Builder Estimating Software Built for Small Teams
ContractorCounter is builder estimating software for builders and small construction teams who price their own work: take off quantities from the drawings, let the AI suggest rates you review, and send a priced quote — one browser workspace, on site or in the office.
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Verdict
Choose ContractorCounter if you are builders pricing your own jobs and you want takeoff, rates, and the quote in one place at US$14/month (or a US$249 one-time one-time license). Stay with a specialist estimating suite like Buildxact if your estimating depends on deep pre-loaded builder databases maintained for you — that depth is real, and we do not pretend to replace it.
01
What a builder estimate is made of here
The quantities come off the drawing, not a spreadsheet. Slab, wall, and roof areas measured as calibrated polygons, with volumes driven off the same shapes; Framing and lineal items — plates, studs at centres, fascia, gutter — taken off as lengths; Openings counted by type from the schedule: doors, windows, wet-area fixtures; Trade packages built as BoQ sections, so the carpentry, roofing, and wet-area scopes price separately and total together; Prime cost and provisional sums carried as their own lines, not buried in rates — each one measured or counted on the calibrated sheet, each one a line in a live Bill of Quantities that stays tied to the markup that produced it.
02
A worked example
A single-storey extension: floor plan and roof plan, calibrated against the stated 90 mm stud wall. Polygons give 84 m² of new slab and 96 m² of roof; wall lengths total 62 m which drives plates, studs, and plasterboard; the schedule counts 9 windows and 4 doors — each quantity a visible markup you check against the drawing. The BoQ groups by trade package, applies your rates (or AI-suggested ones with reasoning), holds the client's PC items as separate lines, and the whole extension is a versioned quote with every number traceable to a shape on the plan. Every number traces back to a markup on the sheet, so when the scope changes the estimate follows.
03
AI takes the first pass — you keep the judgement
The AI assistant can count the repetitive items, measure runs, and set the drawing scale, with every result reviewed before it commits. Then the rate side: ask for a rate on "supply and lay 25 MPa slab on ground, 100 mm" and it proposes one with its reasoning — interpretation, labour-and-material basis, your market — anchored against the slab rates already in your bill. Never a bare number — a proposal you accept, revise, or dismiss.
04
Honest about Buildxact, Clear Estimates, PlanSwift
**Buildxact** — residential builders who want estimating tied into job management, scheduling, and supplier price files in one subscription. **Clear Estimates** — US remodelers pricing from a maintained cost database rather than their own rates. **PlanSwift** — high-volume desktop takeoff with assemblies on Windows, for an office that lives in it. ContractorCounter wins on the other side of that trade-off: speed to a priced quote, working anywhere, and a price a builders outfit can carry (US$14/month) instead of an enterprise licence.
Common questions
Questions about Builder estimating
Is this full builder estimating software or just takeoff?
Both halves, in one flow: measure and count on the calibrated drawings (the [builder takeoff](/construction-takeoff-software) side), then price the resulting Bill of Quantities with your own rates or AI-suggested ones, and issue the quote. What it is not: a pre-loaded builder cost database — your rates are yours.
Do the AI suggestions replace my builder rates?
No. Every AI count, measurement, and rate is a proposal you accept, revise, or dismiss — with the reasoning shown. Your builder rates stay yours; the AI removes the repetitive clicking, not the judgement about what a builder item is worth in your market.
What does builder estimating software cost compared to Buildxact?
US$14/month, or a US$249 one-time one-time license, with a free trial (card required). Specialist builder estimating suites like Buildxact, Clear Estimates, PlanSwift typically run to thousands per seat per year — worth it for their maintained databases if you use them, hard to justify for a small builder team pricing from its own rates.
Can I price by trade package for a whole build?
Yes — the Bill of Quantities holds grouped sections, so carpentry, roofing, and wet areas price as their own packages with their own rates, subtotal cleanly, and roll up to the job total. Drag items between packages and the totals follow.
