15 Best Free Construction Management Software in 2024

As anyone in the construction industry knows, effective project management is essential to the success of any building project. From small home renovations to large commercial developments, construction managers must be able to coordinate a wide range of activities and resources.

Today, there are a number of software programs that can help to streamline the process and make it more efficient. If you’re new to using construction management software, there are a number of free programs available to help you get started. Each has its own strengths and weaknesses.

In this article, we take the time to evaluate some of the best free construction management software solutions on the market today.

Construction managers are responsible for overseeing the construction process from start to finish. They work with architects and engineers to plan the project, coordinate workers and subcontractors, and ensure that the project stays on schedule and within budget.

In a booming economy, construction managers are in demand. In fact, the Bureau of Labor Statistics places the 2020-2030 job outlook for construction managers faster than the average job outlook: at 11%. Not surprisingly, the construction industry has the biggest share of construction managers at 94.2%, followed by architectural, engineering services (0.77%) and real estate (0.5%).

To be sure, construction management is a complex process, and there are a number of potential problems that can arise, such as poor communication, changes in scope and a runaway budget. But by leveraging top construction management software, project managers can prevent or mitigate issues that can result in costly delays. Before you invest heavily in a subscription, explore this technology first by checking any of these construction management software free plans.

What are the key features of free construction management software?

Free construction management software often provides essential features that help streamline project workflows without a financial commitment. While these tools may lack some advanced capabilities found in paid versions, they typically include several core features that support project planning and coordination:

• Project Scheduling: Many free tools offer basic scheduling features that allow teams to plan project timelines, set milestones, and track progress. This helps ensure that projects remain on track and that all tasks are completed in a timely manner.
• Document Management: Free construction software often includes document management tools to store and organize project-related files, blueprints, and permits. Centralized document storage reduces paperwork and helps team members easily access critical information.
• Task Tracking and Assignment: Task management features are common in free versions. These features allow project managers to assign tasks to team members, set due dates, and monitor task completion. This feature improves accountability and keeps all team members informed of their responsibilities.
• Budgeting and Cost Tracking: Basic budgeting and expense tracking capabilities are sometimes available, helping teams monitor project costs and avoid budget overruns. These features enable project managers to document expenses and generate cost reports, which is essential for staying within budget.
• Reporting and Analytics: Some free tools offer limited reporting features, enabling users to generate reports on project timelines, resource allocation, and task progress. These insights help identify project bottlenecks and make informed decisions.

Best Free Construction Management Software

1. Contractor Foreman

Contractor Foreman is an all-in-one construction management system that offers solutions for every aspect of a construction business. It is equipped with over 35 features that collectively streamline construction operations, from its array of financial and project management tools to its team and document management solutions. The platform’s ease of use comes as one of its biggest competencies, as it enables non-tech-savvy users to quickly learn how to use its modules and functionalities. Contractor Foreman’s project management module allows users to thoroughly schedule, plan, and execute multiple projects. Leveraging Kanban boards and filters, the platform lets managers delegate tasks to team members, set deadlines, and monitor the progress of each. This ensures that outputs are always delivered on time. Unlike standard project management software, it has an Outcomes feature that helps businesses send competitive bids.

Contractor Foreman

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Contractor Foreman has a Financial module that aids managers in preparing project bids. The platform can provide cost and duration estimates, allowing potential clients to gauge the time and resources needed to complete a project. It also offers tools for billing, invoicing, purchase orders, online payments, and sub-contracts, and possesses the ability to track costs and permit statuses.

Moreover, Contractor Foreman’s People module allows managers to monitor the attendance of, communicate with, and account for incidents involving their team members. Complimenting this module is a Documents module that stores and organizes reports, forms, checklists, RFIs, and vehicle and equipment logs. The platform integrates with a multitude of widely-used apps and supports mobile. Additionally, Contractor Foreman offers a 30-day free trial that allows users to leverage its expansive toolset and a 100-day guarantee, which lets users request for a full refund if not satisfied with the software.

2. monday.com

monday.com monday.com is a cloud-based project management software that enables construction managers to collaborate with their teams and clients in real time. A free construction management software is available for two users.

With monday.com, construction managers can easily track the progress of projects and ensure that jobs are completed on time and within budget.

The software also makes it simple to manage employee timesheets and job schedules. In addition, monday.com offers a variety of reports that can be used to track progress and identify areas of improvement.

monday.com

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Likewise, monday.com helps with field inspections and checklists. The software has a feature that allows you to create custom fields and checklists for each project. You can also create templates for future projects. The software makes it easy to track progress and share information with team members. For greater flexibility, monday.com also offers a mobile app that allows you to access your project from anywhere.

