BIM software comparison: purpose, verified capabilities, public pricing and Swedish workflows
Eight platforms plus LITHIC, compared on four criteria only, with every capability and price traced to a vendor-published page and dated. Where a vendor publishes nothing, this guide says so rather than estimating.
How this comparison was made
- Only vendor-published pages count as evidence. Reseller pages, analyst summaries and review sites are excluded, because their figures are not the vendor's commitment.
- Prices are reproduced in the currency and billing term the vendor publishes. No conversion, no tax assumption, no averaging. Where a vendor publishes bundles or quotes only, this guide says so instead of inventing a number.
- Capabilities are described, not scored. There is no weighted total, because a coordination platform and a decision layer do not compete for the same point.
- Absence of a Swedish capability below means nothing vendor-published was found on the review date. It is not proof that the capability does not exist — verify directly with the vendor before a purchase decision.
- LITHIC is measured with the same four criteria as everyone else, and its capabilities are split into available, pilot and planned so that roadmap work is never read as shipped.
At a glance
| Platform | Category | Primary purpose | Public pricing | Swedish workflows |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Autodesk Revit | Authoring | Create and document the building model: geometry, types, schedules and drawings. | USD 3,005 / year published | No Sweden-specific classification capability was found on the vendor pages read for this review. |
| Graphisoft Archicad | Authoring | Architectural BIM authoring with integrated team collaboration and client-facing model presentation. | From EUR 179 + tax / month (EU pages) | No Sweden-specific classification capability was found on the vendor pages read for this review. |
| Solibri | Model checking and validation | Check models against rules: clash detection, data validation and structured quality assurance before construction. | From EUR 99 / year (Starter) | No Sweden-specific ruleset is published on the pages read for this review; rules are customer-authored in the Advanced tier. |
| BIMcollab | Coordination and CDE | Run BCF-based issue coordination and document management across a federated project. | From EUR 12.50 / user / month (annual) | No Sweden-specific capability is published on the plan pages read for this review; ISO 19650 document statuses are supported generically. |
| Autodesk Construction Cloud / Forma | Common data environment and construction management | Hold project data, coordination, cost and construction management workflows in one cloud environment. | Not published as list price — quote-based | No Sweden-specific capability is published on the pricing pages read for this review. |
| Dalux | Common data environment and site execution | Connect BIM models to site work: tasks, inspections, quality and safety, from a mobile device. | Field Basic free; paid tiers not published | Nordic language coverage is published as part of the 23-language support; no Sweden-specific classification feature was found on the pages read for this review. |
| Trimble Connect | Common data environment | Act as the project's central system of record across office, field and geospatial data. | USD 349 (Pro) / USD 499 (Innovate) published | No Sweden-specific capability is published on the plan pages read for this review. |
| Speckle | Data platform and interoperability | Move, version and query model data between tools, and build dashboards and automation on top of it. | Free Explore tier; paid plans custom-quoted | No Sweden-specific capability is published on the pages read for this review. |
| LITHIC Core | Decision infrastructure | Resolve model elements to governed systems, products, price and carbon, and issue a replayable receipt for each decision. | Not published — pilot engagements | Sweden Pack is planned, not available |
The categories overlap deliberately. A checking tool and a decision layer are not substitutes, and no total score is offered here because adding unlike criteria together would hide exactly the differences a buyer needs to see.
Platform profiles
Autodesk Revit
Autodesk · sources read
Create and document the building model: geometry, types, schedules and drawings.
Capabilities described by the vendor
- 3D design and documentation for architecture, structure and MEP, with scheduling, annotation and sharing described on the product overview.
- Cloud-connected data management: stand-alone Revit includes the Forma Data Management Essentials common data environment tier.
- Forma wind and carbon analysis inside Revit, published as a tech preview rather than a released capability.
- Windows only; a subscription covers installation on up to three devices for one named user, and access to the three previous versions.
