ChatGPTTL;DR
- A remodel is priced from a walkthrough, not a drawing, so the tool that matters most is the one holding the unit costs. Every price here is the vendor's own page on November 4, 2026.
- Unit-cost databases: Clear Estimates $59 a month billed annually ($79 monthly) with 13,000 priced line items. XactRemodel $85 or $105. Buildxact $169 or $199 with unlimited users and takeoff built in.
- Design-build proposal tools: Bolster from $155, Houzz Pro $199 on an annual subscription, JobTread $199 plus $20 a user, Contractor Foreman from $49. Buildertrend and CoConstruct print no price at all.
- General field apps most small remodelers quote from: Joist from $12, Jobber from $29, Housecall Pro from $59. None of them carries a cost database.
- Plan-set takeoff for additions with drawings: ScopeTakeoff and Kreo at $100 a user, STACK and Togal at $299, PlanSwift $2,000 to $3,000 a year. Overkill for a bathroom.
- ChatGPT cannot price a remodel. Its own documentation says its counts from images are approximate. Use it for the scope letter and keep the numbers in a tool you can edit.
Angi puts the 2026 national average kitchen remodel at $26,944 across 13,100 verified projects. Houzz's kitchen study puts the median at $60,000. Either way the estimate is the biggest number a homeowner will read all year, and the tool that produces it is the subject of this post.
We build websites and run marketing for contractors, including remodelers. We do not sell estimating software for remodelers, and nothing below pays us. Every price was read on the vendor's own page on November 4, 2026.
If the number of estimates is the problem rather than the estimate itself, start with the remodeling leads post and our free website audit.
A remodel is priced from a walkthrough, and that decides the tool
Roofers measure from satellites and electricians count symbols on drawings. A kitchen and bath remodeler walks the house with a tape and a notepad, and the plans, when they exist, arrive after the price has been promised.
That order of events means the estimate is built from unit costs, meaning the price of one unit of finished work, such as a square foot of tile set or a cabinet hung. Groups of unit costs that go together, like the demolition, backer board and tile for one shower, are called assemblies.
The software that matters is the one holding those unit costs. Remodelers get them four ways, and each has its own group of tools below:
- a unit-cost database inside the estimating tool, updated by the vendor
- a design-build proposal tool, where the firm that designs the project also builds it and prices from its own costbook, a written list of its unit prices
- a general field app that holds a price list the owner typed in
- a takeoff tool, which measures quantities off a drawing, for the addition that comes with plans
The parent post, best estimating software for contractors, covers all trades. This is the remodeling cut, with the kitchen and bath tools priced first.
Angi's 2026 national average kitchen remodel, from 13,100 verified projects completed by Angi pros. Houzz's own kitchen study puts the median at $60,000, which tells you how wide the word "kitchen" is.
Unit-cost databases: Clear Estimates at $59 is the cheapest priced estimate
These three tools ship with a cost database so a new remodeler can produce a localized price on day one. The database is the product. The estimate screen is the wrapper around it.
| Tool | Price as printed (November 4, 2026) | What the database gives a remodeler | Trial, term, users |
|---|---|---|---|
| Clear Estimates | Standard $79 a month or $59 billed annually; Pro $119 or $99; Franchise "start at $249/mo" or $199 billed annually, scoped on a quote | 13,000-plus line items with quarterly labor and material rate updates, 400-plus templates, "unlimited AI estimates" on every plan; Pro adds AI image and plan uploads, a Buildertrend integration, Zapier and ATTOM property data | 30-day trial on every plan; "no setup fees" and no contract; additional users $9 a month on Pro |
| XactRemodel (Verisk) | Standard $85 a month billed annually or $105 monthly; Pro $100 or $129 | "Local and regularly updated pricing data from the most comprehensive construction cost database," the same Verisk data behind insurance restoration estimates; 3D floor plans; estimating through invoicing | "Try free for 7 days"; annual or monthly; no user count printed |
| Buildxact | Foundation $199 a month or $169 billed annually ($2,030); Pro $399 or $339 ($4,070); Master $599 or $509 ($6,110) | Takeoff from PDF plans and estimating in one tool, supplier price lists, and the "Blu" AI set: Assembly Assistant on Foundation, Estimate Generator included on Pro or $99 a month on Foundation, Takeoff Assistant and Estimate Reviewer on Master | 14-day trial; "Unlimited Users" on every plan; "All annual plans require a 12-month commitment" |
| Verdict | Clear Estimates Standard at $59 billed annually for the one-estimator kitchen and bath shop that wants a localized price without building a costbook first. XactRemodel Standard at $85 if the firm also does insurance restoration and already thinks in Verisk line items. Buildxact Foundation at $169 once the work arrives with drawings, because the takeoff and the unlimited seats come in the same price. | ||
Clear Estimates is the tool the search results and the AI Overview both lead with, and the pricing page explains why. Its headline figure is the line-item count, and the thing it charges for on Pro is the ability to feed it a photo or a plan instead of typing the rooms in.
