ChatGPTTL;DR
- Siding is priced per square, 100 square feet of wall, from a measurement. The tool that matters is the one that produces the measurement. Every price here was read on the vendor's page on November 5, 2026.
- Aerial measurement reports: Hover's exterior report is $59 to $139 a house pay as you go, $39 to $119 on the $999 a year Pro plan, $79 flat on Business. EagleView's walls report prints at $78. Roofr measures roofs only.
- Exterior sales and proposal apps: Leap CRM Essential $79 a month, Builder Prime $300 a month plus $60 a user. JobNimbus, with SumoQuote inside it, and AccuLynx print no price.
- General field apps most siding crews quote from: Joist from $12, Jobber from $29, Housecall Pro from $59. None of them measures a wall.
- Plan-set takeoff for the apartment job that arrives with drawings: ScopeTakeoff $100 a user, Square Takeoff $249 a month, STACK from $299 a user, PlanSwift from $2,000 a year. Overkill for a colonial.
- ChatGPT cannot measure a house. OpenAI's own documentation says its counts are approximate. Aerial AI does the measuring, and the waste factor stays yours.
A siding estimate is a measurement with a price attached. Miss the square count by 10 percent on a $20,000 fiber cement job and the margin is gone before the first course goes up. So the question behind "siding estimating software" is which tool produces the measurement, and which one turns it into a number the homeowner can sign.
We build websites and run marketing for contractors, siding contractors included, with plans from $350 a month. We do not sell estimating software for siding contractors, and nothing below pays us. Every price was read on the vendor's own page on November 5, 2026.
If the problem is the number of estimates rather than the estimate itself, the siding contractor marketing guide and our free website audit are the place to start.
A siding estimate starts with the measurement, and the tool follows
Siding is sold by the square, which is 100 square feet of wall. The estimate starts with the square count less the openings. A waste factor goes on top, the percentage added for cuts and offcuts. Then a price per square that covers panel, trim, labor and the dumpster. The measurement is the number that moves the total.
Siding contractors get the square count four ways, and each has its own group of tools below:
- an aerial measurement report, where a vendor turns aerial imagery or your phone photos into a measured 3D model of the house
- an exterior sales and proposal app, which pulls that report in and turns it into a priced document the homeowner signs on a tablet
- a general field app that holds a price list you typed in, with the squares measured by tape
- a takeoff tool, which counts quantities off a drawing, for the multifamily or commercial job that arrives with plans
The parent post, best estimating software for contractors, covers every trade. This is the siding cut. If you also roof, which most siding contractors do, the roofing estimating post is the companion and covers the satellite roof tools this one leaves out.
What the measurement has to feed
Whatever tool produces the squares, the estimate behind a re-side carries the same lines, and the app you pick has to hold all of them:
- siding panels by the square, with the waste factor applied
- house wrap, flashing tape and fasteners by the square
- J-channel, corner posts, starter strip and trim by the linear foot
- soffit, fascia and gutter work, if the job includes them
- tear-off, disposal and the dumpster
- labor per square, which is the number only your own jobs can give you
The number of exterior measurement reports a year at which Hover's $999 Pro plan pays for itself, because Pro takes $20 off every project. Below that, pay per house.
Aerial measurement reports: Hover's $39 exterior report is the siding price
Two vendors print a wall measurement price. Hover builds a 3D model from photos you take with a phone, or from aerial imagery, and its exterior report covers roof, siding, gutters and windows in one order. EagleView sells a walls report from its aircraft imagery, from the company whose roof reports the restoration trade runs on.
| Tool | Price as printed (November 5, 2026) | What a siding contractor gets | Trial, term, users |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hover | Starter, pay per project: Exterior $59 simple, $99 average, $139 complex structure. Pro $999 a year: $39, $79, $119. Business $2,999 a year: $79 flat "regardless of project complexity." Enterprise custom | "A full 3D model and measurements for roof, siding, gutters, windows, and more." Roof-only scans from $29 on Starter. Expedited delivery $39 a project on Starter, $19 on Pro and Business | "Get your first 3 projects for free" on Starter, no card; "no limit on the number of users"; Business covers up to 10 branches; no setup fee printed |
| EagleView | Walls, Windows & Doors residential $78 in the first printed column, $72.25 and $67.50 in the next two, Premium "Call for pricing"; Walls (formerly WallsLite) $40; Full House $105; Bid Perfect $18 | Wall, window and door measurements from aerial imagery; Full House adds the roof; the page prints product names and prices with no descriptions | No trial printed; Silver, Gold and Platinum prepay tiers "if you can forsee how many reports you intend to order"; reduced pricing through a distributor or purchase volume, via a sales rep |
| Roofr | Roof report $19 on the free Starter plan, $13 on paid plans from $109 a month | Roof only. No siding or wall measurement is printed anywhere on the pricing page | Starter free with unlimited users; "no setup or onboarding fees" |
| Verdict | Hover Starter for the first three houses, which are free, then pay per house until the fiftieth exterior report of the year, when Pro at $999 breaks even. Business only if most of your houses price as complex. EagleView if you already order its roof reports and want the walls on the same invoice. Roofr stays in the roofing post. | ||
The Hover math is simple because Pro takes $20 off every project, so the $999 subscription breaks even at the fiftieth house whatever the complexity. A shop quoting three houses a week is past that by May.
