Leaving CoConstruct? Your Real Options Before 2027

The migration notice landed and now there is a date on it. If you have run your business on CoConstruct for the last five or ten years, the question is no longer whether you move. It is where you land, and how much of your job history comes with you.

Almost every article you will read about this is written by a software company that wants your seat. This one is too, so here is the deal: the most useful thing in it is the section on what a CoConstruct export actually contains, because that is the part that decides how painful your move is, and almost nobody publishes it.

What Is Actually Happening to CoConstruct?

CoConstruct is being retired into Buildertrend on a published schedule. Per the official CoConstruct migration page, projects can still be added through March 31, 2027, and once you commit to Buildertrend, new projects can no longer be added to CoConstruct at all. Buildertrend's notices to customers set the outside dates: no new CoConstruct projects after April 1, 2027, and migrations must be underway by June 30, 2027.

The history behind that: Buildertrend acquired CoConstruct in November 2021, new CoConstruct sales closed in 2024, and no meaningful features have shipped since the acquisition. Buildertrend says no project data will be lost and that you keep read access to historical projects. Read access is not the same as a working system, which is the distinction this whole decision turns on.

What Does the Buildertrend Migration Actually Cost?

Buildertrend is moving CoConstruct customers onto Annual Project Volume pricing, which is not seat based. It scales with how much you build. The entry point in the migration notices is $699 per month, and that is a floor, not a quote. Published Buildertrend plans otherwise run $499 to $799 per month with onboarding fees that typically land between $400 and $1,500.

The part worth sitting with is the shape of the model, not the number. Under APV, a good year raises your software bill. Take on three larger jobs with the same crew and the same workflows and you pay more for the same product. If you chose CoConstruct because it was steady and predictable, that is the trait you are giving up.

None of this makes Buildertrend a bad platform. It is a deep, capable system, and for a production builder pushing volume it may well be the right landing spot. It is simply not the only option, and the default is rarely the best deal for the person taking it.

What Actually Comes Out of a CoConstruct Export?

This is the section that saves you money, so here it is in detail. We have run this migration end to end for real builders, and a CoConstruct export is three files per project plus a contact list.

Three specifics that cost real time to discover. The budget genuinely is not in the project ZIP, and CoConstruct says so on its own download page. The Estimate workbook encodes its outline by which column is filled, so category, spec item, and priced line are structure, not formatting. And the join between the workbook and the archive page is the spec item name, which means a rename or a stray character breaks the link between a price and what it was for.

Now read your prospective vendor's migration policy with that in mind. JobTread, for one, publishes a fair and clear one: customers, vendors, cost items, cost codes, catalog, and schedule templates are included with onboarding, job level data (budgets, documents, daily logs) is a premium service at $25 per hour, and if getting at your data requires signing into an external system, their team cannot do it and points you to marketplace partners. That is honest. It also means the actual contents of ten years of jobs are billable by the hour or on you.

What Are Your Four Real Options?

There are four, and one of them is not moving yet.

Whichever you pick, pick it before your slow season rather than during a build. The one genuinely bad option is arriving at spring 2027 with four jobs open and no destination.

Why Are CoConstruct Builders Choosing Foreman?

Because the workflow they chose CoConstruct for is intact, and the migration is a script rather than an invoice.

The import is a tool, not an hourly service. Foreman has a purpose built CoConstruct importer that runs in eleven ordered phases: your organization and cost codes, contacts, projects, budgets, schedule, files, records, payments, messages, selections, then metrics. Every project's line total is reconciled against the workbook's own totals row and every payment against payments to date before a single row is written. If those do not match, the import stops rather than quietly creating a project whose numbers are wrong.

Your history lands as history. Signed contracts come in as accepted client agreements with the original PDF attached. Payments become paid invoices allocated across the contracted lines, so collected dollars actually roll up. Messages keep their real authors and dates. On the first account we migrated, all 825 spec items matched between the workbook and the archive with nothing left over on either side.

The parts CoConstruct users actually used are there. Selections and allowances, client and sub access with no login and no seat charge, budget tracking, two way QuickBooks Online sync, proposals your client signs online. See how the budget works and the QuickBooks integration.

Then it adds what a 2021 era product cannot. AI plan takeoffs that measure from your PDF set, and an assistant that answers questions across your projects. Pricing is $249 per month plus $20 per seat on a 12 month term, and it does not move because you had a good year. The full head to head lives on the Foreman vs CoConstruct page.

Is Foreman Right for Everyone Leaving CoConstruct?

