Survey: How Subcontractors Are Bidding, Spending, and Adopting Tech in 2025

Margins are tight. Timelines feel tighter. And for subcontractors across the country, running a profitable business now requires juggling more complexity than ever before.

At the same time, digital tools are making their way deeper into daily operations—from bidding and estimating software to full project management systems. But how open are subcontractors to adopting new technology? Where are they spending? And what’s slowing them down?

To find out, we surveyed 100 subcontractors in the U.S. Responses were stratified to ensure representation and segmented by company size, division, and role. The results highlight where subs are aligned, where they differ, and what creates the most friction in their bidding process today.

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Tech Adoption Is High—But Motivations Differ by Team Size

Subcontractors are more open to new tools than many in the industry might assume. The majority describe themselves as open but cautious, while a smaller group identifies as neutral or resistant.

Across company sizes, tech openness follows a predictable arc: smaller firms want tools that save time immediately, mid-sized firms are experimenting more actively, and larger subs manage the challenges of training, integration, and standardizing processes across multiple teams.

How Subcontractors Are Investing in Software

When we asked subcontractors how much of their annual budget goes toward software today, the majority reported spending in the 0–2% range. But that headline doesn’t tell the full story. Many of those low-spend respondents also said they’re open to increasing their investment in the near future.

A meaningful share of subcontractors already spend 3% or more of their annual budget on software—signaling a growing belief that digital tools are becoming part of the cost of doing business, not a “nice to have.”

What stands out most is the mindset shift: contractors may not all be spending heavily today, but the willingness to invest is there.
They aren’t resisting technology; they’re being thoughtful about when and how to adopt it.

How Subcontractors Handle Bidding

Bidding responsibilities vary widely across subcontractors, but clear patterns are emerging.

A large percentage rely on project managers to run point on bidding—especially at companies where teams wear multiple hats. Another sizeable group uses a combined approach, where PMs, owners, or managers share the work. Dedicated estimator teams make up a smaller but important portion of the audience, signaling more mature or specialized operations.

Bidding volume also varies. Most subcontractors submit somewhere between 6 and 15 bids per week, though the distribution fans out from there. Some are highly selective, sending only a handful of bids, while others push out 16–30 bids regularly in an effort to keep pipelines full.

These patterns reinforce what many subs already know intuitively: the bidding process isn’t one-size-fits-all. It depends heavily on the team structure, the type of work, and the pace at which opportunities come in.

Looking at bidding volume adds another layer to the picture, revealing how different teams balance workload and opportunity week to week. The smallest firms commonly submit 1–5 or 6–15 bids weekly, mid-sized teams hit their stride at 16–30, and the largest firms settle back into the 6–15 range as project complexity increases.

What Drives Bid Selection

When choosing which bids to pursue, subcontractors consistently prioritize profit margin and project size. Client relationship, project timeline and resource availability also play meaningful roles, especially for PMs managing multiple overlapping responsibilities, but are much less of a focus than profit and size.

The Top Challenges Subcontractors Face

Despite differences in role, division, or team structure, subcontractors consistently struggle with the same core issues in their bidding process.

Accurate cost estimation and determining scope quickly top the list—two tasks that are both time-consuming and high-stakes. Right behind them are prioritizing opportunities and filtering out unsuitable projects, which speaks to the sheer volume of bid invitations most subcontractors receive.
Finally, data organization remains a challenge across the board, reflecting the reality that information often lives in inboxes, attachments, and spreadsheets rather than a centralized system.

What these challenges have in common is the signal they send: subcontractors don’t need more work—they need clarity, structure, and tools that help them focus on the right opportunities faster.

What This Means for the Industry

Subcontractors aren’t struggling because they’re resistant to technology—they’re struggling because their work is chaotic. The biggest blockers to better bidding aren’t cost or willingness. They’re:

• Time
• Scope clarity
• Prioritization
• Fragmented processes
• Lack of visibility across teams

That’s exactly the gap Riffle is built to close. By helping subs filter projects more intelligently, understand scope earlier, and organize communication and documents in one place, we make the bidding process more predictable—and profitable.

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