Simpro runs the established trade-services playbook.
Forge is the AI-native operator OS built around in-field ground-truth.
Simpro is a mature, well-regarded field-service and project platform for commercial trade contractors — strong estimating, scheduling, asset maintenance, and a broad integration ecosystem. Forge is one AI-native chest where estimating, payroll, comms, and in-field LiDAR share architecture. Same trades. Different chest.
Side by side. Honest about both.
Yes. AI primitives are the foundation, not bolted on. Estimating, scheduling, Treasury, comms, and Hyperion share state because they share one architecture — federation, not integration.
Mature, proven platform with a long, hardened feature set built before the current AI wave; AI capability tends to sit on top of an established field-service architecture rather than being native to it.
Treasury (native module). Davis-Bacon rates per project, prevailing wage per technician per task, WH-347 ready to file. RMR ledger and change-orders write to the same chest.
Strong job-costing and timesheet engine; US certified payroll / WH-347 filing is generally handled through payroll and accounting integrations rather than a native US prevailing-wage filing module.
Yes. Hyperion — iPad/iPhone LiDAR. Walk the structure, get a line-item estimate from ground-truth geometry. Accuracy methodology + sample plan published at /proof/hyperion-accuracy (graduates to a measured benchmark after independent third-party verification).
No native in-field LiDAR capture. Estimating works from assemblies, catalogs, and manual takeoff inputs.
Field-initiated. A scan delta or install ticket generates a change-order, the customer signs from the truck, Treasury writes the financial impact, and the PM sees the signed trail in the project log.
Native variations / project-management workflows for quoted and project work — a genuine strength for structured project change tracking.
Documents native. Submittal packages, AHJ markup, RFI workflow, as-builts, rack elevations, commissioning records — version-controlled and attached to the project record.
Solid document attachment and project records; deep submittal / AHJ-markup workflows are often paired with a dedicated markup tool alongside.
Native. Dialer, compliant SMS, call recording, and AI call summaries that write back to the project log — federated with CRM, scheduling, and payroll.
Not positioned as an embedded telephony layer. Operators typically run a separate phone/SMS system alongside it.
Treasury carries the RMR ledger and the recurring-revenue side; deep asset-register maintenance scheduling is not Forge's primary focus.
A genuine Simpro strength. Mature asset registers, planned preventive maintenance, and recurring service-contract management are core to the platform.
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 scoped to users and modules with implementation. Not published as a flat list.
Where Simpro is the right call.
- 01.Maintenance-heavy operators — asset registers, planned preventive maintenance, and recurring service contracts are a core, mature Simpro strength.
- 02.Contractors who want a proven, hardened platform with years of refinement and a broad integration ecosystem (accounting, payroll, supplier catalogs) already in place.
- 03.Multi-country or multi-entity operations that benefit from Simpro's established international footprint and localized accounting integrations.
- 04.Teams whose existing accounting and payroll stack is working and who want structured project and job-costing workflows without consolidating onto one chest.
- 05.Operators who prioritize a long, stable feature catalog over AI-native federation and in-field LiDAR capture.
The honest line.
If the operation is maintenance-led — asset registers, planned preventive maintenance, recurring service contracts at scale — or depends on a proven multi-country platform with an established accounting/payroll integration stack that's already working, Simpro is the right tool. Charter is built for the commercial installation contractor who wants estimating, in-field LiDAR ground-truth, certified payroll, change-orders, submittals, and field comms on one AI-native chest instead of a stack of integrations.
A proven integration platform and an AI-native chest are different bets. Pick the one built for how your work actually runs.