Excel templates look free, but every RAMS is written by hand from a blank template, version control is manual, and multi-sheet workbooks break on a phone. The Site Book generates site-specific RAMS, CPP and COSHH first drafts from a plain-English brief in minutes, ready for competent-person review, with a proper audit trail, at £39/mo or £360/yr. Stick with Excel if you write compliance documents rarely and already pay for Microsoft 365; switch when the paperwork is weekly.
The Site Book wins on time cost, audit trail, and mobile usability; Excel templates suit builders who write compliance documents rarely and already pay for Microsoft 365.
Starter £0; Pro £39/mo or £360/yr; Business £199/mo
Microsoft 365 licence (£7.90+/mo per user) + your time
Team size
1 internal user on Pro; 10 management logins and 50 active site portal users on Business. Any invited seat can be a field-only Site Supervisor limited to assigned sites/projects. Worker document signing has no per-signature charge; Business can optionally require a 4-digit PIN for shared-link sign-off, and project workers count as active portal users while assigned
Any
Best for
UK builders and principal contractors - from sole traders to builder-run firms of around 50 staff - who need CDM documents plus lightweight site H&S operations: RAMS, CPP, COSHH, inductions, toolbox talks, site attendance, site files, document review evidence, subcontractor evidence and worker/visitor portal access.
Anyone willing to write each document by hand who already has Microsoft 365 and doesn't produce RAMS often.
Not ideal for
New product (launched 2026) -smaller customer base and shorter track record than established tools like HandsHQ.
Each RAMS is written by hand from a blank workbook -manual work that purpose-built tools draft in minutes for competent-person review.
RAMS
AI-generated, site-specific, edit in-browser.
DIY -manual Word/Excel template, no substance database.
CPP
Full Construction Phase Plans - not just RAMS.
COSHH
Standalone COSHH document + site-specific register, SDS upload with extraction, and construction-focused library entries that appear in search only after review.
Method statements
Manual Word template.
Site inductions
Workers sign from their phone - on Business, key H&S details are readable in 9 languages.
Multilingual inductions (9 languages)
On the Business plan, workers read and acknowledge key H&S details in 9 languages; the language used is recorded in the audit trail and translations are site-team reviewable.
—
Worker cert tracking
Cert plus right-to-work evidence records, with expiry reminders.
Incident log
Permits to work
Site diary
Pro includes editable daily entries; owner/admin deletion is permanent, while a Business Site Supervisor's delete can be restored. Live entries and photo counts appear in the Audit Pack.
Subcontractor tracking
Toolbox talks
Site attendance
Business includes check-in/check-out and live H&S attendance.
—
Site portal
Business includes up to 50 active site portal users.
—
Site files
Drawings, plans, H&S docs, procedures, RAMS, CPP and emergency information.
—
Document review
Business review status and history, plus optional named-approver routing (accept/reject each version with recorded reasons before issue) and client review via share links.
—
Subcontractor evidence
Business evidence record, review and archive workflow.
—
Site inspections
Business inspections with checklist items.
—
Corrective actions
Business corrective actions with owner, due date and completion state.
—
PCPP import
Upload an existing PCPP and reuse the structure.
Document checking
Data export
Includes the Audit Pack: one merged PDF covering documents, sign-offs, worker evidence, attendance, incidents, COSHH, permits and up to the latest 500 live Site Diary entries.
Excel exports natively.
AI chat
RAMS / CPP / COSHH generation
The flagship: generates site-specific UK RAMS, CPP and COSHH from a plain-English brief.
—
Right to work
Right-to-work evidence records with expiry reminders, alongside cert tracking.
—
Mobile app
Workers sign and get inducted from their phone browser with nothing to install; a native builder app is in development, not yet in the public app stores.
—
QR / mobile sign-in
Site Control (per-site tier) adds a permanent entrance QR for sign-in/out from the worker's phone.
—
Contractor self-onboarding
Site Control (per-site tier) adds contractor self-join via the entrance QR with CSCS upload and approval.
—
RFIs
Site Control (per-site tier) adds RFIs - create, attach, comment, answer and close.
—
RAMS sign-off (per worker)
Per-worker RAMS sign-off is tracked on Business; an optional 4-digit PIN adds shared-link identity evidence, and Site Control can block check-in until the current version is signed.
—
Live people-on-site
Business adds a live people-on-site H&S view plus evacuation and muster roll-call.
—
Document-review evidence
Business keeps version history with a per-version record of review, issue and worker acknowledgement.
—
Multi-site dashboard & exports
Unlimited projects with account-wide exports and the merged Audit Pack; no cross-site rollup dashboard below the Site Control tier.
—
SSOW
Delivered as the method statement inside the RAMS rather than a separate safe-system-of-work document.
