Orcera vs BuildingConnected
BuildingConnected assumes your scope work is done. Orcera starts from your construction documents.
Feature comparison
A side-by-side look at what each platform delivers.
Where BuildingConnected stops, Orcera keeps going
Orcera
BuildingConnected
What changes for your team
Where work starts
BuildingConnected assumes scope prep is already done. Orcera starts from your raw construction documents and extracts scope automatically. No manual prep required.
Pricing model
BuildingConnected requires an Autodesk enterprise bundle with quote-based pricing. Orcera is flat rate, self-service, no sales calls.
Workflow coverage
BuildingConnected collects bids. Orcera extracts scope, distributes ITBs, levels bids, generates awards, and creates POs. One platform, start to finish.
What happened after the acquisition
Autodesk acquires BuildingConnected
BuildingConnected was an independent startup with a focused bid management product. Autodesk acquired it to add preconstruction to their portfolio.
Folded into the Autodesk Construction Cloud bundle
BuildingConnected lost its standalone identity. Access became tied to Autodesk's enterprise licensing. Independent GCs who used BC as a standalone tool now needed to buy into Autodesk's ecosystem.
Prices went up. The product stayed the same.
Autodesk raised prices across Construction Cloud. BuildingConnected's core product remained fundamentally the same bid board it was in 2018. No AI extraction. No scope automation. No end-to-end procurement workflow. Just a more expensive version of the same tool.
Still a bid board. Still no scope intelligence.
BuildingConnected still assumes your team manually preps scope, classifies trades, and writes bid packages before anything gets distributed. The hardest, most time-consuming part of procurement is still entirely on you.
What GCs actually need
BuildingConnected was designed for bid distribution. GCs need a platform that handles procurement from document to purchase order.
"Read my plans and extract scope automatically"
Not supported. Your team preps scope manually before using BC.
AI reads every sheet, extracts scope across 34 CSI trades, traces back to exact plan pages.
"Classify scope by trade without manual work"
Not supported. Trade classification is done manually by your preconstruction team.
Automatic classification across 34 CSI divisions. Inclusions, clarifications, and exclusions tagged per trade.
"Level bids side by side and award"
Not supported. Bids come in through the bid board but leveling happens in spreadsheets.
Built-in bid leveling with normalized comparison. Award directly from the platform.
"Generate POs from awarded bids"
Not supported. PO creation happens in a separate system entirely.
One click from award to PO. Line items, terms, and vendor details carry through automatically.
"Flat, transparent pricing I can sign up for today"
Quote-based pricing tied to Autodesk Construction Cloud. Requires a sales call.
Flat rate per user. Sign up, start a free trial, no sales call needed.
"A platform that keeps improving"
Core product has not meaningfully changed since the 2018 acquisition. Same bid board, higher price.
Actively developed. New AI capabilities, workflow improvements, and integrations shipping continuously.
The real difference
BuildingConnected was a solid bid board in 2018. Then Autodesk acquired it, bundled it into Construction Cloud, raised the prices, and left the product largely unchanged. The same bid board, wrapped in an enterprise sales process.
The core problem remains: BuildingConnected assumes your team has already done the hardest work. Someone still reads the plans, writes the scope, classifies the trades, and preps the bid packages before anything gets distributed. That process takes days. It is the bottleneck, and BuildingConnected does not touch it.
Orcera removes that bottleneck entirely. AI reads your plans and specs, extracts scope across 34 trades with full source traceability, and generates complete bid packages automatically. Then it continues through ITB distribution, bid leveling, award, and PO generation. The entire procurement lifecycle in one platform.
No enterprise bundle. No sales calls. No waiting for a product roadmap that never ships. Orcera is available today, flat rate, and actively improving every week.