Autodesk Build vs. Buildertrend

Plangrid is well suited for companies (that are not currently using a different SaaS construction package) to make their construction document management more collaborative and mobile friendly. Companies requiring/wanting their subs and owners to collaborate with them as part of the life of a construction project will find Plangrid very helpful in fulfilling this goal. On the negative side, companies that are fully entrenched in using other construction suites will struggle to fully use Plangrid to its potential as pre-built integration between Plangrid and other packages is limited

Incentivized

Perfect for General Contractor's and subcontractor's that want to be a leader in their industry. Sure, you can limp along without a management system but you won't be able to take your business to the next level in most cases. If you are small enough and only doing one maybe two jobs at a time and you are good at keeping every single detail in your head and don't have any issues with schedule or timeframes then you may not need this. However, I have not been in a situation where software like Buildertrend didn't/couldn't add significant value and a need in my company

Incentivized

• Very easy to use, and training takes less than a few hours for field staff.
• Connects office to field quickly and efficiently.
• Uploading , naming, and tagging sheet is the best in the business.
• Sheet and document manager always display most current information and also gives you the ability to look back at previous versions for changes.

Incentivized

• The subcontractor PO management area makes managing the scope of work and payments for each subcontractor extremely easy and is well organized.
• The material selections section also greatly simplifies and organizes a somewhat challenging aspect of remodeling.
• The ability for customers to view the total project cost and make payments online is a major time saver and improves our cashflow.

Incentivized

• It'd be nice to have access to upload and edit documents from the app. Only for certain users.
• A small business billing option that addresses multiple users of a single account would make managing access simpler. Being able to load unlimited sheets, but only access a specific limit on your team's devices.
• Allow users to integrate their own RFI templates into the app, so RFIs can be generated in your own format right from the field, immediately ready to ship.

Incentivized

• In messaging an Out of Office type auto response would be great for when people go out on vacation
• When using the Job Type field of Mutli-Family this should allow the interface to group that all in one job but be section out into the different unit in that building. So different selections can all be located within that same unit.
• Building new jobs from templates can take up to 10 minutes some times. Please reduce the amount of time it take to make jobs off templates.
• Owner accounts should not be directly tied to a job, they should be completely separate so the account can be linked to different jobs and not cause problems to that account or what that account has access to.

Incentivized

We are at the point where we have shown our teams what is possible with this software. We cannot take it away and go back to the way we used to do things. I think that they would push back on us to give them access to something electronic. It is a good program that we will continue to use

Incentivized

Hard to get the hang of this software, but with time it become very repetitive and easier to navigate. I have used this software for over a year now and the constant updates by Autodesk have made the software better and better to use at work. This allows me to use this tool more effectively

Incentivized

Its simple to use and intuitive. The level of support that we have from online videos, to access to customer support, and the ability to call anyone at anytime on the main line has been invaluable to utilize and not get stuck on something you don't know yet. We've never not had anyone that couldn't respond in time for us.

Online chat during business hours is extremely helpful. The Plangrid staff has gone above and beyond many times to help us. One time they even offered to completely rebuild our 900+ sheet project so I could slip sheet a few old drawing revisions! This undoubtedly would have taken hours on Plangrid's end. They are always responsive and are continually improving, listening to user feedback.

Incentivized

I highly recommend. The only suggestion I have would be to offer a free trial. They do offer a 30 day money back guarantee. The price point isn't daunting if you have had a 100 % no strings attached/no effort to cancel or try to remember to get your money back - no strings attached chance to try out the product. Especially for such a big purchase decision, I think Buildertrend would see an incredible increase in sales. They have the value and companies just need a chance to see it first hand.

Incentivized

Procore and PlanGrid are the most direct competitors. The pricing structures are very dynamically different between PlanGrid and Procore. Procore tends to succeed better in the "project management" realm, while PlanGrid succeeds far beyond Procore in its ability to deal with project documentation (plans and specs). Bim360 is a great product, but it is limited in its use due to the modeling requirement; while PlanGrid bridges that gap and plays in both 2D and 3D spaces. Buildertrend has some aspects of plan distribution, but it is limited in functionality.

Incentivized

(Hubspot) For Sales & Marketing, it is really a killer awesome program that I would encourage Buildertrend to look into. Hubspot is just on another level of intelligence and access that Buildertrend doesn't match up to. At the same time, perhaps HubSpot lacks what Buildertrend has on the Finance and Construction Management side - that I don't know. Our business is virtually complete by combining both of these platforms together across our teams.

Incentivized

• Positive: Syncing drawings. As I said, keeping an up-to-date set of drawings is seamless on ProCore, as compared to a traditional server or even the cloud. The software is designed to see and mark-up drawings. Though markup tools aren't as robust as, say, Bluebeam Revu (I wouldn't expect all of that from a web app, anyway), it's very nice to easily see all the newest drawings.
• Positive: Saved time. Documents are updated at the same time, across all devices, with only one upload.
• Positive: Punch list is easy. ProCore punch lists are quite complicated. In PlanGrid, with 1-tap we can add items and give a brief description. When doing a walk-thru, it should be easy to jot down notes. These can be detailed once you're sitting at a desk, and PlanGrid allows for that. But for field personnel, punch lists are an easy and efficient use of time.
• Negative: Photo management. For us, there should be a way to just upload photos, and not require to use the photo tool within the app.

Incentivized

• I started my business because of BuilderTrend.
• My return on investment was 933% in year one.
• BuilderTrend has not only helped me double my business year over year, but it's also created a new career for myself as a BuilderTrend consultant for new or existing users looking to maximize their ROI faster.

Incentivized