BuildOps runs commercial service and project management.
Forge runs the install contractor's whole chest.
BuildOps is a strong, modern platform for commercial contractors — service management, dispatch, project management, and reporting built for the commercial mechanical and electrical trades. It is genuinely well-built. Forge is built for a different center of gravity: the commercial installation contractor whose work runs on in-field measurement, certified payroll, change-orders, and submittals, with every module sharing one architecture instead of integrating across several.
Side by side. Honest about both.
Yes. AI primitives are the foundation, not added later. Modules share architecture rather than relying on integrations between separate products.
Modern, cloud-native platform with AI features layered into a service-and-project core. Strong, contemporary architecture; AI is a feature set rather than the foundation.
Native scheduling and dispatch with field ops and crew tracking. Built around install and retrofit work more than high-volume recurring service.
A core strength. Deep commercial service management — work orders, dispatch boards, technician routing, and maintenance agreements built for high-volume service operations.
Treasury (native module). Davis-Bacon rates per project, prevailing wage per technician per task, WH-347 ready to file. Change-orders and the RMR ledger live in the same chest.
Commercial payroll and timekeeping with reporting; certified-payroll depth varies by configuration and integration. Verify prevailing-wage specifics against your projects.
Yes. Hyperion — iPad/iPhone LiDAR. Walk the structure, get a line-item estimate in 60–90 seconds. Methodology + sample plan published at /proof/hyperion-accuracy.
No native equivalent. Field measurement typically via manual takeoff or a separate third-party tool.
Native — submittal packages, as-builts, and commissioning docs version-controlled and attached to the project record.
Project management carries documents, photos, and forms in-platform. Deeper submittal and markup workflows may be paired with a dedicated tool.
Embedded — dialer, SMS, call recording, AI summaries that write to the project log. Federated with CRM, project, and payroll.
Customer comms and field messaging are in scope. An embedded telephony layer with call recording is a different model — verify call-recording depth against your needs.
One architecture. Estimating, scheduling, CRM, documents, Treasury, comms, field ops, and Hyperion share state natively — modules, not integrations.
A unified commercial platform — service, project, and accounting on one system, with integrations to tools like QuickBooks and Sage where needed.
Public list: Forge Core $499/mo flat (unlimited users, no per-seat) plus a la carte modules, packaged as Starter $299, the Working Stack about $900, and Full Platform about $1,999. Charter is the founder program by application: $27,000 prepaid for 36 months (~$750/mo equivalent), locked forever, ten seats.
Custom-quoted, typically per-user with implementation. Not published; requires a sales call.
Where BuildOps is the right call.
- 01.Commercial mechanical, HVAC, and electrical contractors whose primary engine is recurring service — work orders, maintenance agreements, and high-volume dispatch at scale.
- 02.Operators who want a mature, proven commercial service-and-project platform today, with a team already running on it.
- 03.Service-heavy businesses where dispatch board depth, technician routing, and maintenance-agreement management drive the day more than in-field measurement does.
- 04.Teams that want deep accounting integrations (QuickBooks, Sage) and aren't looking to move payroll and treasury onto one consolidated system.
The honest line.
If the operator's core is high-volume commercial service and maintenance-agreement dispatch, and the team is already running well on a mature platform, BuildOps is the right tool — it is purpose-built for that work. Charter is built for the commercial installation contractor whose work runs on in-field measurement, certified payroll, change-orders, and submittals, who wants estimating, payroll, documents, and Hyperion on one chest instead of integrated across several.
Service and install are different centers of gravity. Pick the chest built for yours.