Construction Estimating Software Compared, With Prices

Construction estimating software for a 1 to 10 person crew costs about $59 to $339 a month for tools built around a price book, and about $2,000 to $3,600 a year per person for tools that measure off plan sets. Most small crews that price from a site visit need the cheaper kind. Some don’t need software yet at all.

Every price below comes from the vendor’s own page as of November 2026, or is marked as reported where the vendor won’t print one. Vendors change prices often, so check the page before you buy. Remodelers have the most choice, since Clear Estimates, Buildxact and Buildertrend were all built with remodeling companies in mind. Painters, electricians and concrete subs will find a fit too.

What construction estimating software costs a small crew

For one estimator, a price-book tool runs $59 to $199 a month, and up to $339 with job management added. A takeoff seat costs $2,000 to $3,600 a year per person. ProEst and Buildertrend publish no price at all. Here is what each tool charges as of November 2026.

Tool	Published price (Nov 2026)	How it bills	Free trial or tier	Yearly cost, one person
Clear Estimates	Standard $79 a month, or $59 billed yearly. Pro $119, or $99 yearly	Standard is one login. Pro adds users at $9 a month	30-day free trial, first payment at day 30	$708 (Standard, yearly)
Buildxact	Foundation $199 a month, or $169 billed yearly. Pro $399, or $339 yearly	Flat price, unlimited users. Yearly billing needs a 12-month commitment	Go tier is free with 5 AI estimate credits	$2,030 (Foundation, yearly)
JobTread	$199 a month, plus $20 per added office user	Base price plus users. Yearly billing saves 20%	No trial. 30-day money-back on monthly billing	$2,388 (monthly billing)
STACK Takeoff & Estimate	“As low as” $299 per user a month	Per user. Final price comes from a quote	Free version of Takeoff & Estimate	About $3,588
PlanSwift	Essential $2,000 a year. Core $3,000 a year	Per seat, yearly only	14-day trial, no credit card	$2,000 to $3,000
ProEst (Autodesk)	Not printed. Comparison sites report about $5,000 a year	Yearly, unlimited users (reported)	No free trial reported	About $5,000 (reported)
Buildertrend	Not printed. Quote after a sales call	Based on builder type and yearly volume. Unlimited users	Demo	Quote only. Forum members reported $299 rising to $699 a month in 2022

You can confirm the published numbers on the Clear Estimates pricing page, the STACK pricing page and the PlanSwift pricing page.

Per person or flat price

The pricing model matters more than the sticker once a second person needs a login. STACK and PlanSwift charge per seat. Two estimators on STACK at the “as low as” price is about $7,176 a year. Two on PlanSwift is $4,000 to $6,000, before the discount PlanSwift gives on added seats.

Buildxact Foundation is flat. One user or ten, you pay $169 to $199 a month. JobTread starts at $199 and adds $20 a month for each office user, so an owner plus two office people pays $239 a month. Customers, subs and field crew who only upload photos and check off tasks can log in free. Clear Estimates Pro adds users at $9 a month each, the cheapest per-user add-on here.

Why Buildertrend and ProEst have no number here

Neither company prints a price. Buildertrend asks for your builder type and yearly construction volume, from under $500,000 to over $31 million, then a rep quotes you after a call. ProEst, which Autodesk bought in 2021, is reported on comparison sites at about $5,000 a year for unlimited users. Both quotes depend on who you are.

Quotes also move. In a 2022 Contractor Talk thread on a Buildertrend price hike, one member on the Core tier said their bill “Started off at $299usd/month” and was set to rise to $699. Another, Leonardo Construction, wrote: “Ours went up 65%.” Our guide to remodeling software reports about $450 to $1,100 a month for Buildertrend’s last published tiers, from late 2024.

So before you sign any quote-only tool, get three things in writing: the renewal price, the cancel terms, and how you export your data if you leave.

Takeoff tools and estimating tools are two different purchases

A takeoff tool measures quantities off a plan set: square feet of wall, linear feet of pipe, number of outlets. PlanSwift and STACK lead with this. An estimating tool puts your costs, labor, overhead and markup on those quantities. Clear Estimates, Buildxact and JobTread lead with that. Most small crews that quote from a site visit need the second kind.

Search for construction takeoff and estimating software and you get both kinds mixed together.

The estimating side runs on a price book. That’s a saved list of your items, costs and markups. Clear Estimates ships with one. The vendor says it holds 12,000+ cost items with material and labor rates for 350 U.S. areas, updated every quarter. You can change any price and add your own parts.

