Honest comparison
For a team of one, this ranking is about economics, not features - budget, self-serve signup, and how many RAMS you actually write a month. The Site Book wins at any regular cadence with Pro at £39/month, or £360/year if paid annually, covering the full CDM suite. RapidRAMS beats it on pure maths if you only write one or two documents a month at about £15 per RAMS. Breakeven lands around two to three RAMS a month depending on billing cycle. RAMs App is a reasonable middle ground for template browsers; CDM Wizard is a free learning starting point; Word and Excel are not recommended for anyone invoicing real clients.
For a sole trader doing domestic extensions, The Site Book is the best RAMS software once you write more than two RAMS a month. Starter is £0, Pro is £39/month or £360/year, Business is £199/month, and the optional setup service is a £249 one-off, not a subscription. The same setup covers RAMS, a lightweight CPP, COSHH and site inductions from your phone.
Reviewed
Based on publicly available vendor pricing and documentation reviewed 2026-05-06.
Pricing, fit, and feature coverage side by side.
| Feature | The Site Book | RapidRAMS | RAMs App | CDM Wizard | Excel templates |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Starter £0; Pro £39/mo or £360/yr; Business £199/mo | £15 per document, no subscription | monthly RAMS-only pricing | Free | Microsoft 365 licence (£7.90+/mo per user) + your time |
| Team size | 1 internal user on Pro; up to 5 internal logins and 25 active site portal users on Business | Solo / occasional | All contractors | Any -learning tool | Any |
| 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. | Builders needing occasional RAMS on an ad-hoc basis who don't want a monthly subscription. | General contractors who need template-based RAMS with a familiar library-picker workflow and don't require a full CDM suite. | Builders learning the basics of CDM 2015 who want a free checklist-style walkthrough before committing to paid compliance tooling. | Anyone willing to spend 1–3 hours per document on manual admin who already has Microsoft 365 and doesn't produce RAMS often. |
| Not ideal for | New product (launched 2025) -smaller customer base and shorter track record than established tools like HandsHQ. | £15 per document becomes expensive fast once you need more than two RAMS a month -flat-rate tools pay for themselves quickly. | Template-based only -no AI that generates site-specific RAMS from a plain-English job description. | Does not produce site-ready RAMS, CPP, COSHH, or method statements -it's a learning tool, not a document generator. | Each RAMS takes 1–3 hours to write from scratch -manual work that purpose-built tools do in minutes. |
| RAMS | AI-generated, site-specific, edit in-browser. | Template-based, per document. | Template-based library. | DIY -manual Word/Excel template, no substance database. | |
| CPP | Full Construction Phase Plans -not just RAMS. | Basic CPP checklist, not a document generator. | |||
| COSHH | |||||
| Method statements | Template-based. | Manual Word template. | |||
| Site inductions | Workers sign from their phone. | ||||
| Worker cert tracking | |||||
| Incident log | |||||
| Permits to work | |||||
| Site diary | |||||
| Subcontractor tracking | |||||
| Toolbox talks | |||||
| 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 | Excel exports natively. | ||||
| AI chat |
A team of one has different economics from a ten-person firm, and the parent best-rams-software-uk roundup doesn't quite fit. For a sole trader, the question isn't which tool has the deepest template library or the most collaboration features - it's how many RAMS you actually write a month and whether you can self-serve sign up without a demo. This page re-ranks the same tools through that lens, with an explicit breakeven figure so you can pick on maths rather than marketing.
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 are a one-person builder writing one or two RAMS a month at most, RapidRAMS wins on pure maths. Roughly fifteen pounds per document with no subscription is cheaper than any flat-rate plan when your usage is that low. The breakeven against The Site Book's annual Pro price lands at about two RAMS a month - below that, pay-per-document is the honest pick.
Recommended for: Occasional jobs - one or two RAMS a month
If you are a sole trader running regular site work and writing more than two RAMS a month, The Site Book is cheaper and wider. Pro is £39/month, or £360/year if paid annually, and covers the full CDM suite - RAMS, CPP, COSHH, inductions, worker sign-off - in one bill, with self-serve signup and a free first project.
Recommended for: Regular work - more than two RAMS a month
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
RapidRAMS
£15 per document, no subscription
RAMs App
monthly RAMS-only pricing
CDM Wizard
Free
Microsoft
Microsoft 365 licence (£7.90+/mo per user) + your time
Pricing
See TheSiteBook pricing
Transparent plans for builders, contractors, and teams.
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Related comparisons
Best RAMS Software UK (2026)
The Site Book is best overall for UK small builders needing RAMS plus full CDM coverage, worker sign-off, and Business site attendance/files; HandsHQ remains the enterprise pick, and RapidRAMS suits pay-per-document occasional use.
See comparison →
The Site Book vs RapidRAMS — UK CDM Compliance Tools
The Site Book wins as soon as you need more than two documents a month or the wider CDM suite; RapidRAMS suits one-off pay-per-document needs where a monthly subscription is unjustified.
See comparison →
The Site Book vs CDM Wizard — UK CDM Compliance Tools
The Site Book wins when you need site-ready RAMS, CPP, and COSHH documents; CDM Wizard is a useful free learning tool for understanding CDM 2015 basics, but it does not produce compliance documents.
See comparison →
Short, straight answers - the same questions real builders ask.
Starter is £0 and lets you create your first project without a card. Pro is £39/month or £360/year and is the usual paid plan for regular RAMS, CPP, COSHH, inductions, and worker sign-off. Business is £199/month for larger teams. The optional setup service costs £249 once; it is not a monthly subscription.
It depends on how many documents you write. For one or two RAMS a month, RapidRAMS at roughly fifteen pounds per document is cheapest because you only pay when you draft one. For regular monthly work, The Site Book Pro is £39/month, or £360/year if paid annually, and covers unlimited documents plus the full CDM suite - CPP, COSHH, inductions, worker sign-off.
Yes, if you are carrying out work that needs a risk assessment and method statement - which under CDM 2015 is most paid construction work, including domestic jobs above the relevant thresholds. HSE inspectors do not waive the duty for sole traders. What you can skip is enterprise tooling built for H and S managers. A simple tool aimed at one-person teams is enough to produce site-specific RAMS quickly.
Yes. There is no legal requirement to hold a specific qualification to produce a risk assessment or method statement. CDM 2015 requires that the person is competent - meaning experienced enough with the work and its hazards to assess them sensibly. A sole trader who knows their trade is typically competent to write their own RAMS, especially with software that structures hazards, controls, PPE, and emergency procedures for them.
For a domestic job under CDM 2015, you still need a risk assessment and method statement for the work itself, plus a simple construction phase plan if the project crosses the threshold. A homeowner is the client but the duty-holder responsibilities sit on you as the contractor. The Site Book is built for exactly this audience and ships domestic-ready templates that cover the typical house extension, loft conversion, and kitchen-fit scenarios.
Based on publicly available vendor pricing and documentation reviewed 2026-05-06.
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 .