Is Contractor Foreman cheaper than Obra?

For one person, no: Obra is free for one project and $12 a month for Pro, against roughly $49 for Contractor Foreman's entry plan. For a larger team wanting many features, Contractor Foreman's flat tiers can be cheaper per head than any per-seat tool. Compare what you will actually use.

Does Obra do estimates or time cards?

No. Obra records contract value, change orders, income and costs, and forecasts the result. Estimating, scheduling and time tracking are outside its scope on purpose.

Why choose a narrow tool over an all-in-one?

Because narrow tools get finished. Most small crews that buy an all-in-one end up using two or three modules; the rest are setup debt. If the two modules you need are job costing and receipt capture, Obra is those two, done from the field.

Obra vs Contractor Foreman: an affordable all-in-one, or one thing done from the field

Contractor Foreman bundles 35-plus features from $49 a month; Obra does the money on each job from a phone. Which one a small contractor actually finishes setting up.

The short version

Contractor Foreman is the affordable all-in-one: estimates, job costing, change orders, time cards, invoices, scheduling and dozens more features from around $49 a month, with the price locked when you sign up. Obra is deliberately narrow — the money on each job, captured from the field in English or Spanish — from free, then $12 a seat. If you want one login for the whole business and will put in the setup time, Contractor Foreman is a fair price for a lot of software. If you want the job's numbers right without a project to implement software, Obra.

Obra is the better fit when

The owner and one or two others are the whole team, and receipts come from the site over WhatsApp
You want to know each job's cost, forecast and margin without configuring modules
Your crew works in Spanish and English and the tool has to as well, on day one
You would rather pay per person who actually logs in than for features you will not open

Contractor Foreman is the better fit when

You want estimates, scheduling, time cards with GPS, invoicing and job costing in one product
A three- to fifteen-person company needs office and field features together
A locked-in monthly price for an all-in-one matters more than a minimal tool
You have someone who will own the setup and keep the modules in use

Side by side

What you're comparing	Obra	Contractor Foreman
Starting price	Free for one active project; Pro is $12 per user per month or $120 per year.	From about $49 per month for one user (Basic), rising by tier to an unlimited-user plan in the low hundreds; price locked at sign-up.
What it is	Per-project money: receipts, income, change orders, forecasts, close, exports.	All-in-one construction management: estimating, scheduling, job costing, time cards, invoicing and more.
Breadth	One job done thoroughly. No scheduling, estimating or time cards.	Dozens of modules; part of the value is not needing a second tool.
Receipts from the job site	WhatsApp, email or photo; scanned into a draft, confirmed by a person.	Expenses and receipts entered in the app by users.
Who can capture a cost	Anyone you make a submitter, without seeing the project's finances; reviewers approve.	Users within the plan's seat count, with role-based permissions.
Change orders	Logged per project; the original contract value stays visible.	Change-order module tied to estimates and invoices.
Forecasting	Expected final cost and margin per project, never below what is recorded.	Budget-versus-actual job costing and financial reports.
Languages	English and Spanish, in the app and on WhatsApp.	English-first product; check current language options.
Trial	14 days of Pro, no credit card; Free plan forever after.	30-day free trial, no credit card, per its published terms.

Facts about Contractor Foreman checked on September 1, 2026. Prices and plan names change; check the vendor's own site before you buy, and tell us at support@tryobra.com if something here is out of date.

Contractor Foreman is the honest budget answer to Buildertrend and Procore: a lot of construction management for not a lot of money, with a starting price around $49 a month and a promise not to raise it on you. If you are shopping all-in-ones as a small contractor, it belongs on the list.

Different shapes

An all-in-one wins by breadth. Estimates feed jobs, jobs feed schedules, time cards feed job costing, job costing feeds invoices. When every module is in use, the whole is worth more than the parts and one login replaces four subscriptions.

Obra wins by depth in one place. The money on each job — cash collected, recorded cost, change orders, forecast, close — gets from the job site to the ledger with the least friction we know how to build: a receipt photographed, forwarded or sent over WhatsApp becomes a draft, a person confirms it, the project updates. There is no module for anything else.

The setup question

The quiet cost of an all-in-one is the setup. Someone has to configure cost codes, build estimate templates, set up the schedule, train the crew on time cards and keep the modules in use. Contractor Foreman includes training, which helps. It still needs an owner.

Obra's setup is a project name and a contract value. The crew's training is "send the receipt to this number." That is not a feature comparison; it is a different bet about what a three-person company will actually finish.

Where Contractor Foreman is simply better

Estimating. Scheduling. Time cards with GPS. Invoicing from the same record as the job. Client and sub portals. If you need those and will use them, Obra has nothing to offer in their place, and paying one flat price for the bundle is reasonable.

Where Obra is simply better

Getting a cost in from the field in the crew's own language without a login, keeping submitters away from the project's finances, and forecasting a job's final result from the numbers as they stand. And the price for a very small team: free for one project, $12 a seat after.

Questions people ask

Is Contractor Foreman cheaper than Obra?: For one person, no: Obra is free for one project and $12 a month for Pro, against roughly $49 for Contractor Foreman's entry plan. For a larger team wanting many features, Contractor Foreman's flat tiers can be cheaper per head than any per-seat tool. Compare what you will actually use.
Does Obra do estimates or time cards?: No. Obra records contract value, change orders, income and costs, and forecasts the result. Estimating, scheduling and time tracking are outside its scope on purpose.
Why choose a narrow tool over an all-in-one?: Because narrow tools get finished. Most small crews that buy an all-in-one end up using two or three modules; the rest are setup debt. If the two modules you need are job costing and receipt capture, Obra is those two, done from the field.

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