Electrical estimating software, priced and compared

Electrical estimating software comes in two kinds. Estimating suites such as Trimble Accubid, McCormick and Conest IntelliBid hold the material database, labor units and supplier pricing that turn quantities into a bid. Takeoff tools such as PlanSwift, Bluebeam, Togal.AI and Drawer AI get those quantities off the plans. Most commercial shops run one of each. Of the 14 products below, 7 publish a price on their own site, and none of the four established electrical suites does.

By Agustín Policano, founder of AmpCount. We make one of the tools on this list, so every fact about another product links to the vendor's own page or a public data source. Checked November 1, 2026.

The numbers behind the decision

83,342

electrical contractor establishments in the U.S. in 2023. 30,906 of them have between 5 and 49 employees.¹

$44.67

median hourly wage of a cost estimator working for an electrical contractor, May 2025. About 14,730 people hold that job.²³

69.5%

of total compensation in construction is wages; the rest is benefits. That puts the median estimator's loaded cost near $64 an hour.⁴

72%

of construction firms with estimating openings report difficulty filling them. 67% expect AI to have the most impact on estimating and bidding within five years.⁵

75%

of subcontractors, across trades, won half or fewer of their bids in 2024.⁶

−3%

projected change in cost estimator jobs from 2025 to 2035, with about 17,600 openings a year from people leaving the role.⁷

Put together: an estimator's hour costs an electrical contractor around $64²⁴, estimators are hard to hire⁵, and most bids are lost⁶. The hours spent counting devices on a bid that goes to someone else are the cost that software is supposed to cut. The $64 figure divides the BLS median wage by the construction wage share; your own rate will differ, and the electrical estimator pay breakdown has percentiles and regional figures to check it against. Shops that can't hire sometimes send the counting out instead; the guide to outsourced estimating services lists what those firms charge per sheet and per bid, and bidding software for electrical contractors covers the tools that help you pick which bids are worth the hours.

Estimating suites: pricing, labor and the bid

A suite is where your prices and labor units live. Quantities go in, a priced bid comes out. The established ones sell by quote, and the supplier pricing feed is often a separate license: Trimble lists TRA-SER at $1,260 per user a year for electrical.¹⁰

Product	Price	Runs on	Labor units	Supplier pricing
Accubid ClassicTrimble	Quote only⁸	Windows desktop, takeoff in LiveCount⁸	Built in: labor units, labor factoring, cost codes⁸	TRA-SER, sold separately ($1,260 per user a year for electrical)⁸¹⁰
Accubid AnywhereTrimble	Quote only, subscription⁹	Cloud⁹	Your own units or preloaded industry labor rates⁹	Trade Service pricing included⁹
McCormick ElectricalMcCormick Systems	Quote only. Software Advice lists $300 per user a month¹²¹³	Internet access from anywhere; cloud or on-premise¹²¹³	McCormick units plus three levels of NECA labor units¹²	Updates from major pricing services or your supply house¹¹
IntelliBidConest (JDM Technology Group)	Quote only, by edition and number of users¹⁴	Local PC or network, or CE Cloud for Windows, Mac and Chromebook¹⁴	Pre-installed industry labor units, six difficulty levels¹⁴	NetPricer, EPIC or TRA-SER, licensed separately¹⁴
ElectraCostElectraCost	$39.95 a month, one plan¹⁵	Browser¹⁵	Industry-standard labour hours with difficulty tiers¹⁵	Distributor pricing for the US and Canada¹⁵

Only McCormick names NECA labor units on its own site.¹² The others describe their units as industry standard without naming a source.

If you bid plan-and-spec work, the commercial electrical estimating guide tests these suites against Division 26 to 28 specs, alternates, addenda and fixture schedules, one demand at a time.

Takeoff tools: getting the quantities off the plans

Takeoff is where the estimator's hours go. The real difference between these tools is how a count starts. Most of them, including the AI-based ones, begin from a symbol you select: mark one receptacle, the software looks for the rest, and you repeat for every device and fixture type. AmpCount begins from the legend, so every type is counted on every sheet in one pass. The electrical takeoff guide walks through the four counting methods, and AI electrical takeoff looks at what the AI-based tools can and can't do.

