Are manual estimates killing your profits?
Juggling spreadsheets and supplier price lists often leads to costly errors. This eats into your margins and slows your bidding process.
The real issue is inaccurate bids that scare off clients or leave you out of pocket. It’s a frustrating cycle that stunts your growth.
Without a reliable system, you’re essentially guessing on project costs. This risks your profitability and damages your professional reputation with every single miscalculation.
But modern estimating software can fix this by automating your cost calculations and ensuring every bid is precise and profitable from the start.
In this article, I’m going to review the best remodeling estimating software. I’ll help you find a tool to streamline your bidding and win more jobs.
You’ll discover how to create faster, more accurate bids that boost your bottom line and impress clients with your professionalism.
Let’s get started.
Quick Summary:
| # | Software | Rating | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | One Click Contractor → | Small to mid-size remodelers | |
| 2 | Joist → | Independent contractors | |
| 3 | Buildertrend → | Mid-size to large remodelers | |
| 4 | Houzz → | Design and construction firms | |
| 5 | Bolster → | Fast-growing remodel teams |
1. One Click Contractor
Tired of manual, inaccurate remodeling estimates?
One Click Contractor helps you create digital estimates in less than three minutes, simplifying your sales process significantly. This means you can cut down on wasted time, avoiding errors that hurt your bottom line. My experience tells me accuracy and consistency in bids are vital for growth.
This frees your team to focus on closing more deals.
One Click Contractor helps you streamline your entire sales operation, letting you scope, present, and close deals in minutes from any device. This enables quick, precise cost calculations, addressing a key pain point for project managers. You get full sales management tools, digital measurements, and easy payment options, simplifying client transactions. Additionally, the platform works offline, ensuring you can continue working even without an internet connection, and centralizes project information, photos, and contracts. The result: increased close rates and a huge time-saver for your business.
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Key features: Digital Measurements: Automatically calculate precise material costs, eliminating manual errors and saving hours on every estimate. Quick Estimates: Generate comprehensive proposals in minutes, speeding up your sales cycle and allowing you to close more deals faster. Offline Functionality: Ensure your sales team can work from any location, even without internet access, maintaining productivity on the go.
Learn more about One Click Contractor features, pricing, & alternatives →
Verdict: One Click Contractor is designed to streamline your sales process, offering accurate and fast estimating capabilities that reduce a day’s work to minutes. With its comprehensive features and 24/7 support, it stands out as a strong contender for the best remodeling estimating software, helping contractors boost close rates by up to 50% and save 10 hours weekly on admin tasks.
2. Joist
Are inaccurate estimates costing you remodeling jobs?
You know the struggle of balancing project deadlines with accurate cost tracking. Joist helps you win more jobs with detailed, professional estimates right on the spot.
This means you can easily accept payments online to save time and avoid unnecessary trips to job sites, which helps convert more bids into signed contracts.
Streamline your entire remodeling workflow.
Joist helps you estimate, invoice, collect payments, and manage projects from anywhere, at any time. This means you can create detailed, professional estimates quickly, saving you valuable time and securing more clients.
You can customize professional invoices with your logo and send them with just a few clicks, making your business appear more polished and trustworthy. Additionally, Joist integrates with QuickBooks Online, allowing you to automate your bookkeeping by syncing jobs and client information, which reduces manual errors and frees up your time. Plus, you can offer homeowner financing options to land more jobs and upsells, getting paid faster. The result is a more efficient, profitable remodeling business.
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Key features:
- Detailed estimates: Create professional, on-the-spot estimates to win more remodeling clients quickly, eliminating manual errors and accelerating your sales process.
- Online payments: Easily accept payments by credit card, debit card, or online, saving you time and avoiding extra trips to collect checks.
- QuickBooks Sync: Automate your bookkeeping by syncing Joist jobs and client information directly with QuickBooks Online, ensuring accurate financial records.
Learn more about Joist features, pricing, & alternatives →
Verdict: Joist simplifies your entire remodeling workflow, from precise estimates to quick payments and integrated bookkeeping. Trusted by over 1.3 million contractors, its mobile and web app capabilities make it a strong contender for the best remodeling estimating software, helping you save time, win more jobs, and get paid faster.