—
Reading this table: a tick means supported, a dash means partly supported, and a cross means we checked and it is not supported. An em dash (—) means we have not verified that capability for that product either way — treat it as unknown, not as a missing feature, and check with the vendor.
Why this matters
Excel works. Technically. But using a spreadsheet for your RAMS, COSHH assessments, and site safety docs costs you hours of admin every week - and one missed CDM 2015 section could mean a failed HSE inspection. You start from a blank template every time, your version control is a graveyard of files called v3_FINAL_USE_THIS_ONE.xlsx, and filling in a multi-sheet workbook on a phone in the rain is nobody's idea of a good site day. The Site Book generates the same compliance output in minutes, stores a single source of truth, and actually works on the device you have in your pocket.
Who each tool is for
At-a-glance fit per product - pulled from the same data that drives the snapshot table.
The Site Book
Best for
UK builders and principal contractors - from sole traders to builder-run firms of around 50 staff - who need CDM documents plus lightweight site H&S operations: RAMS, CPP, COSHH, inductions, toolbox talks, site attendance, site files, document review evidence, subcontractor evidence and worker/visitor portal access.
Not ideal for
New product (launched 2026) -smaller customer base and shorter track record than established tools like HandsHQ.
Team size
1 internal user on Pro; 10 management logins and 50 active site portal users on Business. Any invited seat can be a field-only Site Supervisor limited to assigned sites/projects. Worker document signing has no per-signature charge; Business can optionally require a 4-digit PIN for shared-link sign-off, and project workers count as active portal users while assigned
Excel templates
Best for
Anyone willing to write each document by hand who already has Microsoft 365 and doesn't produce RAMS often.
Not ideal for
Each RAMS is written by hand from a blank workbook -manual work that purpose-built tools draft in minutes for competent-person review.
Team size
Any
The bottom line
Pick the option that matches how your team actually works.
Bottom line
The Site Book wins on time cost, audit trail, and mobile usability; Excel templates suit builders who write compliance documents rarely and already pay for Microsoft 365.
Why switch to The Site Book
✓Generate a site-specific RAMS first draft from a plain-English brief in under five minutes, ready for competent-person review - no blank template to start from.
✓CDM 2015 structure is built in - no risk of missing a mandatory section that an HSE inspector will catch.
✓Automatic version control and a full audit trail - no more v3_FINAL_USE_THIS_ONE.xlsx in your downloads folder.
✓Mobile-first editing and one-click shareable PDFs - edit a CPP from the van, send it straight to the principal contractor.
✓Flat rate from GBP39/month or GBP360/year with a free tier - you pay for your time back on the first job.
Full breakdown per product
Strengths, weaknesses, fit, and the sources every claim came from.
Starter £0; Pro £39/mo or £360/yr; Business £199/mo
Best for
UK builders and principal contractors - from sole traders to builder-run firms of around 50 staff - who need CDM documents plus lightweight site H&S operations: RAMS, CPP, COSHH, inductions, toolbox talks, site attendance, site files, document review evidence, subcontractor evidence and worker/visitor portal access.
Team size
1 internal user on Pro; 10 management logins and 50 active site portal users on Business. Any invited seat can be a field-only Site Supervisor limited to assigned sites/projects. Worker document signing has no per-signature charge; Business can optionally require a 4-digit PIN for shared-link sign-off, and project workers count as active portal users while assigned
Sweet spot
A builder-run principal contractor on a domestic or commercial project who needs ready-to-sign CDM documents, worker sign-off, a live people-on-site view, practical site files, subcontractor evidence records and lightweight inspections/actions - without a dedicated H&S department to run them.
Strengths
UK construction compliance tool that ships RAMS + CPP + COSHH + inductions (readable and acknowledgeable in 9 worker languages on Business, with the language audit-recorded) + worker sign-off, including optional 4-digit shared-link PIN evidence on Business, plus site attendance, portal users, site files, document reviews, subcontractor evidence and inspections/actions.
Generate a site-specific RAMS first draft from a natural-language brief in under five minutes, ready for competent-person review - not a template library you hand-fill.
Controlled document workflow without an enterprise contract: version history and a recorded issue confirmation before a document is shared with a client or downloaded in the app on every plan, re-sign on revision with superseded signatures preserved plus PCPP import, cert tracking and document checking from the £39/month Pro plan - and on Business, optional named-approver routing (a designated approver accepts or rejects each version, with recorded reasons, before it can be issued) plus client approve/reject/request-changes via share links.
Transparent pricing: Starter £0, Pro £39/month or £360/year, Business £199/month with 10 management logins and 50 active site portal users. Worker document signing has no per-signature charge; project workers count as active portal users while assigned.
Build RAMS for any trade - add your own work types and method statements alongside the built-in library, reusable across projects, including a ready-made Commercial Solar PV group. Save a finished job as a reusable project template, or clone it, so the next job of the same shape starts from your own setup.
