Buildxact Alternatives

Last verified: October 2026

Buildxact is the default pick for small residential builders and renovators in Australia and the UK. It gives you takeoffs, estimates, quotes and supplier price lists with unlimited users, and plenty of builders are happy on it. The ones who leave usually do so for one of three reasons: the job falls apart once it starts, the price goes up as you need more features, or they never needed an estimating tool in the first place.

This page compares seven Buildxact alternatives with their current prices in GBP and AUD, and says honestly where each one is weaker. If you only want the head-to-head, read Buildxact vs Planyard.

Why Builders Look Beyond Buildxact

Buildxact is estimating-first software. It is quick at measuring plans, building up a quote from recipes and supplier prices, and sending a professional quote letter. The weaker parts sit after the contract is signed. These are the things builders tell us on demo calls when they are moving off it:

• Supplier bills are keyed in by hand. A director of a 15-person commercial builder told us they enter 600 to 1,000 bills a month, after five years on Buildxact.
• Committed cost only counts once a purchase order is sent, so anything ordered by phone or agreed on site is missing from the job cost until the bill turns up.
• Progress claims drift from what the client actually pays, especially with retention held until a cap is reached. One roofing and cladding contractor called it “a bookkeeping nightmare”.
• It is aimed at residential work. Builders doing commercial fit-outs say they do not need the CRM or schedules, they need “really good and accurate budget versus actuals”.
• Job management and schedules only start on the Pro plan, and the Blu AI estimate assistants cost extra on the lower tiers.

If your problem is winning work faster, another estimating tool may suit you. If the problem is knowing whether a job is making money, you need a cost control tool, and Buildxact does not try to be one.

What Buildxact Costs in the UK and Australia

Buildxact publishes its prices. Every plan has unlimited users. The annual plans save 15% but tie you in for 12 months.

UK prices exclude VAT and Australian prices exclude GST. Foundation covers leads, takeoffs, quotes, supplier integration and purchase orders. Pro adds job management, schedules and the Onsite mobile app. Master adds user access controls and priority support. The Blu Estimate Generator is a £99 or A$99 monthly add-on on Foundation, and the Takeoff Assistant (£99 or A$99) and Estimate Reviewer (£149 or A$149) are add-ons on Pro.

Buildxact Alternatives Compared

The 7 Best Buildxact Alternatives

1. Planyard – Best for Cost Control After the Contract Is Signed

Planyard starts where Buildxact stops. You load the estimate as the job budget, raise purchase orders and subcontract orders against it, and every supplier bill is matched to its order before it reaches accounting. Bills can arrive by email straight from your accounts payable inbox, so nobody keys in hundreds of them by hand. Committed cost, cost to date and the forecast margin update as you go, which is the job costing view builders leave Buildxact to get.

Client progress claims (valuations in the UK), variations and retention are built in from the Professional plan, and the Ultimate plan adds subcontractor progress claims, RFQs and tenders. For Australian builders working under security of payment laws, see progress claim software. Approved costs flow to Xero, QuickBooks, Sage or MYOB, so the bookkeeper is not chasing the project manager for job codes.

Planyard has an estimating module for quotes, markups and a cost database, but it has no digital takeoff. If you measure off plans every day, keep a takeoff tool and use Planyard for the job itself.

Best for: commercial builders, fit-out contractors and developers running several jobs at once with subcontractors, purchase orders and monthly claims.

Watch out for: no takeoff, no client selections portal and no homeowner CRM. Builders whose bottleneck is quoting speed will miss what Buildxact does well.

Pricing: UK: Estimating £40, Essential £82, Professional £123, Ultimate £164 per project manager per month, supporting staff £33, ex VAT. Australia: Estimating A$82, Essential A$166, Professional A$250, Ultimate A$333, supporting staff A$49. Accounting sync from Essential; purchase orders, client progress claims, variations and retention from Professional. 14-day free trial, see UK pricing or Australian pricing. Full head-to-head: Buildxact vs Planyard.

