AI takeoff tools

Estimateria vs Kreo for door, hardware and finish takeoffs

Kreo is the broadest AI takeoff workbench we looked at: zone mapping so legends are not measured, one-click area and line tools, auto count, find similar, schedule and table extraction, an Items and Assemblies database, Excel-like reports with formulas, BoQ output and Caddie, an agent that plans a change, waits for your approval and then executes it inside the product. Its AI is gated to the top self-serve tier. Estimateria covers much less ground and goes further on one thing: the Division 8 and finish schedules, the hardware behind each opening, and its price. It has since grown the estimating side too, with conditions, assemblies, labor rates, supplier quotes and a recap, but not Kreo's 3D and BIM takeoff, BoQ output or approved-plan agent.

What Kreo is

A browser takeoff and estimating product aimed at quantity surveyors, cost estimators and contractors, with pricing in USD, GBP and EUR and BoQ output. It takes PDF, CAD and image drawings, detects the scale and maps zones so title blocks and legends are excluded, and offers a long list of AI tools — Finder, one-click line and area, find similar, auto count, auto measure, smart labels, cross reference and extraction of schedules and tables. On top of that sit a no-code Items and Assemblies database, spreadsheet-style reports with formulas, 3D and BIM takeoff, plan overlay with change highlighting, and the Caddie agent.

What Estimateria is

A narrower workspace for one part of the bid. The set is classified locally, the door, hardware and finish tables come off the pages into an editable grid keyed by door mark, hardware sets break into items priced from a supplier price library, plans are measured with a calibrated markup editor (area, length, count, volume, rooms), and those measurements feed conditions, assemblies and a running bid. Every row and accepted detection keeps its page, its region and the thing that produced it.

How the same job goes

One door schedule on a set of architectural PDFs, from the drawings to a priced, exportable list.

In Kreo

1Upload PDF, CAD or image drawings; the scale is detected and zones are mapped.
2Run the AI tools — auto measure, one-click area, auto count, find similar — on the top tier.
3Or ask Caddie: it asks clarifying questions, shows a plan, waits for approval, then executes step by step.
4Build the Items and Assemblies database so quantities carry rates.
5Report in a spreadsheet-like grid with formulas linked back to measurements.
6Export to Excel or a BoQ format.

In Estimateria

1Upload the set; every page is classified locally and the schedules located.
2Select the schedule on the page; the rows land in the grid, one per door mark.
3Review the flagged rows with the drawing one click away on the source chip.
4Run detection on a floor plan and accept or reject each suggestion yourself.
5Measure the plan, give measurements a condition and assembly, and watch the running bid and recap.
6Hardware sets break into items, matched and priced from supplier listings and your price library.
7Export the estimating package to Excel, or the marked-up sheets to PDF.

1 · On the sheet

The schedule table on page 3 of A-601, found on the sheet and selected.

2 · In the grid

Extracted door schedule rows, sample data
Mark	Type	Size	HW
101	Hollow metal	3'0" × 7'0"	HW-01
102	Solid core wood	3'0" × 6'8"	HW-04
103	Hollow metal	3'0" × 7'0"	HW-01
104	Storefront pair	6'0" × 8'0"	HW-07

One row per door mark, editable like a spreadsheet. Sample data.

3 · Back to the page

Door 102

Solid core wood · HW-04

A-601 · p.3

Opens the page at the row it was read from

A reviewer checks the number against the drawing in one click.

Stay with Kreo when

You need BoQ output, or a bigger items database with variants and rates than assemblies and a price library give you.
You work in the UK or internationally and BoQ is the deliverable.
3D and BIM takeoff, or plan overlay with change highlighting, are part of the job.
You want an agent that can act across the product on your approval.
You measure across many trades: concrete, steel, masonry, framing, drywall, flooring.
You want AI auto measure and one-click area across whole floors today.

Choose Estimateria when

The quantities live in schedule tables, and the hardware behind each opening is the work.
You want the hardware priced from suppliers, not rated from a database you maintain.
You want the takeoff, the assemblies, the supplier quotes and the recap in one place, in a browser or an early desktop app.
You want a record of which page, which region and which producer stands behind each row.
You would rather review each suggestion in place than approve an agent's plan.
Your set is architectural PDFs with selectable text rather than CAD.

