PlanGrid is simple and efficient; the best value for the money if its features do what you want.
December 21, 2018
PlanGrid is simple and efficient; the best value for the money if its features do what you want.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Overall Satisfaction with PlanGrid
PlanGrid will be used for 1 specific project, across our organization. It solves the issues of coherent communication. Right now, we rely on e-mail attachments in order to have up-to-date drawings. This becomes confusing internally, as well as for our subcontractors. PlanGrid enables us to always have the most up to date drawings, accessible from PC or phones, anywhere there is internet available. It also helps to coordinate RFIs, schedules, etc.
- PlanGrid syncs drawing sets across users and devices. This is a strength because everyone on PlanGrid has the most up-to-date drawings without any effort, other than uploading. For subs, it is easy to distribute the latest drawing uploads.
- PlanGrid is quite easy to use. Unlike other CM software, PlanGrid only has a few features but it uses all of them well.
- PlanGrid has a great iPhone and Android app, so users on site can have the entire document and RFI log on their phone, with full access to all features.
- The photo attachment process is a bit complicated. In Procore (another similar software I've used), you can upload photos directly into RFIs for your reference, or into e-mails. For PlanGrid, you have to first upload the photo into the documents tab, then link them into the RFI. It's not intuitive and can add confusion to the documents tab.
- Photos can't be directly uploaded. Between different devices and colleagues, it's possible you'll get an important photo outside of the PlanGrid photo capture feature within its app. Again, it's complicated for users to use.
- In their new drawings viewer, the icons for actions do not have icons available. I had to use them all in order to understand what they meant, and I'm fairly tech savvy. I'm not sure if a new person to PlanGrid will pick up on each icon's abilities very easily.
- There's no all-in-one solution in CM, but PlanGrid is fairly barebones, and I don't believe it has any ability to connect to other software. There's no ability to take meeting munites; you can hack the field reports feature to accomplish this, but it's clear that was not the intent of the designers.
- Positive: Syncing drawings. As I said, keeping an up-to-date set of drawings is seamless on Procore, as compared to a traditional server or even the cloud. The software is designed to see and mark-up drawings. Though markup tools aren't as robust as, say, Bluebeam Revu (I wouldn't expect all of that from a web app, anyway), it's very nice to easily see all the newest drawings.
- Positive: Saved time. Documents are updated at the same time, across all devices, with only one upload.
- Positive: Punch list is easy. Procore punch lists are quite complicated. In PlanGrid, with 1-tap we can add items and give a brief description. When doing a walk-thru, it should be easy to jot down notes. These can be detailed once you're sitting at a desk, and PlanGrid allows for that. But for field personnel, punch lists are an easy and efficient use of time.
- Negative: Photo management. For us, there should be a way to just upload photos, and not require to use the photo tool within the app.
PlanGrid provides the perfect balance of simplicity and accuracy. As I've noted, Procore is more robust but the learning curve is steep, and, for my company, the majority of features would go unused (and thus would be a waste of money). PlanGrid offers a few solid features and does them very well.