Public pricing
- Standard subscription published at USD 380 per month, USD 3,005 per year, or USD 9,020 for three years.
- The AEC Collection, which includes Revit alongside Civil 3D and AutoCAD, is published at the same figures.
- Medium, large and extra-large teams are directed to Autodesk or a reseller for premium and enterprise plans, which carry no published list price.
Swedish construction workflows
Vendor-published: No Sweden-specific classification capability was found on the vendor pages read for this review.
Common practice: Swedish teams generally carry CoClass and BIP through project templates, shared parameters and IFC property mapping. That is industry practice, not an Autodesk-published feature, and each office maintains it itself.
Where it fits
Revit is the reference point most Swedish practices compare everything else against, and for the job it is built to do — authoring and documenting the model — that position is earned. The comparison question is not whether Revit models well. It is what happens to the decisions that live downstream of the model.
A Revit schedule can total an area. It cannot, on its own, hold the record of why that build-up was chosen, which requirement version it satisfied, which supplier price it was compared against, and whether a later model revision invalidated that reasoning. Those commitments usually leave Revit as exports and re-enter the project as spreadsheets.
For a buying team the practical implication is that Revit's price is rarely the whole authoring cost. Template maintenance, shared-parameter discipline and the IFC export setup that makes Swedish classification survive the handover are ongoing internal work, and they determine how much downstream evidence is usable.
- Autodesk — Revit subscription and license FAQs — Published monthly, annual and three-year subscription prices, and the reseller route for larger teams.
- Autodesk — Revit product overview — Capability descriptions, including Forma analysis and the Autodesk Assistant as tech previews.
- Autodesk — Revit buy page and FAQs — Operating system, multi-device installation and previous-version access terms.
Graphisoft Archicad
Graphisoft · sources read
Architectural BIM authoring with integrated team collaboration and client-facing model presentation.
Capabilities described by the vendor
- Parametric 3D modelling and automated documentation, positioned for solo architects and local teams in the Studio plan.
- BIMcloud Basic on-premise collaboration and BIMx Pro interactive model walkthroughs are included in the Studio plan.
- IFC-based open exchange with structural and MEP teams is described as a core collaboration route.
- Archicad Collaborate adds shared collaboration and MEP design; MEP Designer and DDScad are sold as separate plans.
Public pricing
- Archicad Studio is published from USD 201 + tax per month on the United States pricing page.
- European pricing pages publish Archicad Studio from EUR 179 + tax per month and Archicad Collaborate at EUR 211 + tax per month.
- Prices are region-specific: check the Graphisoft pricing page for your country rather than converting another region's figure.
Swedish construction workflows
Vendor-published: No Sweden-specific classification capability was found on the vendor pages read for this review.
Common practice: Archicad's classification system and IFC translator settings are commonly configured by Swedish offices to emit CoClass and BIP properties on export. That configuration is maintained by the office, not supplied as a governed Swedish dataset.
Where it fits
Archicad competes with Revit on authoring, and its openBIM posture tends to make IFC handovers less painful, which matters in Sweden where the receiving party is often working in a different tool.
The same downstream gap applies. A well-classified IFC export is excellent evidence — and evidence is not a decision. Nothing in the authoring tool records that the exported wall type was selected against a priced, carbon-declared product under a specific requirement version.
Note the regional pricing structure when budgeting. Graphisoft publishes different figures per country page, so a Swedish buyer should quote from the Swedish page rather than the United States one.
- Graphisoft — plans and pricing (United States) — Archicad Studio published from USD 201 + tax per month.
- Graphisoft — plans and pricing (European page) — Archicad Studio EUR 179 + tax and Archicad Collaborate EUR 211 + tax per month, showing regional variation.
- Graphisoft — Archicad Studio plan — Plan contents: BIMcloud Basic, BIMx Pro, IFC-based open design.
Solibri
Solibri (Nemetschek Group) · sources read
Check models against rules: clash detection, data validation and structured quality assurance before construction.
