Contractor Foreman vs Buildertrend
Contractor Foreman wins on price and the sheer number of modules; Buildertrend wins on depth, ecosystem, and brand for high-volume custom builders. Both make you run QuickBooks alongside for the books — which is the gap Stairkey fills.
Contractor Foreman and Buildertrend sit at opposite ends of the residential construction software market. Contractor Foreman is the value play: published tiers from $49/mo and 20-plus modules crammed into one app. Buildertrend is the established leader: a deep, polished suite that custom-home builders and large remodelers grow into — sold by quote, not by published price.
Most head-to-head pages in this space are written by one of the two vendors and somehow conclude that the vendor wins every row. This one is written by Stairkey, a competing tool — so we'll say plainly where each of these wins, and where a smaller all-in-one with the accounting built in is the better fit.
At a glance
- Contractor Foreman
- $49/mo (Basic)
- Buildertrend
- Quote-only — reportedly ~$339+/mo
- Stairkey
- $20/mo, capped
- Contractor Foreman
- Published tiers
- Buildertrend
- Sales quote; known to rise at renewal
- Stairkey
- Published, flat, usage-capped
- Contractor Foreman
- No — syncs to QuickBooks
- Buildertrend
- No — syncs to QuickBooks/Xero
- Stairkey
- Yes — native double-entry GL
- Contractor Foreman
- Via QuickBooks
- Buildertrend
- Via QuickBooks/Xero
- Stairkey
- Native HST/GST
- Contractor Foreman
- Yes
- Buildertrend
- Yes — robust
- Stairkey
- Yes — measured takeoff
- Contractor Foreman
- Yes
- Buildertrend
- Yes — deep
- Stairkey
- Yes
- Contractor Foreman
- Yes
- Buildertrend
- Yes
- Stairkey
- Yes
- Contractor Foreman
- Yes
- Buildertrend
- Yes
- Stairkey
- Yes — phone-first
- Contractor Foreman
- No
- Buildertrend
- No
- Stairkey
- Yes
- Contractor Foreman
- No
- Buildertrend
- No
- Stairkey
- Yes
- Contractor Foreman
- Value buyers wanting many modules
- Buildertrend
- High-volume custom builders
- Stairkey
- Small contractors wanting one tool, books included
Who each one is for
you want the most modules for the lowest sticker price and you're comfortable running QuickBooks alongside it for the actual books.
you're a high-volume custom-home builder or large remodeler who needs its depth, integration ecosystem, and dedicated onboarding — and budget isn't the deciding factor.
you want estimating, projects, invoicing, and real double-entry accounting with HST in one flat-priced tool — without bolting on QuickBooks — plus AI photo/voice capture and, for realtor-contractors, a built-in real estate module.
Pricing
Prices verified June 18, 2026. Quote-gated vendors change pricing without notice — confirm before you buy.
Published tiers (Basic through Unlimited), billed annually for the best rate. Accounting lives in a separate QuickBooks subscription.
Volume-based and quote-only; reported around $339–$1,099/mo (often $8k–$10k/yr) and known to rise at renewal. Confirm current pricing directly with Buildertrend.
Optional +$20/mo accounting add-on with extra usage allowance. Transparent, flat, and usage-capped — no surprise bills.
Where the others win
Buildertrend earned its lead. It has a deeper feature set, a larger integration marketplace, and dedicated implementation that a younger tool can't match — if you run many large concurrent custom builds and want the most mature toolset, it's genuinely hard to beat on depth. Contractor Foreman, for its part, ships more standalone modules than Stairkey does today. Stairkey's edge isn't the longest feature list; it's the integrated workspace with the accounting built in, at a transparent price.
Common questions
Is Contractor Foreman cheaper than Buildertrend?
Yes. Contractor Foreman publishes tiers from $49/mo, while Buildertrend is quote-only and is widely reported to start materially higher and rise at renewal. For a smaller contractor, the price gap is large.
Does Contractor Foreman or Buildertrend include accounting?
Neither includes its own books. Both integrate with QuickBooks (Buildertrend also supports Xero), so you run a second subscription for accounting. Stairkey includes native double-entry accounting with HST/GST in the same workspace.
What's a good Buildertrend alternative for a smaller contractor?
If Buildertrend feels like too much tool and too much money, smaller contractors typically look at Contractor Foreman for breadth, or an all-in-one like Stairkey that bundles the accounting in rather than relying on QuickBooks.