The annual discount is the detail to read twice. Standard drops from $79 to $59 a month on annual billing, which is the figure in our chart below. The monthly figure is what the Reddit threads quote, because that is what the trial converts to.
XactRemodel is the one most remodelers have not priced. Verisk's product page would not render for our read, but its campaign page prints both plans, both billing terms and a seven-day trial. The pitch is the data: the same cost database that prices storm claims, pointed at a bathroom.
Buildxact is the expensive one in this table and the cheap one in the takeoff table further down. Unlimited users at $169 is a different proposition from $299 a seat, and the twelve-month commitment on annual billing is the trade for it.
The costbooks behind the databases cost less than a month of software
Every database above started as a printed costbook, and two publishers still sell the book. If the software is on hold, these are the starting rates for a remodeler who has not timed five jobs yet.
| Reference | Price as printed | What it contains |
|---|---|---|
| Craftsman 2026 National Home Improvement Estimator | $118.75 paperback, $59.38 as a text-searchable PDF; 548 pages, by Bilandra Chase | "Current labor and material prices for home improvement projects": manhours, crew size and labor cost for removal and installation, kitchen and bathroom improvements, and assembly prices so you add linear or square feet to finish the estimate |
| Craftsman National Estimator Cloud | $13.99 a month or $167.88 for twelve months prepaid | The same Craftsman cost databases on any device with a browser, which is the cheapest unit-cost software on this page |
| RSMeans 2026 Contractor's Pricing Guide: Residential Repair & Remodeling | $98.60 on sale, $116.00 regular | "Total unit price costs for every aspect of the most common repair and remodeling projects" in 23 categories, with location factors and trade labor rates including overhead and profit |
| RSMeans Data Online | Core from $408 a year, Complete from $1,049 | The full RSMeans database, priced for general contractors and overkill for a kitchen and bath shop |
| Verdict | Craftsman's $59.38 PDF for a remodeler who wants a starting unit cost for every task tomorrow, and the $13.99 cloud version once the book is open on every estimate. RSMeans' $98.60 guide if the work is repair-heavy. Skip RSMeans Data Online below ten people. | |
The costbook is a placeholder, the same way the default production rates in a painting tool are. The painting estimating post shows how the rate from a stopwatch replaces the rate from a book after five or six jobs. Remodeling works the same way, one assembly at a time.
Faster estimates only help if the phone rings
Our free website audit is a 10-minute Loom and a written report inside 48 hours on why your remodeling site does or does not turn visitors into consultation requests.
Design-build proposal tools: the seat count sets the price
A design-build firm sells a proposal with options, a selections list and a schedule, and the estimate is one tab inside a bigger product. The tools here are priced by seat, so the figure to compare is what one more person costs.
| Tool | Price as printed (November 4, 2026) | Estimating features as printed | Trial, term, extra users |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bolster | Core $155 a month billed annually ($1,860) or $189 monthly, 1 user; Pro $399 billed annually ($4,788) or $499, 3 users; Premium $583 billed annually ($6,999), 5 users | Assemblies and templates, AutoCost pricing data, options and upgrades inside the proposal the client clicks through; a kitchen and bath page on its blog | No trial printed; extra users $16 to $20 a month |
| Houzz Pro | Free plan with estimates, a 3D floor planner and invoicing; Pro $199 a month, 1 user; Teams "Starting at $399/mo," 5 users; Enterprise "Let's Talk" | Estimates, takeoffs, 3D floor plans, selections and bid management on Pro, with takeoffs and assemblies tagged "Houzz AI"; 5 monthly 3D conversions on Pro, 20 on Teams; advertising sold separately from $499 a month | 30-day trial, no card, "before your annual subscription begins," so the paid plan is annual; extra users $50 a month |
| JobTread | $199 a month plus $20 a month per internal user (2 to 10), $15 (11 to 20), $10 (21 to 30), $5 past 31; annual "Save 20%" with no base figure printed | Estimating, budgets, proposals and job costing in one platform; vendor, subcontractor and customer portal users free and unlimited | "We don't offer a free trial" because every client gets a success manager; 30-day money-back on monthly; "No contract & no setup fees" |
| Contractor Foreman | Basic $49 a month billed annually only, 1 user; Standard $105 or $139 monthly, 3 users; Plus $166 or $199, 8 users; Pro $221 or $279, 15 users; Unlimited $332 or $399 | Estimates on every plan, a material database whose local pricing "Basic and Standard plans do not include," takeoffs "using the built-in AI," and an AI Estimator marked "Preview" | 30-day trial; 100-day money-back on annual Plus and up; free setup on Pro and Unlimited |
