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Joist alternatives for small contractors
Joist is a widely used estimating and invoicing app for contractors. It is good at line-item estimates and invoices, it takes card payments, and its lower plans cost less than BidWriter Pro. The difference is how the bid gets written and what happens after you send it.
Three alternatives below, each with the price from its own pricing page as of September 20, 2026, what it is built for, and who it fits. BidWriter Pro is ours.
BidWriter Pro
Price: $29 a month, charged monthly, or $290 for a year. One plan. Unlimited estimates, e-signature, follow-ups, card deposits and balances, invoices, packages, photos, and job dates. 30 days free, no card.
Setup: About two minutes. Type the job the way you would text it and send it.
- You write your own bids, on your phone, between jobs.
- You want the customer to sign and pay a deposit from a text, without an app or a login.
- You want one flat price with nothing to add on.
- You schedule and dispatch crews.
- You bill the same customers every month.
- You need QuickBooks kept in sync.
Jobber
Price: For one user: Core is $49 a month billed monthly, or $29 a month if you pay $348 for the year upfront. Connect is $139 and Grow is $199 billed monthly. With a crew of 2 to 5 there is no Core plan: Connect is $199 and Grow is $299 billed monthly. Add-ons such as the Marketing Suite ($99 a month) are separate.
Setup: Hours. Price book, templates, client import, team settings, and a learning curve across a dozen screens.
- You have two or more crews to schedule and dispatch.
- You need invoicing, time tracking, and payroll-style reporting in one place.
- An office manager runs the software.
- You write bids on your phone between jobs and want them out in two minutes, which it does not do.
- You want the customer to sign and pay a deposit without logging into anything, which it does not do.
- You want one flat price with nothing to add on, which it does not do.
Housecall Pro
Price: Their pricing page lists the Basic plan for one user at $59 a month billed annually, and says that saves $20 a month over paying monthly. Plans for larger teams are shown after a short quiz on their site. Read from housecallpro.com/pricing on September 20, 2026; check theirs before you decide.
Setup: An afternoon. Business profile, price list, tax rates, and the app on your phone before the first estimate goes out.
- You want scheduling, dispatch, and estimates in one app and plan to hire.
- You value a big peer community and coaching programs.
- You already invoice through software and want everything under one login.
- You want the proposal written from your own words, which it does not do.
- You want sending, follow-ups, e-signature, deposit, and balance collection with about five minutes of setup for card payments, which it does not do.
- Twenty-nine dollars, flat, is the whole bill, which it does not do.
Who should stay on Joist
- You send fewer than five estimates a month and $10 is the right price.
- Your bids are long line-item lists priced from a saved item list.
- You want to offer homeowner financing, or take PayPal and Venmo through the app.
Joist is good software for that business. The price is fair for what it replaces. The question is whether that is your business.
Who should not be paying for it
- You want to type the job the way you would text it and have the proposal written from that.
- You want opened and signed alerts, automatic follow-ups, and a way for the customer to ask for changes.
- You want the deposit collected at signing and the balance requested with one tap.
If that list is you, the side by side shows what each costs for the things you use, and what Joist costs, plan by plan is its own page. You can also type a job and see the estimate without signing up for anything.
Questions people ask
What is the cheapest Joist alternative?
For an estimate-and-get-paid tool, BidWriter Pro at $29 a month flat is the lowest full price here. Joist's Basics plan is $10 a month but caps you at five documents a month and keeps logos, photos and client tracking for its higher plans. Prices are from each company's pricing page as of September 20, 2026.
Should I leave Joist?
Not if you use the parts that make it Joist: you send fewer than five estimates a month and $10 is the right price. your bids are long line-item lists priced from a saved item list. If what you mostly do is write a bid, get it signed, and collect a deposit, you are paying for a lot you do not open.
Can I move my customers over?
Your customers are names and phone numbers. There is nothing to migrate for a bid tool. The next estimate goes out from the new one, and the old account can run out its month.
Are these prices current?
They were read from each company's own pricing page on September 20, 2026 and quoted here as written. Prices change. Check the pricing page of anything on this list before you decide.
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