Business is the plan for complex houses. Its flat $79 beats the $139 Starter price on a complex structure and loses to the $59 price on a simple one, so a shop that quotes ranches should not buy it. The break-even against Pro is, again, fifty complex houses a year.
EagleView's page is a price grid with no plan descriptions. The first printed column is the one a new account pays, the next two are volume tiers you reach through a sales rep, and the last reads "Call for pricing." We recorded the columns as printed and could not confirm which tier name sits over which figure.
EagleView prints two walls products, and the cheaper one is easy to miss. Walls, formerly WallsLite, is $40 in every column, and by its name covers the walls without the window and door measurements the $78 report adds. A siding estimate needs the openings for the deductions and the J-channel count, so the extra $38 is usually earned.
Both reports hand you squares, not a price. The waste factor, the linear feet of J-channel and corner post, the soffit and the price per square still come from you, and the next two groups of tools are where those numbers live.
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 siding site does or does not turn visitors into estimate requests.
Exterior sales and proposal apps: Leap from $79, Builder Prime from $360
These apps are built for the in-home sales call. The rep opens the Hover or EagleView report in the app, the price per square and the good-better-best siding lines are already loaded, and the homeowner signs at the kitchen table. That is a proposal tool, and two of the four best known ones will not print a price.
| Tool | Price as printed (November 5, 2026) | What the page says about estimating | Trial, term, users |
|---|---|---|---|
| Leap | Leap CRM Essential $79 a month, "Limit 1 User Per Account"; Team "Starting at" $298 a month plus "$99 per/mo per add. user"; SalesPro Premium "Starting at" $750 a month for 6 users; Enterprise by demo | The exterior sales CRM, with SalesPro as the in-home presentation and contract layer; no per-report prices printed | "All Leap plans are available in one-year contracts paid monthly"; 14-day free trial on Essential; no setup fee printed |
| Builder Prime | "$300/mo platform fee" plus $60 a month per core user and $10 per field user; annual billing "Save 17%"; Enterprise by quote at 50-plus users | CRM and estimating for home improvement with Hover and EagleView integrations listed, unpriced; its own calculator printed a $480 total for three core users plus add-ons whose line items sum to $779 | Free trial by request, length not printed; "month-to-month by default"; no setup fee printed |
| JobNimbus with SumoQuote | No price printed. Essentials up to 3 users, Pro up to 10, Premium up to 19, Enterprise 20-plus, each "Request pricing" | SumoQuote's own pricing page now redirects to JobNimbus's, which describes it as the proposal tool homeowners sign on the spot | 14-day free trial, no card; "monthly or annual agreements"; "no required setup or onboarding fees" |
| AccuLynx | No price printed | Roofing and exterior CRM with estimating inside; the page offers "Get Pricing," a phone number and a sales email | Quote only |
| Verdict | Leap CRM Essential at $79 for the one-rep shop that wants a signable proposal with the Hover report inside it, with the one-year contract understood. Builder Prime at $360 for one person once good-better-best and a sales pipeline matter more than the monthly figure. JobNimbus and AccuLynx by quote once the company has an office manager, and ask for the number before the demo. | ||
Leap's one-year contract is the detail to read twice. The trial is 14 days and the term after it is twelve months, paid monthly. A siding company that slows down from December to February is paying for three months of a sales app nobody opens.
Builder Prime's page prints a calculator whose total does not match its own line items, which we note because the pricing is usage-based and the total depends on the seat count. The honest figure for one person is the $300 platform fee plus one $60 core seat, which is the number in the chart below.
JobNimbus is the one most siding contractors ask about, because SumoQuote was the proposal tool exterior reps reached for before JobNimbus bought it. What the four unpriced tiers gate, and the third-party figures that circulate for them, are in our JobNimbus pricing post.
The chart is the lowest paid plan for one person on annual billing, with Hover's reports left out because they are per house. Add fifty Pro exterior reports at $39 and Hover's bar reaches $2,949, which is the fairer comparison to a Builder Prime seat.
Most siding crews quote from a general field app, from $12 a month
Most siding contractors under ten people quote from the same app that schedules the crew and sends the invoice. The squares come off a tape or a Hover report, the price per square lives in a list the owner typed in, and the app does the arithmetic and the signature.