| Buildertrend | No price printed; the page refused our read on November 4, 2026 and printed no figure on November 1, 2026 | Estimating, takeoffs and selections inside a full project platform, sold on a quote based on annual volume | Demo and quote only |
| CoConstruct | No price printed; the page reads "The next chapter starts with Buildertrend" and the "transition to Buildertrend is entering its final phase" | Migration resources for existing customers | Not sold to new customers from the page we read |
| Verdict | Bolster Core at $155 for a design-build owner who sells options and wants the client to pick them on screen. JobTread at $199 plus $20 a seat once three or more people touch a job, because the seat price is the lowest in the table and the portal users are free. Houzz Pro only if the Houzz leads are already paying for themselves, since the subscription is annual. Buildertrend by quote once the firm passes fifteen people. | ||
JobTread surprised us. Our search bench had it down as a vendor that prints no price, and on November 4 its page prints the base figure, every user tier and the refund terms. The missing number is the annual base, which the page cuts off after "billed annually at."
Buildertrend went the other way. Its tiers used to be third-party knowledge, and in 2026 the page prints nothing. A remodeler who wants a figure before the demo should ask what annual volume the quote assumes.
Houzz Pro's 30-day trial is the generous number and the annual subscription behind it is the one to budget. The free plan includes estimates and the 3D floor planner, which is enough for a solo designer to test the workflow before the $199 commits for a year.
The review sites are no help on this group
We normally print Software Advice and Trustpilot scores beside the prices. Software Advice blocked every profile read on November 4, 2026, and Trustpilot has almost nothing. Clear Estimates has no reviews at all. JobTread shows 3.7 across one review and Contractor Foreman 2.9 across two, both one-star and both about sales calls.
Buildxact and Houzz Pro have no Trustpilot listing at the addresses we tried. For this category the pricing page and the trial are the evidence, and the trial is the one to spend an afternoon on. Price a job you already built and compare the line items to the invoice.
The chart is the lowest paid plan for one person, which is the honest comparison and also the unflattering one for the tools that get cheaper per seat. JobTread at $2,388 would tie Houzz Pro for one user and beat it by $360 a seat from the second person on.
Most small remodelers quote from a general field app, from $12 a month
Most remodelers under ten people are not on anything above. They quote from the same app that schedules the crew and sends the invoice, and the unit costs live in a price list the owner typed in over a weekend.
These figures are identical to what the painting and landscaping posts recorded on November 2, so we reused those reads. Annual-billing prices come first where the vendor prints both.
| App | Price as printed | Estimating notes for a remodeler | Trial |
|---|---|---|---|
| Joist | Basics $12, Pro $17, Elite $32 a month; Run $100, or $70 on an introductory annual rate | Estimates to invoices, line items and photos on Pro, change orders on Elite, which matter more in remodeling than any other trade; five documents a month on Basics | 14 days, no card |
| Jobber | Core $29 a month billed annually ($49 with no commitment), 1 user; Connect $99; Grow $149; extra users $29 | Quotes on Core, optional line items on Grow, which is where good-better-best lives; no cost database. See the Jobber pricing guide | No card; length not printed |
| Housecall Pro | Basic $59 a month billed annually ($79 monthly), 1 user; Essentials $149, 5 users; Max $299, 8 users; $35 per extra user | Price book on every plan, good-better-best proposals on Max; built for service calls rather than six-week projects | 14 days, no card |
| Markate | $49.95 a month or $45.95 billed yearly, plus $5 a month per employee; most add-ons $10 | Estimates, proposals as an add-on, client portal as another | 14 days, no card, no contract |
| Contractor+ | Freedom free with 5 estimates a month; Pro Team $58 a month for 2 users, $20 each after; Max $500, unlimited users | Estimates on the free plan, job costing on Pro Team, "Estimatic AI" on Max with no description | 14-day trials of paid features; "all sales are final" |
| Kickserv | Start $60 a month for 5 users, Run $119 for 10, Scale $199 for 20; 20 percent off annual | Estimates and invoicing; the cheapest per-seat figure here at five users | 30 days |
| Verdict | Joist Elite at $32 for the owner-operator whose real problem is change orders, which is most of them. Jobber Core at $29 if the firm also runs handyman or service work and needs the schedule. Housecall Pro Essentials at $149 once five people need logins. Add Clear Estimates at $59 the day the price list in the app stops matching the invoices. | ||
The gap in every row is the same: no vendor-maintained unit costs. A remodeler on Jobber is quoting from numbers that were right the week they were typed. That is fine for a shop that re-prices its list every quarter and a slow leak for one that does not.
