Best takeoff software for contractors in 2026: 8 tools compared

Most roundups in this category are written by vendors who put themselves at number one. You already know that, which is why you're three tabs deep looking for a straight answer.

I've bid hundreds of jobs and reviewed thousands of plan sets, and I've paid for most of the software below out of my own pocket. This guide compares eight takeoff tools on price, platform, AI and whether the free tier is real. Pricing was checked in September 2026.

The right pick depends on what you measure and what machine you sit at. Here's the short version, grouped by fit rather than ranked one through eight:

• Plankore for traceable takeoff and estimating on a free tier with no time limit
• STACK for cloud estimating teams with dedicated precon staff
• PlanSwift for Windows shops that live in custom trade assemblies
• Bluebeam Revu for GCs who already redline every sheet
• Togal.AI for fast space detection on architectural floor plans
• Kreo for the deepest auto-measure if the budget allows
• On-Screen Takeoff for high-volume commercial estimating departments
• Countfire for electrical and low voltage symbol counts

Criteria first, then the picks. That order matters, because a tool that wins on speed can still lose you a job.

Traceability. Can you click a quantity and land on the sheet it came from? When a GC calls at 4pm on bid day asking why your drywall number is 900 square feet higher than the next guy's, you need that answer in ten seconds.

Platform. Half this category is still Windows desktop software. If your shop runs Macs, that means a virtual machine or a second laptop before you write a single line item.

Real free access. A 7-day trial is not a free tier, and we separated the two in the table below. Most roundups lump them together, which is how contractors end up surprised at renewal.

Scale handling. Scanned sets lie. Somebody printed to PDF at 96% to fit the margins, your scale reads clean off the title block, and every linear foot comes in 4% short.

Estimate handoff. A takeoff is a list of quantities and an estimate prices them. Tools that stop at measurement leave you rekeying into Excel, and rekeying is where waste factor and markup errors get in.

Prices below were checked against vendor pricing pages and review aggregators in September 2026. Two of these vendors moved their pricing model in the last 18 months, so confirm before you sign anything.

One number in that table deserves a flag. Nearly every roundup still lists PlanSwift at $1,749 as a one-time purchase, and that figure is years old.

Capterra, GetApp and multiple 2026 reviews now list PlanSwift Professional at roughly $2,000 per license per year. Updates and support run another $200 to $250 annually after year one.

Full disclosure, this is our software. I built it because bidding was my own bottleneck and nothing on the market showed me its work.

What it is. Browser-based takeoff, estimating and bidding, with Plankore Free Forever at 3 projects per month, up to 300 pages each. That covers area, linear and count takeoff, an Excel-style estimating grid with cost, waste and markup, and Excel export in your own bid format.

Where it's different. Every quantity carries its source sheet, its formula and its assumptions. That matters most on the third revision of a set, when you're working out whether the wall length changed or your measurement did.

AI. Plankore Pro adds AI Floorplan Takeoff for rooms, walls, windows and doors, AI Navigation for sheet names, scale and sheet references, and the Smart tools for area, linear, count, edit and joist. AI drafts the first pass and you verify it against the sheet.

AI Bid is a separate product. It drafts a whole priced bid for residential projects under 150 pages, with every number traced to its source. It is coming soon, it is not bundled into any plan, and there is a waitlist.

Pricing. Free Forever is $0 with no credit card and no expiry date, and every new account also gets 10 days of Pro to try. Pro is early access at $125 per user per month, or $83 per user per month billed yearly at $999.

Signup for Pro opens soon. Annual billing is optional, saves 16%, and carries no lock-in, and the full breakdown sits on the Plankore pricing page.

Where it's not the right fit. Pro is not open for signup yet, so if you need AI detection running this week, Kreo and Togal go further than we do today. A shop with ten years of custom PlanSwift assemblies is also not rebuilding them in a weekend.

What it is. A cloud takeoff and estimating platform aimed at commercial GCs and specialty subs with dedicated precon staff. Strong assembly library, good version compare, solid support reputation.

Pricing. As published in September 2026, STACK Takeoff and Estimate runs $249 per user per month for Premium and $299 for Pro, both billed annually on 12-month terms. Monthly payment is available at a higher effective rate.

Read the free account carefully. STACK advertises a free account, but its own FAQ describes it as Pro-level features on any project for 7 days. At three estimators on the Pro tier, you're looking at roughly $10,700 a year.

Watch the add-ons. Aerial image takeoff is an add-on requiring Premium, and ERP connectors require Pro. The headline seat price is not the bill.

Best for. Teams of three or more estimators bidding commercial work weekly who want one cloud platform. Overkill for a solo remodeler doing eight bids a quarter.

What it is. The desktop workhorse, built around drag-and-drop digitizing and deep custom assemblies. A generation of estimators learned the trade on it.

Pricing changed. PlanSwift moved off the pure perpetual license model, and current listings put Professional at about $2,000 per license per year. Optional updates and support add roughly $200 to $250 per license annually, with one-on-one training around $295 per person.

