HUBZone certification

What HUBZone offers

• A price evaluation preference. In full-and-open federal competitions, HUBZone firms receive a 10% price evaluation advantage over most competitors.
• Set-aside access. Contracting officers can restrict certain awards to HUBZone firms, cutting the competition to a small pool.
• Agency contracting goals. Federal agencies have a statutory HUBZone goal of about 3% of prime contracting dollars, and there are hundreds of buying offices to meet it.
• Subcontracting demand. Large primes bidding on big contracts must plan for small-business participation, so HUBZone status makes you a more attractive subcontractor.
• Bonding and loan support designed for HUBZone firms.

Basic requirements

• A small business, majority owned and controlled by U.S. citizens (or eligible entities)
• A principal office located in a HUBZone
• At least 35% of employees living in a HUBZone

For companies with several locations, SBA looks at the principal office: the place where the most employees work, which is not necessarily headquarters. Construction and service firms whose staff work at client sites still need a real office in a HUBZone with a full-time employee. Owners count in the employee tally. Because the rules have details that vary by situation and change over time, we confirm your map and headcount eligibility before you spend anything on an application.

Why pair HUBZone with a MAS?

Federal buyers doing schedule-based market research can filter for HUBZone firms. The price preference also helps resellers on the schedule appear cheaper than a non-HUBZone manufacturer. In our data, HUBZone firms with a MAS sell several times more, in raw schedule dollars, than their small-business peers, and adding a HUBZone to a MAS generally creates more total sales than the schedule alone.

How pricing works

Our HUBZone fee scales with employee count, because the documentation you must assemble scales too. Bundle it with a MAS application to save. See all fees on the pricing page.