Procore is a construction management platform built for general contractors and large project teams managing construction-phase work: RFIs, submittals, procurement, field coordination, daily logs, and budgets. It's the industry standard for that use case. But for a small architecture firm, say 5 to 20 people, doing primarily design-phase work, Procore often creates more overhead than it solves.
The reasons firms look for alternatives usually come down to three things: the pricing model doesn't scale down to small team sizes, the feature set is construction-heavy when the firm's actual work is design, and setup requires admin time that small firms can't spare.
If that's where you are, here's what's worth looking at.
What to look for in a Procore alternative
Before evaluating tools, get clear on the job you need done. For most small A&E firms, the requirements are:
Document management with version control. Not just file storage, but a system where "current" actually means current, old versions are archived, and the team knows what's been issued and when.
Task tracking with accountability. Tasks with owners, due dates, and reminders that actually go to the person responsible. Not a shared list that nobody checks.
Communication organized by project. Conversations that live in the project, visible to the team, searchable later. Not scattered across email threads.
Access control for external parties. Consultants see their scope. Clients see what you give them. Nobody sees everything.
If your primary need is construction management (field logs, procurement, punch lists), these alternatives probably aren't what you're looking for. You likely need Procore, or something similar in that category like Autodesk Construction Cloud or PlanGrid.
The alternatives
Olumba
Purpose-built for A&E firms during the design phase. Document versioning with revision lineage, task tracking with automated reminders, project messaging, and three-tier access control for team members, consultants, and clients. Designed for firms of 5 to 25 people. No construction management features, which is the point if your work is design.
Olumba is the most AEC-specific option on this list for design-phase work. It understands submittals, drawing sets, consultant coordination, and the SD-DD-CD workflow natively.
Best for: architecture and engineering firms whose work is concentrated in schematic design through construction documents.
Monograph
Strong on financial visibility and fee tracking. Monograph's core value is showing you in real time whether a project is profitable, how hours are tracking against budget, and where your team's time is going. It's built specifically for A&E firms and the interface is designed by people who understand how architecture practices bill.
Where it's lighter: Monograph is not a document management system or a team communication tool. If your primary pain is financial visibility and time tracking, it's excellent. If you need document version control and consultant coordination, you'll need to pair it with something else.
Best for: firms whose primary gap is financial tracking and project profitability visibility.
Newforma (now Konekt)
Document and information management for AEC, with strong email integration. Newforma's strength is managing the massive volume of project correspondence and files that accumulate on large projects. It can search across email archives, file systems, and project documents to find information that would take hours to locate manually.
Where it's heavier: Newforma is more complex to set up and administer than the other options here. It's a better fit for mid-size firms with high document volumes than for small firms with straightforward projects.
Best for: firms managing large volumes of project correspondence and documentation across many active projects.
Monday.com
General-purpose work management that some architecture firms configure for AEC use. Strong visual boards, automations, and a large integration library. Monday can be adapted to track projects, tasks, and deadlines for architecture work if you're willing to build the structure yourself.
The trade-off: no native document versioning, no AEC terminology, no built-in access model for consultants and clients. You'll spend configuration time on every project to approximate what a purpose-built tool does out of the box.
Best for: firms that need a general work management platform for operations beyond project delivery (marketing, HR, business ops) and are willing to configure it for AEC use.
Asana
Similar to Monday.com in the general PM category: strong task management, clean interface, good adoption rates. Asana is slightly more task-focused than Monday (which leans more visual/board-based). Same AEC gaps: no document versioning, no native consultant access, no industry-specific workflows.
Best for: firms that prioritize task management simplicity and have modest document management needs.
The honest comparison
| Need | Olumba | Monograph | Newforma | Monday | Asana |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Document versioning | Yes | No | Yes | No | No |
| Task tracking + reminders | Yes | Limited | Limited | Yes | Yes |
| Project messaging | Yes | No | Limited | Via integrations | Via integrations |
| Consultant access control | Yes | No | Yes | Manual config | Manual config |
| Client portal | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| Fee/budget tracking | Limited | Excellent | No | Manual | Manual |
| AEC-native terminology | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Setup complexity | Low | Low | High | Medium | Low |
| Best fit | Design-phase PM | Financial tracking | Document management | General PM | General PM |
The decision
There's no drop-in Procore replacement for small architecture firms, because Procore is solving a different problem than what most small architecture firms actually need. Construction management is not the same job as design-phase coordination, even though they happen on the same projects.
Pick the tool that solves your specific bottleneck. If it's document chaos and version confusion: Olumba or Newforma. If it's financial visibility: Monograph. If it's general task management alongside non-AEC work: Monday or Asana. If you're managing construction: stay with Procore.