General Contractor vs. Subcontractor: What's the Difference

A general contractor is the one you, the homeowner, hire directly. You sign a contract with the general contractor, and the general contractor is the party responsible to you for how the whole job turns out.

The general contractor then hires and pays subcontractors -- specialists like electricians, plumbers, roofers, or HVAC techs -- to handle specific pieces of the work. Subcontractors work for the general contractor, not for you, and they're paid by the general contractor rather than directly by you.

A general contractor manages the entire project from start to finish: scheduling the work, coordinating every trade so they're not tripping over each other, pulling permits, keeping the job on code, and managing the overall budget.

For you, that adds up to something that matters in practice: a single point of contact. Instead of managing several different trades and their separate schedules yourself, you have one person accountable for the whole job.

A subcontractor specializes in one part of the job -- electrical, plumbing, framing, roofing, HVAC, drywall, and so on -- and is brought in for that expertise. They report to the general contractor, not to you, and they're typically only involved in the piece of the project that matches their trade.

Because subcontractors are specialists, the work in their specific trade is often higher quality than a generalist could produce on their own -- that's a real part of why general contractors build teams of subs instead of doing every trade themselves.

Both general contractors and subcontractors are generally expected to carry a contracting license and liability insurance, but the details differ. General contractors typically also carry a surety bond covering the full project, while a subcontractor's work is usually covered under the general contractor's bond rather than a bond of their own.

Exactly what's required -- whether a license is needed at all, what project size triggers it, and what insurance is mandatory -- varies a lot from state to state, and sometimes by county or city on top of that. Don't assume the rules where you've lived before apply where you are now.

When you hire a general contractor, part of what you're paying for is that coordination and accountability -- the GC is liable to you for the entire project, even the parts done by a sub they brought in.

If you hire subcontractors directly instead, to try to save that markup, understand what you're actually taking on: you become the one coordinating schedules, checking each trade's work, and sorting it out if something falls through the cracks between trades -- the job a general contractor would otherwise be doing for you.