As for billing, users can quickly and easily generate invoices from templates, track payments, and view spending reports. The system also includes a variety of features specifically designed for construction projects, such as the ability to track change orders, material costs, and labor hours.

Plus, monday.com integrates with a variety of other software applications, from instant messaging to document management and ERP to accounting system, making it easy for construction managers to use monday.com as their central project management hub.

3. Wrike

Wrike is a project management software that offers task management, communication, and collaboration features ideal for construction projects. The app is comparable to the top construction management systems.

With Wrike, construction managers can easily create and assign tasks to team members, track progress, and communicate with team members via chat or video call.

In addition, Wrike offers project management features such as Gantt charts and project timelines.

Wrike

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The versatile software also helps you to streamline your workflow and ensure that all your projects stay on budget. With it, you can create customized templates for invoicing, project budget tracking, and more. This allows you to save time by quickly creating accurate invoices and budgets for each project.

Additionally, Wrike’s real-time reports give you visibility into how your projects are progressing, so you can quickly identify and resolve any issues.

For job scheduling and timesheet management, Wrike helps you easily create and manage schedules in one place. You can also track billable hours and expenses.

In addition, Wrike offers a mobile app for construction site managers, so you can stay up to date with project progress even when you’re away from the office.

4. STACK

STACK is a construction management software that helps streamline field inspection and checklist processes. With STACK, users can create digital checklists that can be easily shared with teams. Checklists can be customized to include specific tasks, due dates, and even photos, and can be exported as a PDF or Excel file.

STACK

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For reporting, STACK provides templates for project progress reports, daily reports, safety reports, and more. Meanwhile, timesheet tracking allows users to see which employees are working on which tasks and how much time they are spending on each task. Job scheduling features allow users to create and manage project schedules, assign tasks to employees, and track project milestones.

With the software, you can also quickly generate invoices for completed work and track payments from clients. You can keep tabs on your project budget, ensuring that you stay within your estimated costs.

In addition, STACK’s visual interface makes it easy to see which aspects of your project are on track and which are falling behind schedule.

5. PlanHub

PlanHub is a popular free construction management software for builders and contractors. The software offers free and paid features such as time tracking, project reporting, and customer relationship management. While the free version of PlanHub is sufficient for many general contractors, the premium version may be required for those who need more advanced features.

For instance, this system allows contractors to create and assign tasks, set deadlines, and track progress. This ensures that all members of the team are aware of their responsibilities and that tasks are completed on time. The communication tool also helps contractors to keep in touch with clients and update them on the project’s progress. In this way, clients can provide feedback and make changes if necessary.

Finally, PlanHub’s organization tool keeps all documents and files in one place so that they can be easily accessed by the team. This makes it easy to track progress and ensure that everyone is on the same page.

6. ClickUp

ClickUp is an all-in-one project management software that provides a comprehensive suite of tools for, among others, job scheduling, timesheet management, and reporting. With ClickUp, construction managers can easily create and track project schedules, assign tasks to workers, and generate reports on project progress.

ClickUp also includes a variety of tools to help with invoicing, project budget tracking, and field inspections. With ClickUp, you can create customized templates for invoices and estimates, and track payments and expenses.

You can also create checklists for field inspections, and track progress on projects with the built-in Gantt chart.

7. SkyCiv

A structural analysis and design software, SkyCiv helps streamline communication and task management for construction projects of all sizes. The software provides a central platform for project managers, subcontractors, and other project stakeholders to access project information and documents.

In addition, the software includes features for creating and tracking project tasks, managing deadlines, and assigning resources. The software also includes a chat function for real-time communication among project team members.

SkyCiv also offers reporting, timesheet, job scheduling, invoicing, and project budget tracking features, all in one place.

8. iAuditor

iAuditor is a mobile-first inspection management software that can help contractors to manage their projects. It suits your need whether you’re conducting a daily safety inspection or a quarterly performance review.

The software offers a range of features for reporting, timesheets, job scheduling, and more. These features help contractors to stay organized and on track with their projects.

Likewise, it allows users to easily create and share field inspections, checklist and audits from their smartphone or tablet. With iAuditor, you can quickly identify potential safety hazards, track corrective actions, and ensure compliance with safety regulations. Plus, iAuditor’s flexible templates make it easy to customize inspections to fit your specific needs.