The real friction. Reviewers consistently report the takeoff page and the estimating workbook not staying in sync, so workbook quantities don't always update themselves. Licensing is single-seat and tied to a workstation, which is why estimating departments quietly share copies.

Platform. Windows only. No Mac, no browser, no Chromebook.

Best for. An established Windows shop with years of assemblies built and no appetite to move them. If you're starting fresh in 2026, the math is harder to defend.

What it is. The markup standard for AEC work, and the measurement tools are genuinely good. If your team already runs Revu for submittals and redlines, doing takeoff there saves a context switch.

Pricing. Four annual per-user tiers as published in 2026: Basics at $260, Core at $330, Complete at $440, and the newer AI-focused Max at $590 introductory.

The tier trap. The takeoff features you actually want, meaning measurement formulas, Excel live link and Dynamic Fill, sit in Complete at $440. Buying Basics at $260 and expecting estimating tools is the most common budgeting mistake I see with Revu.

Timing matters right now. Revu 20 reaches end of life on December 31, 2026. If you're still on a perpetual seat, read our breakdown of the Revu 20 end-of-life transition before you renew.

Best for. GCs and PMs who need markup first and takeoff second. Estimating depth is thin next to purpose-built tools.

What it is. AI that detects, labels and measures spaces on architectural floor plans in seconds. On a clean 40-sheet residential set, that's the four hours you'd otherwise spend on a Sunday.

Pricing. The Growth plan lists at $299 per user per month billed annually, which works out to $3,588 per seat per year. A five-estimator team clears $17,000 annually for measurement alone.

Honest strength. On architectural floor plans, Togal is very good, and I'd rather say that plainly than pretend otherwise. It also integrates with eTakeoff and On-Screen Takeoff, which matters if you're keeping a legacy desktop workflow.

The limit. It measures. It won't read your spec book, price your scope, or tell you why two sheets disagree.

On the accuracy claims. Togal publishes a 98% figure on floor plans. Every accuracy percentage in this category is vendor self-reported and none of it is independently audited, including anything you'd read on our site.

What it is. Cloud AI takeoff with the most aggressive automation in the category. Its agent runs measurements across a set, then does a second pass checking its own output against the drawing geometry.

Pricing. Subscription, quote based. Not published as a flat seat price, which means a sales cycle before you know your number.

The trade. Depth costs complexity. A two-person remodeling outfit will spend more time configuring items and assemblies than it saves in month one.

Best for. Shops where somebody's job title is actually estimator, rather than owner doing everything after dinner.

What it is. The ConstructConnect desktop tool built for high-volume commercial work. It hands off natively into ConstructConnect's estimating product, formerly QuoteSoft, for full bid assembly.

Pricing. Quote based. Expect an enterprise sales cycle and an onboarding conversation before you see a number.

The honest read. The learning curve is real and it's Windows desktop. But a department running 40 bids a month with three estimators and a standard cost database gets value out of it that a lighter tool can't match.

Best for. Established commercial estimating departments. Not a first tool.

What it is. Cloud software built to count symbols fast. Point at a receptacle symbol and it finds every instance across the set, tallied by sheet.

The scope. It counts, and that's the point. No linear or area takeoff, no priced estimate, which is fine for an electrical sub pricing device counts across a 200-sheet commercial set.

Best for. Electrical and low voltage subs whose bid hinges on count takeoff, paired with something else for everything past the count.

Run three numbers before you book a single demo.

Number one, your cost per takeoff hour. The BLS put the median annual wage for cost estimators at $78,740 as of May 2025, which is about $38 an hour before burden and closer to $55 loaded. Save an estimator six hours a week and that's roughly $17,000 a year in recovered capacity at loaded cost.

Number two, seats times years. A $299 per user per month tool across three estimators is $10,764 a year, or $32,000 over three years. Price the seats you'll have in year three, not the one you have today.

Number three, your bid volume. Submit fewer than five bids a month and a free tier plus a spreadsheet is a defensible setup. Our guide to free takeoff software covers what you can do without paying anything.

Then test the thing properly. Take a set you've already bid by hand, run it through the trial, and compare line by line against your known quantities.

If the software can't match a job you already know the answer to, it won't save you on one you don't. Our walkthrough on how to do takeoffs from blueprints covers the manual method you'd be checking against.

None of these tools reads a spec book well. Division 09 finish schedules, keynotes buried on a detail sheet, and the note that says "match existing" are still your problem, and that's where scope gaps come from.

Revision control is uneven across the category. Most tools compare two versions of a sheet, but few tell you what that change does to your priced estimate without a rebuild.

AI detection also degrades on bad inputs. A scanned hand-marked set from 1998 will defeat every detection engine on this list, ours included.

The people math is worse than most vendors admit. BLS employment projections have cost estimator jobs declining 3% from 2025 to 2035 while still opening about 17,600 roles a year, almost all from retirements and transfers. Software isn't replacing that bench, it's what's left to cover it.

Your move is narrower than it looks. Pick the platform your shop can actually run, test it against a job you've already bid, and check whether you can trace a number back to the sheet.