Home/Compare/vs. CHECKSET
Sheet 01 · The Most Built-Out Competitor Isn't the Most Accountable One
CHECKSET's platform is genuinely well-built — mark-ups, overlays, dashboards, a rotating team of licensed reviewers. What it doesn't have anywhere on its site: a guarantee, a published price, or one accountable person with their name on your findings.
$50K Exposure Guarantee · Published Pricing · Founder-Reviewed
At A Glance
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| Preempt Global | CHECKSET | |
|---|---|---|
| Guarantee | $50K exposure found, or it's free | None stated |
| Pricing | Published bands, visible up front | Custom hourly quote after set review |
| Payment terms | Pay only if the guarantee clears | 50% deposit before review starts, 50% on completion |
| Who reviews your set | Founder-reviewed, personally on every finding | Rotating team of 4–12 reviewers |
| Turnaround | 48 hours to full findings + walkthrough | 24-hr proposal, next-business-day start; review duration scoped per project |
| Findings format | Every item ranked + dollarized + schedule impact | Mark-ups, priority levels 1–3, Top 10 Critical Findings, analytics dashboard |
| Track record | Founder-led, new entrant | 350+ active clients, 94% retention, 208M+ sq ft reviewed |
CHECKSET figures above are CHECKSET's own published claims, not independently verified. See the sections below for the sourcing on each row.
The Guarantee Gap
Read CHECKSET's FAQ and you'll find clear answers on scope customization, lead time, and local code expertise. What you won't find, anywhere on their site: any guarantee tied to outcome, or even a satisfaction guarantee like some of the other players in this space offer. We didn't find one stated — you pay for the hours quoted, full stop.
Preempt Global's guarantee is $50,000-exposure-or-free — in writing, on every tier. If the review doesn't surface at least $50K in documented cost exposure, you don't pay for it. No fine print, no asterisk.
Scope customization — answered
Lead time & local code expertise — answered
"What if the review comes back thin?" — not addressed
✓ $50,000-exposure-or-free, no fine print.
✓ Tied to outcome, not satisfaction.
✓ If it doesn't clear the bar, you owe nothing.
A platform with dashboards and analytics is still just a platform.
A guarantee is a promise. We're the only one of the two making one.
Pricing & Payment Structure
CHECKSET's own FAQ is direct about it: "every project is unique, so we create custom proposals" based on estimated hours — issued after they've seen your drawing set. Their process requires 50% of the fee upfront before the review even starts, with the remaining 50% due on completion, before you've had a chance to evaluate whether the findings were worth it.
Preempt publishes real pricing on this page before you ever request a proposal: a $7,000/mo retainer for unlimited set reviews, or a $9,000 one-time review. Every deliverable starts included on both, and you can see exactly what moves the price. You know the number before the first call, and nothing's billed unless the review clears the guarantee threshold.
| CHECKSET | Preempt Global | |
|---|---|---|
| How pricing works | Custom hourly estimate, issued after seeing your set | Published bands, visible before you talk to anyone |
| Payment structure | 50% deposit before review starts, 50% due on completion | Pay for a result that's already cleared a $50K exposure bar |
| Risk if findings are thin | You've already paid the deposit | Nothing owed |
Who Actually Does Your Review
CHECKSET is upfront that reviews are "never performed by a single individual" — each project gets a team of 4 to 12 reviewers assigned based on relevant experience, managed by a lead reviewer who oversees the group. That's a real operational model, and for some clients the bench depth is the whole appeal.
But it also means the person explaining your findings on the post-review call isn't necessarily one of the people who actually reviewed your set — and the team composition can change project to project. Preempt caps capacity at four sets a month for the opposite reason: Joe Rossi, who spent 5+ years producing construction documents and running PM on jobs up to $60M, reviews personally and puts his name on every finding. Not a rotating bench. One accountable person.
Depth vs. single-point accountability — a real tradeoff, not a flaw on either side.
The Deliverable
Credit where it's due: CHECKSET's deliverable is the most feature-rich in this space — interactive drawing mark-ups, discipline overlays, priority levels, a "Top 10 Critical Findings" list, and analytics dashboards, all hosted in a client web app. If your team wants to self-serve through a platform, it's a genuinely capable one.
Preempt takes a different bet: instead of handing you a dashboard to explore, every finding already comes ranked (High/Med/Low) with a dollar exposure and schedule impact attached — and a live walkthrough where Joe explains what actually matters, in order, out loud. Less software to learn. More decisions made in the room.
What you actually get back — Preempt Global
| Priority | Finding | Est. Field Cost | Schedule |
|---|---|---|---|
| HIGH | Structural beam clash — HVAC duct routing, Lvl 4 | $42,000 | 18 days |
| MED | Electrical panel schedule vs. one-line mismatch | $6,200 | 3 days |
| LOW | Door hardware finish mismatch — Suite 220 | $400 | 0 days |
Ranked. Priced. Scheduled. Nothing left for you to triage.
CHECKSET web app (illustrative)
MEP overlay — Lvl 4 clash
Priority 1Spec vs. finish schedule note
Priority 2Door hardware finish note
Priority 3A capable dashboard — comments, overlays, priority tags. No dollar figure or schedule impact attached; still yours to work out.
CHECKSET's Top 10 Critical Findings list is a smart idea — it's effectively conceding that most of what a review turns up isn't urgent. Preempt starts from that same premise: every finding is pre-ranked and dollarized, not just the top ten. You don't have to dig through comment filters to find the ten that matter.
Speed & Mobilization
To CHECKSET's credit, they typically issue proposals within 24 hours and can mobilize the next business day — that's a real strength worth acknowledging. But mobilizing isn't the same as delivering. Once a Preempt review starts, you have a full written, ranked, dollarized findings report and a live walkthrough in 48 hours. Fast to start is good. Fast to finish is what actually protects your schedule.
CHECKSET
Preempt Global
Fast to start is good. Fast to finish is what actually protects your schedule.
Scale, Honestly Addressed
CHECKSET reports 350+ active clients and 94% retention — that's a legitimately strong track record, and their case-study list includes national developers and GCs. We're not going to pretend that doesn't matter.
What that scale requires operationally is a larger bench, standardized workflows, and AI-assisted processing to keep throughput up. Preempt made the opposite bet: the founder reviews every set personally, so scale never becomes the reason your set gets a rotating team instead of direct attention.
CHECKSET states
350+ active clients
CHECKSET states
94% retention
Preempt turnaround
48 HRS
Preempt, every finding
FOUNDER'S NAME
208M+ sq ft reviewed, by CHECKSET's own numbers. Scale is a real advantage. Focus is a different one.
Fair's Fair
Choose CHECKSET when your team wants a self-serve web platform with interactive mark-ups, discipline overlays, and analytics dashboards — and you're comfortable with a custom hourly quote that arrives after they've seen your set.
Choose Preempt when you want a published price before the first call, one accountable name on every finding, and a written guarantee that's tied to what the review actually turns up — not just your satisfaction with the process.
Sheet 01 of 01 — Last Call
Book a 30-minute demo. Nothing's shared until the NDA is signed, and nothing's billed unless we find something worth the fee.