9. Methvin

Methvin is a construction estimating and management software that offers a variety of features, such as those for reporting, timesheet, project budgeting, invoicing and job scheduling.

The software provides a customizable dashboard that gives users an overview of their projects. Users can also generate detailed reports on specific aspects of their project, such as progress, budget, and milestones.

Methvin’s timesheet feature, meanwhile, allows users to track their work hours and activity levels. This information can be used to generate payroll reports and identify potential areas of improvement.

For job scheduling, the software helps users to create and track schedules for their projects. This information can be shared with other members of the team and used to identify potential conflicts or delays.

With Methvin, you can also create and send invoices directly from the software, making it easy to keep track of payments. Further, the software allows you to budget for your projects, so you can see at a glance how much money you have available to spend. You can also track your progress against the budget, so you can make adjustments as needed.

10. Fieldwire

Fieldwire is a jobsite management for construction projects, which helps contractors manage tasks, communicate with teams, and stay organized.

Contractors can create and assign tasks, set deadlines, and track progress. This helps to ensure that projects stay on schedule and that tasks are completed properly.

Likewise, contractors can use the software to send messages, share documents, and collaborate with teams. This helps to keep everyone on the same page and makes it easy to resolve problems quickly.

With this software, you can create a personalized checklist for each job site, which helps to ensure that all requirements are met. You can also use Fieldwire to create and manage a schedule of inspections, so that you can keep track of when each job needs to be completed.

11. Asana

Asana is a work management software that enables users to manage tasks and communicate with team members. Asana’s features include task lists, Kanban boards, Gantt charts, and a project calendar, which make the app a favorite project management app for startups.

Asana’s reporting feature includes real-time updates, interactive charts, and the ability to export data to Excel. The timesheet feature allows users to track their time on tasks and projects.

Likewise, its job scheduling feature enables users to create and manage job schedules, while the field inspection feature allows users to conduct inspections of work sites.

Asana also allows users to create and manage checklists, while its project budget tracking feature lets users track their project expenses.

The software has a mobile app to help users to access their tasks and projects on the go.

12. Zoho Projects

Zoho Projects is a cloud-based project management software that helps construction managers plan and execute construction projects. It offers a suite of tools for managing tasks, documents, and communications.

With Zoho Projects, you can also create reports to track progress and schedule. The timesheet feature allows you to track hours worked on a project, while the job scheduling feature helps you to track and manage construction tasks and subtasks.

Likewise, the software offers features for invoicing, project budget tracking, and more. You can create and send invoices to clients, track project expenses, and see how much money you’re making or losing on a project. Zoho Projects is helpful if you’re working on a fixed-price project or if you need to keep track of project costs for billing purposes.

Construction managers can also use Zoho Projects to create customized reports and dashboards.

13. OrangeScrum

OrangeScrum is a project management software that enables users to manage construction projects from start to finish. It offers a wide range of features, including milestone tracking, task management, and document management. It can also be used for other types of projects, such as renovations and remodeling.

OrangeScrum also offers features for field inspection, checklist, reporting, timesheet, and job scheduling. With the checklist feature, you can easily create and manage the To-dos for each phase of your project.

OrangeScrum also allows you to track the progress of your project with reports based on field progress. Meanwhile, with the timesheet feature, you can easily track the hours worked on each project, task or subtask, and joggle or adjust job schedules as per the demand of priority tasks.

14. Clockify

Clockify’s free plan includes key features with one difference: the free plan imposes a strict limit of 40 hours per week on tracked time. This limit is ideal for individual users or small teams who only need to track a limited amount of time each week.

Likewise, the free plan includes a limited selection of integrations, but users can still connect Clockify to popular tools like Asana, Trello, and Zapier.

That said, Clockify offers a variety of paid features for task management, communication, checklist and timesheet. Additionally, Clockify’s field inspection feature allows managers to quickly and easily check for potential hazards or issues.

15. TeamGantt

The free plan from TeamGantt only allows for one project to be created at any one time. This may be limiting for larger construction projects. In addition, the free plan does not include access to the ‘Project Concierge’ service, which can provide assistance with project set-up and planning.

However, the free plan does allow for unlimited users and tasks, as well as basic features such as task dependencies and Gantt charts. As such, it may still be suitable for small-scale construction projects.

If you need more advanced features, TeamGantt offers invoicing, project budget tracking, reporting, timesheet and more. With TeamGantt, construction professionals can keep track of their projects from start to finish, ensuring that they are on budget and on schedule.