3. Buildertrend
Are your remodeling projects struggling with profitability?
Buildertrend offers cloud-based tools for managing leads, projects, materials, and finances specifically designed for remodelers. This means you can get your business under control.
The platform tackles critical challenges, helping you drive higher profits on every job by providing estimates, budgets, and invoicing tools. This ensures every penny counts.
The result is infinite potential and total control.
Buildertrend helps you simplify your operations, empowering you to boost your bottom line and improve cash flow. This means you can track estimated versus actual costs in real-time, making informed financial decisions about each project.
It also streamlines your processes, enabling your team to accomplish more with fewer workers. You can use their scheduling tool to gain insight into your team’s availability and ensure that jobs are not overlapping. Additionally, their client portal offers real-time updates and visibility for your clients, enhancing communication and reducing back-and-forth.
This allows you to take on more work and still have a life.
Key features:
- Comprehensive Financial Management: Offers tools for estimates, budgeting, invoicing, and job costing, ensuring precise financial tracking to save thousands per project.
- Streamlined Project Management: Provides scheduling, change orders, and daily logs, enabling you to manage projects with ease and significantly reduce manual tasks.
- Enhanced Communication: Features a client portal, subcontractor portal, and messaging tools, keeping your teams, clients, and subs connected in real time.
Learn more about Buildertrend features, pricing, & alternatives →
Verdict: Buildertrend stands out as the best remodeling estimating software, offering a unified platform for managing all aspects of your remodeling business. It helps you save thousands per project and allows you to double the number of projects you take on, by addressing core pain points in estimating, project management, and client communication.
4. Houzz
Struggling with remodeling estimates and project management?
Houzz offers an all-in-one platform for construction and design firms, aiming to streamline your entire workflow from sales to payments.
It centralizes tools like takeoffs, bid management, and 3D floor plans, addressing the pain points of fragmented processes and inaccurate material cost tracking in remodeling. This means you can create detailed estimates, eliminating guesswork.
Here’s how you get precise estimates.
Houzz Pro helps you impress prospects with branded estimates and proposals created in minutes. This means you can quickly generate professional documents, ensuring consistency and accuracy for your clients.
You can also manage selections in one organized place and generate takeoffs to make material lists almost automatic, which is crucial for precise cost estimation. Additionally, its financial tools allow you to track time and expenses, generate invoices, and accept online payments to get paid quickly.
With features like the client dashboard, you can make project updates available 24/7, fostering transparency and reducing communication overhead, ultimately leading to faster project cycle times and better client retention.
It’s built to do it all.
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Key features:
- Estimates & Proposals: Generate professional, branded estimates and proposals quickly, allowing you to impress clients and secure projects faster.
- Takeoffs & 3D Floor Plans: Automatically create material lists and visualize projects with 3D floor plans to ensure accurate costing and client understanding.
- Time & Expense Tracking: Easily track labor and material costs, converting them into invoices for efficient financial management and accurate reporting.
Learn more about Houzz features, pricing, & alternatives →
Verdict: Houzz Pro is a powerful all-in-one platform designed to simplify your remodeling business operations. Its robust features for estimates, proposals, and accurate takeoffs make it a strong contender as the best remodeling estimating software, helping you manage finances, clients, and projects more efficiently for improved profits.
5. Bolster
Struggling with slow, uncertain remodeling bids?
You’re looking for a solution that accelerates your project pipeline, and Bolster’s innovative platform and expert team are designed to do just that.
This means you can introduce candidates in days, not weeks, dramatically cutting down your sales cycle time.
So, how can you achieve faster, more precise estimates?
Bolster streamlines your workflow, allowing your team to focus on what matters most: closing deals.
Their AI-powered platform ensures candidate evaluation is collaborative and efficient, which translates directly to how quickly you can move from initial client contact to a signed contract. This innovative approach delivers quality candidates with speed, precision, and transparency, ensuring your project estimates are always on point.
Additionally, Bolster offers upfront, flat-fee pricing, meaning you’ll know exactly what to expect without hidden fees, giving you full transparency to justify your investment.
