Estimable Free Open-Source Construction Estimating Software

Here is a quick overview of the best free open-source construction estimation software. We’ll find out how they work and who needs them!

Construction projects are outlined by labour, materials, services, equipment, and uncertainty. These are the tools that are particularly helpful for business owners, contractors, architects, engineers and other professionals within the construction industry to prepare the cost estimates to determine the labour and material expenses, overheads and profit goals. These help in getting the most feasible idea and evaluating the total cost of the project. Construction estimating software assist in streamlining and automating the process of calculating the total expense of the project by automating the processes and formulations based on the information and data fetched from the database or spreadsheets. This eventually improves the accuracy, speed, productivity and profitability of a construction business.

How does a construction estimating software work?

This software simply estimates the overall costs of construction projects. They are featured by easy payment tracking and scheduling. This increases fluidity and customizes the entire payment calculation. It saves time and a lot of effort, helps connect with the team, centralizes all the tasks. This increases ease of use and allows real-time access to your online database.

Who needs construction estimating software?

Construction estimating apps can help contractors, civil engineers, architects and interiors designers to plan landscape, interior design and other services. Constructions estimating formulas are helpful for businesses dealing in frequent cost-based adjustments and estimates, then estimation software can improve and simplify your workspace.

What are the most important features of construction estimating software?

• Construction estimating software free open-source must be able to integrate with the programs already in use.
• They must allow importing and exporting data from Microsoft Excel spreadsheets for simpler information sharing.
• Such construction cost database apps help estimate the cost of the items once the takeoff information is imported.
• It allows contractors and project managers to create a material takeoff and estimate the overall project cost. This way the overall cost projections and procedures are more accurate.

Why is the construction estimating software improvement over manual estimating?

Such software automates the manual calculation of tracking estimates and storing the data in the cloud. This increases productivity and improves communication between the contractors and buyers pretty much.

Venting the 10 Best Free Open-Source Construction Estimating Software List

Cost-estimating software must be able to estimate the cost of the project must be able to estimate the cost of the database, must be able to generate the proposal, must be able to calculate the quantity of the material required, must have a feature to report, must be able to manage the cash flow, track payment of invoices like equipment bills, material cost and labour charges etc. Every construction project is unique with different base requirements, budget, exteriors/interiors, therefore the cost varies accordingly. The software list that we intend to share is illustrative and depicts only the best free and open-source construction software available in the market in 2022.

Assemble

Assemble Systems provides a SaaS solution that enables construction professionals to condition, query and connect BIM data to key workflows including design reviews, takeoffs, estimating, change management, value engineering and schedule management.
Key Features of Assemble

• Stores drawings
• Building information
• Models and point clouds
• It lets construction workers connect, query and condition data for key workflows like estimating, scheduling, finance, bid management, project management and site management.

Procore

Procore construction software manages your construction projects, resources and financials from planning to closeout, connects every project contributor to solutions built specifically for the industry for the owner, the general contractor and the specialty contractor.
Key Features of Procore

• Project management
• Project Financials
• Quality and Safety
• Design Coordination
• Invoice Management
• Tender Management

CatalystK

Key Features of CatalystK

• CatalystK calculates all types of work estimation like material cost, labour cost, job scheduling, budget planning.
• It estimates costs, tracks work and monitors the work done.
• It can create customized quotations with images
• It allows you to email quotations
• It allows creating sales orders
• It allows leads and task management
• It includes automated sales order invoice mailing system
• It can generate reports

Estimate

Key Features of Estimate

• It is a fast and intelligent solution that can maintain assemblies and bill of material (BOM)
• It maintains multiple costing standards.
• It can manage clients database and suppliers
• It can generate a bill of quantity, extensive cost sheets with breakups
• It can analyze subcontractor and vendor quotes
• It can upload and archive documents that can be referred when required
• It has a web interface that is compatible with all browsers
• It includes a centralized database for easy backup and maintenance.

