Kahua is an enterprise construction platform — project and document management, cost, field execution, portfolio and asset records, with a Design Review application on top of a controlled File Manager. A review there is a formal thing: a review set with up to four steps, named reviewers, due dates, auto-advance, statuses and rules about open comments, ending in a release back into the document record.
Xenmark runs one job end to end: a drawing set goes out for review, comments come back against the revision they were raised on, and the review finishes as two documents — a plan showing where each comment sits, and a spreadsheet saying what each one means, numbered to match.
Kahua is bought as a programme rather than as a tool: the price is quoted around organisation type, construction scale, deployment and implementation, and there is a self-guided tour and a live demonstration; no trial or permanent free tier is advertised on its public pricing material. Choose Xenmark when you need to run the review this week, without an implementation, a quote or a rollout. A free Xenmark project takes a real drawing set from start to finish.
Kahua offers a demo and a self-guided tour; it advertises no prices and no trial, because what is being sold is configured around the organisation, the construction scale, the deployment and the implementation. A Xenmark review starts on the Free plan, with no card and no implementation to configure first.
Xenmark measures length, polylength, perimeter and area against the page scale, and those values land on their own sheet inside the same Excel file as the comments — a measured value arrives as a number you can sort and total, not as a mark someone has to read off the drawing.
Kahua has the parts: a marked-up combined PDF, log reports in XLSX and CSV, and records that carry pins. In Xenmark one comment number goes onto the drawing and into the spreadsheet, from the same review, in one step.
Every Kahua claim below is taken from Kahua's own published material and was last checked on 29 August 2026. Software changes; if something here is out of date, tell us and we will correct it.
Kahua’s review workflow is more elaborate, and that is the point of it. A review set can carry up to four steps with assigned reviewers, due dates and auto-advance between them, recommended review statuses, and rules that stop a step completing while comments remain open. Markups can be extracted into document-specific comments, and the whole thing releases back into File Manager: approved documents become current, rejected ones return for correction, and the previous current revision is superseded. Xenmark has one review, not four steps.
It also works offline, which Xenmark does not. Kahua’s May 2026 release notes describe offline markup with automatic syncing when the connection returns, for the Drawings and Specifications applications, requiring a mobile connection to have been established at least once beforehand and with access controlled by project permissions. And a Kahua record’s Pins section lists several pins against one record, so tying one issue to several places on a sheet is not a difference between us either.
One thing runs the other way. Kahua publishes no prices and no trial — a demo and a self-guided tour, then a quote shaped by organisation type, construction scale, deployment and implementation.
| Xenmark | Kahua | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting a review | ||
| Can the person running the review start free? | Yes — the Free plan runs one active review at a time, start to finish | No trial or free tier is advertised. Kahua offers a demo and a self-guided tour. Access is quoted around organisation type, programme or construction scale, the selected package, the deployment environment and the implementation required. |
| Do external reviewers need a paid subscription? | No — the people you invite read, reply and download the exports without paying | Reviewers, responsible contacts and distribution lists are configurable roles inside a Kahua environment. A free external-reviewer rule is not published, so what an outside reviewer costs is part of the quote. |
| Available platforms | Any modern browser — nothing to install, and the people you invite join from a link | Browser, with mobile applications for field execution — including offline markup in the Drawings and Specifications applications. |
| How the review is structured | ||
| What the review is built from | A numbered comment. Anything drawn on the page belongs to that comment rather than standing on its own. | A review set, drawn from controlled File Manager revisions and put through up to four review steps with assigned reviewers, due dates and statuses. |
| Replies | Threaded under the comment, each attributed and dated, with image attachments, and carried into the register | Review comments carry responsible contacts, assignments and action items. |
| Status workflow | Open, In progress and Closed — three fixed states, and the status travels into the Excel register | Yes, and further than ours. Up to four review steps, assigned reviewers, due dates, auto-advance between steps, recommended review statuses, notifications, and rules that hold a step open while comments remain open. |
| Comment numbering | Numbers are stable — delete comment 5 and the gap stays, so item 12 still means item 12 in every email and every export | Records carry identifiers, and comments are held against the document they belong to. |
