Industry guide
Who publishes Best Software for Specialty Contractors, and how are the lists ranked?
Who publishes Best Software for Specialty Contractors
Best Software for Specialty Contractors is published by Black Badger Software Solutions, a software company based in Clearwater, Florida. Black Badger builds custom software for companies that have outgrown the products they rent, trade contractors among them.
That matters for how you read these lists. A custom build by Black Badger is one of the ranked options on every list, and its entry says so. We take no commission from any vendor named here and have no reseller arrangement with any of them.
How the Best Software for Specialty Contractors lists are ranked
Each list answers one question for one trade, and the ranking is specific to that trade. The same product can be first on one list and sixth on another.
We start from what the trade needs, such as service contracts and dispatch, inspections, fabrication tracking, crew scheduling, job costing and change orders. Then we look at which products say they cover those needs and which trades each vendor names. The lists are written for contractors of roughly 50 employees and up, with several crews.
The custom route is ranked like any other option. It sits in the top three on every list, and it is first only on the elevator and steel lists, where the products we cover fit the trade least.
Where the facts on Best Software for Specialty Contractors come from
How each option charges, its plan names and its limits are read from each vendor's own website, and every entry shows the date they were read and links to the page. Most trade software vendors publish no price. When that is so, the entry says so and does not estimate one. No prices are printed on this guide. Each entry says how the option charges and lists its pros and cons.
A product's fit to a trade is reasoned from what the vendor's pages say the product does. We do not credit a product with a feature those pages do not describe, and we rank only products whose pages we have read.
How often Best Software for Specialty Contractors is updated
Every page shows the date it was last updated. We recheck the facts against the vendors' sites on a regular cycle and revisit the rankings when a product, a price or a limit changes enough to matter.
Update log
- Prices removed from every list. Each option now shows its pros and cons and how it charges.
- Site published. All trade lists written and every vendor fact read from the vendor's own pages.