"Construction bidding software" covers three different jobs, and most tools do only one or two of them:
- Finding projects to bid. Mostly for subcontractors and suppliers: a feed of upcoming projects with plans, specs and the contractors bidding them.
- Managing bid invitations. Mostly for general contractors: sending invitations to bid (ITBs) to subs, tracking who will bid, and comparing bids side by side (bid leveling).
- Working out the number. Takeoff and estimating: measuring quantities from the plans and pricing labor, material and markup.
This roundup covers nine tools across those jobs, with prices from each vendor's own pages as of October 22, 2026. We compare published plans; we haven't run each tool on live bids. Buildertrend also has bid management, but we couldn't confirm its current pricing, so it isn't included.
Quick comparison
| Tool | Main job | Starting price | Free option |
|---|---|---|---|
| PlanHub | Find bids (subs); post projects and manage bids (GCs) | Subs: $1,999/yr (50-mile radius) | Free for GCs; free sub profile for local invites |
| ConstructConnect | Find bids; takeoff | $129/mo per market | No |
| BuildingConnected (Autodesk) | Bid network for GCs and subs | On request | Free Bid Board for subs |
| PreconSuite | Bid management for GCs | $150/mo for 1 user | 14-day free trial |
| Contractor Foreman | Construction management with bid management | $166/mo billed annually (Plus, up to 8 users) | 30-day free trial |
| Procore | Bid management inside Procore | On request, by annual construction volume | No |
| JobTread | Bid requests from the job budget | $199/mo + $20 per extra user | No (30-day money-back on monthly) |
| PlanHub Takeoff & Estimation | Takeoff and bid pricing | $91/mo paid annually | Free to try |
| Bluebeam | Plan markup and measurement | $260 per user/yr | 14-day free trial |
PlanHub: bid leads for subs, free for GCs
PlanHub is a bidding network of over 500,000 general contractors, subcontractors and suppliers, by its own count. It's priced very differently for each side.
Subcontractors and suppliers. A free profile lets you receive direct invitations from general contractors and bid on projects within a local radius. To search and bid on more projects, Premier costs $1,999 a year for a 50-mile radius, $2,349 for 100 miles or $3,299 for 200 miles. PlanHub says the price depends on your trade and territory. Premier includes unlimited bids, project leads, plan and spec downloads, a bid board, a directory of over 55,000 general contractors and a mobile app. Enterprise covers national reach for teams of three or more users and is priced on request.
General contractors get free, unlimited access: the free Essentials plan includes project posting, bid management and basic bid leveling. Pro (up to 5 seats) adds a national sub directory, a private planroom and sub prequalification. Premier (up to 10 seats) adds lead finding, takeoff and bid coverage tools, and Enterprise has unlimited seats. PlanHub doesn't publish prices for the paid GC tiers.
PlanHub Takeoff & Estimation is sold separately: Takeoff is $91 a month and Estimation is $141 a month, both paid annually. Estimation adds a cost item library (92,000 items, PlanHub says) and a Bid Builder for professional bids.
Best for: subcontractors who want a steady feed of local projects at a fixed yearly price, and small GCs who want free bid management.
ConstructConnect: project leads by market
ConstructConnect sells construction project data. It absorbed BidClerk and iSqFt, and BidClerk's site now points to ConstructConnect Project Intelligence.
| Project Intelligence plan | Price | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Starter | $129/mo per market (save 10% billed annually) | One license and one market; bidding project details and contacts, a digital bid board, automatic matching to your profile; month to month |
| Professional | From $199/mo per market, billed annually | Adds plans, specs and addenda, planning-stage projects, full contacts, export and AI document search; annual contract required |
| Premium | From $10,000/yr (custom plan) | Multiple licenses and markets |
ConstructConnect also sells Takeoff: Starter at $1,200 a year for one seat (up to 25 plans per project) and Professional at $2,200 a year for the first seat and $1,700 for each additional seat, with AI auto takeoff. Read the terms before you buy: subscriptions can't be canceled mid-term, and there are no refunds or pauses. There's no self-serve trial; for Professional and Takeoff, ConstructConnect offers a guided proof-of-value. For general contractors, its Bid Management, SmartBid and iSqFt products handle ITBs, sub prequalification and bid tracking, with pricing on request.
Best for: subcontractors and suppliers who want to try a lead service month to month in one market (Starter) before committing to a year.
BuildingConnected (Autodesk): the network many GCs use
BuildingConnected is Autodesk's bidding network, now part of its Forma construction products. Autodesk says it connects more than 1.5 million construction professionals.
- Bid Board (free for subcontractors). The help center calls it "the free version of Bid Board": you can manage and submit bids, open project files, message GCs and submit qualifications. The Plan Room, for finding public projects you weren't invited to, needs Bid Board Pro.
- Bid Board Pro (subcontractors, paid). Pulls in bid invitations from any source, tracks bids automatically, shows other GCs bidding the same project, and adds a Plan Room of public GC projects and win-rate analytics. You can request a trial through a sales rep.
- BuildingConnected Pro (GCs and owners, paid). Unlimited bid invites and projects, access to Autodesk's network of builders, bid leveling, custom bid forms and historical bid data.
- TradeTapp for subcontractor risk and qualification.
All three paid products are priced on request. Autodesk says it offers user, project and account-based pricing and a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Best for: subcontractors who already get invitations from GCs on BuildingConnected (the free Bid Board keeps them in one place), and mid-size and larger GCs.
