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This guide will help you out if you want to quickly compare and evaluate the best construction project management software on the market today.
You’ll find a list of the top project management software for construction. You’ll also learn what construction management software is, why the top construction companies are using it, and what we look for in the best software programs for managing construction projects.
Construction PM software is an application or platform that provides tools for project managers, project owners, and contractors to plan, manage, control, and analyze their construction projects.
The Best Construction Project Management Software List
Here’s a shortlist of the best construction project management software:
What Is Construction Management?
Construction management is the practice of planning, managing, and analyzing construction projects from start to finish with the goal of completing projects successfully on time and on budget. Tasks include scheduling workers, assigning resources and equipment, aligning stakeholders and subcontractors, managing project files, handling RFIs, change orders, and purchase orders, and tracking project budgets and timelines.
What Is Construction Project Management Software?
Construction project management software is an application or platform that provides tools for project managers, project owners, and contractors to plan, manage, control, and analyze their construction projects. Common features include job costing, bid management, project scheduling, project tracking, accounting, document management, and collaboration features.
Why Use Construction Project Management Software?
The benefits of construction project management software include streamlining operations that allow you to scale your business, operating more efficiently, making more accurate estimates, easily managing shared files, and completing more jobs on time and on budget.
For example, a residential firm could use a residential construction management software to track construction projects, schedule workers and equipment, and track project costs.
A midsize or enterprise construction firm would use a construction management tools, likely in conjunction with ERP and CRM software, to manage the firm’s portfolio of projects, manage subcontractors, analyze a collection of projects’ profitability and KPIs.
How Much Does Construction Project Management Software Cost?
Construction project management tools are offered in one of two ways: as a perpetual license or as a subscription (SaaS). For perpetual licenses, a more basic construction PM tool costs in the range of $800-$13,000, while a more advanced setup can cost upwards of $25,000. A SaaS construction PM software is often priced per contractor and can range from $15/month per contractor to over $1000/month per contractor.
What Is The Most Used Construction Project Management Software?
Procore is a household name in construction project management software products used by over 2 million subcontractors, GCs, and owners around the world.
Construction Project Management Software Comparison Criteria
What are we looking for when we select construction software for review? Here’s a summary of my evaluation criteria:
- User Interface (UI): Is it clean, attractive, and clutter-free?
- Usability: The best project management software is easy to learn and master, even for someone who isn’t used to using project management systems. Construction software users range from general contractors to building owners, independent construction managers, subcontractors, and others, so the software has to accommodate different types of users with good tech support, user support, and training.
- Features:
- Project scheduling: construction scheduling software helps finalize schedules, assign workers and resources, and equipment to projects, and set dependencies between project phases and tasks.
- Job tracking: especially useful for contractor management, job tracking software help firm track tasks and monitor project progress. It gives construction project managers an idea of when a project is about to go over budget with automatic notifications, and provides useful tools like time tracking reports and dashboards.
- File and document management: the best construction management programs provide a centralized repository where construction firms can store, search for, and share project files and assets. These include RFIs, change orders, project photos, contracts, blueprints, and diagrams.
- Job costing: a key benefit of construction programs, job costing helps firms track project costs, compare them to estimates, and manage invoices, payments, and timesheets—all in one platform.
- Integrations: Are there any pre-built integrations with other commonly used general contractor software? If you use a separate accounting software, ensure that your construction PM software can integrate with it.
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Overviews Of The Best Construction PM Software
Here’s a brief description of each of the construction PM tools that are featured on this top 10 list.
1. Builterra – Best construction software for contract administration.
Builterra is a contract administration tool with real-time cost estimates, a Bid Preparation portal, RFI and submittals, incident reporting, standardized item catalogs, geo-located photo updates, a progress dashboard, accurate monthly payment certificates, and more.
Photo geolocation is easily accessible, as is photo captioning options. Uploading from desktop or mobile is intuitive and handled well by the app. Documentation and record keeping are some of the most useful features.
Integrates with CAD data and Excel. No other possible integration data was provided by the vendor.