Jobber and Housecall Pro figures are our registry reads from November 1 and 2, which matched the vendor pages. Joist and ServiceTitan were read today.
| App | Price as printed | Estimating notes for a siding contractor | Trial |
|---|---|---|---|
| Joist | Basics $12, Pro $17, Elite $32 a month, two months free on annual billing; Run $100 a month or $70 on an introductory annual rate; AI Receptionist add-on $49 | Estimates to invoices, line items and photos on Pro, change orders on Elite; five documents a month on Basics; "Joist's free plan is no longer available" | 14 days, no card; "no setup fees" |
| 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 a vinyl, LP and fiber cement choice lives; no measurement tool. See the Jobber pricing guide | No card |
| 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 a week on scaffolding | 14 days, no card |
| ServiceTitan | No price printed. Starter, Essentials and The Works, each "Request Pricing," billed per technician | Full field service suite; the page offers an ROI calculator in place of a price | Demo |
| Verdict | Joist Pro at $17 for the owner-operator who measures by tape and needs a clean estimate from the truck. Jobber Grow at $149 once the quote needs a choice between vinyl, LP and fiber cement on one page. Housecall Pro Essentials at $149 once five people need logins. ServiceTitan at a siding company below fifteen people is a demo you do not need. | ||
None of these apps measures a wall. That is fine for a contractor whose estimator walks every house with a tape, and it is why the measurement tools above sit alongside them rather than replacing them. A Hover report on Starter plus Joist Pro is a working estimating stack for under $80 a house.
The optional line item is the siding feature in these apps. A homeowner comparing vinyl, LP SmartSide and fiber cement wants three prices on one page, and the siding marketing guide argues for publishing the per-square range on the site too. Jobber puts optional line items on Grow, Housecall Pro puts good-better-best on Max. Joist's page does not mention it.
Plan-set takeoff is for the apartment building, not the colonial
A multifamily re-side or a commercial panel job arrives with a stamped drawing set, and then the squares can be measured off the PDF instead of the house. That is a takeoff, counting quantities off a drawing, and the construction takeoff tools do it for every trade. One of them names siding on its pricing page.
| Tool | Price as printed (November 5, 2026) | Siding relevance | Trial |
|---|---|---|---|
| Square Takeoff | $249 a month, $599 a quarter or $1,699 a year; "All features are included in each plan"; unlimited jobs and storage | Lists Siding Estimates and Roofing Estimates among its solutions, the only tool here that names the trade on the page; enterprise and multiple licenses by phone | 14 days |
| ScopeTakeoff | "$100 per person per month"; "No annual contract," "No setup fee"; the same rate past five estimators by email | Measures area and length off plans and turns the quantities into a proposal; "no tiers, no feature gates, and no per-trade add-ons" | 14 days, no card |
| STACK Takeoff & Estimate | "As Low As" $299 per user a month on the main pricing page; the product page read November 1 prints Premium $299 and Pro $349 a user a month billed annually, plus a free version | Quantity, labor and material takeoff with assemblies, priced for a dedicated estimator | Free version; two-week trial printed only for Build & Operate |
| Buildxact | Foundation $199 a month or $169 billed annually ($2,030); Pro $399 or $339; Master $599 or $509; "Unlimited Users"; Blu Takeoff Assistant add-on $99 a month on Pro | Takeoff and estimating in one tool at a flat price, which beats every per-seat tool here from the second estimator on; the www page returned 403 again, so these are from its stg1 mirror | 14 days; "All annual plans require a 12-month commitment" |
| Contractor Foreman | Basic $49 a month billed annually only ($588), 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 and takeoffs inside a project management suite, with an AI Estimator marked "Preview"; Basic and Standard do not include local material pricing | 30 days; 100-day money-back on annual Plus and up |
| PlanSwift | Essential $2,000, Core $3,000 a year per seat; extra seats discounted, unpriced | The desktop takeoff standard for commercial estimators; Core adds Auto Takeoff | 14 days of Core, no card |
| Verdict | ScopeTakeoff at $100 month to month for the siding contractor who bids a multifamily job a few times a year and wants to cancel in the off-season. Square Takeoff at $1,699 a year if the siding templates earn it in the trial. Buildxact Foundation at $169 once two people measure. STACK and PlanSwift only with a full-time estimator. | ||
The full comparison with every AI claim traced is in the AI estimating software post, and the remodeling post has the same tools priced for additions. For a residential siding company these seats are the wrong purchase, because the colonial has no plan set and the squares come from the house.
STACK's figure moved this autumn. Our registry read of its product page on September 17 printed Premium at $249 a user, and the November reads print $299, a 20 percent rise that Togal's comparison page had not caught. A seat that costs more each quarter is one more reason to let ScopeTakeoff's month-to-month rate carry the occasional bid.
Can AI measure a house for siding?
