A site reporting app built to replace WhatsApp, with forms, geotagging and dashboards.
SymTerra and Construction Metric agree on the problem and disagree completely on the answer. Both start from site updates lost in WhatsApp, photos buried in the scroll and reports compiled by hand. SymTerra’s answer is to replace WhatsApp: its own line is "better than WhatsApp", and its app gives site teams one place to log progress, snagging, H&S observations and site diaries. Ours is to keep WhatsApp and record it.
SymTerra does its version well. It is built by construction people, with backgrounds running from small M&E jobs to Crossrail, Tideway and Laing O’Rourke. Entries are time-stamped, geotagged and linked to the right project, location and drawing. There is a custom form builder, drawing markup, a cross-referenced photo and video library, dashboards, AI-generated reports, timesheets, in-app translation across 104 languages, and integrations with SharePoint, Asta, P6, Autodesk Forma and Procore, the last three on its Enterprise plan. It publishes a flat price with unlimited users and projects, from £325 a month on its SymLite plan, and its customers run from five-person subcontractors to national utilities. It is based in London.
The whole comparison rests on one question: will your site team move to an app? If they will, SymTerra gives you cleaner, more structured data than any conversation can, with fields you designed and dashboards that count them. If they will not, or they will for a month and then drift back to the group chat, the record lives in WhatsApp whatever the software says. That is the case Construction Metric was built for: our number sits in the site group, and the diary is written from what the team was going to say anyway.
What SymTerra is best at
Structured site reporting from people who have done the job: custom forms for diaries, snagging, H&S, RFIs and TQs, every entry time-stamped, geotagged and linked to a location and drawing, with dashboards, AI reports, timesheets, in-app translation and a flat monthly price for unlimited users and projects.
Choose SymTerra if
You can move your site teams onto an app, you want structured forms, geotagged entries and live dashboards across many projects, and one flat fee suits you better than a per-site price.
Choose Construction Metric if
Your team will not leave WhatsApp, and you want the record built from the group they already use, with meetings and email in it and nothing new for the crew to learn.
Side by side
SymTerra
Construction Metric
Approach
Replace WhatsApp with a structured app
Keep WhatsApp and record it
What the team does
Logs reports, photos and observations in the SymTerra app
Nothing new: keeps using the site WhatsApp group
If nobody logs anything
No entry that day
The diary is still written from the day’s traffic
Custom forms
Strong: a form builder for diaries, H&S, snagging, RFIs and TQs
Fixed diary structure, evidence attached per line
Location
Every entry geotagged and linked to a drawing
Location on captures made in our app, on the Record tier
Dashboards and timesheets
Yes, a core part of the product
No: flash, weekly and period reports on the Record tier instead
Meetings
Not published
Recorded and transcribed, with speakers told apart, on the Record tier
Contract awareness
Not published
JCT and NEC on the Contract tier
Pricing model
Published, flat monthly fee, unlimited users and projects, from £325
Published, per site, unlimited users, from £199
Every line is taken from each vendor’s own public materials, checked 9 October 2026. If SymTerra ships something that changes a line here, tell us and we will correct it.
Common questions
SymTerra says it is better than WhatsApp. Is it?
For structured data, yes. A form gives you exactly the fields you designed, tied to a location and a drawing, and a dashboard can count them. A WhatsApp group cannot do that. What a form cannot do is capture what nobody filled in, and on most sites the instruction given in passing, the late delivery and the two hours lost to another trade go into the group chat, not into a form. SymTerra’s bet is that your team will change habits. Ours is that they will not. Each bet is right on some sites.
Which costs less?
It depends on how many sites you run. SymTerra charges one flat monthly fee for unlimited users and projects, from £325 a month on SymLite. Construction Metric charges per site, from £199 a month with unlimited users. On a single live site our entry tier is the lower monthly figure; from two sites upwards SymTerra’s entry plan is likely to cost less than ours, and the gap widens with every job. Run both against your own portfolio.
Can I run both?
Yes. A forms app suits inspections, permits and H&S, where a structured record is the point, and a team can use one well and still lose the day’s conversation in the group chat. Construction Metric sits underneath and records that conversation, so nothing said on site is lost. Construction Metric exports everything, so it does not trap your record.
The quickest way to settle a comparison is to run it on a real site. One month, setup fee only: give us a site name and a mobile number and the first diary lands the same evening. Read a sample diary first if you want to see the output before you start.