The UX looks a bit dated and the iOS compatibility isn’t gesture supported. Because of this, they lost some marks in the UX segment of the evaluation criteria list. Additionally, they lost some marks for not having transparent pricing options outlined on the website.
Builterra offers pricing upon request and has a free demo.
2. Onware – cloud-based solution with data flow between documents, PDF access without additional plug-ins, item age tracking, flexible reporting & more.
Onware is contract administration software designed to create, manage, and distribute project documents and then report back with an advanced analytics engine powered by an exclusive partnership with Tableau.
Document compiling, collecting, storage, and tracking is one of the better features of the app. As file and document management is something we seriously evaluate, they scored well in the Features and Functions section of the evaluation criteria.
Integration options include Onware Sync, Onware Mobile, Bluebeam Integration, Procore Marketplace, and more.
Going back into the software to edit or delete items isn’t easy (or possible at all, sometimes). The app carries the risk of subcontracts adding duplicate or erroneous entries and having them clutter the archives. Numbering or division errors are hard to change.
Onware offers pricing upon request and has a free demo.
3. ConstructionOnline – top-rated construction PM software with scheduling, RFI tracking, task tracking software, job costing & more.
ConstructionOnline is a highly-rated construction project management software with features like cloud file management, plan and drawing markup tools, estimating and job costing, and critical-path project scheduling to manage projects from pre-construction to the complete project lifecycle.
Communication and collaboration tools are well-utilized here, particularly the sleek email-esc messaging feature dedicated to each individual project. Notes and comments are kept segmented, clean, and logged.
Integrations include Quickbooks, Microsoft Project, AWS, Zero, Sage 300, Dropbox, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, UDA ConstructionSuite, OnSite Mobile Apps, Houzz, and more.
The integration between ConstructionOnline and ConstructionSuite is quite rough around the edges. Considering they are based on the same platform and built by the same developer, this clear oversight lost them some point in the Integration evaluation category.
ConstructionOnline starts at $200/month and has a free 10-day free trial.
4. CMiC – construction software suite with PM features like file management, job site management, and useful communication features.
CMiC delivers enterprise and field operations solutions purpose-built for construction and capital projects companies by using a single database platform for all planning. You can manage invoices, purchases, subcontractor compliance, change orders, punch lists together with your customer relationship management in one place.
CMiC is a robust, scalable tool that uses expert infrastructure to organize collaboration, data storage and retrieval, and intelligent reporting technology. Their tools help create a database of information that is easily searchable and clean.
CMiC has built-in seamless integrations with Kofax, DocuSign, Plan Grid, BlueBeam, AutoDesk, Oracle/Textura, and other third-party applications.
A one-time payment might be a relief to companies who don’t want to dabble in endless billing cycles and hard-to-cancel contracts – however, the substantial price tag makes CMiC an inaccessible choice to many, losing them some point in our evaluation for Value for Cost.
CMiC starts at $90,000 as a one-time payment and has a free demo.
5. GenieBeltd – builder software with a great user interface in use at some of the largest construction companies in the world.
LetsBuild, formerly GenieBelt and Aproplan, is a digital tool for construction professionals that assists with ensuring teams are in sync, schedules are up-to-date, stakeholders and involved in the communication, and construction processes are digitized so all team members have access to project information.
The different dashboard features are well utilized and having everything hosted in cloud-based storage better enables remote contractors and subcontractors. Analysis, reporting, and picture uploading are some extremely helpful features to help visualize the entire project on a big picture level.
Integrations Revit, Piecync, Bricsys, Excel spreadsheets, Tableau, Sharepoint, SAP, Landax, Dropbox, Trello, Primavera P6, and over 1000 more through Zapier.
LetsBuild lost a few marks in Usability simply because the mobile app and the web app function differently and cause some confusion. The web-based platform has more details, a different interface, and more options, but you won’t know until you waste time hunting for something.
LetsBuild starts at $277/month and has a freemium version available.
6. PASKR – project management app focused on growing your construction business through standardization and automation.
PASKR is a construction-oriented project management solution with features to help with pre-construction, project management, field management, and accounting. Notable features include unlimited storage, contact management, version control, bid response tracking, proposal packages, and lots of features for billing, expenses, and purchase orders.
