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Roofing takeoff tools compared

By The Sharp Pencil team

We build one of the options on this page, so read this knowing that. We have tried to be accurate about where the others are better, because you will find out anyway and it is a bad way to start a relationship.

What is roofing takeoff software?

Roofing takeoff software is a program your estimator uses to pull roof quantities off a set of construction drawings: roof areas, perimeter and edge lengths, flashing runs, drains, curbs, and penetrations. Your estimator does the takeoff in the software, then turns those quantities into a material list and a price. On commercial low-slope work, published software prices run about $260 to $3,600 per user per year, plus your estimator's hours. The other way to get the same quantities is an outsourced takeoff service, where you send the plan set and the takeoff comes back to you.

Most tools are multi-trade, so the roofing knowledge (heights on the elevations, drains on the plumbing sheets, curbs on the mechanical sheets, the deck on the structural sheets) still comes from the person using it. The four kinds of tool people call "takeoff software" are compared below.

Software you run vs an outsourced takeoff service

Software prices as published on each vendor's site on 2026-10-13. See what a commercial roofing takeoff costs for every published price and its source.

A worked example: twelve bids a month

Say you bid twelve commercial low-slope jobs a month and each takeoff takes your estimator 6 hours. Our guide on how long a commercial roof takeoff takes puts a typical commercial job at four to twelve hours by hand.

• Software you run: 12 x 6 = 72 hours, or 9 eight-hour days. By Sharp Pencil's estimate an estimator's day runs $450 to $650, so that is about $4,050 to $5,850 of estimator time, plus the license (STACK Takeoff & Estimate, for example, is from $299 per user per month).
• Sharp Pencil on a monthly plan: Shop 12 is $2,750 a month and covers 12 takeoffs, about $229 each. Bought one at a time at $395 per single takeoff, the same twelve would be $4,740. Your estimator's time goes to checking and pricing instead.

The bigger difference is the 72 hours: whether your estimator has them, or whether you no-bid jobs for lack of them.

Why send your takeoffs to Sharp Pencil

• Monthly plans from $2,750 for 12 takeoffs. About $229 a takeoff on Shop 12, down to about $183 on Shop 60. A single takeoff is $395, and your first takeoff is free. See pricing.
• Delivered within 48 hours*. A takeoff stuck in a week-long queue does you no good when the bid is due sooner.
• Every quantity names its sheet. Each quantity carries the sheet it came from and a confidence grade, so you can check any number.
• No silent blanks. Anything the drawings could not settle carries a written reason, not a blank or a guess.
• Questions instead of guesses. Open items come back as a drafted RFI you can copy and send to your architect.
• Priced with your numbers. Pricing uses your costs only. Where a cost is missing, the line says UNPRICED and shows the quantity.
• A roofing professional reviews every paid job before it goes out.
• Your plans stay yours. Used for your takeoff, never shared, and deleted whenever you ask (automatic deletion after 90 days is being rolled out).

Four different things, often confused

People say "takeoff software" to mean four categories that solve genuinely different problems. Picking the wrong category is more expensive than picking the wrong product inside a category.

1. Manual digital takeoff tools

Examples: On-Screen Takeoff, PlanSwift, Bluebeam Revu

You load the PDF and measure it yourself with digital tools: area fills, linear traces, count stamps. The software adds up what you point at.

Good at: total control, any trade, any drawing, mature and well understood, one-time or modest recurring cost. An experienced estimator with a tuned setup is genuinely fast.

Not good at: the bottleneck is still your estimator's hours. If the constraint is that you have one estimator and twenty invitations, a faster mouse does not fix it. There is also a real learning curve, and the person who knows the software becomes a single point of failure.

Choose it if: you have estimating capacity and want to make it more precise.

2. Aerial and satellite measurement

Examples: EagleView and similar imagery-based reports

You give an address, you get a measured report of the existing roof from imagery.

Good at: speed and simplicity on existing buildings, especially residential and simple commercial. Excellent for service work, insurance claims, and quick budget numbers where you do not have drawings at all.

