Are your building’s energy bills soaring?
You’re likely using outdated systems that can’t optimize energy use, which directly hurts your operational budget and overall ROI.
The real issue is justifying costs with unclear ROI projections while trying to navigate countless software options, all claiming to be the best.
According to Research Nester, software drove 62.4% of energy-saving gains in U.S. federal buildings. This proves that technology, not just hardware upgrades, is key to achieving significant savings.
The right platform solves this by providing you with the clear data to prove ROI and finally get your building’s performance optimized.
In this guide, I’ll cut through all the noise. I’m going to show you the best smart building software that helps you make a confident decision.
You’ll discover solutions that integrate with your existing systems, automate your compliance reporting, and finally slash operational costs.
Let’s get started.
Quick Summary:
| # | Software | Rating | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Siemens → | Large enterprises & manufacturers | |
| 2 | Schneider Electric → | Industrial & commercial buildings | |
| 3 | Honeywell → | Commercial building operators | |
| 4 | Johnson Controls → | Facility managers & IT directors | |
| 5 | Planon → | Real estate & portfolio managers |
1. Siemens
Struggling with smart building software choices?
You’re likely looking for solutions that genuinely boost ROI and cut energy costs. Siemens helps by providing advanced Digital Twins technology.
This means you can visualize and simulate your building’s operations before making physical changes, helping you avoid costly mistakes and optimize performance.
This leads to smarter building management.
Siemens offers solutions designed to make your building’s digital transformation a reality. They leverage Digital Twins to create a virtual replica of your physical assets.
This capability allows for comprehensive testing and optimization, ensuring that new systems integrate seamlessly with your existing HVAC, lighting, and security infrastructure. Plus, it helps achieve critical sustainability certifications and meet evolving energy regulations.
Additionally, this approach empowers you to predict maintenance needs, automate compliance reporting, and enhance tenant satisfaction, ensuring your investment truly pays off.
It’s about achieving your long-term goals.
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Key features:
- Digital Twins technology: Provides virtual replicas of your building, enabling safe and efficient simulation of CNC machining processes for optimized operations.
- Cost-effective transformation: Helps manufacturers achieve digital transformation goals, addressing the common struggle of lacking the right digital tools to reach efficiency.
- Enhanced safety and efficiency: Improves CNC machining safety and efficiency by allowing comprehensive testing and visualization in a digital environment.
Learn more about Siemens features, pricing, & alternatives →
Verdict: Siemens’ emphasis on Digital Twins technology makes it a strong contender for the best smart building software, particularly for organizations seeking robust simulation and optimization capabilities. Their approach directly tackles common challenges like digital transformation hurdles and inefficient operations, offering a clear path to significant energy savings and operational efficiencies.
2. Schneider Electric
Struggling to optimize your building’s energy and operational costs?
You’re seeking solutions that integrate seamlessly with existing systems, offering real-time analytics to improve resource allocation.
This is where Schneider Electric’s agnostic software portfolio shines, empowering your organization to make the most of its energy and resources while bridging progress and sustainability. Their offerings help you achieve sustainability certifications, reduce operational costs, and future-proof your buildings.
Here’s how they deliver.
Schneider Electric’s software helps accelerate digital transformation. Their solutions put the power of industrial intelligence to work in your enterprise.
This provides the tools you need for robust energy management and automation. You get advanced consulting services to prepare your facilities for digital transformation, ensuring your building management systems are ready for future demands.
Their focus on innovation at every level, through solutions like EcoStruxure, helps you move towards a more electric world. This means real-time analytics for resource optimization, predictive maintenance capabilities, and automated compliance reporting, crucial for aligning with sustainability goals.
The result is impact by empowering all.
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Key features:
- Agnostic Software Portfolio: Provides comprehensive software solutions tailored to your specific needs, supporting diverse building types and operational requirements for optimal efficiency.
- Industrial Intelligence: Harnesses advanced analytics and data insights to power industrial intelligence within your enterprise, boosting operational efficiency and energy management capabilities.
- Digital Transformation Acceleration: Delivers services and innovative solutions, including EcoStruxure, to accelerate your digital transformation, enhancing sustainability and overall building performance.
Learn more about Schneider Electric features, pricing, & alternatives →
Verdict: Schneider Electric’s strong emphasis on sustainability and efficiency makes it an excellent choice if you’re looking for the best smart building software. Their focus on digital transformation and comprehensive software solutions helps your organization achieve significant energy cost reductions and boosts ROI by optimizing resource management.
3. Honeywell
Struggling with complex building software options?
Honeywell offers Building Automation and Energy and Sustainability Solutions designed to streamline your operations. This means you can evaluate and implement solutions without the usual overwhelm.
You’ll find their software addresses specific pain points, helping you manage features like energy management and IoT integration, making budget justification simpler by showing clear ROI. Their digital-first approach delivers next-generation outcomes.
