Procore or Autodesk Construction Cloud for UK Contractors Running CIS Subcontractors

Neither platform processes CIS deductions or produces RAMS on its own, so the real value question is what you add, not the headline licence fee. Procore is a single quote-based annual contract; UK contractors typically report paying £15,000 to £50,000 a year. Autodesk's Forma Build lists per-user pricing from $100 to $175 a month. Price in the mandatory payment-applications and RAMS add-ons and the cost gap narrows sharply for a subcontractor-heavy team.

Key pointers

• Get a written Procore quote before comparing anything. There is no published price list to anchor against, only a custom-quote form tied to your annual construction volume.
• Check Autodesk's own online store for the current Forma Build figure. The static UK pricing page shows no number, but a current pricing tracker reports $100 to $175 per user a month.
• Budget separately for CIS. Neither platform verifies subcontractors, calculates the 20% or 30% deduction, or files the monthly HMRC return; that stays with your accounting software or a CIS specialist.
• Budget separately for RAMS too, and add up the whole stack. A published RAMS add-on for up to ten users runs from £275 a month on annual billing, plus a set-up fee.
• Convert Autodesk's dollar pricing at the day's exchange rate rather than a round number; it moves the monthly cost by several pounds either way.
• Check which RAMS tier actually includes a Procore sync. The entry-level plan does not; you need the second tier up before RAMS sign-offs file themselves into Procore automatically.
• Model the full stack, core platform plus payment applications plus RAMS, before you compare Procore and Forma Build in isolation, because the add-ons can cost as much as the core licence.

What Better Value Actually Means Here

A contracts manager comparing these two platforms is not really comparing construction software. Procore and Forma Build both do the same core job well: drawings, RFIs, submittals, daily logs and cost tracking in one place, with a mobile app for site staff. The difference that actually changes the bill is what happens around that core job, specifically the paperwork that is unique to UK contracting: verifying a subcontractor with HMRC before the first payment, deducting the right percentage, filing the CIS return by the 19th of the month, and producing site-specific RAMS that a principal contractor will accept before letting a crew on site.

Neither Procore nor Forma Build does any of that natively. Their published feature sets cover project execution and BIM-led design coordination, not UK tax administration (Procore pricing; Autodesk Construction). Compare the Cloud's earlier review of the wider UK construction software market found the same gap across every international platform it checked, and set out which UK-specific systems carry native CIS processing for a contractor who would rather have it inside one system than bolted on (Compare the Cloud).

For a contracts manager whose CIS workload is mainly about subcontractors rather than in-house payroll, the practical question is narrower: which core platform, plus which payment-applications and RAMS add-ons, costs less and integrates cleanly. That is where Procore's unlimited-user, quote-only model and Forma Build's per-user, semi-published model genuinely diverge, and where a tier-gated RAMS integration turns out to matter more than either vendor's headline price.

CIS and RAMS, Where Each Platform Actually Helps

To be precise about what each product does and does not do: CIS itself, the verification, the 20% or 30% deduction, and the monthly return to HMRC, is not something either core platform or either add-on performs. That stays with your accounting or payroll software (Xero, Sage, Eque2 Construct and similar carry CIS modules) or a dedicated CIS tool. What the project platforms and their integrations do affect is the commercial workflow around subcontractors, applications for payment, certificates and retentions, and the site-safety paperwork, RAMS and sign-off, that gates a subcontractor onto site in the first place.

The payment-applications specialist both platforms connect to covers applications for payment and retentions under the Construction Act's notice deadlines, not CIS tax deductions (Payapps UK pricing). The RAMS specialist covers content, site-specific editing and digital sign-off, again not CIS, and its published Procore sync sits behind a higher tier than its entry plan (HandsHQ pricing). Keep these boundaries straight when you brief either vendor's sales team, because conflating "we integrate with your accounting system" with "we do CIS" is a common sales-call slip.

This is not legal advice; consult your legal counsel on how your specific contract structure and subcontractor mix affects CIS status and deduction rates.

