CBRE CostLab vs Gordian VFA Capital Planning

CBRE CostLab is a web-based application for estimating and comparing facility operating costs across more than 400 locations and 75+ asset types worldwide. It provides equipment-level estimates for maintenance and repair, custodial work, energy, grounds management, and pest control. Its Cost Library includes labor, utility, and inflation rates, maintenance tasks, operating details, recapitalization assumptions, and national indexes. The Building Wizard uses seven questions to create a component-level estimate; Project Builder groups maintenance and repair work into projects and estimates material, labor, and equipment needs. For capital planning, CostLab estimates equipment failure probability and helps prioritize replacements by portfolio risk and budget. Users can customize building models and adjust rates and task assumptions. It also identifies deferred maintenance by equipment and provides deferred-cost reports and Facility Condition Index estimates. Mass Data Export sends annual and average asset costs, yearly task costs, deferred costs, and inventory to Excel. Access is through a browser on a laptop, tablet, or smartphone. Paid plans include a 7-day trial; there is no free plan.

Gordian VFA Capital Planning helps facilities teams plan multi-year investment across real estate portfolios and connect spending decisions to organizational missions. It models funding and spending scenarios, scores and bundles projects, and generates capital plans and executive progress or benchmark reports. Forecasting tools let users examine long-term costs and how different spending levels may affect facility conditions. Its asset database tracks details such as location, type, condition, requirements, costs, projects, and plans; portfolio comparisons can use industry benchmarks including the Facility Condition Index. Users can customize fields and lists, then sort, group, or filter information by portfolio criteria. Supported cost sources include RSMeans Data, BCIS, BOMA, third-party providers, and proprietary estimates. The cloud-based software offers secure desktop and mobile-tablet access, while an iPad and Android assessment solution captures facility condition data. VFA Auditor can pass approved field assessments into capital planning. Pricing is on request. Gordian says support requires a current maintenance contract, and it has no obligation to retain customer data after 30 days following subscription termination.