How we make this list: we compare pricing pages, product documentation and public user reviews. Rankite is independent; if a vendor ever pays for a featured spot, that listing is clearly labeled Partner.
Key takeaways
- STACK is the easiest to evaluate: it publishes pricing from $299 per user/month and offers a free version, which almost nobody else in this category does.
- Bluebeam has the lowest published starting price at $260 per user/year, but it is a general PDF markup tool rather than a concrete-specific estimator.
- PlanSwift, On-Screen Takeoff, and Countfire all offer free trials, so you can run a real takeoff from your own plans before committing.
- Most purpose-built estimating tools keep pricing behind a sales call, which makes free trials and demos the practical way to compare them.
- Square Takeoff is the most transparent budget option at $249 per month, while Togal.AI offers the newest AI-assisted takeoff approach.
Quick comparison
| Tool | Best for | Starting price | Free plan |
|---|
 PlanSwift | fast digital takeoffs for concrete contractors | See website | Free trial (14 days) |
 STACK | cloud takeoff for concrete teams | $299 per user/month | Yes (free version) |
 ProEst | mid-size contractors wanting CRM plus estimating | See website | No |
 Bluebeam | PDF takeoff and plan markup | $260 per user/year (Basics) | No |
 On-Screen Takeoff | contractors wanting a purpose-built takeoff | See website | Free trial |
 Countfire | automated counting from drawings | See website | Free trial (7 days) |
 Square Takeoff | simple takeoff at a predictable price | $249/month | No |
 Togal.AI | AI-assisted takeoff from drawings | See website | No |
Is your product missing or out of date?
We review this list regularly. Vendors can request a listing, send updated pricing or ask about featured placement.
The best concrete estimating software
Starting priceSee website
Free planFree trial (14 days)
PlanSwift has been a go-to takeoff tool for concrete contractors for years, and the reason is simple: it is fast at the one job that matters most. You load a PDF or CAD plan, click your way around slabs, footings, and walls, and PlanSwift totals areas, volumes, and linear footage as you go. The assemblies feature lets you bundle concrete, rebar, formwork, and labor into reusable items, which turns a repeatable job like a warehouse slab into a ten-minute takeoff.
The honest weakness is pricing transparency. PlanSwift does not publish its prices, so you cannot compare it to competitors without sitting through a sales conversation. It is also a desktop-first product, which suits a single estimator at a desk but gets awkward when your project manager and field staff need the same numbers on different devices. Still, for a concrete contractor who wants to move off paper plans and a scale ruler, the 14-day free trial makes it easy to see whether the workflow fits.
What we like- Point-and-click digital takeoff
- Concrete volume and material calculations
- Exports estimates to Excel for further work
Watch out for- Pricing is not published, so you have to talk to sales
- Windows-first desktop software with no true cloud version
Starting price$299 per user/month
Free planYes (free version)
If you want your estimator and your project manager looking at the same numbers without emailing files around, STACK is built for that. It runs entirely in the browser, so takeoffs, estimates, and plan markups live in one place and update for everyone. For concrete work, the quantity takeoff tools handle area, volume, and linear measurements, and the built-in estimating lets you attach costs and build proposals without exporting to another program.
The standout detail is pricing honesty. STACK lists its Takeoff and Estimate plan at $299 per user/month and even offers a free version, which is rare in construction software. The downside is the math: three estimators means roughly $900 a month before add-ons, which is a real commitment for a small concrete firm. Firms that bid competitively and want the whole team in one cloud workspace will find the cost easier to justify.
What we like- Fully cloud-based takeoff and estimating
- Free version available for Takeoff and Estimate
- Pricing is published clearly on the site
Watch out for- $299 per user/month adds up quickly for a multi-estimator shop
- Advanced features like Build and Operate cost extra
#3
ProEst
Best for: mid-size contractors wanting CRM plus estimating
Visit proest.com
Starting priceSee website
Free planNo
ProEst takes a different approach from most estimating tools: it wraps the estimate in a full preconstruction platform. Alongside digital takeoff, you get contact management, bid solicitation, and proposal generation, so the same system tracks who you invited to bid, what they quoted, and what you finally sent to the owner. For a growing concrete contractor who also self-performs other trades, that all-in-one structure can replace two or three separate subscriptions.
The tradeoff is focus and price clarity. ProEst does not publish pricing, and its own homepage says to contact the company for a quote, which tells you it sells to firms with real budgets rather than one-truck operations. Small residential concrete crews will find it overbuilt; mid-size commercial firms that live and die by their bid calendar will get more out of the bid management side than the takeoff alone.
