Quality vs Commercial Control
Site Samurai vs PlanRadar for UK Contractors
PlanRadar is strong for quality assurance and field reporting on large projects. Site Samurai is purpose-built for UK contractor workflows with deeper commercial control including applications for payment, CIS, and NEC4.
TL;DR
If your daily workflow is defect and snag management, site photo documentation, fire-safety "golden thread" evidence, inspections, and handover packs — particularly across a large project portfolio or facility estate — PlanRadar is the better fit. It has 170k+ users across 75+ countries and is certified for UK ISO/GDPR. If you need UK commercial workflows on top of field capture — applications for payment under the Construction Act, HMRC CIS verification, RAMS with digital sign-off, CDM 2015 Phase Plans, purchase orders with 3-way matching, and Xero/Sage sync — Site Samurai is the better fit. PlanRadar offers a 30-day free trial with unlimited free subcontractors and watchers; full pricing is quote-only on planradar.com/gb/prices. Site Samurai is £99/£199/£699 per month flat, unlimited users, 14-day free trial, no credit card.
Last reviewed: 21 April 2026 (2026). Competitor feature claims verified against planradar.com/gb on 21 April 2026; PlanRadar does not publish GBP prices on its UK pricing page. Competitor source.
Where PlanRadar is strong
- • Purpose-built defect and snag management with rich photo documentation.
- • Strong field quality reporting workflows for large project portfolios.
- • Good adoption in European markets with multi-language support.
Where Site Samurai is stronger
- • Integrated commercial controls: applications for payment, valuations, and retention tracking.
- • Native UK compliance workflows including CIS, RAMS, and Construction Act notices.
- • Flat, transparent pricing with unlimited users vs. per-user licensing.
Pricing side by side
Headline price
£99/mo Starter, £199/mo Professional, £699/mo Enterprise (or 17% off annually).
Not published on planradar.com/gb/prices — pricing on request; plans vary by active users.
User / seat model
Unlimited users on every plan.
Per-active-user pricing for core team members; unlimited free subcontractors and watchers per the UK site.
Free trial
14-day free trial. No credit card required.
30-day free trial with self-serve onboarding.
Contract term
Monthly or annual. Cancel anytime on monthly.
Contract term not published on the UK pricing page.
UK CIS included
Yes — HMRC UTR/NI verification, 0%/20%/30% rates, re-verification cascade. Included in Starter.
Not published on planradar.com/gb/features as of April 2026.
Applications for Payment
Yes — s.111 pay less notices, client portal, valuations, retention. Included in Starter.
Not published on planradar.com/gb/features as of April 2026.
PlanRadar pricing claims sourced from public documentation.
See how it works
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Site Samurai advantage
Faster setup means quicker ROI and less disruption to active project teams.
Best fit by contractor profile
UK SME contractor needing commercial and compliance control
Best fit: Site Samurai
Integrated commercial workflows and UK compliance depth are more critical than specialist defect tooling for most SME contractors.
Quality-focused project team managing defects and snags
Best fit: Competitor
PlanRadar excels at field quality management when commercial and compliance workflows are handled elsewhere.
Full-discipline contractor needing one operational platform
Best fit: Site Samurai
Combining field operations, compliance, and commercial control in one stack reduces tool sprawl and handoff errors.
Migration checklist (30/60/90)
0-30 days
Foundation and pilot
- • Audit existing quality and defect workflows and identify commercial/compliance gaps.
- • Pilot one active project with site lead and QS pairing.
- • Define baseline KPIs: defect close-out time, compliance completion, payment cycle time.
31-60 days
Operational rollout
- • Migrate quality templates and checklists into Site Samurai.
- • Train site and commercial teams on integrated quality and payment workflows.
- • Introduce weekly KPI review against pilot baselines.
61-90 days
Standardisation and optimisation
- • Standardise operating procedures for quality, compliance, and commercial workflows.
- • Retire duplicate quality tracking tools and spreadsheets.
- • Run leadership review on combined quality and cashflow impact metrics.
Choose Site Samurai when
- • You need commercial controls and UK compliance workflows alongside field operations.
- • Your team needs predictable, flat pricing as user count grows.
- • You want one operational platform rather than separate tools for quality, compliance, and payments.
Choose PlanRadar when
- • Your primary need is specialist defect and snag management.
- • You already have mature commercial and compliance tooling in place.