COSHH goes deep: a standalone COSHH assessment document, upload-a-Safety-Data-Sheet extraction, a site-specific substance register and an expert-reviewed library - plus per-worker RAMS sign-off and a one-click Audit Pack covering documents, sign-offs, worker evidence, attendance, incidents, COSHH, permits and up to the latest 500 live Site Diary entries.
Weaknesses
New product (launched 2026) -smaller customer base and shorter track record than established tools like HandsHQ.
Procore integration is in final testing rather than publicly launched -until it ships, compliance docs export as PDFs rather than syncing into Procore. A public REST API and signed webhooks are live on the Site Control tier; Autodesk Construction Cloud is not integrated.
Site files are a practical portal for drawings, plans and procedures, not formal drawing revision control.
UK-focused content (CDM 2015, HSE guidance) -international contractors on non-UK projects would need to adapt the output.
Check the product detail
These maintained Help Centre guides show exactly how the controls behind this comparison work.
Short, straight answers - the same questions real builders ask.
Isn't Excel free?
Not really. You still need a Microsoft 365 licence at around eight pounds a month per user, and every RAMS is written by hand from scratch. With any regular document cadence, that manual time adds up against a purpose-built tool like The Site Book at £39/month, or £360/year, where a first draft is generated from a brief for you to review.
Why is version control a problem with Excel templates?
Manual versioning, with files named v1, v2, v2-FINAL, v2-FINAL2, makes it easy to send the wrong document to a client, miss required sections, or lose the audit trail entirely. A purpose-built compliance tool stores a single source of truth with proper change history - exactly what regulators expect to see on a principal-contractor workflow when an inspector turns up to your site.
Does Excel work on a phone?
Excel on mobile is painful - it is simply not designed for editing multi-sheet compliance documents on a small screen. Builders working from a phone on site need a tool purpose-built for mobile document creation, on-site editing, and worker sign-off. The Site Book is built mobile-first so the principal contractor can edit a CPP from the van between visits without juggling spreadsheet tabs.
What about the audit trail Excel does not give me?
Yes. Auditors want to see a clear, dated audit trail - who created the document, who approved it, and how it changed over time. Excel files do not capture any of this automatically. The Site Book stores every document version, signature, and edit in a single project record, which is what an HSE inspector or principal designer expects to find when they ask for evidence.
Can I try The Site Book before dropping my Excel templates?
Yes. The Site Book has a free tier that lets you create your first project and generate real documents - your CPP, RAMS, and site induction - without entering a credit card. You can run a real project alongside your existing Excel templates and compare the output yourself. Most builders never go back to spreadsheets once they have seen the difference in time and quality.
How we built this comparison
Based on publicly available vendor documentation and published pricing as of 2026-04-15.
Every pricing, feature, and fit claim in this comparison is checked against public vendor documentation and, where relevant, independent sources. The “source basis” footer on each product card lists the exact URLs and the date we fetched them. The internal freshness dashboard flags source evidence after 45 days; priority pricing is scheduled for monthly review and feature or ownership claims for quarterly review. Last reviewed on .
UK construction compliance tool that ships RAMS + CPP + COSHH + inductions (readable and acknowledgeable in 9 worker languages on Business, with the language audit-recorded) + worker sign-off, including optional 4-digit shared-link PIN evidence on Business, plus site attendance, portal users, site files, document reviews, subcontractor evidence and inspections/actions.
Generate a site-specific RAMS first draft from a natural-language brief in under five minutes, ready for competent-person review - not a template library you hand-fill.
Controlled document workflow without an enterprise contract: version history and a recorded issue confirmation before a document is shared with a client or downloaded in the app on every plan, re-sign on revision with superseded signatures preserved plus PCPP import, cert tracking and document checking from the £39/month Pro plan - and on Business, optional named-approver routing (a designated approver accepts or rejects each version, with recorded reasons, before it can be issued) plus client approve/reject/request-changes via share links.
Transparent pricing: Starter £0, Pro £39/month or £360/year, Business £199/month with 10 management logins and 50 active site portal users. Worker document signing has no per-signature charge; project workers count as active portal users while assigned.
Build RAMS for any trade - add your own work types and method statements alongside the built-in library, reusable across projects, including a ready-made Commercial Solar PV group. Save a finished job as a reusable project template, or clone it, so the next job of the same shape starts from your own setup.
COSHH goes deep: a standalone COSHH assessment document, upload-a-Safety-Data-Sheet extraction, a site-specific substance register and an expert-reviewed library - plus per-worker RAMS sign-off and a one-click Audit Pack covering documents, sign-offs, worker evidence, attendance, incidents, COSHH, permits and up to the latest 500 live Site Diary entries.