PreconSuite: bid management for general contractors
PreconSuite (formerly PipelineSuite) is built for general contractors sending ITBs. All prices are monthly:
| Plan | Price | Users |
|---|---|---|
| Basic | From $150/mo | First user $150, then $50 per extra user |
| Pro | From $400/mo | Up to 5 users |
| Premium | From $800/mo | Up to 25 users |
| Enterprise | On request | Multi-office or 25+ users |
There's a one-time $250 setup fee on Basic and Pro, which PreconSuite says it can waive if your sub list arrives clean in Excel. On Basic, bid leveling and prequalification are $150-a-month add-ons each; Pro and higher include both, with plug numbers and overrides in bid leveling. Every plan includes an unlimited private planroom that subs can use without logging in, invites sent from your own company email, and integrations with Procore and HCSS. Subs can list themselves in its directory for free. There's a 14-day free trial with no credit card required.
Best for: GCs who want dedicated bid management at a published price, without moving the whole company onto a new platform.
Contractor Foreman: bidding inside a low-cost construction platform
Contractor Foreman is an all-in-one construction management platform for general contractors and remodelers. Its bid management lets you see all your ITBs in one place, send bid invites, track who has received them and who intends to bid, and compare bids side by side. Vendors can submit bids without creating an account, and the winning bid converts to a purchase order or subcontract.
Bid management starts on the Plus plan. Billed annually, Plus is $166 a month for up to 8 users ($1,997 a year), Pro is $221 a month for up to 15 users and Unlimited is $332 a month. Monthly billing costs more: $199, $279 and $399. The cheaper Basic ($49) and Standard ($105) plans include estimates but not bid management; takeoffs start on Pro. There's a 30-day free trial. Contractor Foreman offers a 100-day money-back guarantee on annual Plus and higher plans, and 30 days on monthly plans.
Best for: small GCs and remodelers who want bids, estimates, subcontracts and project management in one tool at a listed price.
Procore: bid management for Procore users
Procore's Bid Management lets general contractors create, send, level and track bid invitations, compare bids side by side, prequalify trade partners and turn a winning bid into a subcontract or purchase order that updates the budget. Procore doesn't publish prices. It charges an upfront annual fee by product, based on your annual construction volume, with unlimited users, including subcontractors and vendors.
Best for: general contractors already running projects in Procore.
JobTread: bid requests from the job budget
JobTread is construction management software for residential builders and remodelers. It costs $199 a month plus $20 a month per internal user after the first (cheaper per user as the team grows, and 20% off on an annual subscription), with every feature included. You select line items in a job budget, send them as a bid request to subs and suppliers, and they enter their prices. Winning bids update the budget. Vendor, sub and customer portal users are free and unlimited. JobTread doesn't offer a free trial, but monthly plans have a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Best for: residential builders and remodelers who want sub bids tied directly to the job budget. We cover its estimating side in our contractor estimating software comparison.
Bluebeam: marking up and measuring bid documents
Bluebeam isn't bid management. It's the PDF tool many estimators use to review bid sets, mark up drawings and measure quantities. Plans are billed annually per user: Basics $260, Core $330 (adds counts, perimeters, volumes and drawing comparison), Complete $440 (adds Quantity Link to Excel and batch tools) and Max $590 at an introductory price (adds AI drawing reviews). There's a 14-day free trial with full Max access.
Best for: estimators who spend their day in PDFs of plans and want measurement and markup in the same tool.
Free construction bidding software
The free options are real but limited:
- PlanHub for general contractors: project posting, bid management and basic bid leveling on the free Essentials plan.
- PlanHub for subs: a free profile receives direct invitations from GCs within a local radius.
- BuildingConnected Bid Board for subs: free to manage and submit the bids you're invited to; finding public projects in the Plan Room needs Bid Board Pro.
- PreconSuite directory: subs can list their company for free so GCs using PreconSuite can find them.
What's rarely free is finding new projects: PlanHub Premier, ConstructConnect and Bid Board Pro all charge for that.
Bidding software for electrical contractors and other subs
Electrical, mechanical and plumbing subs usually need two tools: a source of projects (PlanHub, ConstructConnect or Bid Board Pro) and an estimating tool to price them from the plans. Bid lead services charge by territory, so start with the radius you can actually staff, then widen it once your win rate justifies it. For pricing the job, see our guide to estimating software for electricians and the takeoff tools (STACK and PlanSwift) in our contractor estimating software comparison.
How to choose construction bidding software
- Decide which side you're on. Subs pay to find bids and get invited; GCs pay to send ITBs and level bids. Very few tools do both well.
- For subs: price your territory. Compare PlanHub's yearly radius pricing with ConstructConnect's per-market monthly pricing for the area you actually work, and check the contract terms. ConstructConnect Professional is a yearly contract that can't be canceled mid-term.
- For GCs: check what your subs already use. A bid tool only works if subs respond. Free access for subs (PlanHub, BuildingConnected, PreconSuite's planroom) means more bids come back.
- Count users and setup costs. PreconSuite charges per user on Basic and a setup fee; Contractor Foreman caps users by plan; Procore and JobTread don't charge for sub and vendor users.
- Keep estimating separate in your head. A bid board doesn't price the job. Budget for takeoff and estimating too, or pick a platform that includes them.
Once you're winning bids, a clean estimate and invoice matter just as much. Our free contractor estimate template and contractor invoice template cover the paperwork, and QuickBooks for contractors covers the books.