Side by side

Estimateria compared with Kreo
Feature	Estimateria	Kreo
Breadth of trades and measurement	No Door, hardware, finish and millwork; area, length, perimeter, count, volume, cutouts, rooms and per-region scales.	Yes Trade modules across flooring, concrete, electrical, framing, drywall, painting, steel and masonry.
Schedule and table extraction	Yes Door, hardware and finish modules, one row per mark, with hardware and finish attached.	Yes Extraction of schedules and tables is a listed AI tool.
Hardware set breakdown and pricing	Yes Sets split into items, priced from supplier listings and selected in the grid.	Partly A no-code Items and Assemblies database with variants, which you populate and maintain.
Items, assemblies and rates	Partly Conditions, assemblies, labor rates, cost items and a supplier price library. No variants or user-built reports on top.	Yes Items and Assemblies with variants, and reports with custom formulas.
BoQ output	No An estimating package as a workbook, the Markups List as XLSX, and PDF. No BoQ format.	Yes Excel and BoQ formats.
An agent that acts in the product	Partly An assistant that reads the set, edits the grid, looks up prices and, in the markup editor, draws takeoff markups you can stop or undo. It does not run an approved multi-step plan.	Yes Caddie plans, asks, waits for approval, then executes with visible progress and a stop control.
Zone mapping and scale detection	Partly Calibrate by two points, or read the scale from the title block text; a viewport region carries its own scale and a room tool encloses a space. No automatic zone mapping across a set.	Yes Scale detection and zone mapping so legends and title blocks are excluded.
Plan overlay for revisions	Partly Sheets of a reissued set are paired by sheet number, with your takeoff cost inside each changed area. It reads text, not lines, and there is no visual overlay.	Yes Plan overlay and comparison with change highlighting.
Scanned drawings	Partly A local image model classifies pages with no text; reading their text needs the optional OCR add-on in the desktop app.	Partly Reviewers report it works best on clean vector drawings and struggles with scans.
AI available on every plan	Yes No tiers exist yet; sign-up is free.	No The AI tools are gated to the Pro tier at $175 per user per month.
Where a quantity came from	Yes Every row and accepted detection carries its page, region, producer and confidence.	Partly Report formulas link back to the measurements that produced them.
Supplier quotes and bid recap	Yes Quotes are levelled side by side, and the recap compounds contingency, escalation, overhead, profit and bond, with alternates, allowances and unit prices.	Partly Reports with formulas cover the arithmetic; supplier quote levelling is not among the features we found.

Reviewed September 2026, from public information. Products change. Spot something out of date? Tell us and we will fix it.

What Estimateria does not do

If one of these decides the job for you, Kreo is the better answer and we would rather you knew now.

No BoQ output, and no item variants or user-built spreadsheet reports.
No 3D or BIM takeoff.
No visual plan overlay; changed sheets are found by number and text, not by lines.
No automatic zone mapping across a set. Scale is read from the title block where it is legible, and otherwise you calibrate.
The assistant answers, edits the grid and draws markups on the millwork plan one step at a time; it does not run an approved multi-step plan across the whole product.

What it costs

Kreo: Published per user per month, billed annually: Lite $35 (collaboration, no AI), Plus $70 (templates, assemblies, reports, Excel), Pro $175 (adds auto measure, one-click area, auto count, Caddie and the API), Enterprise custom, with a 7-day trial.
Estimateria: Sign-up is open and free while the product is being built, so there is no published price yet. The free calculators need no account at all.

Prices are what the vendor published when this page was reviewed, and they move. Check with Kreo before you budget.

Common questions

Kreo extracts schedules too. What is different here?

What happens after the extraction. A door mark here is a row that hardware sets, finishes, prices, comments and detections all hang off, and that carries the page and region it was read from. In Kreo an extracted table is a table you then measure and rate alongside everything else.

Is Caddie better than your assistant?

It does more. Caddie takes actions across the product on your approval — measuring, annotating, bulk-editing, exporting. The assistant here reads your documents and your grid, answers with citations, edits the sheet, and in the markup editor draws takeoff markups on the plan; you can stop it or undo what it drew. It is not an agent that executes an approved multi-step plan.

Do I need the expensive tier to get AI?

In Kreo, yes — the AI tools sit on the Pro tier. Here there are no tiers at all yet: sign-up is free while the product is being built.

Which handles a scanned set better?

Neither is best at it. Kreo's reviewers report it struggling with scans; here a scanned page can be viewed, marked up and measured, and read with the optional OCR add-on in the desktop app, but schedule extraction works best on selectable text.

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