Home / Compare / Nialli vs BlackHyve
Nialli vs BlackHyve
Two ways to record why planned work slipped, one run through the general contractor's pull plan and one by the trade contractor. Not like-for-like (our reading): Nialli Visual Planner is digital pull planning on the Last Planner System, with Percent Plan Complete (PPC) and reasons for variance, while BlackHyve is a production management system for trade contractors that sets work installed against the estimate and logs "drift" against conditions the bid assumed. Neither leads with AI. Compared using only vendor pages re-read Oct 17, 2026; desk research, not tested, no winner.
In short: Nialli (Digital pull planning; vendor publishes prices) vs BlackHyve (Project drift tracking; no public prices (quote / sales)). Facts last checked Oct 17, 2026. No winner declared; not tested.
DESK RESEARCH, NOT TESTED. Compiled from vendors' public websites (accessed Oct 17, 2026). Vendor claims are not verified by Means & Methods Lab. No scores or rankings.
Side by side
| Sheet row | Nialli | BlackHyve |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Digital pull planning | Project drift tracking |
| AI role (our label) | Not AI-first | Not AI-first |
| What it does | Visual Planner, construction planning software built on the Last Planner System for digital pull planning; free trial offered. Re-read Oct 17, 2026: the homepage says milestones and activities can be imported from Oracle Primavera P6, Asta Powerproject or Microsoft Project; Percent Plan Complete (PPC) and reasons-for-variance data generate as teams status tasks; constraints show as warning dots on affected tasks; up to three connected touch displays can share one plan; and remote users join from a laptop, tablet or phone. Pricing page re-read Oct 17, 2026: $1,400 single plan and 30-day trial unchanged. Support pages (re-read Oct 17, 2026) say a Not done activity requires a reason for variance, PPC is done activities divided by committed activities, and reports export to PDF and Power BI. | Trade contractor production tracking that sets work installed against the estimate and logs "drift" such as schedule slips and trade collisions. Re-read Oct 17, 2026: it says it connects the estimate, time cards, daily production and the record of what went wrong so the bid-versus-earned gap shows the week it happens; its drift framework names eight conditions the bid assumed (access, materials, tools, equipment, information, sequence, leadership and team size) and separates internal drift from external drift routed to notices, change orders and claims. Foremen log drift by voice or video in an iOS and Android app. Built for electrical, mechanical, plumbing, concrete and steel contractors (vendor statement). Its trust center states SOC 2 compliance; its pages do not describe AI features. |
| Who it's for | Construction managers and jobsite teams. | Contractors tracking productivity against bid assumptions. |
| Pricing (as publicly stated) | Vendor-listed pricing (pricing page, re-checked Oct 17, 2026): Single-plan subscription $1,400 per year (USD), flat price with unlimited users, core features and basic support (one plan supports up to 25 lanes of activity); Multiplan subscription with volume pricing on request; 30-day free trial, no credit card. Paid onboarding/support packages are described without prices. Confirm current terms with the vendor. | No public prices found (re-checked Oct 17, 2026): the vendor site has no pricing or plans link in its navigation or footer, and /pricing returns a not-found page. The site's call to action is "Let's Talk", with a contact page offering a conversation and product walkthrough. Confirm current pricing with the vendor. |
| Test status | Not tested. No scores. | Not tested. No scores. |
| Vendor links | ||
| Sources |
Facts last checked: Oct 17, 2026. Prices change; check the vendor page before relying on them.
Where the vendor descriptions differ
- Scope (vendor wording): Nialli Visual Planner is construction planning software built on the Last Planner System for digital pull planning, with solution pages for general contractors, specialty contractors, project owners and lean specialists. Trades place drag-and-drop activities on color-coded lanes, on up to three connected touch displays or from any device in Chrome, with a field view for phones and tablets. BlackHyve's trust center calls it "the production management system for trade contractors", and its contact page says it is built for electrical, mechanical, plumbing, concrete and steel contractors running crews on commercial or industrial projects.
- What gets measured: Nialli's support pages say each committed activity is marked Not started, Done, Not done or Closed at the end of the week; PPC is done activities divided by committed activities; and a Not done activity requires a reason for variance (its examples: missing materials, labor shortages, late approvals and design issues). Reports show weekly PPC and reason counts, export to PDF, and can feed Power BI. BlackHyve says it connects the estimate, time cards, daily production (work installed, measured against the estimate) and the record of what went wrong, so the gap between what you bid and what you earn shows the week it happens rather than at closeout.
- Why work slips: BlackHyve's drift page lists eight conditions for production that a bid assumes: access, materials, tools, equipment, information, sequence, leadership and team size (its homepage list has quality in place of equipment). It splits internal drift, such as material staging or crew allocation, which you fix, from external drift, such as GC schedule changes, other trades not clearing areas, design changes, RFI delays and site access limits, which it routes to notices, change orders and claims. Foremen record drift events by voice or video in its iOS and Android app, which its sign-in page says works offline. In Nialli, constraints are logged on tasks and show as warning dots, and dependencies are drawn with drag-and-drop gestures.
- Schedules and data: Nialli imports milestones and activities by CSV from Oracle Primavera P6, Asta Powerproject or Microsoft Project, exports to Excel and Power BI, and says it offers a custom API; its Multiplan subscription adds SSO and APIs. BlackHyve's pages do not name the estimating, payroll or scheduling systems it connects to.
- AI: neither product page describes AI features, so both carry our Not AI-first label. BlackHyve's trust center lists an "Anthropic Zero Data Retention Certificate" among its documents, which suggests it uses an AI model provider, but its pages do not describe what any AI does.
- Security (vendor statements, not verified): Nialli says its information security management system is designed to align with ISO/IEC 27001, with AES-256 encryption at rest and TLS 1.2 or higher in transit, and its pricing FAQ lists data residency in Australia, Canada, the European Union, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States. BlackHyve's trust center says it maintains SOC 2 compliance and encrypts customer data in transit and at rest, with a SOC 2 Type II report listed behind an access request.
- Pricing: Nialli publishes prices: a Single-plan subscription at $1,400 per year (USD) with unlimited users, core features and basic support, a Multiplan subscription with volume pricing through sales, and a 30-day free trial with no credit card (re-checked Oct 17, 2026). BlackHyve publishes none: its site has no pricing link, blackhyve.com/pricing returned a not-found page on Oct 17, 2026, and its contact page offers a conversation and a product walkthrough instead. Customer quotes on Nialli's pages and BlackHyve's founder story and illustrative hours example are not used here.
Paraphrased from the sources listed above. Vendor claims are reported as claims.
What we can't tell you yet
Which tool is better for your work. That needs testing on the same package with a verified answer key. Planned measures for this comparison:
- How a Not done reason in Nialli or a drift event in BlackHyve becomes a notice or change order record your team can use
- Which estimate, payroll and schedule systems BlackHyve reads, and how Nialli round-trips with your CPM schedule
- What BlackHyve costs, and Nialli's terms for more than one plan
See the methodology and leaderboard status.
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