No, and here is the honest boundary. Warranty items have no home in Foreman yet, so if warranty tracking is central to how you run post close, ask about it directly before you commit. Purchase orders, change orders, to-dos, and job logs are read by the importer but have not been exercised on a real account, so treat those as a conversation and not a promise.

If you are mostly running single trade service calls and dispatch, a field service tool fits better than any of the platforms in this article. And if you want a system that is a decade old with a decade of forum posts behind it, that is a legitimate preference and Buildertrend has it.

For a custom builder or remodeler who wants the CoConstruct workflow back, with the takeoff and estimating work automated, this is a close fit.

When Should You Actually Move?

Sooner than the deadline suggests, for one specific reason: your export is only as good as your account is live. Everything in the table above depends on being able to log in and pull data at full access. That is true today. It is a worse bet the closer you get to the 2027 dates, and it is a bad bet after you have committed to a Buildertrend migration and can no longer start projects.

The practical calendar for most builders is to export this quarter, choose a destination over the winter, run one new project in parallel in the spring, and be fully switched before your busy season. That is a six month move done calmly, and it costs nothing to start the first step.

How Do You Leave Without Losing Data?

1. Export contacts first. Contacts, then Export. It is the fastest win and it imports anywhere.
2. Pull every project archive. One ZIP per project, containing the archive page, the estimate workbook, and the project files. Do this while your account is fully active.
3. Pull budgets separately. Budget, then Export, per project. This is the step everyone misses, because it is the one thing not in the ZIP.
4. Inventory before you rebuild. List what you actually used. Most builders find a third of CoConstruct was never touched, and recreating it is wasted money.
5. Make your vendor prove the import. Send a real export and ask them to show your budget, your schedule, and your signed contract inside their system. Anyone who cannot show it before you sign will be billing you hourly after.
6. Run one project in parallel. A live job with a real budget and a real client, for two to four weeks, before you cut over.
7. Switch between jobs, not during one. Finish what is open in CoConstruct, start what is new in the new system.

For the longer step by step version, see our CoConstruct migration guide and the full CoConstruct alternatives breakdown.

The Point

CoConstruct made one decision for you when it stopped shipping. The migration notice made a second one by putting a date on it. The third decision, where your next ten years of job history lives, is still entirely yours, and it is worth more than the default path in the email.

Export your data this month. Then judge the options on what they do with it.

Frequently Asked Questions

When exactly is CoConstruct shutting down?

Per Buildertrend's migration notices, no new projects can be started in CoConstruct after April 1, 2027, and migrations to Buildertrend must be underway by June 30, 2027. CoConstruct's own migration page says projects can be added through March 31, 2027, and that once you commit to Buildertrend, new projects can no longer be added to CoConstruct. Existing projects stay accessible so you can finish them, and Buildertrend states no project data will be lost.

Do I have to move to Buildertrend?

No. Buildertrend is the official destination because it owns CoConstruct, not because it is the only option. CoConstruct customers are being moved onto Annual Project Volume pricing, which starts at $699 per month in the migration notices and scales with how much you build. If that model or that price does not fit your business, you are free to export your data and land anywhere. The deadline governs CoConstruct, not you.

Can I get my data out of CoConstruct?

Yes, and you should do it now. Contacts export to CSV. Each project exports as a ZIP containing an archive HTML page (schedule, selections, messages, photos, job logs), an estimate workbook, and your project files. Budgets are the exception: they are not in the ZIP and must be exported per project from the Budget screen. Warranty items, purchase orders, and change orders come out as page content rather than structured data, so expect to rebuild those.

What does it cost to switch off CoConstruct?

Most of the cost is the data, not the subscription. Vendors typically include core records (customers, vendors, cost codes, catalog, templates) with onboarding and charge for job level data, commonly around $25 per hour to recreate budgets, documents, and daily logs from whatever you can export. Foreman imports project level history with a scripted CoConstruct importer instead of billing it hourly, which is worth pricing against any quote you are given.

What is the best CoConstruct alternative for custom builders?

The right fit keeps estimating, selections, budget tracking, and client communication connected the way CoConstruct did, without pricing that scales with your revenue. JobTread and Knowify are credible options with loyal users. Foreman covers the same workflow, adds AI plan takeoffs and an assistant across your projects, prices at $249 per month plus $20 per seat, and gives clients and subs access with no login and no seat charge.

How long does a CoConstruct migration take?

Plan on 30 to 60 days end to end, and less with a guided import. The realistic sequence is a week to export everything at full account access, a couple of weeks to choose a destination and set up your cost codes and templates, then two to four weeks running one live project in parallel before you cut over. Builders who start during a slow stretch rather than mid build are the ones who describe it as uneventful.