The 6 best real estate development software tools reviewed

If you’re using a mix of WhatsApp, spreadsheets, and emails, then managing property development projects can be frustrating and prone to error. If you’re like most of the property developers I talk to, you’re looking for real estate development software because of the following problems:

• Costly rework often leads to loss of business and profit due to misaligned expectations of customers and workers. 
• The inability to manage multiple worksites and subcontractors causes project delays, postponements, or cancellations.
• You're handling more work without seeing higher profits because workers lack the tools to report and document tasks, leaving project managers unable to bill for them.

I also know it’s challenging to find real estate development software that’s got everything you need without overwhelming you with a raft of functions you may not need. 

So we'll take a look at 6 software options to manage your next project. That includes real estate development software for small businesses, general contractors in large construction projects, and large-scale facility management teams. If you're in a hurry, feel free to jump to the shortlist below.

What is the best real estate development software?

6 best real estate development software tools 2025 shortlist:

1. Buildbite - Best for small and medium-sized real estate development companies looking for a cost-effective solution.

2. Buildertrend - Best for construction companies seeking sales management features.

3. Admicom - Best for large construction companies seeking resource management features

4. Fieldwire - Best for mid to large-sized field monitoring projects

5. Procore - Best for corporate construction companies managing large commercial projects

6. Letsbuild - Best for large-scale facility management teams and companies

1. Buildbite - Best for real estate development software for small businesses

We built Buildbite as an easy-to-use real estate development software for SMEs that don't want to spend too much on a system, but need it to work seamlessly. If you run a small to medium-sized construction business or practice specialized trades such as electricians, plumbers, demolitionists, painters, and scaffolders; Buildbite is for you. 

It unites your on-site teams, office staff, suppliers, and clients in one easy-to-use app so that projects move forward without sifting through the endless stream of messages fearing you might miss something that could end up costing you time and money. 

Additionally, Buildbite stands out for its mobile-first design, which makes it easy to manage everything directly from your smartphone or tablet. It is a cost-effective option, requires no extra hardware, and is completely free for 14 days– you don't need a credit card.

Let me give you a high-level overview of how Buildbite helps you manage real estate development projects effortlessly.

How Buildbite works

When you log in to Buildbite for the first time, you’ll see a page where you can add a new project or check projects you’ve been invited to; either as a subcontractor, project manager, or client. 

To start a new planning-, construction- or remodeling project, click “Add new project” and give the project a name, and a project ID– for invoicing purposes, and assign the project to the owner/company.

PS: Assigning the project to the owner/company allows Buildbite to use the owner’s project capacity plan. More so, you can set role-based permissions that will stay between company projects. That way, you don’t mix things up. 

After creating the new project, organize the phases of the project, each with its own set of tasks. For example, if you add a new Cabin Construction project, you can break it into different phases, from Planning & Design to Foundation and Infrastructure, and Roofing. The Foundation and Infrastructure phase would then have tasks like “site preparation” and “foundation construction”.

Once you've organized the tasks, assign people to them. You can contact people directly from your phone book, by their phone number, or email address and they'll receive a text message inviting them to join the task, all within the app. That way, they can start tracking time on their task and access instructions.

More so, on the task creation page, you can set the estimated time for each task, add documents and media– which is good for documenting the before and after view, and choose if the task should be visible to workers and/or clients. 

Once this is done, you can track time for yourself and selected users. You can also follow up, and report progress from project team members directly to your client in real-time. That way, workers get clear instructions and can track daily tasks, reducing costly mistakes caused by unclear instructions, while clients stay informed about the progress.

Team members can easily upload images and videos, leaving comments for project managers. Workers can coordinate tasks internally through the in-app work chat. When it’s time to update clients or seek approvals, the customer chat and approval feature is readily available.

Once a task is completed, it's sent to the project manager for internal approval. If everything looks good, the project manager can easily forward it to the customer for final approval.

Finally, generating professional work reports for billing and record purposes is easy with Buildbite. To create a new report, select a project on the sidebar, click reports in the footnotes, select “Create new report” or click the plus button. That would give you the option to generate and download any of the following report types:

• Working time: A summary of working hours by a worker.
• Project reports: To generate billing and analytical reports for a specific project and tasks. 
• Final reports: To generate the final report of the selected project. 

And that’s a high-level look at how Buildbite works as real estate development software for SMEs. You can start your free 14-day trial today (it takes most businesses a few minutes to set up).

