BuildingConnected Alternatives for Sending Bids

BuildingConnected is Autodesk's bid-management product. Autodesk describes access to "over 1,000,000 construction professionals" on its network, bid leveling, custom bid forms and subcontractor qualification through TradeTapp, and lists every product on its pricing page as Request a Quote (BuildingConnected, pricing). GCs look elsewhere for three different reasons, and each points to a different alternative:

• The price is not published, or the quote is more than the bidding step is worth to you.
• You invite the same subs every time and do not need a large network.
• The bid lives in one system and the job in another, so the award is retyped into buyout, the subcontract and the budget.

Conflo is construction management software for general contractors, and bidding is its first phase. You build a trade package with a written scope, scope items and alternates, invite subs from your directory, answer questions once for every bidder, issue numbered addenda, then level the bids by scope item. The award carries into buyout against the estimate's budget, then a subcontract the sub signs in Conflo, then pay apps against it.

Prices are on /pricing, and a job you are still bidding never counts against the plan. It has no network of subs you have never worked with and no prequalification questionnaires. The head-to-head, row by row, is in Conflo vs BuildingConnected.

PlanHub states that "General contractors get free, unlimited access to PlanHub" to post projects, share project files and communicate with multiple subcontractors at once, with Pro, Premier and Enterprise tiers whose prices are set with a product specialist (PlanHub for general contractors). Subcontractors can create a free profile to receive direct invitations and bid within a local radius; wider lead search starts with Premier at $1,999 a year for a 50-mile radius (PlanHub pricing). Pro adds subcontractor prequalification and advanced bid leveling. Choose it when you want a network and a free GC seat more than a connection to the job.

Many GCs still bid by email: a scope letter and drawings link per trade, replies into one inbox, and a spreadsheet to level. It costs nothing and every sub can use it. It breaks down when bidders ask the same question twice, an addendum goes to some bidders and not others, or someone has to prove later which bid acknowledged which addendum. If you go this way, keep one row per scope item in the spreadsheet and record each bidder's addendum acknowledgment.

• You need a bigger pool of new bidders than PlanHub's 500,000+: Autodesk says over 1,000,000 on its network, and email and Conflo have none.
• You prequalify subs with questionnaires and financial review: TradeTapp does this. PlanHub Pro lists subcontractor prequalification too; Conflo and email do not.
• Your company already runs Autodesk Build and wants bids to become contracts there, through the cost-management integration Autodesk describes.
• Your subs already answer invitations on BuildingConnected's free Bid Board, so switching means asking them to learn another tool.

In Trade bids, each bidder sees only its own invitation and bid; answered questions go to every bidder without the asker's name; and a bid must acknowledge the latest addendum before it is submitted. A sub with no Conflo account gets an invitation email with a one-time link that sets up a free account. A bid that arrives by email is entered against the invitation, so it is leveled with the rest in Bid leveling.

There is no single best alternative: a network is the answer if you lack bidders, a free tier is the answer if cost is the problem, and one job record is the answer if retyping the award is. Most GCs who invite the same subs every time need the last one more than the first.

Before you switch, write down how many bidders per trade you invite and how many of them you found through a network last year. That number tells you which kind of tool you need.

Join the Conflo waitlist

1. BuildingConnected: Bid Management Software — Autodesk. Read October 16, 2026.
2. BuildingConnected Pricing — Autodesk. Read October 16, 2026.
3. Pricing for General Contractors — PlanHub. Read October 16, 2026.
4. Subcontractor Pricing — PlanHub. Read October 16, 2026.
5. BuildingConnected Glossary of Terms (Internet Archive copy, September 5, 2025) — BuildingConnected (Autodesk). Read October 17, 2026.