Not good at: anything that is not visible from above. It cannot read a spec, cannot tell you the deck type, cannot see the tapered layout you are supposed to bid, and does not exist for new construction. On a bid-stage commercial job with a plan set, it answers a different question than the one you are being asked.

Choose it if: you are measuring an existing roof for service, repair, or a fast budget, and you do not have or need the documents.

3. AI takeoff platforms

A fast-moving category, mostly general construction rather than roofing-specific

Software that reads drawings and produces quantities automatically, usually across many trades.

Good at: volume, and getting better quickly. For general contractors bidding many trades at once, breadth is exactly the point.

Not good at: depth in any one trade, generally. Roofing has trade-specific traps that a general tool has no particular reason to know: heights living on elevations, fastener length following stack thickness, taper being a quote rather than a calculation, warranty terms gated by installer certification. Also worth asking any tool in this category what it does when it cannot read something, because the answer separates the trustworthy from the dangerous.

Choose it if: you need many trades and can verify the output yourself.

4. Outsourced takeoff services

Including us, plus a number of established human estimating services

You send the plan set, somebody else does the work, you get quantities back.

Good at: solving the actual capacity problem. Nothing to learn, nothing to install, and it scales with your bid volume rather than with your headcount. Traditional human services also bring real judgment.

Not good at: speed and cost, historically. Human services typically quote in days, not hours, and price per job accordingly. You also have to trust someone outside your company with your drawings, and if the service prices with their own cost data rather than yours, the number is not bid-ready.

Choose it if: your constraint is estimator hours, not estimator skill.

The comparison that actually matters

Questions worth asking any option

1. What happens when it cannot read something? The right answer is that it tells you and asks. The dangerous answer is that it fills in a plausible number and says nothing.
2. Where do the prices come from? If they are not your prices, the output is an interesting document, not a bid.
3. Can I see the evidence behind a number? A roof area with no source is a claim. A roof area with the sheet it came from is a number you can check in ten seconds.
4. Does it read the elevations, or just the roof plan? The single fastest way to find out whether something understands roofing.
5. What happens to my documents afterward? Ask about retention, and get a specific answer with a number of days in it.

Where we fit, honestly

We are the fourth category, built to fix the two things that made services frustrating: turnaround and pricing. Delivered within 48 hours* instead of a week, and priced with your cost data or not priced at all, with unpriced lines shown as unpriced rather than quietly filled with somebody's average.

We are not the right answer for everyone. If you have estimating capacity and want more precision, a manual tool in skilled hands is excellent and we would tell you so. If you need a fast measurement of an existing roof for a service call, an aerial report is faster and cheaper than anything we do. If you bid many trades at once, a general platform covers ground we do not.

We are the right answer when the invitations outnumber the hours, and you are turning down work you could have won.

FAQ

What is roofing takeoff software?

Roofing takeoff software is a program your estimator uses to pull roof quantities, such as areas, edge lengths, flashing, drains, and penetrations, off a set of construction drawings. The estimator then turns those quantities into a material list and a price.

How much does roofing takeoff software cost?

Published prices run about $260 to $3,600 per user per year. Bluebeam Revu is $260 to $440 per user per year, with Max at an introductory price of $590; PlanSwift is $2,000 to $3,000 per seat per year; and STACK Takeoff & Estimate is from $299 per user per month. Your estimator's hours are the larger cost.

Is takeoff software the same as a takeoff service?

No. With software, your estimator does the takeoff. With a takeoff service, you send the plan set and the takeoff comes back to you. Sharp Pencil is a takeoff service for commercial low-slope roofing: monthly plans start at $2,750 a month for 12 takeoffs, a single takeoff is $395, and your first takeoff is free. Delivered within 48 hours*.

Does Sharp Pencil do residential roofing takeoffs?

Sharp Pencil is built for commercial roofing takeoffs. Residential is not our focus today, but ask if you have a job in mind.