Some tools do both jobs. Buildxact Foundation and JobTread include digital takeoff. PlanSwift and STACK both price what you measure. The real question is which half you’ll use every day.

Do you have plans or a walkthrough?

The test is short. If most of your bids arrive with a plan set, buy takeoff. If you measure on site, from photos or from satellite images, price from a catalog. Roofers, remodelers and service techs often fall in the second group.

STACK’s own blog shows what takeoff buys you. A painter uploads plans and clicks around the walls to measure square footage. The software returns gallons of primer and paint, brushes, rollers and labor hours. STACK says this can “reduce your takeoff time by 75% or more.” That’s the vendor’s number, not an independent one. And it only counts if you have plans to click on.

Where the AI claims fit

Several vendors here sell AI now. Clear Estimates Standard includes an AI Estimator, and Pro drafts estimates from photos and plans. PlanSwift Core adds Auto Takeoff, which PlanSwift itself calls a first pass for areas, lengths and counts. Buildxact sells an Estimate Generator for $99 a month on top of Foundation. Treat all of it as a first draft that you check.

ChatGPT can help you write the description of the work and tidy a proposal. But it holds none of your costs, so every price has to come from your own numbers or your price book.

Construction estimating software for small contractors, by trade and crew size

Pick by how you get quantities and who writes the estimates. One estimator quoting remodels, decks or painting from a walkthrough: Clear Estimates. A small builder who also works from drawings: Buildxact. An owner with two or three office people: JobTread. A sub bidding plans every week: STACK’s free tier, then PlanSwift. ProEst and Buildertrend suit bigger shops.

Here’s my view. Match the tool to how you get your quantities, not to the longest feature list. One top-ranking roundup for “best construction estimating software” lists 16 tools with no prices and no advice by crew size. A small crew that measures on site and prices from its own costs does not need a $2,000 to $3,600 a year takeoff seat. A $59 to $199 a month price-book tool, or a clean spreadsheet with one estimator, covers it. Buy takeoff when plan sets show up every week.

Clear Estimates

The cheapest published price here: $59 to $119 a month. It’s built for residential remodeling, specialty trades and handyman work, including kitchens, baths, additions, ADUs, decks, painting and electrical service upgrades. It comes with preloaded templates and a cost library. It runs in any browser, on a phone or a PC, and exports estimates to QuickBooks Online or Desktop. That matters if your construction accounting software does the job costing. Reviewers at Niche SSP call it easy to use but “not ideal for large projects.” Standard has one login, which fits a one-estimator shop.

Buildxact

Buildxact started in Australia in 2010 for small builders and remodelers. Foundation ($169 to $199 a month) includes digital takeoff, assemblies, quote letters, e-signatures, supplier integration and purchase orders, for unlimited users. Pro ($339 to $399) adds schedules, job management and a mobile app. The free Go tier lets you try AI estimates first. Keith Perez of TXN Remodeling n Construction, quoted on Buildxact’s pricing page, describes life before it: “I was easily spending 30 to 40 hours per week, on top of a normal 40-hour work week trying to create estimates.”

JobTread

JobTread is $199 a month plus $20 for each added office user. Its strength is turning the estimate into the job budget. The cost catalog, takeoff, proposals, job costing and QuickBooks Online sync are all included, with free setup and training. There’s no free trial, but monthly billing has a 30-day money-back guarantee. It fits an owner plus two or three office people who want to see estimated cost against actual cost on every job.

STACK

STACK suits painting, concrete, masonry and mechanical, electrical and plumbing subs that bid from plans. Start on the free version of Takeoff & Estimate. Paid seats run “as low as” $299 a user a month. Proposals can hide your overhead, markup, waste and taxes from the customer. R3 Painting in Hampstead, North Carolina, quoted on STACK’s pricing page: “Great product, easy to use, easy to learn. My entire estimating workflow is more efficient because of STACK.” Niche SSP’s review notes the navigation “can lead to a steep learning curve for some users,” and it needs an internet connection.

PlanSwift

PlanSwift is $2,000 a year for Essential or $3,000 for Core, per seat, billed yearly. It does drag-and-drop takeoff with pre-built assemblies and reads PDF, JPG, TIFF and CAD files. Essential includes 2 hours of live one-on-one training. It suits electrical and plumbing contractors who count fixtures and measure runs off plans every week. Reviewers say its pricing “can be expensive for some users,” which is fair for a shop that sees a plan set twice a month.