Plan-set takeoff is for the addition that comes with drawings
An addition or a whole-house remodel sometimes arrives with a stamped plan set, and then the quantities can be measured off the PDF instead of the house. That is a takeoff, and the construction takeoff tools do it for every trade.
The full comparison with every AI claim traced is in the AI estimating software post. This is the remodeling cut, with Buildxact from the first table repeated because it belongs here too.
| Tool | Price as printed (November 4, 2026) | Remodeling relevance | Trial |
|---|---|---|---|
| ScopeTakeoff | "$100 per person per month"; "No annual contract, no setup fee, no per-trade add-ons" | Remodeling is one of the trade libraries included; proposals and a schedule of values from one set of quantities; AI measuring "in early access" that "proposes the count; you confirm it"; built for subcontractors "doing $500k to $10M/year" | 14 days, with the pricing page saying no card and the homepage saying card required |
| Kreo | Essential $100, Pro $175, Business $250 a user a month billed annually | AI room, wall, door and window takeoff on Pro, with cost estimates in the same tool | 7 days |
| Buildxact | Foundation $169 a month billed annually or $199 monthly, unlimited users | Takeoff and estimating in one plan at a flat price, which beats every per-seat tool here from the second estimator on | 14 days |
| Bluebeam | Basics $260, Core $330, Complete $440, Max $590 a user a year | The markup tool architects send drawings in; area and length measurement with an Excel export | 14 days of Max |
| STACK Takeoff & Estimate | Premium $299, Pro $349 a user a month billed annually; free tier | Assemblies that add labor as you measure; priced for a dedicated estimator bidding weekly | Free version; 12-month terms on paid |
| Togal.AI | Growth $299 a user a month billed yearly; Business custom at 4-plus users | Auto-detects room areas; the Togal review traces its accuracy claims | Demo |
| PlanSwift | Essential $2,000, Core $3,000 a year per seat | The desktop standard for commercial estimators; Core adds Auto Takeoff, which the page calls "not a finished" estimate | 14 days of Core, no card |
| Verdict | Bluebeam Basics at $260 a year for the remodeler who receives a drawing set a few times a quarter and already gets them in Bluebeam. ScopeTakeoff at $100 month to month for the one who bids additions regularly and wants a proposal out of the same quantities. Buildxact Foundation at $169 once two people measure. STACK, Togal and PlanSwift only with a full-time estimator. | ||
One Reddit remodeler put the takeoff question well in a September 2025 thread about AI estimating tools: for residential work priced from a site visit rather than drawings, "voice based tools make more sense than blueprint AI." The bathroom has no blueprint. The addition does, and that is the only time the tools above earn a seat.
Can ChatGPT estimate a remodel?
This is the question Google appends to the search, and the honest answer is in the vendors' own documentation. ChatGPT can write the scope letter, sanity-check the arithmetic and turn a messy walkthrough note into a line-item list. It cannot produce the quantities or the prices.
OpenAI's image guide says "the model may give approximate counts for objects in images" and that it "struggles with tasks requiring precise spatial localization." Anthropic's vision page says the same about Claude: counts are approximate, "especially with large numbers of small objects," and coordinate outputs should be verified "before relying on them."
A remodel estimate is a count of small objects: outlets, cabinet boxes, linear feet of trim. The r/ConstructionManagers thread on ChatGPT for estimating, from May 2024, reads the same way. One estimator pulled a rough concrete quantity off an uploaded plan in seconds and told everyone to double-check it. Others reported miscounted HVAC registers and generic scope language.
The small remodeler in that September 2025 r/artificial thread, still estimating in spreadsheets, got the most useful reply from someone who had tried the AI tools: "It saved me maybe 30% of the data entry time but I still had to tweak half the line items." Another commenter's verdict on the category was shorter: "its just a chat wrapper."
The AI on the pricing pages in this post is narrower than the pitch, and the narrow version is the useful one:
- Clear Estimates. "Unlimited AI estimates" on every plan, and on Pro an upload of a photo or plan that the tool reads into rooms. The 13,000 priced line items do the pricing, which is the part that matters.
