Federal Set-Aside Programs: 8(a), HUBZone, WOSB, and SDVOSB
A set-aside restricts competition for a federal contract to businesses that qualify under a specific program, instead of opening it to any contractor. Set-asides exist to route federal spending toward small businesses that meet particular ownership or location criteria.
Small Business Set-Aside
The broadest category: a contract set aside for any business that meets the Small Business Administration's size standard for the contract's NAICS code (see the NAICS guide for how that standard is set). No further ownership requirement applies. This site's Small Business Set-Aside page lists every published contractor with at least one contract action awarded this way.
8(a) Business Development Program
Run by the Small Business Administration for businesses that are at least 51% owned by a socially and economically disadvantaged individual or individuals. Participation is time-limited — generally up to nine years — and includes SBA business-development support alongside contracting access. Some 8(a) contracts are awarded competitively among program participants; others, below a dollar threshold, can be awarded sole-source. This site's 8(a) hub page lists published contractors with 8(a) obligations on file.
HUBZone
"Historically Underutilized Business Zone." A HUBZone business must have its principal office located in a designated HUBZone area, and at least 35% of its employees must live in a HUBZone. The program targets federal spending toward specific geographic areas rather than a particular ownership category. Published contractors with HUBZone obligations on file are listed on this site's HUBZone hub page.
Women-Owned Small Business (WOSB)
A WOSB set-aside is restricted to small businesses at least 51% owned and controlled by one or more women. A related, more restrictive category — Economically Disadvantaged Women-Owned Small Business (EDWOSB) — adds an economic-disadvantage requirement and is used for a subset of WOSB set-asides. This site's WOSB hub page covers both under one listing, matching how USAspending.gov's own set-aside-type field groups them.
Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Business (SDVOSB)
Restricted to small businesses at least 51% owned and controlled by one or more veterans with a service-connected disability, as rated by the Department of Veterans Affairs. The Department of Veterans Affairs also runs its own parallel "Veterans First" contracting preference in addition to the government-wide SDVOSB set-aside. Published contractors with SDVOSB obligations on file are on this site's SDVOSB hub page.
Set-aside vs. sole-source
These two terms get used interchangeably but describe different things. A set-aside restricts who can compete for a contract — only businesses in the qualifying category may bid, but they still compete against each other. A sole-source award skips competition entirely and goes directly to one business. The two can combine: some 8(a) and SDVOSB awards below a set dollar threshold can be justified as sole-source specifically because the recipient already qualifies under the program, which is why USAspending.gov's own set-aside-type field distinguishes, for example, "8(a) Competitive" from "8(a) Sole Source" as two different values under the same program.
How to tell which set-asides a specific contractor has used
A contractor profile on this site includes a "Contract type and set-aside mix" table, showing the dollar share of that company's obligations awarded under each set-aside type it has actually used, or with no set-aside at all — most federal contract dollars, across most contractors, are awarded with no set-aside, so a company appearing on one of the hub pages above typically has a mix, not an exclusively set-aside-funded contract history.
Certification, not self-declaration
Every program above requires formal certification, not a business simply claiming eligibility on a bid. 8(a) status is granted and monitored by the Small Business Administration; HUBZone status is certified by the SBA against its designated-area map; WOSB/EDWOSB and SDVOSB status can be certified by the SBA directly or by an SBA-approved third-party certifier, following a 2020 rule change that ended pure self-certification for those two categories. A contracting officer verifies status against these certifications before crediting an award to a set-aside.
Overlap between categories
A single business can qualify for more than one program at once — for example, a HUBZone-located business that is also majority veteran-owned. Set-aside status is asserted award-by-award, not fixed for a company permanently, so the same contractor can appear on more than one of this site's set-aside pages if its contract history reflects more than one program.