Capabilities described by the vendor
- Rule-based model checking, clash detection matrix control, data validation and IDS workflows in the Advanced tier.
- IFC model federation and visual inspection from the entry Starter tier; native Revit federation from Essential upwards.
- Quantity and information takeoff is listed under Advanced.
- Premium adds centralised validation frameworks, an advanced IDS editor and portfolio-level reporting.
- Solibri Office is now a legacy product: no longer available for new purchases effective 13 April 2026, with existing licences continuing under their agreement terms.
Public pricing
- Starter is published at EUR 99 as a starting price, per year per licence.
- Essential, Advanced and Premium list capabilities on the offerings page without a published list price on the page read for this review.
- Named and concurrent licences are offered, with named subscriptions managed as reserved licences.
Swedish construction workflows
Vendor-published: No Sweden-specific ruleset is published on the pages read for this review; rules are customer-authored in the Advanced tier.
Common practice: Swedish projects typically author their own Solibri rulesets to test information deliveries, including CoClass or BIP property presence. The ruleset is the project's asset, and its quality depends on who wrote it.
Where it fits
Solibri answers a genuinely different question from the authoring tools: is this model internally consistent and does it satisfy the rules we declared? That is a checking question, and rule-based checking is exactly the sort of deterministic work that produces defensible results.
Its custom rules and IDS workflows make it the natural place to enforce that a Swedish information delivery actually carries the properties the client asked for. If a CoClass code is missing on 200 walls, this is where you find out.
The boundary is important. Solibri verifies that evidence is present and consistent. It does not commit that these 200 walls resolve to that recipe, that product, that price and that carbon figure. Passing a check is a precondition for a good decision, not the decision itself.
Anyone comparing on price should note the tier restructuring: the familiar Solibri Office is closed to new purchases, so a like-for-like comparison against an older quote is no longer possible.
- Solibri — plans and pricing — Tier contents and the EUR 99 Starter starting price, per year per licence.
- Solibri — Solibri Office (legacy) — Office closed to new purchases effective 13 April 2026 and the Advanced/Premium migration path.
- Solibri Store — licensing FAQs — Named versus concurrent licences and the reserved-licence model.
BIMcollab
BIMcollab · sources read
Run BCF-based issue coordination and document management across a federated project.
Capabilities described by the vendor
- BCF-based issue management with plug-ins for BIM authoring tools, across all platform tiers.
- Document management with version history, ISO 19650 document statuses, and publish or approve workflows.
- Streaming web viewer for IFC models, federated model setup and support for Revit models.
- IDS requirements can be defined and shared; Smart Views, clash rules and Smart Properties are shared into BIMcollab Zoom.
- Zoom provides local and shared-project model checking, clash detection and IDS-based property checking.
Public pricing
- Platform Basic EUR 12.50 per user per month billed annually, or EUR 19 monthly.
- Platform Advanced EUR 18.75 annually or EUR 29 monthly; Enterprise EUR 25 annually or EUR 39 monthly, per user.
- Zoom Single EUR 60 per user per month annually or EUR 105 monthly; Zoom Floating EUR 96 annually or EUR 168 monthly, shareable across four users.
- Zoom requires a BIMcollab platform subscription.
Swedish construction workflows
Vendor-published: No Sweden-specific capability is published on the plan pages read for this review; ISO 19650 document statuses are supported generically.
Common practice: Swedish projects commonly use the IDS and Smart Property features to state and test information requirements, which is where a CoClass or BIP expectation can be made checkable rather than merely requested in a PDF.
Where it fits
BIMcollab is unusually transparent on price, which makes it easy to budget: per-user, per-month, with the annual and monthly figures both published side by side.
The combination of a coordination hub and Zoom's checking capability covers two jobs that are often bought separately, and the IDS support means information requirements can be expressed in a machine-checkable form rather than as prose.
For decision traceability, the same boundary as Solibri applies. An issue can be closed and a document approved without anyone recording which product, at which price, with which carbon evidence, satisfied the requirement the issue was about.