"If I were still relying solely on Excel to track and present the financial positions of our projects, I would be losing significant time every single month. By implementing the streamlined processes that Planyard supports, I’m saving at least three to four days of work every month that would have otherwise been spent on manual data entry and reconciliation."

Read more

Jason Escobar Project Management / Systems & Process Dev  ·  The Keane Group  ·  Queensland, Australia

"When you look at your margin without using Planyard, you might think you’re making 21%. But are you really if things have been missed and you can’t see them? Planyard lets you see a true margin all the time."

Read more

Lee Covington Owner  ·  E&N Group Ltd  ·  London, United Kingdom

2. Buildertrend – Best All-in-One for Larger Residential Builders

Buildertrend is the big US residential platform: estimates, schedules, client portal, selections, change orders, daily logs and client payments in one system with unlimited users. Builders who outgrow Buildxact on the client-facing side often look at it, and searches for Buildxact vs Buildertrend are steady in Australia.

Its cost tracking follows the same pattern as Buildxact: the budget lives in Buildertrend and invoices are processed in Xero or QuickBooks, so someone still has to match them up. Read Buildertrend vs Planyard and Buildertrend alternatives for the detail.

Best for: residential builders and remodellers who want the homeowner experience, selections and scheduling in one place.

Watch out for: it is built around US practice, so UK valuations and Australian progress claims with retention need workarounds. It costs several times what Buildxact does.

Pricing: Starting at US$499 a month, with 10% off when you pay annually upfront. Prices are in US dollars on Buildertrend’s site, with a custom quote after a call.

3. NextMinute – Best for Australian Residential Trade Teams

NextMinute is a New Zealand and Australian job management tool for residential builders and trade teams. It covers quoting from takeoffs, Gantt scheduling, timesheets, variations, progress payments and back-costing of actual against estimate by stage. It syncs with Xero, MYOB and QuickBooks and pulls in supplier invoices, which is the manual-entry gap Buildxact users complain about.

Every plan has every feature. You pay by crew size, month to month, with no lock-in.

Best for: Australian residential builders and trade businesses with three or more people who want the crew using the system on site.

Watch out for: its own takeoff is lighter than Buildxact’s, it has no UK pricing, and it is not built for commercial subcontract claims.

Pricing: Tradie Growth A$199 a month for 3 to 9 users, Tradie Pro A$349 for 10 to 14 users, TradieMax for 15 or more on request. Plus GST. Free trial.

4. Wunderbuild – Best for Australian Home Builders on a Per-Project Price

Wunderbuild is a Melbourne-based platform for home builders. It covers leads, estimating, tendering to subcontractors, scheduling, selections, variations, site diary, customer invoicing, project budgeting and cost management. Every plan has every feature and unlimited users. The plans differ only by how many projects are live at once.

That price model suits a builder running a handful of homes at a time. A builder with twenty jobs on the go will pay about what Buildxact Master costs.

Best for: Australian home builders who want tendering and selections in the same tool and run a small number of builds at once.

Watch out for: it is Australia-only, and we could not confirm its accounting integrations on its website, so check Xero or MYOB sync in the demo.

Pricing: Starter A$123 a month (1 active project), Premium A$249 (2 to 10), Platinum A$375 (11 to 20), Ultimate A$499 (unlimited). Prices include GST. No lock-in contract. Free trial.

5. EstimatorXpress (HBXL) – Best for UK Builders Who Only Need Estimating

EstimatorXpress from HBXL is the long-standing UK estimating tool for house builders, extensions and refurbishments. You pick a template such as a loft conversion or single-storey extension, enter dimensions and the workbooks calculate materials, labour, plant and wastage. Templates come preloaded with prices, and Price Tracker+ links to live merchant prices. It is Windows software you install. On-screen takeoff is a separate product, the Take-off & Estimate Kit.

It is an estimating tool and little else. If you are leaving Buildxact because you never used the job management side, it may be all you need. The best estimating software for small builders in the UK compares it with other UK options.