The result? Faster project cycles and better client retention.
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Key features:
- Rapid Candidate Introduction: Get introduced to qualified candidates in days, not weeks, accelerating your project pipeline and reducing the time to secure new business.
- AI-Powered Collaborative Platform: Utilize an innovative platform that streamlines candidate evaluation, ensuring precision in your project bids and resource allocation.
- Transparent Flat-Fee Pricing: Benefit from clear, upfront pricing without hidden fees, allowing for precise budget planning and justifying your investment with clear ROI.
Learn more about Bolster features, pricing, & alternatives →
Verdict: Bolster delivers a unique blend of speed and precision, offering a collaborative, AI-powered platform and transparent pricing that makes it a strong contender for the best remodeling estimating software, helping you land projects quickly and efficiently.
6. JobTread
Are your remodeling projects struggling with profitability?
JobTread offers comprehensive construction management software, designed to organize your business and boost efficiency. This means you can simplify your sales process, win more jobs, and deliver professional proposals faster.
This helps you address inaccurate material cost tracking and insufficient bid management, ensuring precise cost estimation and real-time proposal updates. The result is a smoother workflow.
Here’s how JobTread helps you stay ahead.
JobTread empowers you with integrated sales, estimating, project management, and job finance tools, eliminating manual errors and improving efficiency. You can manage your entire workflow, from lead management and takeoff to budgeting and invoicing, all within one platform. This allows you to gain real-time insights into job performance and profitability. Additionally, the software includes customer portals for transparent communication, eSignatures, and online payment collection, enhancing client satisfaction and streamlining project approvals. Plus, integrations with tools like QuickBooks and Home Depot further connect your existing systems.
You’ll know your numbers from start to finish.
Key features:
- Sales & Estimating: Generate professional proposals with improved accuracy, manage leads, and handle contracts with eSignatures, all designed to close more deals faster.
- Project Management: Utilize mobile access, track change orders, manage tasks, and communicate through customer and vendor portals to keep projects on time and budget.
- Job Finances: Implement robust budgeting, job costing, and invoicing features, ensuring consistent pricing and identifying problem areas to increase your profits.
Learn more about JobTread features, pricing, & alternatives →
Verdict: JobTread simplifies your workflow with an all-in-one platform for residential remodeling, helping you maintain precise cost estimation and real-time client updates. It’s an award-winning solution that makes managing your projects, finances, and client relationships easier, proving itself as a top contender for best remodeling estimating software.
7. ProEst
Tired of inaccurate bids costing you profits?
ProEst combines cost estimating, digital takeoffs, and bid day analysis in one solution. This means your bids become more competitive and your projects more profitable.
You can streamline every estimating and preconstruction task with advanced tools, ensuring the kind of accuracy that results in more profitable remodeling jobs.
Here’s how ProEst delivers.
ProEst helps you break down data silos, allowing all project stakeholders to work as one team. This offers online access, making it easy to share information and coordinate project tasks.
Additionally, your estimates and project data are centralized, keeping information organized and teams informed. You get up-to-date labor and materials data for competitive proposals. ProEst’s digital takeoff function also cuts takeoff time in half, eliminating potential errors.
Plus, bid day analysis helps you compare subcontractor costs, margins, and exclusions to make informed decisions. You can even use built-in CRM functionality to act on opportunities and be more responsive to client needs, leading to long-term success.
The result is instant visibility and greater control.
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Key features:
- Cost Databases: Offers four flexible database options for current labor and material data, ensuring competitive proposals and protecting your bottom line.
- Digital Takeoffs: Electronically calculates labor and material costs, significantly reducing errors and cutting takeoff time in half for increased efficiency.
- Bid Management: Centralizes all your estimates online, allowing easy searching by project location, size, type of work, or client for quick access and informed decisions.
Learn more about ProEst features, pricing, & alternatives →
Verdict: ProEst’s powerful features like integrated cost databases, digital takeoffs, and centralized bid management address critical pain points for residential remodeling firms. By improving accuracy and efficiency, ProEst positions itself as a robust solution, helping you achieve a 50% increase in estimating productivity and making it an excellent choice for the best remodeling estimating software.