| One issue, several drawing locations | One comment can own several markers while keeping one number and one reply thread | Yes — and this is not a difference between us. A Kahua record has a Pins section listing the pins attached to it. |
| Activity history | Every action timestamped and attributed to the person who made it | Yes, and it is a system of record. Review workflow, notifications, statuses, release, superseding revisions and the round trip back into File Manager are all tracked, with reporting and eDiscovery over the top. |
| Revision handling | Comments stay tied to the revision they were raised against, in one workflow | Formal and controlled. Approved documents are released and become current, rejected ones go back for correction, the prior current revision is superseded, and markups and comments merge back into File Manager. |
| Measuring and markup | ||
| Measuring on the drawing | Length, polylength, perimeter and area, calibrated to the page scale | Yes — the markup tool carries a Measure tool for scaled distance measurement. |
| Setting the drawing scale | Pick a standard scale, type your own, name the sheet size, or calibrate from a distance you already know | Yes — a Calibrate tool sets the scale from a distance you know, for one page or for every page in the document. |
| Building your own reusable symbols | Check, cross, attention, arrow and cloud — five fixed review symbols, not a custom library | Yes, and configurable. Administrators set up reusable Simple and Dynamic stamps at domain, partition or project level, and a dynamic stamp can carry date, user, company, project and submittal data. |
| Measuring quantities for pricing a job | Not included — measurements are there to explain a comment, not to cost work | Kahua Cost Management tracks budgets, funding, contracts, commitments, actual costs, changes and payment applications — a cost system rather than a drawing takeoff. |
| What comes out of the review | ||
| What you send back | The two documents come out ready to send — there is nothing to set up first, because the review was structured that way from the start | A released revision inside the document record, with its markups and comments merged back into File Manager, plus report output. |
| Comment plan PDF | The drawing with each comment numbered and shown where it applies | Kahua preserves saved markups and round-trips them through Design Review. |
| Spreadsheet output | An Excel file listing every comment, numbered to match the PDF | Yes — log reports export in XLSX and CSV. |
| Measurements in the export | Drawn on the comment plan PDF where they were placed, and listed on their own sheet in the Excel file, kept separate from the comments | Measured values are saved as markups on the drawing. |
| What you keep when the project ends | A single zip file — every revision's exports, the attachments and the full activity log, downloaded and stored on your side | Stronger than ours, and it is what the platform is for. File Manager, controlled folders, records, reporting, asset and project data and eDiscovery are all retention capabilities. Xenmark hands you a zip and expects you to keep it. |
| Branded reports | Your company logo and text on both deliverables, inherited from Company Settings — Plus and Pro | Yes — configurable report logos, custom and ad-hoc reports, and report templates. |
| What else each one does | ||
| Batch operations across many PDFs | Not included — a review works on one drawing set at a time | Yes — bulk file download, and batch actions across certain Design Review comment statuses, are documented. |
| Comparing two drawings against each other | Not included — differences get raised as comments by the people reviewing | Revisions are controlled and superseded rather than overlaid. |
| Working offline | Browser only, so you need a connection | Yes, and it is documented precisely. The May 2026 release notes describe “offline markup support with automatic syncing of changes when connection is re-established”, for the Drawings and Specifications applications, requiring a mobile connection to have been established at least once beforehand, with access controlled by project permissions. |
| Storing documents long term | Not what it is for. You download the exports and keep them wherever your project records already live. | Yes — it is a system of record. File Manager, controlled folders, project and asset data, reporting and eDiscovery. Xenmark holds none of that. |
| CAD integrations and creating PDFs from CAD | None — a review starts from a PDF that has already been produced | What Kahua publishes under integrations is schedule connectivity to Microsoft Project and Primavera, alongside configurable integrations. |
| Connecting to a document management system | No integrations yet — the closing archive is a single zip you file wherever your records already live | It is one. File Manager is Kahua’s own controlled document store, and Design Review is built to round-trip through it. |
Kahua publishes no prices, and this page will not estimate any. Its pricing pages describe a quote built around organisation type, programme or construction scale, the selected package, the deployment environment and the implementation required, across three packages: Owners and Program Managers, General Contractors, and Specialty Contractors. There is a demo and a self-guided tour; no trial is advertised.