What we like- Combines CRM, takeoff, estimating, and bid management in one platform
- Cloud-based with mobile access
- Strong reporting for management
Watch out for- No published pricing, so budget planning requires a quote
- Broader than pure concrete takeoff, which can feel heavy for small crews
Starting price$260 per user/year (Basics)
Free planNo
Bluebeam Revu is not concrete estimating software in the strict sense, and that distinction matters. It is the best PDF tool in construction for marking up plans, measuring areas and volumes, and coordinating markups across a team. Many concrete estimators do their quantity takeoff in Bluebeam, then push the numbers into a spreadsheet or estimating program for pricing. The Basics plan at $260 per user/year is the cheapest entry point in this list, and the measurement tools are genuinely good.
What you do not get is an estimating engine. Bluebeam will not build your bid, track your win rate, or maintain a concrete cost database. If your problem is "I need to measure plans faster," Bluebeam solves it. If your problem is "I need to produce finished bids faster," you will pair it with something like PlanSwift or STACK. Plenty of concrete firms do exactly that.
What we like- The industry standard for PDF markup and measurement
- Published pricing starting at $260 per user/year
- Excellent collaboration on plan sets
Watch out for- A general-purpose PDF tool, not concrete-specific estimating software
- You still need another tool or spreadsheet for full cost estimates
#5
On-Screen Takeoff
Best for: contractors wanting a purpose-built takeoff
Visit oncenter.com
Starting priceSee website
Free planFree trial
On-Screen Takeoff, usually called OST, is one of the oldest names in digital takeoff, and it still does the core job well. You view electronic plans on screen, measure areas, lengths, and counts, and organize everything into a bid. It pairs with Quick Bid, the companion estimating program from the same company, for contractors who want takeoff and pricing in one workflow. Concrete estimators like the way it handles repetitive items like footings, piers, and slab sections.
Age is both the strength and the weakness here. The workflow is proven and the company offers a free trial without asking for a credit card, which makes it easy to test. But pricing is quote-only, and the desktop architecture feels dated next to cloud tools like STACK when you need the whole team in the same bid. It fits established contractors who want a dependable takeoff station at the estimator's desk.
What we like- Purpose-built digital takeoff with bid management
- Long track record with concrete and general contractors
- Free trial with no credit card required
Watch out for- Pricing requires a quote, with no public plans
- Desktop software, so collaboration is not its strong suit
Starting priceSee website
Free planFree trial (7 days)
Countfire approaches takeoff from a different angle: instead of clicking every item yourself, it reads your drawings and counts symbols for you. For concrete work that means fixtures, embeds, sleeves, and other countable items get tallied automatically from the PDF, which can cut hours from a large commercial takeoff. It is cloud-based, so you upload drawings and work from a browser, and the company offers a 7-day free trial through its get-started page.
The honest caveat is that automated takeoff is only as good as the drawings. Clean, well-layered plans count beautifully; messy or scanned plans need cleanup first. Pricing is also not published, which means you will talk to sales to learn what it costs your firm. Contractors who bid big commercial jobs with hundreds of countable items should put Countfire on the shortlist for the trial alone.
What we like- Automatically detects and counts symbols from drawings
- 7-day free trial on the official site
- Cloud-based, so nothing to install
Watch out for- No public pricing information
- Automation works best on clean, standardized drawings
Starting price$249/month
Free planNo
Square Takeoff wins on simplicity and price transparency, two things small concrete contractors care about. It does digital takeoff from PDF plans with area, linear, and count measurements, and it publishes its pricing plainly: $249 per month, with quarterly and annual options that bring the effective rate down. There is no guessing, no sales call required to learn the number, and no per-user math to do for a small team.
The limitation is depth. You will not find the bid management, CRM, or AI features of the larger platforms, and power estimators at big firms may outgrow it. But for a concrete contractor doing residential and light commercial work who wants to stop measuring with a ruler and start bidding from digital takeoffs, Square Takeoff is one of the least complicated ways to get there.
What we like- Published pricing from $249 per month
- Simple interface aimed at small contractors
- No per-user multiplication of the base price
Watch out for- Fewer advanced features than the bigger platforms
- Monthly cost adds up over a year compared with annual plans
Starting priceSee website
Free planNo
Togal.AI is the new name in this list, and it shows in the approach. Instead of manual clicking, its AI reads your drawings and automatically identifies walls, rooms, and openings, producing takeoffs in a fraction of the time manual methods take. For concrete contractors, that means faster quantity extraction on slabs and foundations from architectural and structural plans. The interface is modern and cloud-based, built for estimators who are comfortable letting software do the first pass.
Being new cuts both ways. The AI-assisted workflow is genuinely different from everything else here, and early adopters report big time savings on the takeoff step. But the company has a shorter track record than PlanSwift or OST, and pricing is not published, so you will need a demo to learn both the cost and whether the AI handles your plan types well. It belongs on the shortlist for contractors who bid a high volume of similar jobs.