But if you want to learn more, we also cover these property development software benefits below:

• How to reduce customer disputes with real-time communication and collaboration.
• How to save time and budget when managing multiple projects.
• How to prevent cash flow risks with accurate estimates and billing.

 

Reduce customer disputes with real-time communication.

It's common for customers to be uncertain about their needs in the early stages of a project.

However, the challenge arises when client decisions and change requests get lost in the flood of daily emails, calls, and WhatsApp messages. And as more projects come in, you’d find yourself with even less time and afraid you might miss something that could end up leading to consistent disputes, costly rework, and wasted time.

Buildbite solves this problem for builders by providing an easy-to-use platform to manage scattered communication. With Buildbite, you can invite clients to join a project in real-time. That way:

• Customers receive real-time project updates, including timelines and milestone progress, through text, images, and videos. Instead of waiting for an end-of-day report via WhatsApp or email that might go unread, they stay informed instantly.
  
  
• Customers can quickly approve or decline project status updates and share their concerns, which are then resolved in a transparent, timely manner. This helps maintain client satisfaction and strengthens the builder-client relationship.
  
  
• You can also segment communication into separate groups so that the relevant team members and clients can stay on top of everything and avoid unnecessary information.
  

There are two big benefits here:

• Your team can quickly discover and resolve client-related issues which improves transparency and customer satisfaction. 
• Your days become more peaceful since your reputation is protected against those frantic late evening emails and WhatsApp that often become 3-star public reviews.

Save time when managing multiple jobs

Managing multiple construction jobs and subcontractors demands an effective job management system. Without it, project managers may be left unaware of task completion statuses, leading to disorganized scheduling, delayed starts, and costly mistakes. 

More so, when workers don't report their progress on time, tasks can begin too early or too late, disrupting the entire project timeline and potentially causing delays or cancellations in other projects—resulting in significant financial losses.

With Buildbite, you can track projects and tasks in real-time, deliver on schedule, and stay on budget. Here’s how:

• Save time with instant access: When you invite your team on a project, they don’t have to search through multiple platforms, email threads, or physical documents to find the details they need. Important details like project schedules, documentation, instructions, communication threads, and reports are all available in one place for easy access.
  
  
• See your job overview: Buildbite’s timeline view gives you a summary of all ongoing projects, progress, changes, activities, and notifications. You’ll see members who have joined your job, when they started a specific task, how much time they’ve spent, etc. This allows you to effortlessly track and monitor multiple project tasks in one centralized overview.
  
  
• Instant task approvals: Trigger internal and external approval requests with one tap. Workers assigned to tasks can notify Project Managers with task approval requests (incl. any media) that can then be forwarded for customer approval.
  
  
• Performance analytics: With Buildbite’s reporting, you can gain insights into task performance, resource utilization, and project progress with time-tracking and project reports, enabling data-driven decision-making that drives continuous improvement.
  

Prevent cash flow risks with accurate estimates and billing

While keeping customers happy is important, maintaining a profitable business is even better. Many construction business owners we spoke with realized they were working harder than ever—revenues were growing, but profits weren’t following suit. This often happens when there’s a lack of clarity about which tasks each worker completed and when. 

Workers may under-report their work due to inadequate reporting tools or fragmented information across different systems, leaving project managers unable to invoice for it. Additionally, change orders may not be tracked or invoiced properly.

Time is money, and every task needs to be accurately tracked. Here’s how Buildbite helps you maintain cash flow and run the business you love.

• Stay within your time limits with automated notifications: Get automated notifications when predefined thresholds, such as time or budget limits, are exceeded.
  
  
  
• Speed up time-to-money: In Buildbite, including your customer in project task updates ensures the customer understands the amount and type of work that’s done. That way, any questions from the customer can be documented and dealt with immediately. This prevents misalignment of expectations that might cause invoicing disputes down the line.
  
  
• Minimize the costly rework: Because Buildbite helps you accurately track the granular tasks involved in a project while also receiving real-time approvals on each task, you’re able to respond to questions faster, spot suspected risks, and minimize the impact of rework on your profitability.

Try the best SME real estate development software free for 30 days

“We chose to use Buildbite as the tool to help us improve customer relationships and retention, and we have never looked back". That’s what customers like Thomas Noreila , the CEO of Trähus, say about Buildbite.