Product	How a count starts	Price	Runs on	Scope
AmpCount	Reads the legend and counts every symbol on every sheet without a first click. Uncertain marks stay out until confirmed	$149 a month or $1,490 a year for up to 3 people	Browser, Windows or Mac	Electrical devices and fixtures on vector PDFs, with a fixture schedule check
Togal.AI	Box one symbol and Image Search runs it across every sheet²⁶	$299 per user a month, billed yearly (Growth)²⁵	Browser and iPad²⁶	Several trades; areas, linear runs and counts; reads scans²⁶²⁷
Drawer AI	Detects power devices, fixtures and panel schedules on PDF drawings²⁸	Quote only, annual plans²⁸²⁹	Web app²⁸	Electrical only, including conduit paths, wire sizing and home runs²⁸
CountfireCountfire (TAG Software Group)	Select a symbol once and it counts every match across the drawings³⁰	Not published; the pricing page leads to a contact form³³	Browser; no tablets or phones³²	Electrical and other M&E trades, with pricing and estimating³⁰³¹
PlanSwiftConstructConnect	Auto Count after you mark one instance¹⁸	$2,000 a year for the first Essential seat, $3,000 for Core¹⁶	Windows¹⁷	All trades; areas, lengths, counts and assemblies¹⁶
On-Screen TakeoffConstructConnect	AI-powered Auto Count on up to 20 pages at a time¹⁹	Not published; varies by license²⁴	Windows²⁴	All trades; linears, areas and counts²⁴
ConstructConnect TakeoffConstructConnect	AI-powered Auto Takeoff²³	$1,200 a year (Starter, 1 seat) or $2,450 per seat a year (Professional), annual contract. Its pricing FAQ quotes $2,200 for the first Professional seat and $1,700 for each one after²³	Browser²³	All trades; Starter limited to 25 plans per project²³
STACKSTACK Construction Technologies	Takeoff for all trades²²	$299 (Premium) or $349 (Pro) per user a month, billed annually²²	Cloud²²	All trades; Pro adds estimating with items and assemblies²²
Bluebeam RevuBluebeam	VisualSearch one symbol, select results into a Count markup²¹	$260 to $590 per user a year; counts need Core ($330)²⁰	Windows desktop, plus web and mobile²⁰	PDF markup and measurement, not estimating²⁰

What a three-person team pays, where prices are published

Product and plan	Math	Per year
Bluebeam Revu Core	3 × $330	$990²⁰
AmpCount	Yearly plan, team of up to 3	$1,490
PlanSwift Essential	$2,000 + 2 × $1,500	$5,000¹⁷
ConstructConnect Takeoff Professional	3 × $2,450 (list price per seat)	$7,350²³
PlanSwift Core	$3,000 + 2 × $2,500	$8,000¹⁷
Togal.AI Growth	3 × $299 × 12	$10,764²⁵
STACK Premium	3 × $299 × 12	$10,764²²

These products don't do the same job, so the cheapest line isn't automatically the best buy. Bluebeam is a PDF tool you probably already own; PlanSwift, ConstructConnect Takeoff and STACK cover every trade; Togal.AI measures areas and reads scans. Quote-only products (Accubid, McCormick, IntelliBid, On-Screen Takeoff, Drawer AI, Countfire) are left out rather than guessed. If you only need a count now and then, the no-cost takeoff options guide shows which vendor plans and PDF measuring tools stay usable after the trial, and where they stop.

List prices on November 1, 2026. All plans above are billed annually. AmpCount is shown on its yearly plan; month to month it is $149.

Every vendor tells you to check the count

“AI takes over the repetitive measuring, and the estimator still classifies items, reviews the takeoff, and makes the pricing calls.”

Togal.AI FAQ²⁷

“All counts are verified by you before the bid goes out.”

Countfire, electrical estimating page³¹

“QA tools provided for a quick review.”

Drawer AI home page²⁸

No takeoff tool, ours included, removes the review. So the useful question in a demo isn't the accuracy percentage on the vendor's sample set. It's how long it takes you to verify the count on one of your own bids: whether the tool tells you which marks it isn't sure about, and whether every number links back to the plan. The same test applies outside electrical: our AI takeoff software for all trades guide sets out what each multi-trade tool actually automates and how to test one on your own plans.

Six questions that narrow the list

Do you already price in Accubid, McCormick or IntelliBid? Then you need a takeoff tool that exports quantities into it, not a second suite.
Are your bid sets vector PDFs exported from CAD, or scans? Some tools, AmpCount among them, only count vector PDFs; Togal.AI accepts scans and images.²⁶²⁷
Do you need conduit and wire lengths from the takeoff? Drawer AI routes branch circuits and home runs.²⁸ Counting-only tools don't.
Do you estimate more than one trade? PlanSwift, On-Screen Takeoff, STACK and Togal.AI cover several.^16242226 The construction takeoff software guide covers the multi-trade tools, which measure areas, lengths and volumes as well as counts.
Does anyone on the team use a Mac? PlanSwift and On-Screen Takeoff run on Windows.¹⁷²⁴
Can you commit to a year? Most published plans are annual; a monthly plan lets you test on live bids first.

Where AmpCount fits

Commercial electrical contractors whose bottleneck is counting devices and fixtures.
Teams that price in a suite already and want the counts done before they open it.
Estimators who want the fixture schedule checked against the plans automatically.

Where it doesn't

Scanned or photographed plan sets. It needs vector PDFs.
Conduit, wire, labor and pricing. It counts; your suite prices.
Other trades, areas and lengths.

How we built this page

We read each vendor's pricing, product and help pages on November 1, 2026 and only wrote down what they state. Where a vendor doesn't publish a price, we say so instead of estimating one; the single third-party price (McCormick, from Software Advice) is labeled. Statistics come from the U.S. Census Bureau, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, AGC and NCCER, and Billd, each with its year. Review sites weren't used because we couldn't verify ratings directly. If something is out of date, email support@ampcount.com and we'll correct it. The tool-by-tool comparisons follow the same rules, with a dated source on every claim.

Head-to-head comparisons

Keep reading

Sources

Product names are trademarks of their owners. AmpCount is not affiliated with any vendor on this page.