In addition, TeamGantt provides users with the ability to create and track project milestones, so they can see at a glance how their project is progressing.

Choosing the Best Free Construction Management Software

While there are many benefits to using the best free construction management software, it is important to be aware of the drawbacks as well. An obvious downside is that construction management software for builders and contractors free plans do not have all of the features that you need compared with the top construction management software applications.

Another possibility is that free software may not be as reliable as paid options. Before making a decision, it is important to do your research and weigh all of the pros and cons. A better option is to take the free trial route. In this case, checking out Contractor Foreman is definitely a step forward to finding the right system for you.

With that said, free construction management software can be a great option for those on a tight budget or who only need basic features. If you take the time to find a reputable program and use it wisely, you can save yourself a lot of money and headaches down the road.

Key Insights

• Comprehensive Options: The article evaluates a variety of free construction management software solutions, each with unique features catering to different aspects of project management.
• Top Recommendation: Contractor Foreman stands out as the best free construction management software, offering over 35 features across four modules for project management, finance, team management, and document management.
• Diverse Features: Various software options provide features such as task management, timesheet tracking, invoicing, project scheduling, and real-time collaboration tools.
• Industry Outlook: The construction industry has a positive job outlook, with an 11% growth rate for construction managers projected from 2020 to 2030.
• COVID-19 Impact: The pandemic has somewhat affected profit margins, but the industry remains optimistic with a focus on infrastructure projects.

FAQ

1. What are the main features of Contractor Foreman? Contractor Foreman offers a comprehensive suite of over 35 features divided into four modules: project management, finance, team management, and document management. Key features include Kanban boards, task delegation, cost and duration estimates, billing and invoicing, and unlimited storage. It also provides a 30-day free trial and a 100-day satisfaction guarantee.
2. How does monday.com assist construction managers? monday.com provides real-time collaboration tools, project tracking, employee timesheet management, job scheduling, custom field and checklist creation, and template usage. It integrates with various other software applications and offers a mobile app for on-the-go project management.
3. What makes Wrike suitable for construction projects? Wrike offers task management, Gantt charts, project timelines, real-time reporting, budget tracking, invoicing, and a mobile app for construction site managers. Its AI Work Intelligence personalizes the app experience, and it supports both external and internal collaboration.
4. Can STACK help with field inspections? Yes, STACK helps streamline field inspections and checklist processes with customizable digital checklists, project progress reports, timesheet tracking, job scheduling, and budget tracking. It allows users to export checklists as PDFs or Excel files.
5. Is PlanHub free to use? PlanHub offers a free plan primarily for posting projects, inviting subcontractors and suppliers, and reviewing bids. While it has advanced features in its premium version, the free plan is suitable for many general contractors.
6. What limitations does ClickUp’s free plan have? ClickUp’s free plan includes 100MB storage, unlimited tasks, unlimited free plan members, collaborative docs, whiteboards, Kanban boards, and in-app video recording. However, more advanced features may require a paid plan.
7. How does SkyCiv support construction projects? SkyCiv is a structural analysis and design software that facilitates communication and task management. It includes features for project tasks, deadlines, resource assignments, chat functions, timesheet management, job scheduling, invoicing, and project budget tracking.
8. What are the advantages of using iAuditor for inspections? iAuditor is a mobile-first inspection management software offering features for reporting, timesheets, job scheduling, and checklist creation. It helps manage daily safety inspections and performance reviews, and its flexible templates allow customization to fit specific needs.
9. How does Methvin aid in construction management? Methvin provides features for reporting, timesheet tracking, project budgeting, invoicing, and job scheduling. It includes a customizable dashboard, detailed progress reports, payroll reports, and budget tracking to keep projects within estimated costs.
10. What should be considered when choosing free construction management software? While free software can be beneficial for those on a tight budget or needing basic features, it may lack advanced functionalities and reliability compared to paid options. It’s important to research and weigh pros and cons, and consider taking advantage of free trials to find the right fit for specific project needs.

By Nestor Gilbert

Nestor Gilbert is a senior B2B and SaaS analyst and a core contributor at FinancesOnline for over 5 years. With his experience in software development and extensive knowledge of SaaS management, he writes mostly about emerging B2B technologies and their impact on the current business landscape. However, he also provides in-depth reviews on a wide range of software solutions to help businesses find suitable options for them. Through his work, he aims to help companies develop a more tech-forward approach to their operations and overcome their SaaS-related challenges.