Avolve DigEplan vs Bluebeam vs e-PlanSoft: Which is Best for Plan Review?

Today’s plan reviewers must keep up with rising construction demands from citizens and politicians alike, and many are being asked to speed up with AI.

To do that, you need the right software; the problem is that there’s a world of difference between a markup tool like Bluebeam Revu and an enterprise-level plan review platform like Avolve.

If you’re caught between these two ends of the spectrum, we’ve got answers for you. Below, we’ll share an honest comparison of Avolve DigEplan, Bluebeam Revu, and a modern collaborative platform like e-PlanSoft.

What are Avolve, Bluebeam Revu, and e-PlanSoft?

All three are platforms that can help you digitize your plan review process; however, their approaches differ significantly under the hood.

Avolve DigEplan

Avolve has historically been an enterprise-only option for plan review. Since acquiring DigEplan to serve the mid-market alongside ProjectDox, Avolve has expanded its offering.

Both products exist concurrently today, with ProjectDox sold to larger governments that need enterprise software while DigEplan serves smaller cities and governments. Avolve offers two other products in its suite: Navigate for document search and DATAbridge for permitting. If you need Avolve’s enterprise pedigree at a smaller scale, DigEplan can be a good option.

Bluebeam Revu

Bluebeam Revu is primarily marketed and sold for construction, so if you need a PDF markup tool designed for construction plan sets, then Revu is a solid choice. Bluebeam offers four pricing tiers: Basics, Core, Complete, and Max.

Basics includes Bluebeam Revu and Bluebeam Cloud, with PDF creation and markup plus basic length and area measurement tools. Meanwhile, Core includes more advanced measurement capabilities and CAD workflows, and the highest tier, Max, offers advanced features, including Bluebeam’s AI features like automated checks for plan errors and LLM integrations that can edit documents and collect metadata.

e-PlanSoft

You can think of e-PlanSoft as the happy medium between Bluebeam and Avolve.

Like Bluebeam, e-PlanSoft lets you review and comment on plan sets in a markup-like experience, but it is much more than just a markup tool.

Like Avolve, e-PlanSoft is a comprehensive plan review platform. But e-PlanSoft differs in that it was built specifically for the mid-market and for collaborative review. That means that everyone reviews and comments on the same plan set in real time – not different versions that are reconciled and compiled later. e-PlanSoft also slots directly into your permitting suite; it integrates with 8+ permitting partners and offers a flexible API for custom integrations.

Looking for AI-powered features? e-PlanSoft has that too, with a twist.

Rather than trying to automate everything (and open the door for errors and hours wasted), e-PlanSoft automates the busy work like flagging errors before the review begins, checking versions on resubmission, and helping reviewers turn findings into actionable feedback for applicants. This frees your reviewers up for work that requires their expertise and judgment while speeding up your review process.

How does Bluebeam Revu compare to e-PlanSoft?

On the surface, Bluebeam Revu and e-PlanSoft seem to fill a similar niche: electronic plan review markup. A closer look, though, reveals significant differences.

For one, Bluebeam Revu is a desktop markup tool, while e-PlanSoft is a comprehensive plan review platform. Both platforms offer the following features:

• An open API to connect to your permitting software.
• Review many documents across different projects simultaneously.
• Reviewer comments.
• Side-by-side comparisons across different documents.
• Secure interactions between contributors/collaborators and project team members.
• Cloud support.

But as a plan review platform, only e-PlanSoft gives you advanced plan review features like:

• A world-class markup tool with dark mode and snap-to-measure.
• Real-time collaboration – every discipline reviews and marks up the same plan set, not a copy that needs to be reconciled later. In comparison, while Bluebeam Studio Sessions offer real-time capabilities, the desktop-based Revu product does not.
• An intake portal for applicants that not only gets the project into the queue, but includes automated checks for "review readiness" and fixes issues (like unflattened PDFs) if needed.
• Status checks and updates to see where plans sit in the review process
• Time tracking capabilities to monitor review timelines against SLAs
• Comment reconciliation from across disciplines into a corrections list for applicants
• A database to write and store pre-written standard comments, allowing you to re-use your most frequently-used comments across plan sets
• Unlimited online document storage (Bluebeam Studio also includes this, but you can only join Studio sessions and not create them with a Basics subscription)

Here’s a quick breakdown by use case to help you decide when Bluebeam makes sense versus e-PlanSoft.

