Guide · Free options
Free takeoff software: what you actually get
Free plans exist, and each one has a catch. These are the free options we could check on the vendors’ own pages on 8 November 2026, with their real limits, including ours.
Free plans that don’t run out
STACK Free
STACK’s Takeoff & Estimate pricing page lists a Free plan at $0, “forever”, with no credit card, after seven days of Pro. Its limits: 1 active project per month, up to 300 plan pages, 50 measurements per project and one viewer seat. Estimating and proposals are on the paid Pro plan ($349 per user per month, billed annually; Premium is $299). It’s cloud-based. Before you rely on it, check how far 50 measurements go on a typical job of yours.
Solid Takeoff Free
Solid Takeoff’s free plan includes all its measurement and takeoff tools with 1 active project, 3 new drawing uploads, 250 MB of storage and one user, and its exports “carry a small footer”. It runs in the browser. Solo, at $12.99 a month, removes the project limit and the footer. Its output is an annotated PDF with a quantity summary and a CSV for your estimate; its pages don’t list rates or a client quote. More in Solid Takeoff compared with Planquote.
OpenTakeoff
OpenTakeoff describes itself as “a free, open-source (AGPL-3.0) construction takeoff engine”. It runs in the browser with no account, and opening a plan uploads nothing. It produces square feet, square yards, linear feet and counts with waste-adjusted order quantities, and exports CSV, Excel and marked-up PDFs. Its site doesn’t mention paid plans or priced quotes. As a community project, expect to help yourself through issues rather than call a support line.
Planquote Free
Our free plan has every takeoff tool: scale, lengths, areas with cutouts, counts, wall heights, depths and waste. It keeps one saved job at a time (the sample plan doesn’t count); opening new plans asks before replacing it. You can price the job and download the quote PDF with your logo and business details; free-plan quotes carry a small “Made with Planquote” line. The marked-up plans PDF and the quantities CSV are Pro. Jobs are saved in your browser on that device. Pro is £12 a month or £99 a year and removes those limits.
Free trials (not free plans)
- Easy Takeoffs: 14 days with no card, then $39 a month or $399 a year.
- Metres.ai: a 2-week trial on both plans, $20 a month or $220 a year. Quotes are included.
- PlanSwift: a 14-day trial, then $2,000 or $3,000 per seat per year. Windows only.
- Bluebeam: a free trial; plans from $260 per user per year.
How to choose
- Count your jobs. If you price a few jobs a month and finish each before the next, a one-project limit may be fine. If you keep several open while clients decide, it won’t be.
- Count your measurements. Caps per project matter more than caps on pages.
- Decide what you need out. A priced quote to send the client, or quantities for a spreadsheet or an estimator?
- Test on a real drawing. Set the scale, measure one room you already know, and check the number. Our guide on how to measure a PDF drawing shows how.
- Check where your work lives. Cloud projects follow you between computers; browser-only storage stays on one device.
Everything side by side
| Tool | Price | Free option | Runs on | Priced quote for the client |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Planquote | £12/month or £99/year | Free plan: one saved job, every takeoff tool | Browser: Windows, Mac, Chromebook, iPad | Yes: priced quote PDF with your logo |
| OpenTakeoff | Free, open source (AGPL-3.0) | Free, no account | Browser | Not listed: quantities, CSV, Excel and marked-up PDF |
| Solid TakeoffCompare → | Solo $12.99/month; Team $49.99/month for 3 users | Free plan: 1 active project, 3 drawing uploads | Browser, including Mac, Chromebook and iPad | Not listed: annotated PDF and CSV for your estimate |
| Metres.ai | $20/month or $220/year | 2-week free trial | Browser | Yes: quotes included |
| Easy Takeoffs | $39/month or $399/year | 14-day free trial | Browser: Windows, Mac, Linux, Chromebook, iPad, Android tablets | Not listed: Excel, PDF and CSV export |
| BluebeamCompare → | Basics $260, Core $330, Complete $440, Max $590 per user/year | Free trial | Revu: Windows desktop. Every plan adds Bluebeam on web and iOS | Not listed; Complete links quantities to Excel |
| PlanSwiftCompare → | Essential $2,000 or Core $3,000 per seat/year | 14-day free trial | Windows (on a Mac only by running Windows) | Estimating built in (assemblies); a client quote isn’t listed |
| STACKFree options → | Premium $299 or Pro $349 per user/month, billed annually | Free plan: 1 active project a month, 50 measurements per project | Cloud (web-based) | Estimates and proposals on Pro |
Other tools’ prices and plans as listed by the vendors on their own websites on 8 November 2026, with the currency symbol each one shows, before tax. “Not listed” means the vendor’s pages don’t mention a priced quote. Check their sites for current prices.
What’s different about Planquote: the priced quote is built into the takeoff (rates, labour lines, markup and tax, then a quote PDF with your logo), it runs in the browser on Windows, Mac, Chromebook and iPad, and Pro is £99 a year with a free plan. Metres.ai and STACK Pro also produce quotes or proposals, and PlanSwift includes estimating; the others hand you quantities for your own spreadsheet or estimate.
Guides: Free takeoff software · Takeoff software for Mac · Bluebeam Revu 20 end of life · How to measure a PDF drawing
More guides: Revu 20 end of life · Takeoff software for Mac · How to measure a PDF drawing · Solid Takeoff alternative