PASKR is incredibly streamlined. They’ve selected project management features are most useful to automate parts of the job, and they’ve trimmed the fat. They focus on portability, easy onboarding, remote access, collaboration, and task management.
Integrations include Sage 100/300 and Quickbooks. No other integration data was available on their site.
PASKR would do well with more options for accounting integration options, which lost them some evaluation criteria points in the Integrations section. Additionally, more frequent software updates would be welcome.
7. VPO – described as the easiest construction project management software—quick to deploy and accessible on any device.
VPO markets itself as the easiest construction project management software because it’s customizable, easy to use, accessible on any device. It’s also based off of the Office 365 system so for project managers who are used to Excel or Microsoft Project the learning curve is shorter.
VPO’s feature set includes features for bidding, financials, meeting management, capturing work in progress, RFIs, submittals, change orders, project emails, service management, and scheduling. It also has a program management feature to keep your eye on the bottom line and aid program level decision-making.
The dashboards are above average in this software, with useful executive dashboard reports and visual displays of your projects by location.
VPO offers pricing upon request and has a Free Demo.
8. Joist – contractor app that helps contractors estimate, invoice, collect payments, and manage projects.
Used by over 850,000 contractors, Joist is a professional invoicing and estimating app with a feature list that includes digital signatures for invoices in-person or online, cost markups, financial management, deposit requests, payment schedules, job photos, and more.
Joist is hugely affordable and perfect for teams without regular access to desktop computers and/or an office space. All it takes is a compatible mobile device to get started. Because of the low barrier cost, it’s perfect for smaller teams who only need the basics.
Joist does not currently integrate with other applications.
Per the above note, Joist lost a significant number of evaluation points in the Integrations category – as they don’t offer any. It’s not unusual for mobile-only apps to not integrate well, however, project management often requires many connections to cover all of your bases.
Joist starts at $10/month and has a freemium version available.
9. BrickControl – well-rounded construction management software to study, manage, execute, and supervise projects.
BrickControl is a cloud-based construction management software with features like estimates, project progress reports, certifications, cost management, project budgets, automated project planning tools, resource management tools, project deviation control, and more.
BrickControl works on both Mac and Windows interfaces. It is multilingual and multi-currency enabled. The interface is simple and clean with a great POV via lists and Gantt charts. Overall, they did well in both UX and Usability when considering the evaluation specifications.
Integration with other products is possible through a complete API.
The software is a little feature-light compared to other options on the list. However, they are constantly expanding. Plus, their price is more than fair for what they do offer.
BrickControl starts at $25/month plus $12/additional user and has a free 7-day trial.
10. Candy CCS – estimating and project control solution for the construction industry offering critical path planning, cashflow modeling, dynamic forecasting, and more.
Candy CCS is a specialized software solution for the construction and engineering industries that is developed by contractors to address industry-specific needs. They address estimating and cost control, project control, enterprise management, and more.
Candy CCS is user-friendly and the UX is transparent and useful, if a bit drab. It can take some time and practice to get into programming on CCS but it overall scored quite well in our evaluation consideration for Usability and UX.
Integrations include Pastel’s Accounting Software and BuildSmart. No other information was available on their site.
On occasion, reporting doesn’t work as intended and will offer an error or a corrupt PDF. Navigation and management of Quantity take-offs (QTO) estimates and tracking could be more comprehensive.
Candy CCS offers pricing upon request and has both a free trial and a free demo available.
Other Construction Management Tools
Here’s a few more that didn’t make the top list. If you need additional suggestions for handy construction project management tools, check these out.
- Bridgit
- Buildxact
- ProjectTeam
- WeBuild
- Spectrum
- ProjectSight
- Autodesk BIM 360
- RAKEN
- CoConstruct
- Buildertrend
- eSub
- Jonas
What Do You Think About These Tools?
Have you tried out any construction management applications listed above? Are there any project management construction tools missing from the list? Let us know in the comments below!
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