ProEst

ProEst was founded in 1976 and Autodesk owns it now. Niche SSP says more than 8,000 firms use it. It’s reported at about $5,000 a year for unlimited users, with no free trial. Reviewers note a learning curve and trouble building custom assemblies. It’s made for commercial bid teams with several estimators, not a 1 to 10 person home-services crew.

Buildertrend

Buildertrend is a full project platform where estimating and takeoff are one part. It’s aimed at builders and remodelers running five or more projects a year, and it’s quote only. If you only need estimates, you’re paying for a lot you won’t open. The member who started that Contractor Talk thread wrote: “I am still having to work on spreadsheets and calenders outside of their platform to get what we need.”

Trials, training and learning curve

Learning time decides whether a tool sticks. Here’s what each vendor offers to get you started, and what reviewers say. Vendor claims are marked as vendor claims.

Tool	Try it	Setup help	What the vendor or reviewers say
Clear Estimates	30-day free trial	Free one-on-one walkthrough, unlimited support	Reviewers (Niche SSP) call it easy to use
Buildxact	Free Go tier	Training and support on Foundation	Reviewers (Niche SSP) call it easy to use
JobTread	30-day money-back, monthly billing	Free setup and training with a success manager	Vendor includes setup at no charge
STACK	Free version	Free training, webinars, chat and phone	Vendor claim: most teams are “up and running in just a few hours.” Reviewers flag a steep learning curve for some
PlanSwift	14-day trial, no card	2 hours of live training on Essential	Reviewers note drag-and-drop takeoff and custom formulas

When a spreadsheet is still enough

A spreadsheet is enough while one person writes every estimate, your jobs are similar, you price from a short list, and quotes go out the same day. Free construction estimating software in Excel works fine at that size if you keep it clean. Once a second estimator starts, or you quote at the customer’s kitchen table, it starts costing you.

Here are four plain tests. If all four are true, keep the sheet:

1. You are the only person who writes estimates.
2. Your jobs are simple and look alike.
3. You quote few enough jobs a month that updating prices by hand is realistic.
4. You are not losing work because quotes go out slowly.

Contractor Talk members back this up. One wrote in 2022: “I do it all in Excel, with macros. It is a lot of work but I don’t have price increases coming at me for no apparent reason.” Another, in 2026: “If your workflow is dialed in and you’re not sharing with subs or clients through a portal, there’s nothing wrong with spreadsheets.”

But spreadsheets break in quiet ways. Researchers who reviewed fifteen years of studies found spreadsheet errors are common and not trivial. The common ones in estimates: a supplier price you forgot to update, a formula someone typed over, a copy of a copy, or permits and disposal left off the job.

A big one is markup confused with margin. Markup is a percent of your cost. Margin is a percent of the price. A 30% markup gives you about a 23% margin, not 30%. If your sheet treats them as the same, you’re underpricing every job. Our page on how general contractors set markup walks through the math.

The sheet has stopped being enough when you hire a second estimator, start quoting in the home, find price changes you never entered, or get margin surprises at quarter end. Here’s a quick test: if three or more problems like that show up in one week, the spreadsheet is costing you more than software would.

How to make a spreadsheet safer

Keep one master copy and quote from fresh copies of it, never from last month’s job. Lock the formula cells so nobody types over them. Put permits, disposal and dump fees on fixed lines so they can’t be skipped. Pick one day each month to update supplier prices, and put it on the calendar. Then have someone other than the person who built it check the formulas once a quarter.

How to test a tool in one week

Pick two tools from the price table, one free and one on a trial. Run a finished job from last quarter through both, compare the result line by line with what you billed, and time the next real estimate. A week of real use tells you more than any demo or feature list will.

1. Choose your pair. For the free one, use STACK’s free Takeoff & Estimate if you bid from plans, or Buildxact Go if you don’t. For the trial, use Clear Estimates (30 days) or PlanSwift (14 days, no card).
2. Enter one finished job from last quarter. Use your real costs and your real markup.
3. Put the result next to the invoice you sent. Every line that doesn’t match tells you something about the tool or your price book.
4. Write your next real estimate in the tool and time it from site visit to sent quote.
5. Before you pay, get the renewal price, cancel terms and data export in writing.

Speed matters more than most owners think. When I sold phone leads and listened to thousands of the recorded calls, the roofers who made money on bought leads were the ones who called back first, within minutes. Slow callers lost the job to whoever got there first. A quote that goes out the same day is the next step of that same race.

Today, open the STACK free tier, Buildxact Go or a Clear Estimates trial, and enter last month’s biggest job.