The 6 Best Residential Construction Estimating Software Solutions for 2025

Buildxact

Scoring Features Highlights Reviews Pricing

Scoring

Key Features

Highlights

Buildxact’s residential construction estimating software helps optimize your workflow through digital takeoffs. It allows you to create accurate estimates and professional quotes with detailed line items, including labor and equipment costs.

You can track your quotes from the dashboard and see all ongoing, pending, and accepted customer quotes. You can also create online templates for your most common construction projects.

Its scheduling feature sends appointment reminders to contractors and dealers. You can link subtasks and export project schedules for your clients. Clients are also notified of any changes to project schedules.

As long as you’re connected to the internet, you can submit RFQs and material orders anytime. Changes are directly imported to your construction project budgets, and you can track actual project costs against estimated line items.

Looking for more comprehensive project management? Autodesk Build Review highlights its project management and collaboration features, which integrate seamlessly with its estimating tools, ensuring precision in larger-scale residential projects.

Reviews

Buildxact has an iOS and Android app, but it only has published reviews on the App Store, where it got a rating of 3.7 from 60 reviews. It also received a higher score of 4.6 on Capterra from 155 users.

3.7

1 2 3 4 5

60

4.6

1 2 3 4 5

155

iOS user anotherbuilder gave the app a one-star rating because it pales in comparison to the PC version. The app could be more user-friendly and include many functionalities.

iOS Review:

Very disappointed ⭐
I was very excited to see the new app and been waiting a while for it. But wow, was I disappointed. The app is absolutely pointless and does nothing that I expected it to do. No trade/project programming, can’t see the costings for the projects, can’t do a variation on the fly on-site. Basically can’t do anything that the PC version can do. For the app, I think you really need to talk to real-life builders/trades to see what they want out of it. Also need to rethink the schedule on the PC version. It just doesn’t seem to flow and not user-friendly.”

Andrew W., a business and estimating manager for a construction company, gave Buildxact a four-star rating because it’s easy to set up and use.

Capterra Review:

BuildXact is easy to use and set up ⭐⭐⭐⭐
BuildXact is easy to use and set up. The support team are great and are also following up to see that you are okay, even after the problem has been resolved. But the purchasing process could be a lot better.”

Pricing

Contractor Foreman

Scoring Features Highlights Reviews Pricing

Scoring

Key Features

Highlights

Contractor Foreman is construction management software offering robust features and affordable subscription plans to residential, trade, and general contractors. Its estimating software for residential construction also gives you quick access to tools for fast and accurate numbers.

Instead of making an estimate from scratch, you can use Contractor Foreman’s estimating templates. You can also prepare personalized and professional proposals with fully formattable cover sheets.

Once you send your estimate to a client, you can receive notifications once the email is opened and clicked so you can schedule your follow-up accordingly. Clients can also approve estimates online with their signatures, a time stamp, and IP address.

Contractor Foreman’s kanban and list views let you see items quickly, sorting them by columns or lists based on their statuses. You can apply filters that stay in place, so you won’t have to apply them every time. You can also do markups by line item or by using the bulk markup tool to finish the task in only a few clicks.

Reviews

Contractor Foreman has a satisfactory rating on three major review platforms. Its highest overall score is 4.5 from 652 reviews on Capterra. iOS and Android users also gave it a 4.3 and 4.1 rating, respectively.

4.3

1 2 3 4 5

337

4.1

1 2 3 4 5

691

4.5

1 2 3 4 5

652

iOS user SVBSR gave the app a five-star rating because it seamlessly connects to QuickBooks and helps with payroll processing.

iOS Review:

This App has more than we need, and is great to be able to grow into it! ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 
This application is great! We have a small general contracting company. The application can do more than we need, but we love that we can grow with the application. The application seamlessly connects to QuickBooks and helps with payroll processing! We love that the developers continue to add new features that help us be more organized, which makes us more productive and profitable!”

But it’s a different story for Android user Jennifer Osborn, who gave it a one-star rating because of its unreliability.

Google Play Review:

⭐ 
App is too unreliable, and the help desk is less than adequate. It’s just one poorly executed band-aid after another. System design was not designed for growth, and it shows. Do not recommend.”

Kevin P., meanwhile, gave it five stars because of its features, such as photo uploads in daily logs and reminder capabilities. However, he mentioned some syncing issues with QuickBooks.

Capterra Review:

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 
Contractor Foreman has various positive features that retain my continued use of the software, such as the ability to allow photo uploads within daily logs, mobile app use for all users, and reminder capabilities for critical job tasks. But the least likeable feature is when attempting to synchronize Contractor Foreman into our QuickBooks software. There are duplicate entries, or certain things do not transfer correctly. As a result, we had to terminate the synchronization between the two. Looking for an effective method to prevent errors from happening.”

Pricing

Buildertrend

Scoring Features Highlights Reviews Pricing

Scoring

Key Features

Highlights

Buildertrend offers comprehensive construction project management features to streamline all aspects of construction jobs. Its residential construction estimating software is well-suited for companies that want accurate estimates and more organized contacts, projects, and data.

Its easy-to-use construction takeoff solutions streamline the quantifying and measuring processes. It also provides professional client proposal and estimating templates, accurate material and labor calculations, and real-time cost tracking.

Its estimate rewriting features also help you organize costs better using categories, line-item editing, and automatic cost updates. All material cost and labor rate information are stored in a cost database for quick access.

