In this case, CF is the best of the 'OK so far' category in my mind. NONE of the software available today gets close to a truly effective, user friendly GUI and functionality set. I have used 7 different systems over the years, with the top 4 big names having the largest hours operating. Most have less functionality, others are severely overpriced and under featured. Still others are so complicated you need an entire IT department to implement them. Contractor Foreman does much of what it does the absolute best for the money, meaning this is probably the best value for construction management software I'm aware of. I believe I can say with confidence, that if CF does it, it strives to do it well, and continues to strive to get it better. Picking a feature or two that excels is rather pointless in a company with that outlook. THAT is a company I can get behind...
If you have more than 2 developers this thing is basically a requirement within github to manage sprints if you use agile methodology. Why use a different website entirely when you can run your entire board right from github itself? I've tried other solutions but basing everything on github issues makes it so no duplicate work has to take place. If the UX quirks and mobile were fixed this would be 10/10 for me! If you're only one or two devs on a team it may be overkill to use, but if you're going to scale it's better to put the process in early.
ZenHub is one of the best GitHub repo-management software integrating the usage of work-boards and task management, with the ability to integrate several team members to the work table. This method makes the team more organized since everyone can keep track of their time and tasks of themselves and also others, so you can see how fast your teammates are working or if they need any help with something they're working on.
I rarely give anyone a 9 or 10 rating for service. The main reason for this rating is Contractor Foreman's dedication to improvement. To be completely frank, CF has fallen down on their tech help with me several times, but I am an exceptionally difficult user to service as I tend to use a product up to it's limits and want more. CF has actually addressed these wants several times (after waits that seemed interminable, but were actually pretty damn fast in the reality of software development)
Support is good, but quite honestly, I haven't needed any support since 2015. As I remember, I was required to open a ticket and had to wait a few days for resolution. I give it a rating of 8 because of the lag in getting a solid resolution, but it was resolved adequately.
I've used Buildertrend and Conconstruct near daily for a little over 10 years. They were both pretty solid. But the price kept going up without much value being added to the software. As they grew, they didn't upgrade with the growth, so the sites became slower. Contractor Forman has all the functionality of the others, and several other tools that they don't. There are several tools our company doesn't even use yet that look great. It's not perfect, and the learning curve due to its increased capability is a bit of a challenge. But overall, it is superior in every way that mattered to us, and more affordable.
I have used Workfront in the past, which in my experience, is best with a traditional waterfall methodology, similar to Microsoft Project and the other more traditional project management software projects. ZenHub is truly designed around the agile methodology. Other products that claim they are agile oriented seem to just be adjusting and tweaking their traditional product to include a few agile features.
We don't have to double enter our job information anymore (estimates, bills, labor hours) to show employees what they need to see. Specific access within Contractor Foreman does that for us.
It's taken us longer to learn how Contractor Foreman works within itself than we thought it would, so implementation is taking a little longer than ideal. However, we have been learning a lot along the way about the easiest ways to use the workflow that Contractor Foreman has.
