Some businesses turn to social networking tools like WhatsApp for their business communication. Unfortunately, such tools are not designed for construction professionals to have a real-time view of everything going on within a project, let alone if you’re managing multiple projects or tasks at the same time.
When communication is not as efficient as it could be:
… as the project owner, you will work significantly longer hours while the project’s budget is tightening.
This naturally leads to the question: Which construction communication software is best for your company?
To help you with the process, we published an in-depth comparison of the 10 best construction communication software (as of 2024):
Disclaimer: Buildbite is our solution. We’ve done our best to present the information evenly because we want you to make an educated decision. That said, we are proud of our construction communication software, and built it with the features and ease that you need as a construction professional. Learn more about the software or try it free for 30 days.
We developed Buildbite to make construction communication easier, and our tool is built to help you save money and increase your team's efficiency.
With Buildbite, every person in your project team will always know what is expected of them, what to do, and by which date a certain task needs to be completed. Every task is documented and tracked as it happens, and all project information and documentation are easily available in one place, accessible even after the task or project is completed.
That’s what Buildbite enables you to do, take complex construction projects and make it extremely easy for everyone, including your client, who can follow along with the project journey.
Ready for a test drive? Sign up for your free trial of Buildbite today.
Buildbite is a construction communication software specifically engineered for small to medium-sized construction businesses.
There are three reasons for that:
And don’t worry about inviting your clients and teams to the app: Send invitations with just a tap, and they’ll receive a friendly invite via a text message.
Buildbite is the best solution to guarantee effective communication in small to medium-sized construction projects.
Here’s why:
Multi-chat: Distinguish your communication between internal and external channels. With multi-chat, you’ll be able to segment your communication into different groups for relevant team members and clients. Just like WhatsApp, but centralized in the same application where you organize tasks, manage your teams, compile time-tracking reports, and more.
Less switching between apps, less chance of losing important information!
“At Trähus we not only renovate homes, with Buildbite we build great customer relationships and have increased our billing rate to 95%. The billing rate started at around 50%, and ended up at 95% almost instantly after implementing Buildbite.”
- Thomas Noreila, Trähus
Just think about it: By not setting up construction communication software, they were losing out on almost 50% of their potential revenue!
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We offer a Free plan and a Premium plan that allows the management of up to 5 projects (with unlimited users). Additional projects can be added with ease. The Premium plan costs $65/mo if paid annually, and $75/mo if paid monthly. See our pricing in detail.
We offer a free 30-day trial where you can download the software today and see its benefits instantly.
The deal is simple: If you don’t see an increase in your team's efficiency with Buildbite, you don’t pay. And if you’ve paid, we credit you. Simple!
Sign up for your free trial today!
Fieldwire is an all-in-one construction software designed to bring construction professionals across the entire supply chain together. It is best suited for medium to large-sized businesses.
Fieldwire is known for its solid basis of communication tools that allow users to quickly and easily collaborate with other professionals across large projects, along with solid documentation features and other useful elements such as task-tracking software.
Despite some relatively simple features such as the communication channels, some users have noted a steep learning curve for tools such as detailed blueprint markup or advanced task management.
This may cause a challenge for adoption across a small business team, especially if you or your team is not used to digital construction applications.
While there are free plans to try Fieldwire out, the functional plans range from $39 - $79/mo per user. If you have a team of 10 people it would cost you $390 - $790 monthly.
Similar to Fieldwire, Procore is built for larger and more complex projects. Procore brings together task-tracking solutions with real-time communication in construction, offering tools such as a project documentation hub, centralized correspondence page, and more.
Generally speaking, Procore is a well-oiled machine - it is known for its reliability, wide range of top-range features, and reasonably understandable interface for newcomers to the technology.
Procore’s pricing is not visible on their page. Based on the review below, it starts at $375 per month:
Buildertrend serves smaller construction projects, from home remodeling to commercial contractors.
What Buildertrend excels at is bringing together lots of different project management tools into a single app, while implementing client acquisition features as well.
This allows you to easily navigate a range of different tools that help with task management, document sharing, and of course general communication across teams and between you and your client.
Buildertrend’s pricing ranges from $199 to $799 per month.
Unlike many of the other apps on this list, Houzz Pro offers unparalleled client acquisition and conversion tools, along with overall project management and communication capabilities.
Its array of tools includes next to many different internal communication tools:
Guaranteeing that your construction company not only communicates well internally, but externally as well.
Plans range from $85/mo to $499/mo for all features.
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Fonn is a general construction project management tool with multiple communication features. This includes:
Allowing you to easily control the flow of information within your project, both between team members and the client, all while sharing important documents and info both via mobile or desktop.
Along with being user-friendly, Fonn joins Buildbite as one of the few construction communication apps to not limit the number of users behind additional costs.