Xenmark is €14.99 – €59.99 / month, with a Free plan that runs a complete review. The two cannot be compared as numbers, and the difference that matters is not the figure anyway — it is that one of them can be started this afternoon and the other is bought through a scoping conversation, with implementation scoped to requirements.
| Xenmark | Kahua | |
|---|---|---|
| Billing unit | Per project capacity, monthly | Quoted around organisation type, construction scale, package, deployment and implementation |
| Entry point | Free — one active review, start to finish, no card | A self-guided tour or a live demonstration. No trial or free tier is advertised |
| To run a review yourself | Free | A custom quote; implementation, migration, integrations, configuration and training are scoped to requirements |
| Paid range | €14.99 – €59.99 / month | Not published. No figure appears on any Kahua pricing page |
| Invited reviewers | Free — no per-user charge; 5–30 project members depending on plan, and the person running the review is one of them | Reviewers, responsible contacts and distribution lists are configurable roles. A free external-reviewer rule is not published |
| Tax basis | Including VAT | Quoted · no public figures |
Xenmark — current as of 29 August 2026. Kahua — checked 26 August 2026. Kahua publishes no figures, so nothing on this page estimates one. A quote shaped by construction scale and an implementation programme is not a monthly subscription with a different number on it, and turning one into the other would misdescribe both. Xenmark prices include VAT. If you are weighing the two seriously, the comparison worth making is between a quote you have actually received and the plan you would actually use.
Neither is advertised. Kahua offers a demo and a self-guided tour, and advertises no free tier and no trial. Access is quoted around organisation type, programme or construction scale, the selected package, the deployment environment and the implementation required.
The Xenmark Free plan runs one active review from start to finish, with the comment plan and the Excel register included, no card and no expiry. That is the practical difference between the two: one can be tried this afternoon and the other is bought.
It is not published. No figure appears on Kahua’s pricing pages — what appears instead is the basis for a quote, and three packages: Owners and Program Managers, General Contractors, and Specialty Contractors.
A quote shaped by construction scale and an implementation programme is not a monthly subscription with a different figure on it. Xenmark is €14.99 – €59.99 / month, including VAT, with a Free plan that runs a complete review.
Yes, and more formally than Xenmark does. A review set is drawn from controlled File Manager revisions and run through up to four review steps with assigned reviewers, due dates, auto-advance between steps, recommended statuses, notifications, and rules that stop a step completing while comments remain open.
It ends by releasing back into the document record: approved documents become current, rejected ones return for correction, the previous current revision is superseded, and markups and comments merge back into File Manager. A Xenmark review is one round, and it ends with two files rather than with a release.
Yes. The Design Review help describes markups being extracted into document-specific comments, which is how a mark on the sheet becomes a tracked item with a responsible contact and an action.
In Xenmark the relationship runs the other way round from the start: the comment is the object, and the marks on the drawing belong to it. One comment can own several markers while keeping one number and one reply thread — and a Kahua record can hold several pins too, so this is not a difference between the two products.
Log reports export in XLSX and CSV, and a combined PDF carrying the markups is available, so both of the documents a review needs do exist.
In Xenmark a row in the exported register can be found on the marked-up sheet by looking for its number. That is the whole design: one comment number goes onto the plan and into the register, produced together.
Yes, with three qualifications that are worth keeping. Kahua’s May 2026 release notes describe “offline markup support with automatic syncing of changes when connection is re-established” — for the Drawings and Specifications applications specifically, requiring “a mobile connection to be established at least once prior to going offline”, and with access “controlled by project permissions configured in your Kahua environment”.
Xenmark does not work offline at all. It runs in a browser and needs a connection throughout, which is a real limitation for anyone marking up on site.
No, and it is not close. Kahua is an enterprise construction platform — project and document management, cost, field execution, portfolio and asset records, reporting and eDiscovery, with a governed Design Review application on top. An organisation that needs a system of record needs a system of record.
Xenmark covers the part where a drawing set goes out to several people for comment and something structured has to come back. It is the right size for one review, and the wrong size for a programme.
When the review has to be a governed, multi-step process with named reviewers, due dates and controlled release back into the document record. When markup happens on site without a connection. When the drawings are one part of a programme that also needs cost, field execution, asset data and eDiscovery. And when you are buying for an organisation rather than for a project, which is the shape the packages and the implementation assume.
We sell Xenmark, so this is not an independent review. We have tried to describe Kahua accurately, and every Kahua claim on this page rests on Kahua’s own help centre, release notes and pricing pages. The documents are named below. Capabilities and pricing change. Kahua feature information was last checked on 29 August 2026, and the pricing on 26 August 2026.
Kahua’s help centre and release notes are linked, so the claims here can be checked against the source each one rests on. The pricing pages are named rather than linked, though what they carry is a quoting basis rather than a price. The offline claim on this page is quoted with all three of Kahua’s own qualifiers intact — which applications, the initial connection, and project permissions — because dropping any of them would overstate it.
The Free plan takes a real drawing set end to end. No card, no time limit.
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