- • You manage large project portfolios where quality audit depth is the dominant requirement.
Feature comparison with sources
Defect and snagging management
Construction defect management and snagging is a primary PlanRadar use case with rich photo documentation.
sourceIntegrated snagging on site diary with photo capture; not a specialist defect-management product.
PlanRadar wins on depth of defect/snagging tooling. Site Samurai treats it as one workflow among many.
Fire safety "Golden Thread"
Explicit support for the UK Golden Thread of Information (Building Safety Act) referenced on the UK site.
sourceDocument control and versioned site evidence; not positioned as a Golden Thread product.
Free trial length
30-day free trial with sub-10-minute onboarding published on planradar.com/gb.
source14-day free trial, no credit card required.
Subcontractors and watchers
Unlimited free subcontractors and watchers; pricing applies to core team members only.
sourceUnlimited users of any role — subbies, PMs, QSs, site leads — on every plan.
Applications for Payment (NEC/JCT)
No AfP module published on planradar.com/gb/features as of April 2026.
sourceNative AfP with Construction Act s.111 pay less notice tracking, client portal, valuations, retention.
CIS compliance (HMRC)
No CIS functionality published on planradar.com/gb/features as of April 2026.
sourceHMRC UTR/NI verification, 0%/20%/30% rates, re-verification cascades forward to unpaid amounts.
RAMS and CDM 2015
Inspections, checklists, and safety audits — not a structured RAMS builder with Construction Phase Plans.
sourceRAMS builder with versioning and digital sign-off plus CDM 2015 Construction Phase Plans.
Integrations
200+ pre-built, no-code integrations via PlanRadar Connect.
sourceTwo-way Xero and Sage sync on Professional; Stripe; REST API on every plan; SSO/SAML on Enterprise.
Pricing transparency
GBP pricing not published on planradar.com/gb/prices as of April 2026 — quote on request.
sourcePublished £99/£199/£699 per month on sitesamurai.co.uk/pricing with 17% annual discount.
SiteView reality capture
SiteView 360° reality capture included alongside site documentation.
sourceNot a 360° capture product — photo-first site diary with timestamped evidence.
UK-specific regulations this comparison turns on
PlanRadar is strong on UK fire-safety documentation — the Building Safety Act 2022 introduced the "Golden Thread of Information" duty for higher-risk buildings, and PlanRadar explicitly positions for it. Where PlanRadar stops is commercial and contract workflow. UK subcontractors bill under HGCRA 1996 (the Construction Act), which mandates a payment notice within 5 days of the due date and a pay less notice at least 7 days before the final date for payment under s.111. CIS deductions fall under Finance Act 2004 Chapter 3. Principal contractors owe RAMS and Construction Phase Plans under CDM 2015; RIDDOR incidents must be logged on the HSE portal. Site Samurai builds these natively in one stack; PlanRadar expects them to live elsewhere.
Choose PlanRadar if
You manage a large defects and snagging workload on fit-out, refurbishment, or handover and need specialist photo-based issue tracking.
PlanRadar is a category leader in defect management and outperforms general construction platforms on depth of snagging tooling.
You have Golden Thread obligations under the Building Safety Act 2022 on higher-risk buildings.
PlanRadar is explicitly positioned for this duty and has mature document-control evidence chains.
You run facilities management or estate inspections and need recurring audit routes rather than project-based workflows.
PlanRadar covers FM inspections, recurring audits, and asset-level documentation better than a project-centric tool.
Choose Site Samurai if
You are a UK subcontractor applying for payment monthly under NEC4 or JCT 2016.
Site Samurai ships Construction Act s.111 pay less notice tracking, cumulative valuations, retention, and a no-login client portal. PlanRadar does not publish an AfP workflow.
You deduct CIS on subcontractor payments and HMRC re-verification affects each run.
Site Samurai verifies UTR/NI with HMRC, applies the returned rate, and cascades re-verification forward to unpaid amounts.
You are a principal contractor producing structured RAMS and CDM 2015 Construction Phase Plans.
PlanRadar inspections capture evidence but are not a structured RAMS builder with versioning and digital sign-off.
You want purchase orders with multi-level approvals and 3-way PO-GRN-invoice matching alongside field capture.
Site Samurai Professional ships POs, GRNs with photo evidence, and 3-way matching. PlanRadar does not publish a procurement workflow.