VIABUILD vs Deep Space

Deep Space describes itself, on its own platform page, as a construction management platform for ANZ mid-tier commercial builders. It names the builder precisely: between five and fifty active projects, contracts from a few hundred thousand dollars to a hundred million, quantity surveyors, project managers running several jobs at once. It runs ten modules (preconstruction, programme, procurement, commercial, delivery, documentation, HSEQ, correspondence, portals and reporting), a field app called DS Site, and an intelligence layer called KAI, all on one flat price.

That is a commercial builder’s week. Consultant drawing packages to coordinate, subcontract packages to tender and level, RFIs and site instructions, notices of delay, extensions of time, sliding retention on the head contract. KAI is pointed at exactly that paperwork: Deep Space states it reviews drawing packages for scope gaps and coordination issues, reads consultant reports for commercial and programme risk, compares drawing revisions, matches invoices from the accounts inbox to purchase orders, and generates RFI responses from project context.

A residential builder’s week runs on different paperwork. Fewer consultants, almost no RFIs, and the pressure sits on the estimate, the client’s selections, the variations the homeowner asks for, the progress claim at each stage and the supplier invoices that land every day. VIABUILD is built for that job. In VIABUILD the estimate becomes the job budget, and purchase orders are raised from its lines. Upload a supplier invoice and Oryn reads it and fills in the lines for you to check against the purchase order and approve. VIABUILD connects to Xero, which stays your accounting system, and site safety runs in the ViaSite field app.

Neither of these products is a cut-down version of the other. Our own guide to AI construction software in Australia already says Deep Space, not VIABUILD, is the one to shortlist for mid-tier commercial work, and this page holds to that. The honest test is which paperwork fills your office, not which feature list is longer.

Choose Deep Space if most of these are true of your business. It is the better product for that builder, and we would rather say so than win a sale that does not fit.

• Your work is commercial: head contracts with a principal, consultants issuing drawing packages, and subcontract packages you tender and level.
• You run somewhere between five and fifty active projects, the range Deep Space names on its own platform page.
• RFIs, site instructions, transmittals, notices of delay and extensions of time are a daily workload, not an occasional one.
• You hold and release retention on subcontracts and have it held on your head contract.
• Your programme lives in MS Project and you want cost and programme in the same record.
• Enough people need logins (project managers, QSs, contract administrators, site supervisors, accounts) that unlimited users on one flat price beats paying per seat.

Choose VIABUILD if you build homes: the estimate, client selections, homeowner variations, stage claims and a steady stream of supplier invoices are where your hours go, and a drawing register or a subcontract tender board would be overhead you pay for and do not use.

If you do both, count where the office time actually goes for a month. A residential builder who picks up the odd small commercial fitout on a simple contract is still running a residential business. A builder whose commercial work carries consultants, RFIs and retention is not, and should be looking at Deep Space.

The two prices have different shapes. Deep Space charges one flat price for the whole business, with unlimited users and projects and every module included. VIABUILD charges a monthly platform price with three users included and a monthly charge for each additional user.

Deep Space

• Annual: AUD $27,445 a year (NZD $33,000 for New Zealand customers).
• Monthly: $2,495 a month, which the vendor states is $29,940 a year paid month to month.
• Australian pricing excludes GST; the vendor states GST is added at invoice.
• Unlimited users, unlimited projects, every module, the DS Site field app and KAI included.
• A twelve-month initial term that renews automatically for a further twelve months unless cancelled before the term ends.
• Implementation is scoped and quoted separately and invoiced in advance; a paid pilot is offered.

VIABUILD

• Business plan at $555 a month, the whole platform, with three users included and additional users at $65 a month each.
• Annual at $5,994, a 10% saving against monthly, on a twelve-month non-refundable commitment.
• Self-serve entry is seven days free, then a first month at $299.
• All figures in Australian dollars and inclusive of GST. The monthly plan has no lock-in.

Full detail, including what is in the platform at that price, is on the pricing page.

Comparing the two honestly

• Put both on the same tax footing first. Deep Space’s figures exclude GST and VIABUILD’s include it. Deep Space’s annual price with GST added is about $30,190, or roughly $2,516 a month.
• Then count users. On list prices, VIABUILD’s monthly fee stays below that figure up to about 33 users and passes it at 34. A residential builder with a small office is nowhere near that line. A commercial builder with project managers, QSs, contract administrators and site supervisors on every job may well be past it, and unlimited users is then the better model.
• Add the implementation package to Deep Space’s first year. It is quoted per business, so ask for the figure before comparing.
• Ask Deep Space how the monthly plan sits against the twelve-month initial term. Its pricing page shows both and does not say whether the monthly plan can be cancelled inside the first twelve months.
• Price the modules you would use, not the ones included. Deep Space’s price buys drawing control, subcontract tendering, RFIs and consultant portals. For a commercial builder that is the point. For a home builder it is weight.