The self-hosted Contractor Foreman alternative
Permora — Every permit expiry and inspection date across your jobs, on one board and in your own calendar — bought once for the whole crew. Own it once, run it on your own server, and stop paying Contractor Foreman every month.
Stop renting Contractor Foreman
2 months of Contractor Foreman equals this one-time price.
Assumption: The entry plan for one user, as the pricing page shows it with annual billing (read 2026-09-24). Permit tracking is usually one feature inside a construction-management suite paid for monthly; Permora is that one job, bought once.
How Contractor Foreman pricing grows with you
Contractor Foreman prices by plan and user count, and permits come as one module of the whole suite rather than on their own.
“Basic $49 per month ... 1 User ... Standard $105 per month ... Up to 3 Users” — their own page, read 2026-09-24
What Contractor Foreman does that we don't
Contractor Foreman is a whole construction-management suite: permits sit beside daily logs, work orders and a CRM.
“Permits Keep permits organized and inspections connected Daily Logs ... Work Orders Handle small jobs without missing a beat ... CRM” — their own page
Who should stay with Contractor Foreman
Stay with Contractor Foreman if you want permits inside a full construction-management suite with daily logs, work orders and a CRM. Permora is the permit-and-inspection register on its own, on your own server, bought once. Full honest limitations are on the product page.
Why owning beats renting Contractor Foreman
- One payment. No monthly, per-seat, or per-location fees — the license is perpetual.
- Your data stays on your server. It never lives in Contractor Foreman's cloud.
- No plan ceilings. Records and users are limited by your hosting, not a pricing tier.
- It keeps working if the vendor doesn't. Self-hosted software can't be sunset or price-hiked out from under you.
Fair trade-offs: you host it, back it up, and apply updates yourself — see the product page for honest limitations, and the full Permora vs Contractor Foreman comparison.
Questions about moving off Contractor Foreman
Does Permora file permits with the city?
No — it tracks permits you've already pulled and the inspections they require. It is not an e-permitting or filing system: it keeps the copies you attach, such as the permit PDF and the inspection report, and files nothing with the authority.
How reliable are the date alerts?
The date math is computed exactly in PHP, anchored to UTC midnights — the test suite covers leap years, month and year boundaries, and both DST transitions.
Does it handle permit fees?
Fees are recorded as exact integer cents for your records and reports — Permora never charges or collects money.
Will it run on shared hosting?
Yes — PHP 8.1+ with PDO, MySQL/MariaDB or SQLite, a 2-minute web installer, no Composer packages, no API keys.
Related on this site
Sources
- Contractor Foreman — price checked 2026-09-24 —
source “'Basic $49 per month Free for 30 days then pay $588 annually at renewal. 1 User' ... 'Standard $105 per month ... Up to 3 Users' ... (features page) 'Permits Keep permits organized and inspections connected' ... 'Monitor permit status, fees, pull-by dates, and inspection connections'”
Competitor prices change — always confirm on the linked page. We only print figures we could verify on the date shown. This vendor is tracked in the Price Observatory — every figure verbatim, dated, re-checked quarterly.