The pricing plan starts at £271 ($345). Based on G2, plans start at $249 per month.
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Knowify has built its communication features with a strong focus on finance and data analysis.
The primary communication tools are a customer comms channel, an RFI management tool, and a job costing calculator, along with invoice and contract creation and management tools.
It’s important to remember that there are lots of types of communication in construction. What Knowify is good at is communicating the financial details of a project with your clients and subcontractors.
What’s helpful is Knowify’s wide range of integration with other well-established software such as QuickBooks, making your life much easier when interfacing with clients.
$186 to $311/mo for one user.
Raken App is a daily reporting and field management app specifically designed for construction projects, with a focus on internal communication and reporting.
With a centralized document hub and daily progress report feature, you can easily manage your team’s time and communicate project progress to your client.
Despite its focus on data analysis, the Raken App is relatively simple and easy to use for newcomers. It’s a solid choice for a construction company looking to improve its digital communication and gain access to some analysis tools.
Pros:
The pricing is not publicly visible, and we have not found any public data on the pricing of the software.
LetsBuild is a bigger solution that has categorized its solution into 4 different products:
Although they have a wide set of products, LB Geniebelt is the most popular one. LB Geniebelt offers good project management features and scheduling capabilities, with an overview of all the tasks and how close they are to completion.
Users report a difference in user interface between desktop and mobile, which can take time to get used to. You have to pay onboarding fees which Letsbuild explains as “all new LetsBuild customers must buy services to get started on the right foot”.
Pros:
The pricing is not publicly visible, and we have not found any public data on the pricing of the software.
Unlike every other option on this list, Connecteam is a much more general workforce management and communication app not specific to the construction industry.
Useful for many industries, Connecteam is known for its versatility and reliability, with a wide range of features for scheduling, task management, and employee engagement, offering a holistic solution for businesses.
When it comes to communication specifically, Connecteam’s best tools are its work chat, team scheduling software and employee documents hub.
Pros:
From $29 to $99/mo for the first 30 users. Requires an annual commitment.
At the beginning of this article, we agreed on the importance of communication in construction projects. Efficient communication is best guaranteed by:
The only way to guarantee the above two points is by using construction communication software with real-time communication and push notifications.
It’s no secret that our clients want to know what’s going on during the construction project, right?
Specifically, our clients:
Whenever the client feels unsure about either of the two aforementioned points, they’ll send you late-night text messages, change requests - or altogether refuse to pay for already completed work.
This is just one of many bad effects of poor communication in the construction industry.
Systematically involving clients in the project with workflow approvals increases customer satisfaction – and therefore billing rate and repeat customers.
Nothing is more annoying than searching for hours for a document you knew you stored somewhere, right?
Not only is it wasted time, but it can also make an already complex project unbearable. And if you have multiple ongoing projects, you might end up with an organizational nightmare.
The solution is simple: An intuitive application where you can quickly store (and easily retrieve) your sensitive documents. Allowing you to complete and move on from projects quicker, as you have all documents safely stored and easily accessible at the end of the project.
Construction communication software should be engineered to make your life easier. You’re busy, so any additional software you download:
Instead, you want to download the application in the comfort of your home and get set up in minutes, right?
Construction communication software needs to be easy to use so it can do what it has promised: Reduce your work hours while increasing your bottom line.
The famous management consultant Peter Drucker once said: “What gets measured gets managed.”
For our construction work, this means: The more measured a construction site is, the fewer errors will be committed and the more profitable it will be.
In the past, measuring and managing a construction project took a significant amount of time for skilled project managers.
With the help of construction communication software, however, you can reduce the amount of hours a project manager spends on the site by 2.5 hours on average (according to our case study)
Because the project manager neither has to visit the job site every single day nor do they have to check multiple digital apps or manually create customer reports in the evening.
Construction communication software is a type of program designed to help guarantee effective communication in construction.
Specifically, it allows everyone involved in a construction project (like owners, project managers, subcontractors, and clients) to communicate and share information more effectively.
You can imagine it as a personal assistant that roams through the construction site 24/7 making sure that everyone involved is up to speed and connected as a team. Quickly making sure that any potential issues get reported to the right people.
Construction communication software works by providing a platform (like an app or a website) where team members can send messages, share files, and sometimes even update project schedules or tasks in real-time.
Think of it as a combination of:
Just simpler to use, and better.
There are many benefits of using software for construction communication:
In short: Using construction communication software is generally a low-effort and low financial-risk technology implementation with an almost guaranteed ROI, ultimately saving you money and increasing your team’s productivity.
Based on our research, the cost of construction communication software for a small to medium-sized business is typically around $200 - $400 per month.
Some software packages like Buildbite offer a free-for-life plan and a premium plan that only charges $65/month for unlimited users and 5 projects.
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