Pricing and Cost Model

Procore. There is no rate card. Procore prices against your annual construction volume, not user count or project count, and every contract is negotiated (Procore pricing). UK contractors report an approximate range of £8,000 to £15,000 a year for firms under £5 million turnover, £15,000 to £30,000 for £5 million to £25 million turnover, and £30,000 to £80,000 or more above that, though these are third-party estimates rather than a published list. The contract includes unlimited users, unlimited data and 24/7 support, so the number you negotiate is meant to be the whole platform cost, not a per-seat starting point.

Autodesk Forma Build. Autodesk's own UK pricing page shows two paths, per-user pricing with unlimited sheets, and an unlimited-user tier reached only through a sales conversation, but the per-user figure is not printed on the static page (Autodesk Build UK pricing). A current third-party pricing tracker, checked live on 29 September 2026, shows Forma Build Essentials at $100 a month for a single user, the standard per-user plan at $175 a month, and $117 a user a month if billed annually.

Assumptions. Converting those dollar figures needs a stated rate, not a round number. Using $1.325 to the pound, the rate reported on 28 September 2026, $117 divided by 1.325 is approximately £88 a month per user on annual billing, and $175 divided by 1.325 is approximately £132 a month per user on monthly billing. This is an exchange-rate estimate for budgeting, not Autodesk's actual UK invoice; ask your reseller for the sterling figure before signing.

The mandatory add-ons. A payment-applications tool priced for ten active contracts a month costs £140, or £270 for an unlimited plan; the RAMS tool covering the same ten-person crew starts at £275 a month on its entry Small plan, billed annually plus a one-off set-up fee. Neither figure is optional if your CIS subcontractor workflow depends on tracked applications for payment or signed-off, site-specific RAMS.

Worked example, ten-person contracts team. Forma Build on annual billing: 10 users x £88 a month = £880 a month, or £10,560 a year. Payment applications for ten active contracts: £140 a month, or £1,680 a year. RAMS on the Small plan, up to ten users: £275 a month, or £3,300 a year, plus a set-up fee the vendor does not publish. Total: roughly £15,540 a year before the RAMS set-up fee, sitting squarely inside the reported £15,000 to £30,000 Procore band for a similarly sized firm. The apparent per-seat saving on Forma Build largely evaporates once the CIS-adjacent stack is priced in; what is left is a difference in how the money is billed, negotiated annual volume against itemised monthly add-ons, not a clear winner on total cost.

Vendor and Option Comparison

Neither column has a published CIS tick, which is the answer to the underlying question for a CIS-heavy contracts team: pricing structure and integration depth, not CIS capability, are what actually separate these two.

Editorial analysis

Weighing the two platforms on subscription cost alone favours Forma Build for small and mid-size subcontractor bases, where per-user billing tracks headcount instead of turnover. But that advantage shrinks once the CIS-adjacent stack is added: the worked example above puts a ten-seat Forma Build deployment, payment applications and RAMS at roughly £15,540 a year, inside the same reported band for a Procore quote at similar company size. The gap that remains is less about total spend and more about what each pound buys, Procore's unlimited-user contract absorbs extra logins for consultants and client reps at no additional charge, while Forma Build keeps billing per seat as headcount grows.

The sharper differentiator for a CIS subcontractor workflow specifically is the RAMS integration. Procore paired with the RAMS specialist's Medium tier gets signed-off method statements filed automatically into project documentation; nothing published suggests Forma Build has an equivalent link, so RAMS would likely be a manual export-and-upload step. For a contracts manager whose main pain point is chasing subcontractors for paperwork before they set foot on site, that automated sync is arguably worth more than the per-seat saving Forma Build otherwise offers, and it is the one place this comparison has a genuine, evidenced answer rather than a coin toss.

Sources

• Procore, Plans and Pricing
• BuildersAI, Procore Pricing UK 2026
• Autodesk Build Pricing, Autodesk Construction Cloud UK
• Autodesk Construction, homepage
• SoftwareConnect, Autodesk Forma Build pricing review
• Payapps: UK subcontractor pricing and integration with Procore
• GOV.UK, what you must do as a CIS contractor
• HandsHQ, RAMS pricing
• Compare the Cloud, construction software for UK contractors with CIS and RAMS
• FXStreet, pound-dollar rate, 28 September 2026