Simplify your smart building evaluation.
Honeywell solves the problem of disparate systems by offering purpose-built platforms like Honeywell Forge, which integrates with existing building management systems.
This allows you to optimize facility uptime and improve efficiency across your portfolio. Honeywell also bakes decades of operational experience into AI, enhancing productivity and supporting safety and security, helping you achieve compliance goals.
Additionally, their OT-Centric Cybersecurity helps protect critical operations from unplanned downtime and hostile actors, ensuring your data and assets are secure. Their focus on commercial buildings means solutions are tailored for your specific needs, improving occupant experience.
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Key features:
- Building Automation solutions: Help commercial building owners and operators create safer, more efficient, and productive facilities, enhancing the occupant experience in over 10 million buildings.
- Energy and Sustainability Solutions: Empower you to stay ahead of global demand for cleaner, smarter, and more available energy, helping reduce your carbon footprint and achieve sustainability certifications.
- Honeywell Forge Platform: A future-ready IoT platform delivering AI-enabled applications and services for intelligent, efficient, and more secure industrial operations across your properties.
Learn more about Honeywell features, pricing, & alternatives →
Verdict: Honeywell offers a comprehensive and robust suite of software and services for commercial buildings, making it a strong contender for the best smart building software. Their focus on automation, energy efficiency, and cybersecurity directly addresses key pain points for facility managers and IT directors, helping you reduce operational costs.
4. Johnson Controls
Struggling with escalating energy costs and complex building systems?
Johnson Controls offers OpenBlue and FM:Systems to streamline operations, reduce carbon emissions, and optimize space utilization. This means you can achieve your sustainability goals and boost overall ROI.
Their building automation systems like Metasys and Facility Explorer provide the intelligence your team needs to create safer, smarter building environments and reduce operational costs.
Ready to unlock your building’s smart potential?
Johnson Controls provides robust digital solutions to transform your buildings into strategic assets. OpenBlue Enterprise Manager gives you real-time data visibility across all your assets, people, and processes, enabling proactive management.
This means you can easily monitor HVAC equipment, fire detection, security, and industrial refrigeration. For example, their chiller connectivity uses advanced analytics across up to 200 data points, helping you increase uptime, sustainability, and efficiency while reducing costs. These integrated solutions drive productivity and ensure the health and wellbeing of your occupants, simplifying compliance reporting and future-proofing your buildings.
You can truly drive climate progress and business performance.
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Key features:
- Comprehensive Building Automation: Centralized control over HVAC, lighting, and security systems to optimize performance and create safer, smarter environments.
- Real-time Data Visibility: OpenBlue Enterprise Manager provides insights across assets and processes for proactive operational management and cost reduction.
- Integrated Solutions: Seamlessly connects diverse systems like fire detection, security, and industrial refrigeration for enhanced efficiency and sustainability.
Learn more about Johnson Controls features, pricing, & alternatives →
Verdict: Johnson Controls offers a powerful suite of digital solutions, including OpenBlue, making it a strong contender for the best smart building software. Its ability to integrate diverse systems and provide real-time data visibility for operational efficiency and sustainability goals addresses key pain points for facility managers and IT directors.
5. Planon
Struggling with smart building software evaluation?
You’re not alone. Many grapple with assessing features like energy management systems and IoT integration. Planon streamlines operations and boosts performance.
Planon’s Integrated Workplace Management Solution (IWMS) and IoT-enabled capabilities tackle these issues directly. This means you gain improved efficiency and reduced costs across your entire real estate portfolio.
Here’s how Planon helps.
Planon acts as one integrated open platform, connecting various internet technologies to optimize your building performance. You can manage everything from real estate to asset maintenance, ensuring compliance and strategic planning.
This solution offers comprehensive Energy & Sustainability Management, allowing you to meet sustainability goals and simplify regulatory compliance. You also get robust data and analytics services, providing actionable insights for resource optimization and smarter decision-making. Their IoT Services enhance real-time analytics for resource optimization. Plus, with ERP integration, you combine core finance information with real estate and facilities management for significant operational gains.
The result: future-proofed buildings and substantial cost savings.
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Key features:
- Integrated Workplace Management Solution: Boost productivity and cut costs by integrating real estate, space, asset, and energy management for a unified view.
- Energy & Sustainability Management: Achieve critical sustainability goals, reduce energy consumption, and simplify compliance reporting with comprehensive tools.
- IoT Services & Data Analytics: Leverage real-time data from IoT devices for predictive maintenance, resource optimization, and informed decision-making.
Learn more about Planon features, pricing, & alternatives →
Verdict: Planon stands out as a leading contender for the best smart building software, integrating diverse building technologies and data into one source of truth. Its comprehensive IWMS, IoT capabilities, and strong emphasis on sustainability, as recognized by a Platinum EcoVadis Medal, make it ideal for organizations aiming for significant energy cost reductions and increased ROI.
