PlanGrid vs HomeFloorPlan: what changed after the Autodesk acquisition

PlanGrid earned its reputation by being the first tool that made it genuinely easy to view construction drawings on an iPad in the field. Superintendents adopted it without being forced, field crews could access current plans without printing, and the simple interface made it a rare construction tech success story. It was the kind of tool you could hand to anyone on the jobsite and they would figure it out in minutes.

That changed when Autodesk acquired PlanGrid in 2018 for $875 million and began folding it into Autodesk Construction Cloud. The standalone product that a small crew could buy with a credit card has been gradually absorbed into Autodesk Build — a much larger platform that includes document management, issues tracking, RFIs, submittals, cost management, and design coordination. For firms already in the Autodesk ecosystem, this consolidation may add value. For smaller teams that just wanted PlanGrid, it means enterprise sales conversations and bundled pricing.

HomeFloorPlan picks up where the original PlanGrid left off. The philosophy is the same — fast plan uploads, simple mobile access, minimal learning curve. But HomeFloorPlan adds capabilities the original PlanGrid did not have: AI floorplan sorting automatically organizes uploaded drawing sets by discipline, trade layer filtering lets each trade focus on their relevant sheets, and pin-based markup creates threaded conversations anchored to exact plan locations. At $20/seat/month with free view-only access through shared links, it is accessible the way PlanGrid used to be.

The question for current PlanGrid users facing the Autodesk Build migration is whether the broader ecosystem justifies the added complexity. If your firm uses Revit, Navisworks, and other Autodesk tools, the integration may be valuable. If you originally chose PlanGrid because it was simple, standalone, and easy to get your field teams onto, the Autodesk Build experience is a different proposition. the platform offers a path that preserves that original simplicity.

For new teams evaluating plan management tools, the PlanGrid brand still carries weight in the market, but the product you would be buying today is Autodesk Build — not the standalone PlanGrid that built that reputation. HomeFloorPlan is the closest thing to what PlanGrid used to be: a focused, accessible plan collaboration tool that any crew can start using the same day they sign up.