BuilderTrend versus EstimatorXpress by HBXL
These are just the views of the team Builderestimatingsoftware.co.uk. Please do check out the construction estimating software packages yourself: visit their websites, read customer testimonials and see whether their software has received any awards or endorsements. You can learn a lot by reading about similar building firms’ experiences of the products on review sites such as Trustpilot. HBXL Building Software, creators of EstimatorXpress, have a Trustpilot page which you can view here. BuilderTrend doesn’t currently have a Trustpilot page.
Here’s our summary of some of the main differences between BuilderTrend and EstimatorXpress:
First off, the main point to note is the difference in platform. Construction estimating software EstimatorXpress by HBXL is a desktop based estimating solution. BuilderTrend is more accurately described as construction management software based on the cloud. If you are looking for estimating software which prices up your building projects then you need to be specifically looking for estimating software not a construction management app.
Secondly, whilst BuilderTrend does contain an estimating feature, this is actually part of a wider job management toolset. Therefore, its estimating features don’t seem to have had as much TLC as that of HBXL’s EstimatorXpress. BuilderTrend very much focuses on job management.
Thirdly, there’s a core difference between how you undertake pricing up of projects in EstimatorXpress v BuilderTrend.
In HBXL’s EstimatorXpress if you undertake projects such as home extensions, new build houses, loft conversions and renovation work, you simply pick a template from the estimating software library (the software comes out of the box with around 200 estimating templates set up for you). You then enter your dimensions and tweak any default measurements which have been pre-selected for you, refine the specification and that’s your estimate done – the software does the majority of the work for you. This means you can complete an estimate for renovation work in less than thirty minutes – or an extension in under an hour. For example, when estimating a pitched roof in EstimatorXpress, the software takes the project dimensions and does the number crunching to work out the lengths of the timbers, the area of the ceiling, the area of tiling, length of fascias, length of soffits and so on. You can build estimates up from scratch, if you want, using some of their 500 or so estimating calculators but you probably won’t need to, because there is a pre-loaded template for the vast majority of work you’ll encounter.
With BuilderTrend they say ‘stop starting from scratch with every estimate as you use existing templates or import data from Excel’. Unfortunately this neglects the fact that you have to build up your estimate template from scratch, line by line in BuilderTrend when you start using the software rather than with EstimatorXpress where the software comes out of the box with hundreds of jobs already started for you. EstimatorXpress significantly speeds up your estimating time as you’re purchasing estimating content (the templates) rather than with BuilderTrend you’re getting an empty engine which can build up an estimate (much like Excel is).
Fourthly, with job cost inflation being so high right now, we highly recommend choosing construction pricing software which is linked up to latest building materials suppliers in your region. The best construction software for builders will be linked up to Builders Merchants and their prices will download into the software. With BuilderTrend you build up and maintain your own rates. With EstimatorXpress both national averages which are updated monthly AND specific suppliers are integrated with the software so you know you’re quoting building work using the latest prices.
Finally, HBXL is a UK company and BuilderTrend is a US-based product. Whilst that is not a big deal in itself, if you are a UK builder, looking for a solution supported in UK time, meeting UK building regs, then you really do need a UK-based product like EstimatorXpress. Also consider do you want a solution in $ or using Americanised spelling of words in your quotes such as “labor” not “labour” which might look like a misspelling? BuilderTrend looks slick but is it a job estimating solution? We suggest not.