6. VergeSense
Are your building operations truly data-driven?
Many facility managers struggle with integrating disparate systems and demonstrating clear ROI for smart building investments.
You’re constantly trying to justify costs and ensure compliance, but unreliable data can paralyse your decision-making.
Here’s how to measure, plan, and manage better workplaces.
VergeSense provides an Occupancy Intelligence Platform to unify and analyze all your occupancy data, optimizing every space in your portfolio. This means you can gather insights from VergeSense sensors, WiFi, space booking, and even badge data.
The platform leverages AI-enabled insights, analytics, and recommendations to help you understand occupancy trends across your entire portfolio, powered by the Workplace Assistant. It gives you data-driven insights to make faster real estate decisions, saving you significant costs. The result is better space utilization, reduced operational expenses, and improved employee satisfaction by automating workplace management operations.
You can learn how 200+ enterprises use VergeSense for cost savings and enhanced experience.
Key features:
- Unify Occupancy Data: Integrates data from VergeSense sensors, existing building systems, WiFi, and space booking to create a single source of truth for your entire portfolio.
- AI-Enabled Analytics: Provides AI-driven insights and recommendations to analyze occupancy trends, supporting data-driven decisions for portfolio evaluation and space optimization.
- Workplace Automation: Automates operations like cleaning processes and provides intelligent space design insights, reducing costs and enhancing employee experience across your properties.
Learn more about VergeSense features, pricing, & alternatives →
Verdict: VergeSense stands out as a leading contender for the best smart building software by tackling core challenges for facility managers and IT directors. Its powerful Occupancy Intelligence Platform, proven by over $60M in lease avoidance and $2M annual savings for a global financial firm, offers scalable, integrated solutions for real-time analytics and predictive maintenance, making it ideal for optimizing ROI and sustainability.
7. Facilio
Is your smart building software a true asset?
Facilio’s Connected Operations Platform offers a unified O&M solution to bring all your building systems together. This means you can gain 360-degree visibility into your portfolio-wide operations.
Your team can finally focus on strategic goals, not routine tasks. It’s designed to connect disparate systems, people, and processes.
You can really transform your building operations.
Facilio addresses key pain points by helping you execute complex energy management strategies at scale. It offers real-time remote command and control, leading to a quick return on investment.
This includes utility monitoring, energy benchmarking, and detailed energy analytics. You also get fault detection and diagnostics for proactive issue resolution, alongside cloud-based optimization for continuous improvements.
Additionally, if you manage refrigeration systems, Facilio provides AI-driven energy optimization, intelligent alarm management, and refrigerant leak compliance. This allows you to optimize multi-store operations and energy performance efficiently.
The result is game-changing operational efficiency.
Key features:
- Connected CMMS: Go beyond basic asset and maintenance management by connecting systems, people, and processes for 360-degree visibility across your entire portfolio.
- Connected Buildings: Improve energy and carbon efficiency with real-time remote command and control capabilities, enabling you to see ROI in just weeks from deployment.
- Connected Refrigeration: Optimize multi-store operations and energy performance using AI-driven optimization, intelligent alarm management, and refrigerant leak compliance features.
Learn more about Facilio features, pricing, & alternatives →
Verdict: Facilio stands out as the best smart building software for large commercial real estate, offering robust integration and impressive ROI. Customers like Investa have seen a 40% reduction in asset downtime, showcasing its practical benefits for optimizing operations and maintenance.
8. Spacewell
Are high energy costs burdening your buildings?
Spacewell offers AI-powered energy management to optimize consumption and a comprehensive suite for workplace experience, analytics, and maintenance. This means you can gain critical insights to operate more efficiently.
Their solutions provide digital tools to optimize how your buildings are occupied, maintained, and serviced, ultimately creating a high-performing smart workplace environment where people thrive. You can expect data-driven insights to achieve this.
This helps unlock your building’s full potential.
Spacewell addresses core challenges by providing a unified platform to manage complex building operations. Their energy management solution, powered by AI, helps your organization reduce energy costs significantly and achieve critical sustainability goals.
You can also leverage workplace analytics for data-driven optimization of occupancy, utilization, and ambient conditions. This means real-time insights into space performance, allowing you to reconfigure layouts or adjust climate controls to suit actual usage.
Additionally, their maintenance software supports long-term planning, efficient management, and regulatory compliance, ensuring your buildings are safe and comfortable while reducing operational overhead. Plus, workflow-based management automates facility processes.
The result is truly optimized building performance.
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Key features:
- AI-powered energy management to optimize consumption, reduce energy costs, and help your organization meet its sustainability objectives.
- Workplace analytics and experience tools offering insights into occupancy, utilization, and ambient conditions, elevating the overall employee experience.
