Honest comparison
HandsHQ is a genuinely good tool - but it's built for mid-to-large contractors with dedicated health and safety staff, and if your team is under ten people you're almost certainly paying for scale you don't use. This page is about downsizing from HandsHQ, not upgrading to it. The Site Book is the closest like-for-like for small builders because it is not RAMS-only: it covers RAMS, CPP, COSHH records, site inductions, toolbox talks, worker sign-off, plus Business site attendance, site files and portal users. Haspod is the right downsize if you want a template library. RAMS Pro suits teams who only need the RAMS half. CDM Wizard is a free fallback.
For UK small builders comparing HandsHQ alternatives, The Site Book is the clearest fit when you need more than RAMS. It covers RAMS, CPP, COSHH records, site inductions, toolbox talks, worker sign-off, plus Business site attendance, site files and portal users. Pricing is Starter £0, Pro £39/month or £360/year, Business £199/month, with optional setup at £249 one-off.
Reviewed
Based on publicly available vendor pricing and documentation reviewed 2026-05-22.
Pricing, fit, and feature coverage side by side.
| Feature | The Site Book | Haspod | RAMS Pro | CDM Wizard |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Starter £0; Pro £39/mo or £360/yr; Business £199/mo | £799/yr (annual upfront) | Free; GBP15-45/mo | Free |
| Team size | 1 internal user on Pro; up to 5 internal logins and 25 active site portal users on Business | 1–50 | Small-mid | Any -learning tool |
| Best for | Small UK builders who need CDM documents plus lightweight site H&S operations: RAMS, CPP, COSHH, inductions, toolbox talks, site attendance, site files and worker/visitor portal access. | Small-to-mid UK businesses (sole trader up to ~50 users) that prefer browsing a 790+ template library and customizing by hand, and are comfortable with annual-only upfront commitments. Documents / Training / Talks are sold as separate annual subscriptions or bundled in the Pro Plan. | UK contractors who want AI RAMS on a low monthly tier, with COSHH, inductions, inspections, toolbox talks, and other modules from Pro upward. | Builders learning the basics of CDM 2015 who want a free checklist-style walkthrough before committing to paid compliance tooling. |
| Not ideal for | New product (launched 2025) -smaller customer base and shorter track record than established tools like HandsHQ. | Annual-only billing with no monthly option and no automatic renewal -every plan requires a £799+VAT upfront commitment for 12 months, which is a heavy lift for sole traders testing the product. | Document and back-office user limits apply on the lower tiers, so growing teams need to watch usage and plan fit. | Does not produce site-ready RAMS, CPP, COSHH, or method statements -it's a learning tool, not a document generator. |
| RAMS | AI-generated, site-specific, edit in-browser. | Via template library | AI RAMS generator with monthly limits. | |
| CPP | Full Construction Phase Plans -not just RAMS. | Template | Pro/Enterprise module. | Basic CPP checklist, not a document generator. |
| COSHH | Template | Pro/Enterprise add-on module. | ||
| Method statements | Template library | |||
| Site inductions | Workers sign from their phone. | Training Plan add-on | Pro/Enterprise add-on module. | |
| Worker cert tracking | Training matrix on Pro/Enterprise. | |||
| Incident log | Accident records on Pro/Enterprise. | |||
| Permits to work | Template only | |||
| Site diary | Site logbook present in the app bundle. | |||
| Subcontractor tracking | Engineers and client contacts. | |||
| Toolbox talks | Talks Plan add-on | Pro/Enterprise add-on module. | ||
| Site attendance | Business includes check-in/check-out and live H&S attendance. | — | — | — |
| Site portal | Business includes up to 25 active site portal users. | — | — | — |
| Site files | Drawings, plans, H&S docs, procedures, RAMS, CPP and emergency information. | — | — | — |
| PCPP import | Upload an existing PCPP and reuse the structure. | |||
| Document checking | ||||
| Data export | PDF/DOC download | |||
| AI chat | ||||
| Site inspections | — | — | Pro/Enterprise add-on module. | — |
Most alternatives pages target users upgrading from a cheap tool to something more serious. This one targets the opposite move - builders who are on HandsHQ and have realised it's too much tool for a smaller firm. HandsHQ is built for mid-to-large contractors with dedicated H and S staff and the pricing reflects that. For a small builder, the right call is a tool that covers RAMS, CPP, COSHH records, inductions, toolbox talks, worker sign-off, site attendance, files and portal users without enterprise onboarding.
At-a-glance fit per product - pulled from the same data that drives the snapshot table.
Pick the option that matches how your team actually works.
If you're under five people and downsizing from HandsHQ because tiered RAMS allowances and demo-led onboarding don't fit your scale, The Site Book is the cleanest move. Starter is £0, Pro is £39/month or £360/year, Business is £199/month, and the optional setup service is £249 one-off, not a subscription. You're swapping a great larger-team tool for a right-sized small-builder tool.
Recommended for: Under 5 people - sole trader or micro-team downsizing from HandsHQ
If you're a five-to-ten person firm downsizing from HandsHQ because the enterprise workflow is heavier than your jobs need, The Site Book or Haspod both make sense. The Site Book wins on monthly pricing, AI document generation, Business team logins, portal users, site attendance and files; Haspod wins if you want a hand-editable template library.
Recommended for: 5 to 10 people - outgrowing entry tools but nowhere near enterprise
Strengths, weaknesses, fit, and the sources every claim came from.
The Site Book Ltd
Starter £0; Pro £39/mo or £360/yr; Business £199/mo
Haspod Ltd
£799/yr (annual upfront)
RAMS Pro
Free; GBP15-45/mo
CDM Wizard
Free
Pricing
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Short, straight answers - the same questions real builders ask.
HandsHQ is an excellent tool - it's just architected for mid-to-large contractors with dedicated health and safety teams. If you're a small builder, you're paying enterprise prices for features you don't use, onboarding overhead you can't justify, and per-seat costs that spike every time you add casual labour. Downsizing to a tool built for your scale saves money and removes the sales-demo bottleneck before you can even start work.
HandsHQ now publishes individual RAMS plans from £44/month to £190/month, plus team plans from £275/month. The Site Book takes the opposite approach: Starter is £0, Pro is £39/month or £360/year, and Business is £199/month. The optional setup service is £249 one-off, not a subscription, so small builders can price the software before any sales conversation.
The Site Book is the closest like-for-like scope match for a sole trader, but priced and built for smaller firms. It is not RAMS-only: it covers RAMS, CPP, COSHH records, site inductions, toolbox talks, worker sign-off, and wider CDM paperwork. Business adds 5 internal logins, 25 active portal users, site attendance and site files for £199/month.
You can export your RAMS and method statements from HandsHQ as PDFs and re-import the source content into another tool. The Site Book accepts PCPP uploads and reuses the structure, so existing HandsHQ output gives you a head start. Most teams run both platforms in parallel for a few weeks during the downsize - draft new jobs in the new tool, close out old jobs in HandsHQ, then cancel the HandsHQ contract.
CDM Wizard is the free fallback — it ships a basic CDM 2015 questionnaire and PDF output for nothing, which suits builders who need one document for one job and cannot justify monthly spend. The Site Book's own free tier lets you create a real project and generate a real RAMS at no cost with no credit card, which is usually a better starting point for anyone planning more than one job per year.
Based on publicly available vendor pricing and documentation reviewed 2026-05-22.
Every pricing, feature, and fit claim in this comparison is pulled from public vendor documentation and cross-checked against independent sources. The “source basis” footer on each product card lists the exact URLs and the date we fetched them. We revisit this page at least every 90 days - last reviewed on .