- Buildxact. Four named "Blu" assistants, sold by tier. The Estimate Reviewer on Master checks an estimate for gaps, which is the one job a language model is good at.
- ScopeTakeoff. "AI measuring proposes the count; you confirm it," and "fully hands-off auto-takeoff is on the roadmap." That is the clearest sentence on any page we read.
- Houzz Pro. Takeoffs and assemblies tagged "Houzz AI" with no sentence describing what the AI does.
- Contractor Foreman. An AI Estimator marked "Preview."
- JobTread, XactRemodel and Bolster. No AI claim on the pricing page at all, which is its own kind of honesty.
Google's AI Overview for this search also cites a vendor called Qualix. We could not find a product or pricing page by that name on November 4, so it is not in the tables.
The one trade where AI replaces the measurement step is roofing, because a satellite can see the roof. Nothing can see inside the wall of a 1962 bathroom until the demolition crew does, which is why remodeling estimates go wrong at the change order rather than at the takeoff.
Three things to skip
- A plan-set takeoff seat for kitchen and bath work. Togal, STACK and PlanSwift together cost more than a cabinet installer, and they measure a drawing a residential remodeler rarely has. Bluebeam Basics at $260 a year covers the occasional addition, and Buildxact at $169 covers it with estimating attached.
- Any tool that will not print a price. Buildertrend removed its tiers, CoConstruct is being folded into it, and both now start with a demo. Every tool in the tables above with a printed price also prints a trial or a refund window. The ones that hide the number are selling to a bigger firm than yours.
- ChatGPT as the estimator. Draft the proposal letter in it, paste your line items in to check the math, and stop there. Both OpenAI and Anthropic say their counts are approximate, and a remodel is a count. Keep the prices in a tool with a database you can edit.
The home remodeling page covers what we do for remodelers, which is the marketing side of this post.
More estimates to write?
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Frequently asked questions
What is the best remodeling estimating software?
For a kitchen and bath remodeler with one estimator, Clear Estimates Standard at $59 a month billed annually, because the 13,000 priced line items and the templates produce a localized estimate on day one. For a design-build firm selling options, Bolster Core at $155 or JobTread at $199 plus $20 a seat. For additions that come with drawings, Buildxact Foundation at $169 with unlimited users. Prices are the vendor pages on November 4, 2026.
How much does remodeling estimating software cost?
Unit-cost database tools run $59 to $599 a month: Clear Estimates $59 to $249, XactRemodel $85 to $129, Buildxact $169 to $599. Design-build proposal tools run $49 to $583: Contractor Foreman from $49, Bolster $155 to $583, Houzz Pro $199 to $399, JobTread $199 plus $20 a user. General field apps start lower, Joist at $12 and Jobber at $29. Plan-set takeoff runs $100 a user for ScopeTakeoff to $3,000 a year for PlanSwift Core.
Does Clear Estimates have a free trial?
Yes, 30 days on every plan, with no contract and no setup fee printed. Standard is $79 a month or $59 billed annually, Pro is $119 or $99 and adds AI image and plan uploads plus a Buildertrend integration, and Franchise starts at $249 on a scoped quote. Additional users on Pro are $9 a month. The database is 13,000-plus line items with quarterly labor and material updates.
Is there free remodeling estimating software?
Houzz Pro's free plan includes estimates, a 3D floor planner and invoicing. Contractor+ has a free-forever plan with five estimates a month, and STACK's takeoff tool has a permanent free tier. Clear Estimates, Buildxact, Joist, Jobber and Housecall Pro all offer trials of 14 to 30 days. The cheapest unit-cost data is Craftsman's National Estimator Cloud at $13.99 a month, or the home improvement PDF at $59.38.
Can ChatGPT estimate a remodel?
Not the quantities or the prices. OpenAI's image documentation says the model "may give approximate counts for objects in images," and Anthropic's says the same for Claude, with a warning to verify before relying on the output. A remodel is a count of small items, so the error lands in the estimate. Use either one to draft the scope letter and check your arithmetic, and keep the unit costs in Clear Estimates, Buildxact or your own costbook.
Does Buildertrend print a price?
No. On November 1, 2026 its pricing page printed no figure, and on November 4 the page refused our read. Third-party listings still quote tiers from its old model, which Buildertrend has replaced with quotes based on annual construction volume. CoConstruct, its sister product, now tells customers the "transition to Buildertrend is entering its final phase." JobTread at $199 plus $20 a user is the nearest competitor that prints a number.