Best for: UK domestic builders who want fast, template-driven estimates and do not mind a Windows desktop program.

Watch out for: takeoff costs extra, it does not run in a browser or on a Mac without Windows, and the estimate stops at the quote: no job costing, purchase orders or progress claims.

Pricing: From £899 a year (Essential annual subscription), Pro £999. Take-off & Estimate Kit from £1,299. Ex VAT. 14-day free trial.

6. Tradify – Best for Small Trade Businesses Quoting and Invoicing Jobs

Tradify is job management for trades: enquiries, quotes, scheduling, timesheets, invoices and online payments, with Xero and QuickBooks sync (plus MYOB in Australia). Price lists can be imported from suppliers as CSV, and progress invoicing is supported.

It is much cheaper than Buildxact for a sole trader or a two-person team, but it is a trade tool. There is no plan takeoff and no project budget in the builder sense.

Best for: electricians, plumbers and small trade businesses whose day is many small jobs, quotes and invoices.

Watch out for: it is priced per user, so a larger team can end up paying more than Buildxact’s unlimited-user plans, and it does not track a multi-stage build against a budget.

Pricing: UK from £34 per user per month (Lite). Australia from A$48 per user per month ex GST (Lite). Pro and Plus cost more. Month to month, 14-day free trial.

7. Fergus – Best Budget Job Management for Trades

Fergus is a New Zealand job management tool used by trade businesses in the UK and Australia. It covers quoting and estimating, price books, job cards, scheduling, GPS tracking, timesheets and invoicing, with Xero and QuickBooks integrations.

Fergus sells Professional as the plan for businesses chasing healthier margins and tighter control, and it adds phone support. Fergus is a sensible step down for a trade contractor who bought Buildxact and never used the takeoff.

Best for: trade businesses with up to ten staff who want a low entry price.

Watch out for: there is no takeoff and nothing for subcontract claims or retention, and extras such as contractor users, SMS and card payments are charged on top.

Pricing: UK: Essentials from £39 a month, Professional from £45, timesheet users from £12. Australia: Essentials from A$53, Professional from A$77, timesheet users from A$26. Enterprise for 10+ staff on request. The pricing page often shows a launch discount; these are the regular prices. 14-day free trial.

How We Chose

We started from what people search for next to Buildxact in the UK and Australia, the tools named on review sites and by competitors, and the reasons Buildxact users give us when they switch. We kept tools that small builders and trade businesses in those two markets can buy today and left out enterprise suites such as Procore. Every price was checked on the vendor’s own pricing page in October 2026. Where a vendor shows an introductory discount we quote the regular price. Planyard is our own product. We put it first because cost control after the contract is the most common reason builders leave Buildxact, and we say plainly where it is weaker.

Which Buildxact Alternative Fits Your Business

You win work fine but lose track of costs on the job

Use Planyard. Keep Buildxact or another takeoff tool for quoting if you like it, and run budgets, purchase orders, bills, variations and claims in Planyard. See construction cost management software.

Residential builder who wants one system with a client portal

Look at Buildertrend if the budget allows. In Australia, NextMinute and Wunderbuild cover most of the same ground at a Buildxact-like price.

UK builder who only needs estimates

EstimatorXpress gives you UK rates and templates. Pair it with Planyard later if job costing becomes the problem.

Trade business doing many small jobs

Tradify or Fergus will cost less than Buildxact for a small team and do the quote, job and invoice loop well.

Switching From Buildxact

Most builders do not switch everything on one day. A practical order:

1. Export your cost codes, supplier list and the estimates for jobs still running.
2. Decide what stays: many builders keep Buildxact for takeoff and quoting until the annual term ends.
3. Start new jobs in the new tool and leave finished jobs where they are.
4. Connect Xero, QuickBooks, MYOB or Sage before the first bill arrives, so costs are coded from day one.
5. Run one live job for a month, including a progress claim, before moving the rest.

Check your Buildxact renewal date first. Annual plans run for 12 months, so the cheapest time to switch is just before renewal.