Performing is critical to the success of your construction business. Estimate too high and you win fewer jobs, too low and your profits disappear. That’s why it’s so important to get it right the first time.Estimating by hand is time-consuming, so at some point, you may consider using.
Although software can be a big investment, not every tool has to break the bank.In this guide, we highlight five free and open source estimating and takeoff products to try if you’re considering this type of solution for your construction business. We chose products that offer a stand-alone free or open source version, meet our definition for construction estimating software, and rank highly in search.
(Learn more about how we chose featured products.). Easy-Pro Builder Estimator is a free program based on Apache software Overview: This is a 100% free tool that is based entirely on the Apache OpenOffice spreadsheet program Calc. Estimator 2.0 is available for free download and comes with a tutorial Overview: Estimator 2.0 is aimed at architects, builders, engineers, and construction companies that want to create detailed estimates for residential and commercial buildings. STACK offers free construction estimating software and the option to upgrade to a paid version Overview: STACK offers free construction software aimed at firms looking to streamline the bid process and accurately estimate materials, equipment, and labor.
The software also provides access to an “extensive library of prebuilt, industry-specific material libraries,” according to its website. It generates an estimate based on your input of how much of each material will be needed and what labor, equipment, and overhead will be involved.The software is cloud-based and therefore can be accessed from anywhere there is an internet connection. It is also compatible with all types of platforms, from smartphones to desktop computers.STACK also includes training with the software for free.
A full-featured version is available for purchase.Some features include:. Ability to upload digital plans. Takeoff tools that provide shortcuts for measurements, making it quicker to produce a takeoff.
Prebuilt reports to provide insights to inform your estimates. Cloud-based. Free trainingOpen source construction estimating and takeoff softwareOpen source construction estimating and takeoff platforms are also free, but they have an additional wrinkle: the original source code is available.
There are some benefits and drawbacks to this you should be aware of.The benefits are that in addition to being free, you will be able to customize and adapt the software to fit your individual business.The drawback comes up if you don’t have the know-how to mess with original source code. Lack of technical ability could become a problem if the software needs improvement down the road to fit your firm.4.50/5. 2-plan Team is entirely free and open source software with some capabilities helpful to estimators Overview: 2-plan Team is a project management platform geared toward construction firms, and among its three PM tools is an open-source desktop system that can be used for multiple projects and teams. It is mostly meant for managing the entirety of a construction project as opposed to just estimating and takeoff, but there are tools available for that purpose as well.The source code for 2-plan Team has been published at SourceForge, where you can download it for free. It can be installed on any LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL-4 or higher, PHP-5.1) server, and it may work on some Windows servers.Some features include:. Manage virtual teams with shared online workspaces. View the status of multiple projects at the same time with the Project Dashboard.
Tracks time on mobile devices. Ability to share estimates and budgets with clients, partners, teams, and staff. Ability to manage teams via mobile devicesN/A. ESTIMATE is free and open source software, meaning you can customize it for your business Overview: ESTIMATE is a cloud-based, open-source option that has been released under GNU Affero General Public License. How we chose featured productsFor the purposes of this article, we classified a product as free if it offers a free, stand-alone version of the software, and it is not just a trial version of the software that requires you to purchase it after a period of time.The products that met the above criteria were then evaluated against our construction estimating software definition: Construction estimating software helps estimators calculate material and labor costs for a job and then produce a detailed, professional bid proposal from those estimates.
Specialized estimating tools are often used to handle trade-specific requirements, such as electrical, HVAC, plumbing, or earthworks/excavating estimating.We determined the most popular products to feature by choosing those highest ranked in Google search results for “free construction estimating software” during the week of Aug.