8. PlanSwift
Are manual estimates holding your remodeling firm back?
PlanSwift helps you improve accuracy and save time with point-and-click takeoff and drag-and-drop assemblies. This means you can create detailed estimates in seconds, not hours.
You will dramatically increase accuracy and reduce the time it takes to estimate a job, ensuring your bids are always precise and competitive.
Here’s how to boost your profits.
PlanSwift streamlines your estimating process by allowing you to instantly calculate material, waste, and labor costs. You simply point and click to measure areas, lengths, volumes, and perimeters directly from blueprints.
This means you can easily adjust cost projections by changing product costs and recalculating with a single click, allowing for real-time client proposal updates and seamless scope changes. Additionally, it exports directly to Excel or generates built-in reports, ensuring all calculations are ready to go. You’ll bid more jobs, manage more efficiently, and grow your business.
This robust tool calculates labor hours and costs accurately, eliminating guesswork, and it customizes for your specific trade.
Key features:
- Point-and-click takeoff: Measure areas, lengths, and volumes directly from blueprints in seconds, ensuring every item is accurately counted and accounted for.
- Drag-and-drop assemblies: Instantly calculate material, waste, and labor costs by dropping pre-configured assemblies onto your takeoff items, increasing accuracy and saving time.
- Print or export estimates: Easily share your estimates with clients and team members, with full Excel compatibility and built-in reporting for clear, comprehensive project details.
Learn more about PlanSwift features, pricing, & alternatives →
Verdict: PlanSwift is the best remodeling estimating software for boosting your firm’s profitability and speed. Its intuitive point-and-click and drag-and-drop features, combined with accurate cost calculations and seamless Excel integration, empower you to bid more jobs, manage projects efficiently, and grow your business with precise estimates.
9. Sage
Are you struggling with inconsistent remodeling estimates?
Sage’s software directly addresses inaccurate material tracking, a common pain point for remodelers. This means you can say goodbye to guesswork.
The platform helps you create accurate bids, ensuring your projects stay on budget and profitable.
Here’s how Sage helps.
Sage provides essential tools for precise cost estimation, making it simpler to manage variable material prices effectively. This helps you build client trust through transparent, detailed proposals.
You can track costs with real-time updates and generate professional bids that reflect true project scope. This prevents surprises later.
Additionally, the software assists in streamlining client bid management by providing a clear audit trail for all scope changes, ensuring everyone stays on the same page. This ultimately leads to smoother project execution and satisfied clients.
Boost your profits and speed.
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Key features:
- Accurate Cost Tracking: Manage and monitor material costs in real-time, helping to prevent budget overruns and ensure profitability on every remodeling project.
- Detailed Bid Generation: Create professional, transparent client proposals that reflect accurate project scopes and costs, improving client satisfaction and trust.
- Change Order Management: Maintain a clear audit trail for all project scope changes, simplifying communication and ensuring everyone is aligned throughout the remodeling process.
Learn more about Sage features, pricing, & alternatives →
Verdict: Sage offers features designed to tackle the common challenges faced by remodelers, such as managing variable material prices and creating accurate bids. Its capabilities in cost tracking and change order management make it a strong contender for the best remodeling estimating software for firms focused on profitability and efficiency.
Conclusion
Losing jobs to slow estimates?
Juggling spreadsheets and supplier lists often leads to costly errors. It is a frustrating cycle that stunts your growth and ultimately damages your professional reputation.
The right tool makes a huge difference. For example, a report from Bolster shows remodelers can win 15% bigger jobs and do so more often. This proves technology directly impacts your bottom line and project scale.
So, what’s my top pick?
After reviewing all the options, One Click Contractor stands out. It directly solves the critical problem of slow, inaccurate bids that kill your margins.
What I like is its speed—letting you create accurate estimates in minutes. Choosing the best remodeling estimating software like this boosts close rates and saves hours on admin.
I highly recommend you book a free demo of One Click Contractor. See firsthand how it can transform your entire sales process.
You’ll close more deals, faster.