- BIMcollab — platform plans and pricing — Basic, Advanced and Enterprise per-user pricing and the feature matrix.
- BIMcollab — model checking (Zoom) pricing — Zoom Single and Zoom Floating pricing, sharing limits and the platform-subscription requirement.
Autodesk Construction Cloud / Forma
Autodesk · sources read
Hold project data, coordination, cost and construction management workflows in one cloud environment.
Capabilities described by the vendor
- Autodesk Construction Cloud is now published as part of Autodesk Forma, with product names updated accordingly.
- Bundles group model management, preconstruction and construction operations, including Model Coordination, Design Collaboration, Data Management, Insight, Assemble, Navisworks Manage and Tandem.
- Published workflow areas span document management, data federation, clash detection, 4D and 5D simulation, 2D and 3D quantification, estimating, cost management, quality and safety, and project closeout.
- Forma Data Management Essentials is included with stand-alone AutoCAD, Revit and Civil 3D subscriptions.
Public pricing
- The pricing page presents bundle offers and pricing by product, with a sales telephone number, and did not display per-user list prices on the page read for this review.
- Treat this as quote-based: request a written per-user, per-product figure rather than working from a third-party estimate.
Swedish construction workflows
Vendor-published: No Sweden-specific capability is published on the pricing pages read for this review.
Common practice: Swedish projects using ACC typically place the Swedish information requirements in the project setup and in the authoring templates upstream, rather than relying on a jurisdiction-specific platform feature.
Where it fits
This is the broadest offering in the comparison and the hardest to price. Bundling is a legitimate commercial model, but it makes total cost of ownership genuinely difficult to compare against per-user platforms until you hold a quote.
For LITHIC specifically, ACC matters as a source of model evidence rather than as a competitor: models published there carry version identity, which is exactly what a decision needs to be anchored to.
When evaluating, the useful test is whether the quantification and cost features can show the model version and scope each figure came from, and whether a changed model produces a stated, traceable change rather than a silently updated number.
- Autodesk — Construction Cloud / Forma pricing — Bundle structure, included products and the absence of published per-user list prices.
- Autodesk — Forma Data Management (formerly Autodesk Docs) — Common data environment description and inclusion of Essentials with stand-alone design products.
Dalux
Dalux · sources read
Connect BIM models to site work: tasks, inspections, quality and safety, from a mobile device.
Capabilities described by the vendor
- Dalux Field Basic is published as a free tool with unlimited tasks, mobile access and 3D model upload.
- Dalux Field links issues, tasks and inspections to BIM elements, works offline with automatic sync, and is published in 23 languages with unlimited users.
- Dalux Box is a BIM-integrated common data environment with ISO 19650 shared and published areas, approval workflows and enforceable file naming.
- Model validation against project requirements covers object properties, metadata and hard and soft clashes, with automated re-checking when models are updated.
Public pricing
- Field Basic is published as completely free, with upgrade paths to Field Standard and Field Pro.
- No list price for Field Standard, Field Pro or Box was published on the pages read for this review; treat paid tiers as quote-based.
Swedish construction workflows
Vendor-published: Nordic language coverage is published as part of the 23-language support; no Sweden-specific classification feature was found on the pages read for this review.
Common practice: Dalux is widely used across the Nordics for site execution, so a Swedish contractor comparing platforms is often comparing Dalux against Autodesk's construction workflows rather than against a design tool.
Where it fits
Dalux sits closest to the physical site of anything in this comparison. Its free Field Basic tier is a real strategic choice, not a trial, and it explains the adoption breadth among subcontractors who would never buy a seat.
Its validation capability overlaps with the checking tools, and its Box product overlaps with the CDEs, so the category boundary is genuinely blurred here.
As with every platform above, the object of record is the task, the document and the check. The commercial commitment — this product, at this price, with this declared carbon, for this population of elements — is not what the platform is built to hold.
