Bluebeam overlays the revisions. Plan Proof finds what the city will flag.
Bluebeam Revu is the industry standard for marking up, measuring, and overlaying PDFs. It's a brilliant tool — but its overlay shows you what changed, not what's wrong. Plan Proof reads the set and forecasts the corrections your jurisdiction will send. No subscription.
Architects reach for Bluebeam's overlay when they want to confirm a revision actually moved the wall, updated the note, or dropped the detail they asked for. It's a visual diff between two versions of the same drawing — fast, precise, and trusted across the industry.
But an overlay can only compare what you give it. It can't tell you that A-1.2 is missing the accessible-route note your plan checker flags on every project, or that the egress isn't tabulated the way this AHJ wants it. That's a different job — one Bluebeam was never built to do — and it's the one Plan Proof exists for.
| Plan Proof | Bluebeam Revu | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Intelligence — forecasts likely corrections | Tool — you mark up and overlay manually |
| Overlay / compare | Not its job — it reads one set for correctability | Yes — best-in-class visual diff between two revisions |
| Predicts what the city flags | Yes — learned from real AHJ correction letters | No — overlay shows what moved, not what is wrong |
| Tracks correction letters | Findings map to sheet + code / checklist item | No — you track resubmittals yourself |
| Pricing | $39 / check · no subscription | $260–$440 / user / year subscription |
| Setup | Upload, ~90s, no install | Desktop app, per-seat licenses |
When Bluebeam is the better choice
For markup, takeoff, measurement, and comparing two revisions, Bluebeam is unmatched — it's the tool your whole team already lives in, and Plan Proof doesn't try to replace it. If your question is 'what changed between rev 2 and rev 3,' or you need to redline a set collaboratively, open Bluebeam. Its overlay engine, measurement tools, and Studio sessions are genuinely best-in-class.
Where Plan Proof wins
Bluebeam is a blank markup canvas — it won't tell you the accessible-route note is missing on A-1.2, or predict which corrections your specific city sends on this building type. Plan Proof does, before you submit, learned from the correction letters that jurisdiction actually issues. Then you open Bluebeam to make the fixes. And there's no annual per-seat subscription: pay $39 when you actually run a check.
Overlay tells you what moved. It cannot tell you what the plan checker wants.
The gap is intent. Bluebeam's compare is geometric: it highlights pixels that differ between two PDFs. It has no model of what your jurisdiction requires, no memory of the corrections that city has sent on similar projects, and no way to rank findings by how often they actually show up. Plan Proof is built on exactly that — a corpus of real correction letters per jurisdiction — so instead of 'these lines changed,' you get 'this AHJ flags a missing accessibility note here about X% of the time, on sheet A-1.2.' One is a diff; the other is a forecast.
The correction loop is a tracking problem, and markups scatter.
When corrections come back, most firms manage them across PDF markups, emails, and a spreadsheet — and the trail goes cold by the next submittal. In Olumba, each Plan Proof finding is tied to a sheet and a code or checklist item, and it lives next to your project documents. That turns the resubmittal loop into something you can actually track across revisions, instead of re-deriving it from a stack of Bluebeam markups every cycle.
Frequently asked questions
- Does Plan Proof replace Bluebeam Revu?
- No. Bluebeam is where you mark up, measure, and overlay drawings — keep it. Plan Proof runs before that: it reads the set and tells you which corrections your jurisdiction is likely to flag, so you know what to fix in Bluebeam. They are complementary.
- What is the difference between Bluebeam's overlay and Plan Proof?
- Bluebeam's overlay (or Compare Documents) shows you what visually changed between two revisions of a drawing — a great sanity check that a fix landed. It does not evaluate whether the drawing is correct or complete against what the city expects. Plan Proof reads a single set and forecasts the corrections an AHJ will send, with a sheet reference and the code or checklist item behind each one.
- How much does Plan Proof cost compared to Bluebeam?
- Plan Proof is $39 for a single check with no subscription, or monthly plans starting at $59/seat/mo for firms filing regularly. Bluebeam Revu is a per-user annual subscription, typically $260–$440 per user per year depending on edition.
- Can Plan Proof track my correction letters?
- Yes. Every finding is tied to a sheet and the code or checklist item it maps to, and Olumba keeps that history alongside your project documents — so the corrections you get back from the city are trackable, not scattered across PDF markups and email threads.
Plan Proof
Upload a plan set. We scan your first 8 sheets free and return one fully detailed finding plus the real counts — no account needed.
Find what's missing — scan free →Titleblock
Build a free public firm profile — your projects, disciplines, and jurisdictions, on a page clients and search engines can actually find.
Create your firm page — free →Compare Plan Proof to
Comparison based on publicly available information as of July 2026. Competitor pricing and capabilities are self-reported by each vendor and may change — verify current details on each vendor's site.