For the last decade, CoConstruct has been one of the “big two” titans in residential construction management (alongside BuilderTrend). And to give credit where it’s due, they changed the industry. They moved thousands of custom home builders from napkins and whiteboards into the digital age.
But if you are a General Contractor doing between $1M and $15M in annual revenue, you might be feeling a shift.
Over the years, CoConstruct has grown. It was acquired. It merged. It added feature after feature after feature. For enterprise-level firms with dedicated office staff, this is great.
But for the mid-sized custom builder who just wants to bid a project, track the subs, and build the house? It often feels like bringing an aircraft carrier to a fishing trip.
If you find yourself paying for features you never touch, or if your project managers are spending more time clicking buttons than walking jobsites, you aren’t looking for more software. You are looking for less.
You are looking for a simple alternative to CoConstruct. Here is why simpler is often better for the modern GC.
The biggest selling point of legacy platforms is that they are “All-in-One.” They handle CRM, accounting, scheduling, selections, warranty, and marketing.
In theory, this sounds perfect. In practice, it creates Feature Bloat.
When software tries to do everything, it often becomes average at everything and excellent at nothing. More importantly, it becomes complex. To create a simple budget, you might have to navigate through three different modules and set up cost codes that align with an accounting integration you don’t even use.
For a team of 3–10 people, this complexity has a cost:
We built Bid Bench not to replace every single function of a generic ERP, but to solve the specific, bleeding-neck problems that keep GCs awake at night: The Money and The Subs.
Here is how a focused, simple tool compares to the CoConstruct ecosystem.
The litmus test for construction software should be simple: Can a superintendent figure it out without a webinar?
We designed our interface to look less like a spreadsheet database and more like the consumer apps you use on your iPhone.
Your ability to bid a custom home depends entirely on getting numbers back from your trades.
In many legacy platforms, inviting a sub to bid forces them to create an account, set a password, and navigate a portal. Subs are busy. They often ignore these “portal” invites.
We take a “frictionless” approach:
You don’t need a complex document control system that mimics a government archive. You need a digital plan room.
Mid-sized GCs struggle with version control—making sure the plumber has the new set of prints, not the ones from three weeks ago. Our cloud storage is built specifically for this. It’s a central source of truth for plans, permits, and specs that is automatically linked to your budget line items.
One of the biggest frustrations we hear from GCs leaving CoConstruct is the pricing model. As these platforms move up-market, the price moves with them. You often end up paying a premium for features like “3D Client Selections” or “Marketing CRM” that you simply don’t need.
A simple alternative focuses on value. We strip away the bloat, which allows us to offer a price point that makes sense for a business doing $2.5M in revenue, not just $50M.
Leaving a piece of software can feel daunting. You worry about your data. You worry about the disruption.
But ask yourself: Does your current software make you feel organized, or does it make you feel tired?
If you are a custom home builder or remodeler growing out of Excel but dreading the complexity of the enterprise giants, there is a middle ground. You can have professional bid tracking, automated invitations, and AI-assisted budgeting without the steep learning curve.
Simplicity isn’t about doing less. It’s about doing the important things faster.