Type an address and Draftly reads the bushfire overlays your state publishes — Bushfire Management Overlay and its interstate equivalents — then hands you the whole site brief alongside it.
Free, no account, not metered. Runs the full site brief — zone, overlays, verified lot boundary, easements and design wind — and gives you the PDF.
Every free brief returns the whole picture — not just the one line you came for. (Your check lands in the brief's Overlays & Controls — bushfire section.)
| Check | Property-data platforms | Draftly site brief |
|---|---|---|
| Flood report | $39–$69 | Free |
| Bushfire pre-screen | $39–$69 | Free |
| Planning PDF | around $9 | Free |
| Geotechnical desktop study | around $119 | Free |
| State heritage certificate | $63.04 | Free |
Source: Draftly's public comparison audit, last updated 2026-08-12 — the same figures shown at /compare/. Figures are point-in-time and describe the property-data category generally, not any one named vendor; verify current pricing with the vendor. A state heritage certificate fee is set by the state heritage body.
Bushfire overlay status is a cost driver before it is a safety document. If a Bushfire Management Overlay touches your lot, the construction requirements that follow under AS 3959 reach into materials, glazing, screening and detailing — and they are not the kind of thing you retrofit into a design cheaply.
The pre-screen question is simple: does an overlay apply? The answer is public government data. Getting to it is the friction, which is why per-address bushfire pre-screens are sold as a product.
These are different things and conflating them wastes money. A pre-screen asks whether the address sits in a mapped bushfire-prone area or overlay — a data lookup. A BAL assessment under AS 3959 asks what radiant heat flux the structure must be built to withstand, which requires a qualified assessor considering vegetation, slope and separation at the site. You need the first to know whether you need the second.
Draftly gives away the first. It does not perform the second, and says so.
Bushfire and wind travel together in practice: both are site facts that constrain the structure, and both need to be known before anything is drawn. Draftly returns the AS/NZS 1170.2 design wind region alongside the overlay check because that region is a direct input into structural member sizing downstream — the same brief that tells you the constraint feeds the engineering that answers it.
| Dimension | Draftly | Canibuild | Buildertrend / CoConstruct | Archistar | Property-data platforms | ClearCalcs | Council & state portals |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Address-to-answer speedType an address → a useful answer, with nothing in between. | 4 | 5 | 1 | 4 | 4.5 | 1.5 | 1 |
| Planning data reliabilityHow much of the planning answer is real government data vs inference. | 4 | 4 | 1 | 4.5 | 4 | 1 | 5 |
| Visual UXMap, drag-and-drop, live feedback — how it feels to use. | 4 | 5 | 3.5 | 4 | 3 | 3.5 | 1 |
| Drafting & exportDrawings, DXF/PDF sets, documents a council or certifier accepts. | 4.5 | 2 | 1.5 | 1 | 1 | 2.5 | 1 |
| Engineering defensibilityStructural calculations, member schedules, AS/NZS-referenced outputs. | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4.5 | 1 |
| Commercial readinessPricing clarity, payments, onboarding, market maturity. | 3.5 | 3.5 | 4.5 | 4 | 3.5 | 3.5 | — |
| Partner / trade ecosystemPartner programs, integrations, API access, white-label. | 4.5 | 3 | 3.5 | 2.5 | 2 | 2 | 1 |
| Running the buildSchedule of works, trade dispatch, purchase orders, and what the homeowner can see. | 3 | 1.5 | 4.5 | 1 | 1 | 1 | — |
| What you get before payingHow much of a usable answer arrives without a subscription, a per-report fee, or a sales call. | 5 | 1 | 1.5 | 1.5 | 2.5 | 2 | 3 |
Scores are calibrated for ONE job: the address-to-permit-to-built workflow for Australian backyard structures and small residential builds (pergolas, decks, sheds, carports, granny flats) — for trades, builders and homeowners. They are not a verdict on general construction software. A tool can score low here and be excellent at what it is actually built for.
Scored 1–5. “—” means the dimension does not apply to that product. Last updated 2026-08-12. See the full comparison · Report an error.
This table is an audit, not a brochure. These are our own limitations, published because a comparison that only flatters us is worth nothing.
Free, no account, not metered. Runs the full site brief — zone, overlays, verified lot boundary, easements and design wind — and gives you the PDF.