How does Avolve DigEplan compare to e-PlanSoft?

Both Avolve DigEplan and e-PlanSoft are comprehensive plan review platforms that integrate with your permitting system; isn’t this an apples-to-apples comparison?

Not exactly. While both may offer a dedicated solution for plan review (as opposed to just a desktop markup tool like Bluebeam or plan review as a subset of a larger platform like Accela), the two platforms are quite different.

Both platforms offer:

• Support for multiple disciplines to review and mark up the same document in real-time
• An intake portal
• The ability to set custom statuses for plan sets
• A PDF-like markup interface

But only e-PlanSoft offers the following:

• Designed for the needs of the mid-market. e-PlanSoft was built for modern government, not adapted from a larger tool.
• Access to core plan review features in every tier; Avolve gates its more powerful features behind higher tiers.
• One core platform as the focus, rather than being split across two offerings and market segments.

And e-PlanSoft offers a world-class markup experience, an intuitive platform that your reviewers can learn quickly, and an approach to AI that puts the reviewer at the center of the process rather than replacing them with error-prone automation.

Why Cities Trust e-PlanSoft for Modern Electronic Plan Review

Cities and local governments looking to bring their plan review process into the 21st century trust e-PlanSoft for the following reasons:

• Every department works from the same plan set
• AI that leans on your judgment, not replaces it
• One platform with one core focus

Every Department Works From the Same Plan Set

Plan review should be collaborative, but traditional methods treat it like anything but. We often speak to governments that wade their way through a mess of paperwork after each discipline reviews and comments on copies of the same plan set.

With e-PlanSoft, you get a shared review environment that lets multiple disciplines review the same plan set at the same time, with comments, markups, and version history in one place. Unlike other software platforms that create multiple files behind the scenes and reconcile them with technical wizardry, e-PlanSoft keeps everything in a single file. This saves you time, reduces the room for error, ensures that everyone has the latest version, and gives you more time to complete reviews.

AI That Leans on Your Judgment

The need for human expertise and judgment in plan review isn’t going anywhere. We firmly believe that, which is why we’re building AI that saves you time where you lose it most while preserving your judgment where it matters most.

Many new upstarts are offering AI-powered plan review to automate the entire process. Instead, we’re focusing on four key areas where plan reviewers lose the most time:

1. Intake: An AI assistant that cleans up submissions, identifies obvious gaps, and flags predictable issues early so you can hit the ground running with a new plan set.
2. Review: Automatically spot potential code issues, but suggestions draw only on your team’s own comment library. That way, a human always sees why something is recommended and decides whether to apply the comment.
3. Indexing: Our sheet indexing assistant is focused on the repetitive work of identifying and organizing sheets.
4. Feedback: Finding an issue is only part of the work. Applicants also need to understand what requires attention. Our feedback assistant helps reviewers prepare clearer comments.

AI that tries to automate every facet of plan review is liable to make mistakes, which slows you down and forces you to babysit a tool and do double work. We believe in AI that speeds you up where it’s needed so you can focus on your most important work.

One Platform With One Core Focus

The challenge most plan reviewers will face is that many platforms that offer plan review features also do other things.

For example, Bluebeam Revu’s PDF markup tooling is just one part of Bluebeam’s broader construction product, and Avolve splits its plan review functionality between two platforms serving two different segments.

For e-PlanSoft, collaborative plan review is all we do. Our product roadmap isn’t an exercise in prioritization across different disciplines and audiences. Instead, every quarter builds off the previous in our relentless focus on the needs of plan reviewers. That’s why we can go deeper into AI features that serve plan reviewers, build partnerships with permitting systems, and offer advanced real-time capabilities other platforms can’t.

Looking for Collaborative, Cloud-Based Plan Review? Try e-PlanSoft

If you need a simple desktop markup tool, Bluebeam is a great choice. If you need an enterprise-level platform for plan review, then Avolve is a solid choice.

If you need something in between – a dedicated, collaborative platform without enterprise complexity – that’s e-PlanSoft.

By taking the manual work of copying, routing, and consolidating documents off your plate, e-PlanSoft lets your whole team review the same plan set at once, so you can focus on compliance, safety, and staying a step ahead of your queue.