To help you manage your day-to-day operations, Buildertrend also has a time clock and scheduler for your construction teams, as well as to-do lists and daily logs to update team members, supervisors, and clients on all activities during a build.

Reviews

You will see consistently solid ratings if you check Buildertrend’s online reviews. It even received a perfect 5.0 score on the Google Play Store from over 4,000 reviews. But even with a perfect rating, it’s not a perfect app, as what these users shared in their reviews below.

4.5

1 2 3 4 5

4000+

5.0

1 2 3 4 5

4880+

4.5

1 2 3 4 5

1600+

iOS user MrOBrian considered Buildertrend a helpful tool for coordinating with contractors. But now, it’s cumbersome to find anything in the app.

iOS Review:

New version is unintuitive ⭐⭐
This app used to be very helpful for coordinating with my contractor. But now I find that I avoid using it. It’s too difficult to find anything anymore. Right now, I have no idea if I have any outstanding invoices because I can’t find them in the interface anymore. To get to Messages, you now have to go under the More tab, which seems odd. It used to be on the home page. I very, very, very often run into bugs with this app, like it saying that I have no job selected after selecting a job, and then the link to select a job says there are no jobs. But if I go under the More tab, I can see all the jobs. Also, every time I start a new job with my contractor, I have to contact Buildertrend support to fix my account because it completely breaks. Every single time.”

Because of all the flood of custom and push notifications he receives, Carlos “CARLO5ONIC” Pineda gave the Android a one-star rating.

Google Play Review:

⭐ 
The app ignores custom notification settings and pushes all notifications. In jobs that are huge, with multiple co-workers, submitting daily logs, updating to-do lists, and more, your device will get absolutely flooded with notifications, annoying you to the point of disabling app notifications entirely, and you miss important notifications for a specific category due to this. Not to mention that the service sends emails for each notification, thus, getting notified twice with no way to change it.”

Katie K., partner at a construction company, has no complaints about Buildertrend, sharing how its scheduling and invitation features are what they most often use.

Capterra Review:

Buildertrend helped our business scale ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 
Our team uses the scheduling tool and invitation to invite subcontractors to participate most often, allowing transparency in each project. Our showrooms are getting on board as well. It cuts down communication and adds eyes onto the project timeline for added accountability. We don’t have any complaints. The software exceeds the capabilities we need, leaving us with continued learning opportunities.”

Pricing

Joist

Scoring Features Highlights Reviews Pricing

Scoring

Key Features

Highlights

Joist’s robust features help you create quick estimates and professional invoices and track client payments on the Joist web and mobile app.

Its quick and professional estimates are designed for easy use for contractors on the go. You can make your own templates by reusing line items, adding job photos, and duplicating estimate templates. It also lets you store and choose your most used services from the items catalog to create easier estimates in the future.

With Joist’s estimating software for residential construction, you can use cost markups, payment schedules, and deposit requests and get client signatures on estimates online or in person.

Related Product: Workmax offers robust solutions for job costing and project management. See our Workmax Review to explore its features.

Reviews

There are over 6,000 reviews for Joist on the App Store, where it received its highest rating of 4.6. Meanwhile, it doesn’t fall that far behind on the Play Store, where Android users gave its app a 4.4 rating. Although it only has 60 reviews on Capterra, it still managed a decent 4.1 overall score.

4.6

1 2 3 4 5

6900+

4.4

1 2 3 4 5

10,800+

4.1

1 2 3 4 5

60

Although it’s Dynamite John’s favorite app for bidding and invoicing, he only gave it a four-star rating. He shared the reasons below in his lengthy review.

iOS Review:

Great app mostly ⭐⭐⭐
This is my favorite app for bidding and invoicing! The two reasons I gave it less than five stars are as follows:

1. The app keeps sending annoying messages to try to get me to sign up for PayPal payments. And no matter how often I decline, they keep throwing it in front of me each time I open the app. Like, please stop wasting our time. We are paying for the subscription, and you’re interrupting our busy day. If we could clear up those two issues, I would change my rating to five stars, and recommend this app strongly! It still remains the best one out there.”
2. Every time you navigate to a different app during estimate editing mode (for example, to copy and paste from your notes), it closes the edit and doesn’t save any changes. The app refreshes each time you close a bid, etc. Makes for a lot of wasted time while it reloads ten times more frequently than needed. I have brought this up to the Joist team, and they said they would look into it, but never fixed it.

Curtis Litsair’s four-rating is mainly because of problems when uploading a photo to an estimate.

Google Play Review:

⭐⭐⭐⭐ 
I like the app when it works. With that being said, I am starting to see some improvements in performance. But I still experience issues that I hope will be addressed. When uploading photos to an estimate, it’s very common to see that all or some of them fail to upload, and you have to tap retry on the photo itself. It happens very often when I do this, and it deletes the photo instead of trying to upload it again. Please make an option to retry automatically and a user prompt for deleting!”

Alison W. thinks it’s a simple and user-friendly app but can be improved with better reporting features.

Capterra Review:

Simple and user-friendly app ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Really great for small businesses who are looking for a simple invoicing solution. My client uses Joist, which is how I started using it. They are a small business with not much accounting experience, and this app is perfect for them. It’s basic and simple to use. They can easily send invoices on the go to their clients. But I would like to see better reporting in Joist. It is simple to use, but I do find myself scrolling a bit too much when looking up an older invoice.”

Pricing