- Dalux — Field Basic — Free tier scope and the stated absence of hidden fees.
- Dalux — Dalux Box — ISO 19650 enabled CDE, metadata, and automated model validation.
- Dalux — Dalux Field — Site workflows, offline capability, language coverage and unlimited users.
Trimble Connect
Trimble · sources read
Act as the project's central system of record across office, field and geospatial data.
Capabilities described by the vendor
- Common data environment supporting over 45 file types, including geospatial data.
- 2D and 3D viewers, comments, to-dos, tags, file sharing and connected issue management across Trimble and external applications.
- Property sets and an organiser for grouping and filtering by phase, object and location.
- Clashsets for identifying and managing clashes; unlimited project creation and storage on the Pro subscription.
- The Innovate subscription adds Object Manager, which unifies BIM and GIS data into a single model.
Public pricing
- The plan cards publish USD 349 for Pro and USD 499 for Innovate, with a monthly and annual selector showing a 33% saving on annual commitment.
- Confirm the exact billing term against the plan selector at checkout before budgeting, since the same card shows both terms.
Swedish construction workflows
Vendor-published: No Sweden-specific capability is published on the plan pages read for this review.
Common practice: Trimble Connect is frequently encountered in Swedish projects through Tekla structural workflows, where the structural model rather than the architectural model drives coordination.
Where it fits
Trimble Connect's distinguishing feature in this set is the breadth of accepted data, including geospatial, and the Object Manager approach to unifying BIM and GIS.
Property sets and the organiser are the closest thing here to structured element-level data handling, which makes it a reasonable place to carry classification properties through a project.
Carrying a property is still not the same as governing a decision. A property set will happily hold a stale value; nothing in that mechanism refuses when the evidence behind it has expired.
- Trimble — Trimble Connect product page — Capability description, file-type coverage, Object Manager and the published plan cards.
- Trimble — buy Trimble Connect Pro — Pro subscription contents, storage and support terms.
Speckle
Speckle · sources read
Move, version and query model data between tools, and build dashboards and automation on top of it.
Capabilities described by the vendor
- File importers and connectors across authoring tools, with model version history.
- Configurable model data quality and compliance checks, published as a beta model validation capability.
- Speckle Intelligence dashboards for project and portfolio-level model insight.
- Speckle Automate and CDE integrations, including Forma and ProjectWise, on paid plans.
- Cloud, enterprise server and open-source self-hosted deployments are all documented, with Cloud named as the recommended deployment.
Public pricing
- The Explore plan is published as free: one project, up to three users, all importers and connectors, one dashboard and 30-day version history.
- Paid tiers are published as custom plans, without a list price. Speckle also publishes that it is moving away from seat-based pricing towards project activity and team size.
- Free for students and educators.
Swedish construction workflows
Vendor-published: No Sweden-specific capability is published on the pages read for this review.
Common practice: Speckle's openness makes it the usual choice for Swedish teams building their own data pipelines — for example pushing quantities into a Boverket klimatdeklaration calculation — where the logic is written and owned by the team itself.
Where it fits
Speckle is the most developer-shaped option here, and the self-hosted route means an organisation can own its data infrastructure outright. For teams with internal capability, that is a strong position.
It is also the closest neighbour to decision infrastructure in spirit: versioned data, programmatic access, automation. The difference is where authority lives. Speckle gives you the pipes and the versions; the rules that decide, refuse and issue a receipt are yours to write and maintain.
That trade-off is the honest comparison. Build it on Speckle and you own the determinism and the maintenance. Buy a decision layer and the governed rules, refusals and receipts come with the product.
- Speckle — pricing — Explore free tier limits, custom paid plans and feature comparison.
- Speckle docs — new plans FAQ — Move away from seat-based pricing towards project activity and team size.
- Speckle docs — choosing a deployment — Cloud, enterprise server and open-source self-hosted deployment options.