Stack

Key Features of Stack

• It streamlines team collaboration, quantity & material takeoff, and project reporting. It works well for construction takeoff and accurate estimations.
• It organizes plan specifications and important documents
• It allows accessing documents, project plans, reports, etc., from anywhere
• It increases speed and eliminates mistakes in construction estimating and takeoffs
• It provides in-depth reporting for each task and project, helping to analyze important details
• It keeps team members, contractors, business owners, and stakeholders on the same page of ongoing and upcoming construction projects

Methvin

Key Features of Methvin

• It estimates projects, publishes tenders, and creates a comparison that can help businesses in searching for potential business opportunities.
• It automates pre-construction planning accurately
• Provides fast and accurate takeoffs for any construction plan
• Enables real-time collaboration
• Includes integration capabilities providing extra functionality
• Provides simple and complex estimation with a worksheet
• Includes Gantt scheduler
• Make collaboration easier between the contractor and the client

Clear Estimates

Key Features of Clear Estimates

• It includes powerful templates that allow you to get complete estimates within seconds.
• It also helps in creating professional proposals with your brand identity. ClearEstimates can easily integrate with CRMs and email marketing tools to provide extra functionality. It can have multiple users and allows for easy collaboration.
• Can create accurate estimates in minutes
• Includes pre-loaded data including material and labour costs

EZ Construction Estimator

Key Features of EZ Construction Estimator

• It allows you to attach pictures and blueprints in estimates
• Suits to new construction estimating or re-modelling bidding
• It helps in creating documents and reports
• It helps in automatically calculating the floor area, wall areas, and wall lengths
• It allows you to break down estimates in small areas

iScope

Key Features of iScope

• It suits the unique needs of contractors, appraisers, public insurance adjusters, and others involved in estimating losses.
• It includes user-friendly controls
• It has built-in room lists with standard measurements
• It includes customizable policyholder acknowledgment clauses
• It can import pictures
• It has the ability to ad factoring to the entire estimate
• It enables adding task lists
• It includes powerful search features

PriMus

Key Features of PriMus

• It is used by project designers, site managers, and construction companies for simplifying collaboration, coordination, and data exchange.
• It includes extensive construction cost estimation database
• It helps in optimizing work execution costs
• It allows you to obtain fast and accurate construction cost estimates
• It allows extracting accurate metric data directly from the project’s BIM model
• It helps in recording daily site reports easily even from mobile devices

eTakeoffDimension

Key Features of eTakeoffDimension

• It includes simple measurement capabilities
• It allows you to share takeoff details, annotations, and issues with project managers and other team members
• It allows you to flip/rotate measurements
• It facilitates scaling in a construction plan and advanced measuring
• It enables annotating drawings with text, lines, shapes, clouds, arrows, etc.
• It allows comparing two drawings.
• It includes FTP integration to present construction estimation in the form of a website.

BidScreen XL

Key Features of BidScreen XL

• BidScreen XL measures on-screen PDF, DWG, DXF, TIF, and other file types
• It works well with vector files and gets exact measurements by isolating layers and simply snapping to the object
• It provides new excel ribbon user interface under Excel 2007 and Excel 2010
• It measures the cut and fill areas for each cross-section and deliver takeoff volumes from cross-sections
• It allows working with actual drawing file with no file conversion required
• It can open multiple quantity takeoff files or multiple pages of a file quickly with a single click

Which construction estimating software will you proclaim for your task?

Speed, accuracy, efficiency, streamlined project management, consistency, convenience are all adjectives for premier construction calculation formula apps – (few suggested above). Perfect construction estimation software can help improve the accuracy of the job. It can help constructors, architects and designers make accurate predictions about the type of service and licensing model for the project. The hosting to be provided for the project (cloud-hosted or on-premises service) – a cloud-hosted software might require the subscriber to pay a monthly fee. This might also be a sort of month-to-month plan option or an annual subscription. Those who chose on-premises software need to pay a one-time licensing fee for the construction estimation software. Many vendors offer free trials and money-back guarantees. This might help in understanding the software before paying for it. We suggest, not jumping on to conclusions as yet and taking time to compare the features and price before considering the one for your business.