capabilities on sam.gov before deciding.
Choose fedlane.us when…
- ✓You spend 30+ minutes a day on SAM.gov and want that time back.
- ✓You need one focused lane — not the entire federal marketplace.
- ✓You want a bid/no-bid signal before you read the full notice.
- ✓Your SAM renewal notices go to an EBiz POC who isn't the one working the pipeline.
- ✓You want early warning on recompetes without running the award query yourself.
Stick with SAM.gov alone when…
- →You bid across many diverse NAICS codes with no defined lane strategy.
- →You need to register your entity or update certifications.
- →You need to post awards or submit required reporting.
- →You want full-text search across every notice, not one lane's worth.
- →A saved search with your filters, emailed daily, is already enough.
- →Your volume is low enough that a daily manual check takes under 10 minutes.
The real cost of SAM.gov as your only tool
SAM.gov publishes federal procurement synopses above the $25,000 threshold — though orders placed under existing contract vehicles often never appear. On any given morning there are thousands of active notices — Sources Sought, Presolicitations, Solicitations, and Awards — spanning every NAICS code, agency, and set-aside type in existence.
If you're a 10-person SDVOSB doing janitorial services on DoD installations, the vast majority of those notices are irrelevant to you. SAM.gov's saved search does real work here — it keeps your filters and emails you the matches. What it hands you is a list in date order, every item weighted the same, with no fit score and no view on whether any of it is worth your afternoon. And its renewal reminders go only to whoever is listed as your Electronic Business POC — not necessarily the person working the pipeline.
The typical small contractor spends 30–60 minutes per day on SAM.gov. At a fully-loaded cost of $75/hr across 250 working days, that's roughly $9,000–$19,000 per year in labor — for work that produces no proposals and wins no contracts. fedlane.us Scout at $149/mo (beta price) costs $1,788/year.
What fedlane.us adds on top of SAM.gov
Lane-focused digest
One email each morning containing only the notices that match your NAICS + set-aside combination. No noise from other lanes.
Bid/no-bid score
Each opportunity arrives with an AI-generated score on scope match, contract size, and urgency. Decide in 30 seconds whether to read the full notice.
Recompete radar
SAM.gov holds the award data, including completion dates — but you have to go ask it. fedlane.us watches incumbent contracts nearing expiry in your lane and alerts you unprompted, in the window where positioning matters most.
Frequently asked questions
Do I still need SAM.gov if I use fedlane.us?
Yes. SAM.gov registration is a legal requirement to receive federal contract awards, and the official notices live there. fedlane.us reads the same data and surfaces what's relevant for your lane — it doesn't replace SAM.gov, it reduces the time you spend on it.
Is SAM.gov really free?
SAM.gov itself is free. But the time cost of reading and judging notices every morning is not. A small contractor spending 45 minutes a day on SAM.gov, at a fully-loaded $75/hr across 250 working days, is spending roughly $14,000/year in labor — most of it on the sorting that has to happen before any real work begins.
What is a 'lane' in fedlane.us?
A lane is a combination of a NAICS code and a set-aside type — for example, NAICS 561720 (janitorial services) restricted to SDVOSB firms. Your digest covers every opportunity that matches your specific lane, not the entire SAM.gov firehose.
How does fedlane.us score bid/no-bid?
Each opportunity is scored on three dimensions: scope match to your lane description, estimated contract value relative to your past performance range, and urgency (days until response deadline). The score is a directional signal, not a guarantee — you make the final call.
Can SAM.gov send me email alerts?
Yes — and it's better at this than it's often given credit for. Sign in, save a search, and SAM.gov will email you its results daily or weekly. Those alerts respect the filters you saved, including set-aside, NAICS, notice type, and place of performance. What SAM.gov does not do is rank them. Every match arrives equally weighted in date order, with no fit score attached, so the sorting still happens in your head. fedlane.us sends one email per morning covering the same lane, ranked by fit, with a bid/no-bid call on each notice.
Stop scrolling SAM.gov. Start watching your lane.
fedlane.us monitors SAM.gov every morning and delivers a ranked digest for your NAICS + set-aside lane — weekly on the free tier, every weekday on Scout. The free tier is permanently free.
Start watching my lane — free