by Brianna Crandall — February 8, 2015—The first Grid report for building design and building information modeling (BIM) platforms, published this week by business software review site G2 Crowd, ranks seven products to help purchasers in their selections. The Winter 2015 report is based on more than 180 reviews written by business and engineering professionals.
The Best Building Design and Building Information Modeling (BIM) Software Grid, which is created from G2 Crowd’s software review platform, factors in customer satisfaction reported by users, and vendor market presence determined from social and public data to rank products.
The best building design and BIM software products were determined by customer satisfaction (based on user reviews) and scale (based on market share, vendor size, and social impact).(Click on image to enlarge)
Building design and BIM software includes computer-aided design (CAD) products used commonly within the architecture and construction industries. Many of these products offer tools and libraries specifically targeted for architectural design and construction, including mechanical, electrical, and plumbing (MEP) and BIM.
BIM software offers a model-based process for designing and managing buildings and infrastructures, going beyond construction drawings to generate a digital representation of a facility’s functional properties. Other products in this category may be used for a range of CAD purposes beyond architectural design, but their rankings within this grid focus exclusively on their use as a tool in building design.
For more information about general-purpose CAD products, which include a broad range of 2D and 3D drafting and modeling tools, see G2 Crowd’s Winter 2015 Best General-Purpose CAD Product report. For additional information about product and machine design tools, see the Winter 2015 Product and Machine Design report; for more information about civil engineering design products, see the Civil Engineering Design Software category.
To qualify as a Leader, a product must receive a high customer satisfaction score and have substantial market presence. Revit and AutoCAD were named Leaders. DataCAD, Vectorworks Architect and ArchiCAD were named High Performers, judged as having high customer satisfaction scores, but with a smaller market presence than Leaders. AutoCAD Architecture and AutoCAD MEP landed in the Contenders section for companies that have significant scale and resources, but whose products have received below-average user satisfaction ratings or have not yet received a sufficient number of reviews to validate their products. DataCAD earned the highest overall customer satisfaction score in the report.
Across all building design software and BIM software, reviewers reported the product they use meets their requirements at an average rate of 86%, and on average reviewers said they were 85% likely to recommend the product they use.