Yes, and it already does. Hover's 3D model from phone photos and EagleView's wall report from aircraft imagery are machine measurement, and they are the AI that matters in this trade. The output is a measured model you can check against the house, and the vendor stands behind the numbers with a price per report.
The difference is in what you can check. A Hover model has elevations you can hold against the house, and if the gable reads wrong you re-shoot the photo. A chat answer has nothing behind it to compare, and the first place the error shows up is the material order.
What a chat window does is different. OpenAI's image documentation says "the model may give approximate counts for objects in images" and that it "struggles with tasks requiring precise spatial localization." Anthropic's page for Claude says the same: counts are approximate, "especially with large numbers of small objects," and coordinate outputs should be verified "before relying on them."
A siding takeoff is a count of small objects and a set of distances. Windows, corners, linear feet of trim, square feet of wall between them. A photo of the front elevation with "how many squares?" typed under it returns a guess, and the guess has no waste factor and no price per square behind it.
Use the chat window for the parts it is good at:
- turning a Hover report's measurements into a line-item list you then price
- writing the proposal letter and the scope paragraph for the permit
- checking the arithmetic on a material list against your price per square
- drafting the text that goes to the homeowner when the estimate is ready
The AI on the pricing pages in this post is narrower than the pitch. Buildxact sells a Takeoff Assistant as a $99 add-on on Pro and includes it on Master. Contractor Foreman marks its AI Estimator "Preview." Hover, Leap and Builder Prime make no AI claim on their pricing pages at all, which is its own kind of honesty.
Three things to skip
- A plan-set takeoff seat for residential siding. STACK and PlanSwift together cost more than a second installer, and they measure a drawing a residential siding contractor rarely has. Hover at $59 a house, or ScopeTakeoff at $100 month to month for the occasional multifamily bid, covers it.
- Any sales app that will not print a price. JobNimbus, AccuLynx and ServiceTitan all start with a demo. Every tool in the tables above with a printed price also prints a trial. The ones hiding the number are selling to a bigger company than yours, and the demo is forty minutes you could spend on a ladder.
- ChatGPT as the measurer. Draft the proposal in it, paste the material list in to check the math, and stop there. OpenAI says its counts are approximate, and a siding estimate is a count. The $39 Hover report costs less than the callback.
The roofing and siding page covers what we do for exterior contractors, which is the marketing side of this post.
More houses to quote?
We build the websites and run the search work that keep a siding company's estimate calendar full through the season. A 30-minute intro call is free.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best siding estimating software?
For a siding contractor with one estimator, a Hover exterior report at $59 a house on the pay-as-you-go Starter plan, priced inside Joist Pro at $17 a month or Jobber Core at $29. Once the shop quotes fifty houses a year, Hover Pro at $999 breaks even. For an in-home sales team, Leap CRM Essential at $79 or Builder Prime at $300 plus $60 a user. Prices are the vendor pages on November 5, 2026.
How much does siding estimating software cost?
Measurement reports run $59 to $139 a house on Hover's Starter plan, $39 to $119 on its $999 a year Pro plan, and $78 for EagleView's walls report. Exterior sales apps run $79 a month for Leap CRM Essential to $300 plus $60 a user for Builder Prime. General field apps start at $12 for Joist and $29 for Jobber. Plan-set takeoff runs $100 a user for ScopeTakeoff to $3,000 a year for PlanSwift Core.
Does Hover charge per report?
Yes. The Starter plan has no subscription and charges per project: an exterior report is $59 for a simple structure, $99 average and $139 complex, with the first three projects free. Pro is $999 a year and takes $20 off every project. Business is $2,999 a year with a flat $79 exterior report regardless of complexity. Every plan covers unlimited users, and expedited delivery is $39 on Starter.
Does Roofr measure siding?
Not on its pricing page as of November 5, 2026. Roofr's reports are roof reports, $19 each on the free Starter plan and $13 on paid plans from $109 a month, and the page prints no siding or wall measurement. A siding contractor who also roofs can keep Roofr for the roof and order the walls from Hover or EagleView, which is how most exterior shops run it.
Can ChatGPT estimate siding?
Not the squares. OpenAI's image documentation says the model "may give approximate counts for objects in images" and "struggles with tasks requiring precise spatial localization." Anthropic says the same for Claude and tells users to verify before relying on the output. A siding estimate is a count of windows, corners and square feet, so the error lands in the total. Use it for the proposal letter and keep the measurement in a Hover or EagleView report.
Is there free siding estimating software?
Hover gives the first three exterior reports free on Starter with no card. Roofr's Starter plan is free with unlimited users, but it measures roofs only. STACK's takeoff tool has a permanent free version. Joist, Jobber, Housecall Pro, Leap, ScopeTakeoff and Square Takeoff offer trials of 14 days, and Contractor Foreman offers 30. There is no free tool that measures siding past the first three houses.