HCSS Plans vs TradeFlo Pro
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
HCSS Plans
This app facilitates real-time collaboration on construction plans for heavy civil projects. It allows teams to upload, annotate, and share PDF plans, ensuring everyone works with the latest revisions. Features include smart revision control, instant document access, and built-in calculators for accurate quantity takeoffs.
- Real-time collaboration
- Smart revision control
- PDF plan upload and markup
- Instant document access
- Built-in heavy civil calculators
- Location services for field use
- Sheet overlays for conflict detection
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Get everyone on the same (digital) page with this easy app, designed for heavy civil construction. Upload PDF plans from the office, and then collaborate with your entire project team in real time, no matter where they are, using markups, call-outs, notes, photos/videos, and more. Smart revision control ensures everyone works off the latest set of plans and site instructions so your crews can build correctly the first time, every time. ~~~~~ Collaboration ~~~~~ SEAMLESS TEAMWORK Align your entire project team — from foremen and managers to estimators, executives, and owners. • Management gains detailed insight into how the project was bid. • Foremen get instant access to project managers’ notes, clarifications, and calculations. • All team members can add and share layers, annotations, notes, photos, and videos. • Subcontractors can collaborate with your team for free while your sensitive information is protected. SMART REVISION CONTROL Avoid rework and delays when everyone works off the most up-to-date set of plans. • Sync revisions, annotations, and photos between the office and field. • Overlay new and old versions to identify design changes immediately. INSTANT ACCESS TO DOCS Digitally store all project documents in one, easy-to-use system for instant access in the office and field, even without Internet. • Organize your permits, contracts, shop drawings, vendor agreements, manuals, specs, and more. • Pin RFIs, issues, dig permits, and submittals directly onto plan sheets to quickly reference relevant info. ~~~~~ Heavy Civil Focused ~~~~~ CALCULATIONS & QUANTITIES Save time and money with effortless calculations, right in your app. • Accurately determine volume, tonnage, trucking, and more with built-in, heavy civil calculators. • No more guessing — report true quantities rather than eyeballing. • Supports both horizontal and vertical measurements for profile views. REAL-TIME LOCATION SERVICES No other digital plans solution provides this level of location services for your construction sites. • Easily locate yourself on the plans sheet, even in a green field, without a survey crew. • Catch issues early by walking the site to identify any obstacles that may not be accounted for in drawings. • Auto-pin photos in the exact place they were taken to more clearly communicate issues or work progress. SHEET OVERLAYS Overlay sheets to gain a more comprehensive view of your project. • Stack related sheets, such as electrical and sewer, to verify there are no conflicts in the area before each stage of work. • Stitch sheets over Apple Maps to see your plans in relation to existing structures in road or satellite view. ~~~~~ Smart Integrations ~~~~~ HCSS Plans is part of the HCSS suite, providing even more efficiency and accuracy across your teams. HeavyBid estimating software • Takeoff integration: Import HCSS Plans takeoff quantities into HeavyBid. • Easy reference: Link biditems and activities to relevant sheets for easy reference. • Better collaboration: Instantly share estimators’ notes and calculations with your Operations team after winning the bid. HeavyJob field entry & job management software • Accurate quantities: Pull in sheet calculations for accurate production quantities without double entry. • Quick reviews: Relevant sheets are one click away for easy quantity checks during web time card reviews. • Issue alerts: Get notified when an issue is logged on a sheet, and elevate it to an RFI if necessary.
TradeFlo Pro
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TradeFlo Pro is the field app for the crew lead. Open it at the truck, work it with gloves on, close it out before you drive home. Everything you enter lands in the office the same minute, coded to the right job and cost code. TODAY, ONE TAP AWAY Pick the job once. The home screen shows the date, who is on the clock and the four things you do every day: Time Clock, Time Card, Daily Report, Log Expense. Spanish and English, light and dark modes. TIME CARD BY CREW AND COST CODE One grid: your crew down the side, the cost codes you worked across the top, hours in the cells. Punch time and allocated time sit side by side, so an under-allocated worker or a missing lunch shows up before the office sees it. Yesterday not signed? The card tells you and opens it. LOG WHAT WENT IN TODAY Tap the quantities you installed. The app suggests numbers from the hours your crew ran, the GC schedule and what the same crew did on past jobs, so a 6" DIP day looks like 30 / 55 / 80 LF, not a blank box. Pick one, or type your own. Progress against the bid quantity updates as you go. DAILY REPORT IN MINUTES Work diary and JSA on one screen. Hold to talk and the report writes itself. A quality meter shows what the office needs: quantities, equipment used, delays. Yesterday's report prefills today's. PHOTOS FILED TO THE JOB Take or choose photos; they file by job and day. Site photos are stamped with the job, your name, GPS and time, the same way HeavyJob did it. THE WHOLE DAY ON ONE PAGE The daily digest shows the diary, the crew hours by cost code, equipment hours, photos and quantities for any day, with the GC schedule items that were due. Swipe back through the job's history. BILLS AND EXPENSES FROM THE TRUCK Vendor bills assigned to you show the invoice, the job and the coding. Approve, send back or ask a question. Log an expense with a photo of the receipt and the card you paid with. WORKS WITH THE TOOLS YOU ALREADY USE Crew punches from ExakTime, cost codes and budgets from HeavyBid, history from HeavyJob, equipment hours from the trackers on the machines, payroll to ADP, costs to Sage. Sign in with your company Microsoft account, or with the crew PIN your office gives you. TradeFlo Pro is sold to contractors by subscription. Ask your office for a login.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: TradeFlo Pro at 5.0 against HCSS Plans's 4.6. HCSS Plans's advantage is ratings volume (406 vs 1). On price, update cadence, ads and in-app purchases there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
TradeFlo Pro holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.6. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: HCSS Plans has 406 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two.
HCSS Plans ships an update every 3 weeks, TradeFlo Pro monthly. The most recent releases landed on October 29, 2026 and October 28, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | HCSS Plans | TradeFlo Pro |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.6 (406 ratings) | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 57.1% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 406 — better | 1 |
| Update frequency | Every 3 weeks — better | Monthly |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 17.0 | 16.4 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 201 MB | 51 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Heavy Construction Systems Specialists, Inc. | Chris Roberson |
In-app purchases
HCSS Plans
No in-app purchases
TradeFlo Pro
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is HCSS Plans free?
Is TradeFlo Pro free?
Which has better reviews, HCSS Plans or TradeFlo Pro?
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