Estimark and HandsHQ, compared for UK contractors

UK construction firms whose main safety job is producing RAMS, with a library of method statements and hazard content maintained by safety professionals behind the builder.

• It is written around CDM 2015 and UK method statements, and it is the tool a main contractor most often names when asking a subcontractor what their RAMS are written in.
• Team plans are sold per company against a user band rather than per head, so the bill steps at the band rather than with each hire.
• Individual plans are metered by how many RAMS you produce in a month rather than by headcount.

NoteEstimark describes its own product here. For the other product’s current price and what it covers, read that vendor’s own site.

A flat monthly fee per company, banded by user cap on the team plans and capped by document count on the individual ones, with every band quoted as a floor rather than a fixed price.

• The team bands are billed annually and carry a set-up fee whose amount HandsHQ does not publish. Ask for that figure in writing before you compare monthly rates.
• The individual plans are metered, so a second RAMS in a month on the £44 band means moving up to £99 a month rather than paying an overage.
• The team pricing page states no VAT position at all. The individual page states its prices excluding VAT and prints the inclusive figure beside them.
• There is no free trial on the team plans, only a thirty minute demo.

NoteHandsHQ's published UK prices, read on 15 September 2026. Check their own site for today's.

RAMS held as versioned documents and signed per operative, with site inductions, toolbox talks, permits to work, near miss and accident recording, and CSCS card expiry, all against the job.

• A revision is a new version rather than an edit, and a sign-off records which version that person accepted, with their drawn signature, the method, the time and the IP address.
• Toolbox talk attendance is signed on the phone, timestamped on the device rather than when the server heard about it, and hashed against the talk it was given for, so editing the talk afterwards invalidates every signature taken against it.
• Site inductions carry the topics covered, the inductee’s signature and an expiry date, per site or company-wide.
• Site clock-on can be gated on a valid induction, an in-date CSCS card and acceptance of the current RAMS version, set to off, warn or block per job.
• An accident report classifies which RIDDOR duty applies and dates the deadline from the accident rather than from the day somebody noticed, then chases it.
• Near misses and dangerous occurrences are recorded separately from accidents, so what could have happened is not filed as what did.

NoteHealth & Safety is included from Solo up, so it is on every plan.

No library of pre-written, professionally reviewed risk assessments, and no safety accreditation of its own.

• Estimark has form templates and a drafting assistant prompted as a UK construction safety manager. Nobody at Estimark holds a NEBOSH or IOSH qualification and signs its output off, so every RAMS it drafts has to be reviewed by a competent person before it is issued.
• There is no maintained hazard library and no curated method statement catalogue kept current by safety professionals. That is the gap a customer notices in week one.
• Estimark holds no safety accreditation. It is not SSIP registered, not CHAS, SafeContractor or SMAS assessed, and holds no ISO 27001, SOC 2 or Cyber Essentials. Using it does not accredit you and does not shorten an assessment. It holds the evidence an assessor asks for.
• It does not file to RIDDOR. It classifies the duty, dates the deadline and chases it, and the F2508 is still submitted by a person on hse.gov.uk.
• It does not check a CSCS card against the card scheme. Numbers and expiry dates are entered by hand, and Estimark tracks the expiry from there.

NoteEstimark also records the CIS300 rather than filing it to HMRC, and takes no card payment on a customer’s behalf.

It handles the four obligations a UK contractor is judged on: CIS deduction, the VAT domestic reverse charge, Construction Act payment timing, and the safety records that go with them.

• CIS deducted on labour only, excluding materials, VAT and plant hire, on 6th-to-5th tax months, with HMRC verification when connected and the CIS300 recorded with both statutory declarations.
• VAT domestic reverse charge under section 55A: the statutory wording on the invoice, nil VAT, controlled per client.
• Payment applications with Construction Act dates, the pay less deadline calculated, and retention tracked to release.
• RAMS with operative sign-off, inductions, permits and a live muster roll, plus EIC, EICR, Minor Works, PAT and CP12 certificates with typed test results.

NoteEstimark records the CIS300 and locks it to its tax period. It does not file the return to HMRC on your behalf.

When the RAMS itself is what you are buying, and you want it written from a maintained library by people qualified to maintain one.

• A firm whose only software problem is RAMS, with quoting, costing and invoicing settled elsewhere, is buying a narrower thing than Estimark sells.
• A firm with no competent person of its own leans on the library for content it cannot write, and Estimark has no content to lean on.
• A main contractor who has named the tool in the contract has settled the question before any comparison starts.

NoteEstimark describes its own product here. For the other product’s current price and what it covers, read that vendor’s own site.