How much does Joist cost in 2026?
Joist's four plans, what the cheap ones leave out, and when a $10 estimating app is the right buy.
Short answer: billed monthly, Joist runs $10 for Basics, $17 for Pro, $32 for Elite, and $70 for Run, which was listed at $100 with an introductory discount when we read it. Annual billing gives you two months free. These numbers come from Joist's pricing page on September 20, 2026. Check theirs before you decide.
What each plan is for
- Basics, $10 a month: up to five documents a month. Estimates and invoices with card payments. Fine if you send a bid a week.
- Pro, $17 a month: unlimited documents, your logo, photos, saved line items, and tracking of when the customer opens things.
- Elite, $32 a month: adds change orders and license details on the document, plus more customization.
- Run, $70 a month at the introductory price: job organizing and scheduling on top of everything else.
A call-answering add-on starts at $49 a month on top of any plan.
What the $10 plan costs you
Five documents a month sounds like plenty until a busy week. An estimate, a revised estimate, and an invoice for one job is three of the five. Most contractors who use Joist seriously end up on Pro, so the real comparison price is $17, not $10.
How the bid gets written
Joist is a line-item app. You build the estimate from saved items with prices, or type items one at a time. That suits trades whose bids are long parts lists priced from a catalog. It is slower for the contractor who knows the job and the number and just needs it on paper. There is no follow-up sequence on unsigned estimates, so the chasing is yours.
Is Joist worth it?
At $10 to $17 a month it is hard to argue with if your bids are itemized and you are happy to follow up yourself. It takes cards, PayPal, and Venmo, and offers homeowner financing. It is a solid, widely used app.
What we charge
BidWriter Pro is $29 a month, or $290 a year. One plan, unlimited bids. The difference is in how the bid is written and what happens after you send it: you type the job the way you would text it, the proposal is laid out from your words, the customer signs and pays the deposit on their phone, and the follow-ups go out for you on day 3, day 7, and before it expires.
If your bids are line-item lists and $17 is the right budget, use Joist. If you lose jobs to silence after sending, the follow-ups are the difference. The side by side is here, and you can try the writer without signing up.
Free, no account: job price calculator, markup vs margin, hourly rate, and 84 sample estimates.
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