- Sustainable building maintenance software for long-term planning, efficient maintenance management, and ensuring regulatory compliance across your properties.
Learn more about Spacewell features, pricing, & alternatives →
Verdict: Spacewell is recognized as a leader in IWMS and Smart Building software, making it a compelling choice as the best smart building software. Their AI-powered energy management and comprehensive workplace solutions, demonstrated by successful cases like Caixabank reducing energy costs, position them as a strong contender for facility managers seeking operational efficiency and ROI.
9. MaintainX
Are your building operations costing too much?
MaintainX offers an intuitive platform to boost productivity and reduce downtime. This means you can manage, track, and analyze your assets efficiently.
The software streamlines work orders and preventive maintenance, helping you avoid costly surprises and reduce unexpected downtime by up to 32%.
It’s time to gain real control.
MaintainX helps you plan and execute work easily by creating, assigning, and monitoring work orders and requests. You can turn data into cost-saving insights, leveraging customizable dashboards and reports on asset health and maintenance costs. This helps you operate more efficiently and make smarter spending decisions.
Additionally, MaintainX integrates with IoT sensors to trigger condition-based work orders automatically, ensuring critical equipment stays online. It also centralizes data for multi-site management, improving safety and compliance by automating inspections and corrective actions to meet regulatory requirements. Plus, it helps eliminate parts shortages and overspending by monitoring inventory and automating re-orders.
The result is increased asset availability and extended equipment life.
Key features:
- Preventive Maintenance: Schedule and track repeatable tasks to proactively reduce unexpected downtime and integrate with IoT sensors for condition-based work orders.
- Asset Management: Increase equipment availability and extend asset life through health insights and data-driven decisions to reduce capital expenditures.
- Checklists & Inspections: Standardize best practices and enforce safety guidelines across all your sites, automating regulatory compliance and digital audit trails.
Learn more about MaintainX features, pricing, & alternatives →
Verdict: MaintainX excels as a best smart building software solution for property management and facility maintenance. Its focus on predictive maintenance, IoT integration, and compliance management helps reduce operational costs by up to 34% on parts inventory and decreases unplanned downtime by 32%, directly addressing key pain points for IT directors and facility managers.
10. FSG
Are you struggling with building operational efficiency?
FSG offers smart building controls, encompassing electrical construction, commercial lighting, and technology systems, to boost your operational effectiveness.
This means you can address complex challenges like disparate systems and high energy costs, as FSG integrates and monitors your building’s various components. You’ll gain a centralized cloud platform to manage your entire facility.
Here’s how FSG can help.
FSG Smart Buildings can integrate, install, monitor, and solve your toughest building automation and IoT challenges. You gain a unified platform to see and act on your building’s performance anytime, anywhere.
For instance, their commercial solar solutions can reduce energy expenses by up to 90% for many businesses. This directly addresses your pain point of high operational costs and supports sustainability goals. Additionally, FSG provides comprehensive energy efficiency programs, from small business retrofits to full-service utility program support, helping you save energy and money.
Their extensive experience spans various industries, including commercial offices, healthcare, and education, ensuring tailored solutions. This allows you to combine electrical, lighting, signs, smart controls, and technology systems under one comprehensive service.
The result is optimized building performance and reduced costs.
Key features:
- Smart Building Controls: Integrate and monitor building automation and IoT challenges through a centralized cloud platform for comprehensive management.
- Commercial Solar Solutions: Reduce energy expenses by up to 90% with engineered solar power systems for unparalleled efficiency and sustainability.
- Energy Efficiency Programs: Implement comprehensive initiatives, from small retrofits to full utility program support, to save energy and money across your facilities.
Learn more about FSG features, pricing, & alternatives →
Verdict: If you’re seeking to integrate complex systems and drive significant cost reductions, FSG stands out as a strong contender for the best smart building software. Their focus on electrical, lighting, and smart controls, combined with impressive energy savings capabilities demonstrated in case studies like CEC International’s $92,000 annual cut, makes them a practical choice for improving your building’s ROI.
Conclusion
Ready to slash your energy bills?
Choosing the right platform is overwhelming. You need to justify every dollar with clear ROI, but navigating complex vendor claims makes this a significant challenge.
Buildings.com reports that smart systems can yield a 31% productivity improvement. For your facility, this means significant operational cost savings are finally within your reach.
So what is the best choice?
In my experience, Siemens stands out as the leader. Its Digital Twins technology lets you simulate and validate performance changes, proving ROI before making physical commitments.
This ability to visualize and de-risk major upgrades is why it’s my top pick for the best smart building software. It ensures seamless system integrations and avoids costly mistakes.
Beyond commercial applications, my guide on the best smart home system offers insights for personal use.
I highly recommend you visit the Siemens website to see how this technology can transform your building management strategy.
You’ll finally achieve predictable ROI.
