Industry guide
Should a commercial contractor buy construction software or build a custom system?
Buy a construction platform such as Procore when your jobs run close to the standard pattern and you want the whole team working in a known product soon. Build a custom system when crews and project managers keep their own process in spreadsheets beside the platform, because over five years the platform fee keeps rising with your volume or headcount and a system you own does not.
| What you are comparing | A product | A custom build |
|---|---|---|
| Cost over five years | An annual fee, set by construction volume, users or modules depending on the vendor, plus setup and training. The total grows as the company grows. | A one-time build scoped in writing, then running costs such as hosting and database. There are no licenses, so the total does not climb with volume or headcount. |
| Per-seat fees | Per-seat fees vary by vendor. Autodesk lists Forma Build per user, Procore prices on annual construction volume with no user charge, and most others quote on users and modules. | None. Adding a foreman, a project engineer or an owner's representative adds no fee. |
| Fit to your process | You adopt the workflow the product ships with and configure the details. What it cannot hold ends up in a spreadsheet beside it. | Built from the way you already run jobs, including the reports, approvals and forms that are specific to your company and your owners. |
| Time to launch | A contract can be signed quickly, but a rollout across several jobs is a project of its own, with setup, data loading and training for every crew. | Starts with discovery and a written scope. Working screens are shown during the build, and the schedule is set in that scope. |
| Field adoption | Crews learn the vendor's screens and terms. Adoption depends on training and on whether every foreman is given access. | Screens are designed around the forms crews already fill in, so there is less to learn and less reason to keep a paper copy. |
| Connection to accounting | Through the integrations the vendor offers, or by buying a product that includes accounting. | Built to agree with the accounting system you keep, through an integration scoped with the build. |
| Who can maintain it | The vendor, plus your own administrator for setup and permissions. | Any competent developer, since Black Badger writes the code to be read and extended and sets up every account in your name. |
When buying construction software is the right answer
Buy when your jobs look like most commercial jobs. If your logs, reports and approvals are close to what a construction platform ships with, setup will cover the rest. Your people also gain a product that owners, architects and trade contractors may already know.
Also buy when you need something running for a job that is about to start. A project team can start using a product sooner than a system that has not been scoped yet.
When building a custom construction system is the right answer
Build when the platform has become one more place to enter data. The signs are a master workbook beside the software, superintendents who report by text message, and one person in the office who re-keys field data so accounting can use it.
Build when the fee no longer tracks the value. A fee based on volume or users rises as you win work, for the same software. A system you own costs what it costs to build and then what it costs to run.
How to compare the cost of construction software with a custom build
Do not compare a first-year quote with a build. Compare five years. Add up the annual fee at the volume or user count you expect, the add-on products, the training, and the hours your people spend moving data between systems. That is the product number.
The custom number is a one-time build plus running costs. Black Badger does not publish a price, because the figure depends on what the system has to do and how many other systems it has to agree with. A written scope gives you the number to put beside the product total.
What a custom build involves, and how to ask about one
Questions buyers ask
Is custom construction software cheaper than a platform?
Custom construction software is not always cheaper than a platform in the first year. The cost over several years is the figure to compare. A build costs once and a platform fee repeats and grows with the company, so the comparison usually favors custom over a longer period.
Does a contractor have to replace its accounting system to use custom software?
No, a contractor does not have to replace its accounting system to use custom software. Most of what Black Badger builds for contractors sits beside the accounting system and agrees with it through an integration. There is no reason to replace accounting that works.
What happens to a custom system if the developer who built it is no longer available?
Another developer can take over the system if the one who built it is no longer available. Every account the system runs on is created in your name, and the code is written so another developer can read it and continue the work. You are never locked to us.