What we like- AI that auto-detects walls, rooms, and openings from drawings
- Very fast takeoffs once set up
- Modern cloud interface
Watch out for- A newer company with a shorter track record
- No published pricing
What to check before you buy concrete estimating software
The right tool depends on how your firm bids, not on which product has the longest feature list. A residential flatwork crew and a commercial foundation contractor need different things. Start with these four checks.
Takeoff speed and accuracy
Your estimator's time is the most expensive input in the bidding process. Look for tools that handle your plan formats, especially PDFs, and test the measurement workflow on a real job during the trial. Automated counting and AI detection can save hours, but only on clean drawings.
Concrete-specific math
Generic takeoff tools measure areas. Concrete estimating needs volumes, waste factors, and formwork logic. Check whether the tool calculates cubic yards, handles footings and piers as reusable assemblies, and lets you attach labor and material rates to each item.
Who else sees the numbers
If one estimator does everything, desktop software is fine. If your project managers, field staff, or owners need access to bids and quantities, a cloud tool like STACK or Togal.AI avoids the file-emailing problem. Count how many people touch an estimate before it goes out, and buy for that number.
Pricing model
Per-user monthly pricing scales with your team, which is fair but can surprise you at three or four seats. Flat monthly pricing like Square Takeoff's is easier to budget. Quote-only pricing means you should budget time for demos and negotiations, not just money for the subscription.
Why your spreadsheet is quietly costing you jobs
Most concrete contractors who resist estimating software point to the spreadsheet they have used for a decade. It works, they know it, and it is free. The problem is what the spreadsheet cannot do: it cannot measure a plan, it cannot remember what your last twenty warehouse slabs actually cost, and it cannot tell you which bids you are winning.
Digital takeoff tools close the first gap by measuring plans directly, which removes the scale-ruler errors that quietly eat margins. Cost databases and bid history close the second and third gaps by showing what similar jobs really cost and where your hit rate is weak. None of this replaces judgment; it gives your judgment better inputs. The contractors who switch usually report the same thing: they bid faster, and the bids they send are more consistent. Over a year of bidding, consistency is worth more than any single feature.
How we chose
We did not test any of these tools hands-on. Our method was to compare what vendors publish on their own pricing pages, product pages, and documentation, then check that against public user reviews on sites like G2, Capterra, and Reddit threads where contractors discuss what they actually use. We weighted pricing transparency, concrete-specific features like volume takeoff and assemblies, integration with common workflows such as Excel and PDF plan sets, and fit for different company sizes, from one-crew residential firms to commercial contractors with full estimating departments.
Frequently asked questions
How much does concrete estimating software cost?
It ranges widely. Bluebeam starts at $260 per user per year, Square Takeoff charges $249 per month, and STACK starts at $299 per user per month. Most purpose-built tools like PlanSwift, ProEst, and On-Screen Takeoff do not publish prices, so expect to request a quote. Budget for the subscription plus the time to learn the tool.
Can I use these tools with PDF plans?
Yes. Every tool on this list works with PDF drawings, and PDF is the standard format for digital takeoff. Some tools also handle CAD files. Scanned or low-quality PDFs can cause problems for automated counting features, so test with your actual plan sets during the free trial.
Do I need a Windows computer?
Many of these tools are Windows-first, including PlanSwift and On-Screen Takeoff. Cloud tools like STACK, Countfire, and Togal.AI run in a browser and work on any system. If your office runs on Macs, shortlist the browser-based options.
Is concrete estimating software worth it for a small contractor?
It depends on bid volume. If you bid a few jobs a month, a simple tool or even Bluebeam plus a spreadsheet may be enough. If you bid weekly, the time saved on takeoffs usually pays for the subscription within a few jobs. The free trials on this list let you test that math with your own numbers.
What is the difference between takeoff software and estimating software?
Takeoff software measures quantities from plans, such as square feet of slab or cubic yards of concrete. Estimating software attaches costs to those quantities and produces the bid. Many tools do both, but some, like Bluebeam, focus on takeoff while others, like ProEst, lean toward full estimating and bid management.
Sources we checked (8)
- https://www.planswift.com/
- https://www.stackct.com/
- https://proest.com/
- https://www.bluebeam.com/
- https://oncenter.com/
- https://countfire.com/
- https://squaretakeoff.com/
- https://www.togal.ai/
Is your product missing or out of date?
We review this list regularly. Vendors can request a listing, send updated pricing or ask about featured placement.
Shihab Mia · Founder, Rankite
Shihab has spent more than a decade helping SaaS and e-commerce brands grow through search. He writes Rankite's software buying guides from pricing pages, documentation and public user reviews. More about Shihab.