LITHIC Core
Green Arkitekter AB · status reviewed
Resolve model elements to governed systems, products, price and carbon, and issue a replayable receipt for each decision.
Listing our own product in our own comparison is a conflict of interest, so the rule applied below is deliberately unflattering: anything not in production today is labelled pilot or planned, in the same sentence as the capability itself.
Model connection and evidence extraction
Connect an Autodesk Construction Cloud project and extract element evidence bound to the exact model version and viewable it came from. Evidence never floats free of the surface that produced it.
Deterministic identity and category authority
Elements resolve to canonical identity from explicit evidence only: a stated property category, an explicit hierarchy ancestor, or an exact alias. No fuzzy matching and no AI categorisation.
Wall system classification
System classification for walls, including explicitly refused subtypes. A refusal is a recorded outcome, not a blank cell.
Recipes and material requirements
Governed recipes express what a resolved system requires, with a quantity basis that later cost and carbon work must use rather than re-derive.
Product selection ledger
Product choices are bound append-only to a requirement and frozen on commit with the product version and requirement hash, so a later catalogue change cannot rewrite a past decision.
Price book registry
Prices resolve from immutable supplier, currency and effective-date snapshots with exact product-version line resolution. No implicit latest price and no silent fallback.
Decision receipt
Each decision carries its evidence, scope, rule versions and outcome, and can be replayed. Partial coverage is reported as partial, never as a whole-building total.
AI-assisted design intent preparation
An assistant proposes groupings and intent for a population of elements. Proposals are clearly separated from commitments, and manual authoring remains available when preparation is unavailable.
External product search
Live product search against an external provider, with provenance preserved. The current provider supplies no pricing data, and the system refuses to present a price affordance it cannot back.
Governed quantity and carbon evidence
Quantities aggregate only within compatible units and governed scope. Carbon evidence coverage is still expanding, and unresolved declarations stay explicitly unresolved.
Sweden Pack — authorities and classification
A governed jurisdiction layer covering Swedish authorities and standards, and a BK04 adapter, sequenced after the current research and authority-register phase.
Sweden Pack — construction knowledge and commercial terms
Swedish systems, assemblies and recipes as governed knowledge, followed by ABM 07 commercial terms and BEAst procurement and logistics.
Whole-life and building outcome
Service life, maintenance, replacement and whole-life consequence, with building-level outcomes reconstructable from the decisions beneath them.
Public pricing
No public list price is published. LITHIC is currently delivered through pilot engagements, and pricing is agreed per engagement. This guide does not quote a figure it cannot publish.
Swedish construction workflows
Sweden Pack is a declared programme, not a shipped feature set. Its roadmap covers Swedish authorities and standards, Swedish construction knowledge, LITHIC-ready content and decision rules, with references including PBL, CoClass, BIP, BK04, ABM 07 and BEAst. As of this review the programme is in its research and authority-register phase, so no CoClass or BK04 capability should be assumed to be available.
- Boverket — klimatdeklaration för byggnader — Swedish climate declaration has been required for new buildings with permits applied for from 1 January 2022, and covers the construction stage.
- CoClass — Svensk Byggtjänst — The Swedish classification system for the built environment, referenced by the Sweden Pack roadmap.
- BIP — Building Information Properties — Swedish convention for how object properties are named on IFC export, so meaning survives between tools.
- buildingSMART — openBIM standards — Background on IFC, IDS and BCF, the exchange standards several platforms above build on.
Ask each vendor the same six questions
- Show me the evidence behind one number, down to the model version it came from.
- Change one input and show that the previous result is still readable.
- Remove one piece of evidence and show that the tool refuses rather than substituting a default.
- Show me partial coverage stated as partial, with its numerator and denominator.
- Show me where product and price data carry versions and sources, not just values.
- Show me where an AI suggestion ends and a committed decision begins.
Corrections are welcome. If a figure above is out of date or a capability is described inaccurately, tell us and we will re-read the vendor page and update the review date.